Welcome to Gloomhaven, Mercenary!
The air in the Sleeping Lion tavern is thick with the smell of stale ale, woodsmoke, and desperation. Outside, beyond the cityās militaristic walls, the world is a tapestry of dark forests, forgotten crypts, and untamed wilds teeming with horrors. Here, in this gritty outpost on the edge of civilization, life is cheap, but opportunity is rich for those with enough steel and nerve to seize it. You are one such individualāa mercenary, an adventurer, a sellsword with your own unique skills and a secret reason for traveling to this dark corner of the world.
Youāve come to Gloomhaven not as a hero of prophecy, but as an ambitious entrepreneur of violence. You and your newfound companions, a motley crew bound by necessity rather than loyalty, will venture into menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. You will fight, you will bleed, and you will haul your weary bodies back to the city, pockets heavy with gold and your reputation slightly less tarnished than before.
But be warned: Gloomhaven is not a game of heroic charges and simple victories. It is a ruthless, Euro-inspired tactical combat game masquerading as a dungeon crawler. It is a puzzle box of interlocking mechanics, where careful planning, hand management, and a deep understanding of your enemy are the keys to survival. Brute force will see you exhausted and broken in the first room. True mastery lies in the intricate dance of initiative, the calculated expenditure of your own life forceāyour cardsāand the art of turning your enemyās predictable actions against them.
This guide is your contract. It is your map through the treacherous early days and your codex for the complex challenges that lie ahead. Within these pages, you will find the knowledge to transform from a hopeful rookie into a legendary mercenary whose name is whispered with respect in every tavern in the city. So sharpen your blade, memorize your incantations, and prepare your mind. Your adventure is about to begin.
Part I: Your First Steps in Gloomhaven (Tips 1-15)
The sheer size of the Gloomhaven box is the first boss you will face. Conquering it requires patience and preparation before you even step foot in the Black Barrow. This section is your quick-start guide to surviving the setup and your first few scenarios without falling into the most common traps.
Getting Started and Initial Setup
1. Tame the Beast: Organize Your Box First
Before you punch out a single token, acquire a storage solution. The box contains hundreds of standees, tokens, cards, and tiles with no functional insert. Using plastic baggies, a tackle box, or a dedicated board game organizer will cut your setup time from an hour to minutes and is the single best quality-of-life improvement you can make.
2. Read the Rulebook… Then Read It Again
Gloomhavenās rules are notoriously front-heavy. Do not expect to absorb everything in one go. Read the rulebook through once to get the gist, then read it a second time more carefully. Keep it handy during your first 10-15 scenarios, as you will be referencing it constantly. If you have access to Gloomhaven Digital on PC, playing through its tutorial is an excellent way to see the core mechanics in action.
3. Start on Easy (Scenario Level 0 or 1)
This is not a suggestion; it is a command. Most new groups fail their first attempt at the Black Barrow on the “Normal” difficulty. The game does not ease you in. Set the scenario level to 1 (or even 0 if your average party level is 1) for your first few games. You have plenty to learn without also battling overpowered monsters. There is no shame in learning the ropes on a lower difficulty.
4. Create Your Event Decks
Find the “City Event Cards” and “Road Events Cards.” For your initial campaign setup, take only the cards numbered 1-30 from each deck. Shuffle these two decks separately and place them near the board. The rest of the event cards go back in the box for now; you will be instructed to add them later as the campaign progresses.
5. Establish the Town Market
Locate the large deck of “Items.” Find all the items numbered 1 through 14. These are the only items available for purchase at the start of the campaign. Place them in a shared “shop” pile.
6. Mark Your Map
Find the large world map board and the sticker sheet. You will be instructed to place two stickers to begin: Location 1, the Black Barrow, becomes available, and the city of Gloomhaven gains the “City Rule: Militaristic” sticker.
Creating Your First Party
7. Choose Your Mercenaries
Your group will choose from the six starting classes: the Brute, Tinkerer, Spellweaver, Scoundrel, Mindthief, and Cragheart. Only one of each class can be in the party at a time. Once a player has chosen, they should open the small miniature box and the large character envelope with their class symbol on it.
8. Prepare Your Character Sheet
Take the character sheet from your envelope and a character pad. Write down a suitably epic name. Then, note that you are Level 1 and have 30 gold to start.
9. Draw Your Personal Quest
Find the deck of “Personal Quest” cards. Each player draws two cards, reads them secretly, and chooses one to keep. Place the chosen card face down. This card represents your character’s long-term retirement goal. It is a secret, and fulfilling it will eventually cause your character to leave the campaign permanently, unlocking new content for the group.
10. Introduce Your Character
Each character board has some flavor text on the back describing the character’s backstory and motivations. It is a great roleplaying moment to have each player read this aloud to the group to establish who these mercenaries are.
11. Build Your Starting Ability Card Pool
From your character envelope, find the pack of large ability cards. Your starting pool of available cards consists of all cards with a “1” in the top left corner and all cards with an “X” in the top left corner. The cards with higher numbers (2 through 9) are unavailable until you level up.
12. Spend Your First 30 Gold Wisely
Before your first scenario, each character can buy items from the starting shop (items 1-14). You cannot trade gold or items with other players. Good starting purchases include Boots of Striding (for extra movement), a Minor Stamina Potion (to recover cards and extend your longevity), or basic protective gear like an Iron Helmet or Hide Armor.
Entering the First Dungeon
13. The Golden Rule: Calculate Scenario Level Correctly
This is the most critical and most commonly missed rule for new players. The recommended scenario level is your party’s average level, divided by two, and then rounded up. For a starting party of Level 1 characters, the average level is 1. Divided by two is 0.5, rounded up is 1. You should be playing on Scenario Level 1. Forgetting to divide by two will pit you against monsters of a much higher level and almost guarantee failure.
14. Don’t Set Up the Whole Dungeon
The Scenario Book shows the layout for the entire dungeon, but you should only place the tiles, monsters, and overlay tiles for the first room. Subsequent rooms are only revealed when a character opens a door. This preserves the element of surprise and keeps your table from becoming overwhelmingly cluttered.
15. Embrace Failure: It’s a Learning Opportunity
You will fail scenarios. It is an integral part of the game. When you fail (either by failing the objective or because all characters have become exhausted), you do not get the scenario completion rewards. However, you keep all experience points you marked and all money tokens you looted. This means that even in failure, your characters grow stronger, making the next attempt that much easier.
Part II: Mastering the Cards: The Heart of Combat (Tips 16-40)
Gloomhaven is not a game of dice rolls and luck; it is a game of cards. Your hand of ability cards is your life, your stamina, and your entire arsenal of actions. Understanding the intricate two-card system, the strategic dance of initiative, and the brutal calculus of card longevity is the single most important skill you will develop.
The Two-Card System: Your Core Actions
16. The Cardinal Rule: Top of One, Bottom of the Other
Every turn, you will play two cards from your hand. On your turn, you must perform the top action of one of those cards and the bottom action of the other. You can choose which card to use for the top and which for the bottom, and you can even decide the order in which you perform them (e.g., bottom action first, then top action). This decision is flexible and can be changed on the fly based on how the round unfolds before your turn.
17. Your Universal Backup Plan: Attack 2 / Move 2
Every single ability card in the game has two hidden, default actions. You can always choose to use the top half of any card as a basic “Attack 2” (a melee attack) and the bottom half of any card as a basic “Move 2.” This is a crucial fallback. If your planned action is no longer useful, or if you want to avoid playing a powerful “Loss” card, you can simply perform one of these basic actions instead. Using a card this way always sends it to your discard pile, never your lost pile.
18. Read the Whole Action: Order Matters
A single action (one half of a card) can contain multiple abilities, often separated by a dotted line. You must perform these abilities in the order they are written. For example, if an action says “Move 3… Heal 1, Self,” you must complete your movement before you heal. You are free to skip any part of an action (e.g., you could just Move 2 of the 3 spaces, or not heal at all), with one major exception: you cannot skip any part of an action that would cause a negative effect to yourself or your allies (like inflicting a negative condition or suffering damage).
19. Discard vs. Lost: The Two Fates of a Card
When you use a card for its action, it typically goes into your discard pile. These cards are not gone forever; they can be returned to your hand by resting. However, some powerful actions have a small symbol of a card with an ‘X’ through it. Performing any part of an action with this symbol sends the card to your “lost” pile. Lost cards are, for all intents and purposes, removed from the game for the rest of the scenario (with a few rare exceptions). Managing how and when your cards are lost is the key to managing your stamina.
20. Persistent Bonuses: Powerful but Temporary
Some cards have an infinity symbol on them. When you play one of these actions, the card is not discarded or lost. Instead, it is placed in your “active” area in front of you, and its effect persists for multiple turns. These are powerful buffs, but they come at a cost. The card remains in your active area, reducing the number of cards you get back when you rest, effectively shortening your overall lifespan in the scenario until you decide to move it to your lost pile to negate its effect.
The Initiative Dance: Controlling the Flow of Battle
Initiative is your most powerful weapon. It is not merely about determining turn order; it is the primary tool for mitigating damage, maximizing your actions, and dictating the flow of combat.
21. Go Late, Then Go Early: The Signature Move
This is the quintessential Gloomhaven tactic, often called the “initiative dance.”
- Turn 1 (Go Late): Choose a card with a high initiative number (e.g., 75 or higher) as your leading card. The monsters will likely act before you. If you are out of their range, they will waste their turn moving towards you. Then, on your late turn, you move in and attack.
- Turn 2 (Go Early): Choose a card with a very low initiative number (e.g., 25 or lower). You will now likely act before those same monsters. You get a second attack in and can use your movement to retreat to a safe distance before they even have a chance to retaliate.Mastering this two-turn sequence allows you to deliver two full turns of actions while receiving zero damage in return.
22. “Fast” and “Slow” Are Relative
What constitutes a fast or slow initiative depends entirely on your class and the enemies you are facing. For a Mindthief, with half her cards below 16, “fast” is sub-20. For a Cragheart, whose initiatives are generally much higher, a 45 might be considered reasonably quick. Learn your own deck’s initiative range and compare it to the monster ability decks to make informed decisions. A good rule of thumb: 0-25 is very fast, 26-50 is fast, 51-75 is late, and 76-99 is very late.
23. Use Initiative to Mitigate Damage
Damage mitigation in Gloomhaven is proactive, not reactive.
- Going Early: Allows you to kill, stun, or disarm a dangerous enemy before it gets a chance to act. A dead monster deals no damage.
- Going Late: Can be just as effective defensively. If a monster’s card shows “Move +0, Attack +0,” and it starts its turn out of range, it will move its base speed and likely end its turn without attacking. By going after it, you ensure it wastes its action.
24. Your Leading Card Only Sets Initiative
When you play two cards, you declare one as your “leading card” to determine your initiative for the round. This is its only function. On your turn, you are still free to use the top of your non-leading card and the bottom of your leading card, or vice-versa. You are never locked into using a specific half of the card you chose for initiative.
25. Communicate Intent, Not Numbers
During the card selection phase, communication is restricted. You are allowed to speak in generalities but are forbidden from mentioning specific numbers or card names.
- Legal: “I’m planning to go fast and hit the elite archer hard.” or “I’m going to hang back and heal someone late in the round.”
- Illegal: “I’m playing my initiative 15 card.” or “I’m going to use Trample.”Once all players and monsters have revealed their initiative, these communication restrictions are lifted, and your party should absolutely discuss and coordinate your turns to maximize effectiveness.
Stamina & The Art of Resting: Your Scenario Lifespan
Your hand of cards is not just your toolkit; it is your life force. Every card played brings you one step closer to exhaustion. Managing this resource is the difference between victory and collapse.
26. Your Hand Size is Your Stamina
Think of your hand size as your character’s stamina bar. A Cragheart with 11 cards has a deep well of energy, while a Spellweaver with 8 is a sprinter who needs to manage her resources carefully. Every action you take, and especially every card you lose, depletes this resource.
27. The Brutal Math of Exhaustion
Each time you rest, you must lose one card permanently, reducing the size of your hand for the next cycle. A 10-card character plays 5 turns, then rests, losing a card. They now have 9 cards, allowing for 4 full turns and one turn with a single card. Then they rest again, going down to 8 cards. This diminishing return means your time in a dungeon is finite.
28. Loss Cards Are Expensive: Spend Them Wisely
Playing a Loss card has a hidden cost that is much higher at the beginning of a scenario than at the end. A Loss card played before your first rest can cost you 4-5 potential turns over the course of the scenario. The same Loss card played when you only have a few cards left might only cost you 1-2 turns. Save your most powerful, one-shot abilities for when they will have the most impactāclearing a path to an objective, finishing off a boss, or saving the party from a wipe in the final room.
29. The Great Debate: Long Rest vs. Short Rest
Choosing how to recover your cards is a critical tactical decision that hinges on the trade-off between tempo and resource management.
30. The Short Rest: Fast and Risky
- How it Works: At the end of a round, you can declare a short rest. You shuffle your discard pile, and one card is randomly lost. The rest return to your hand. You do not skip your next turn.
- Pros: You maintain tempo. You are fully active in the following round, which is vital when under pressure.
- Cons: You lose a card at random. Losing a critical card can cripple your next cycle. You can suffer 1 damage to re-draw, but you only get one chance. You gain no other benefits.
31. The Long Rest: Slow and Strategic
- How it Works: You declare a long rest during card selection. Your initiative becomes 99. On your turn, you do not play cards. Instead, you choose one card from your discard pile to lose, heal yourself for 2 hit points, and refresh all of your spent item cards.
- Pros: You have complete control over which card you lose. The heal is valuable for longevity and removes Poison. Refreshing items (like armor or potions) is incredibly powerful. Going at initiative 99 often keeps you safe from attacks for a round.
- Cons: You completely forfeit your turn. Your party is down one member for an entire round, which can be disastrous in the middle of a fight.
32. Coordinate Your Rests
The best time for a long rest is when a room is clear and the party is regrouping before opening the next door. If multiple party members can long rest simultaneously, it minimizes the loss of tempo. A well-timed, coordinated rest can fully reset the party’s health and resources for the next encounter.
33. Use Your Health as a Resource
Your hit points are a renewable resource; your cards are not. It is almost always better to take a few points of damage than to lose a card from your hand to prevent it. Think of your HP as a buffer. As long as you are not at risk of dying, soaking a hit to preserve your stamina is a smart trade.
34. The Last Resort: Losing Cards to Negate Damage
If you are about to take a hit that would kill you, you have one final option: negate the entire source of damage by either losing one card from your hand or two cards from your discard pile. Losing two cards from your discard pile is devastating to your longevity and should be avoided at all costs. It is a desperate move for a desperate situation.
35. Stamina Potions Are Your Best Friend
A Minor Stamina Potion allows you to recover two discarded cards, once per scenario. This doesn’t just give you back two cards; it effectively gives you an entire extra turn before you would have had to rest. For classes with small hand sizes, this is arguably the most powerful starting item in the game.
Part III: Know Your Enemy: Deconstructing the Monster AI (Tips 36-50)
The monsters of Gloomhaven are not controlled by a clever gamemaster; they are automatons running on a simple, predictable script. Learning this script is like learning to read code. Once you understand the logic, you can manipulate the AI, turning its greatest strengthāits consistencyāinto its greatest weakness.
Understanding Monster Focus
36. The AI is a Flowchart, Not a Brain
Monsters do not make intelligent choices. They follow a rigid, unwavering set of rules to determine their actions each turn. They will never deviate from this logic, even if it leads them into a trap or causes them to make a tactically poor decision. Your goal is to understand this flowchart so you can predict their every move.
37. Finding Focus, Step 1: The Path of Least Resistance
The absolute first thing a monster does is find its “focus.” This is determined by a single, primary rule: it will target the enemy it can attack by moving the fewest number of hexes. The game calculates the shortest possible path to a hex from which it could attack each player. The player at the end of the shortest path becomes the focus. Note that this calculation assumes infinite movement; it doesn’t matter if the monster can actually reach you this turn.
38. Finding Focus, Step 2: The Proximity Tiebreaker
If there is a tie in the “least movement” rule (a common occurrence for ranged monsters who can already attack multiple targets without moving), the monster breaks the tie by focusing on the character who is physically closest in terms of hex distance, ignoring walls and obstacles (“as the crow flies”).
39. Finding Focus, Step 3: The Initiative Tiebreaker
If there is still a tie after checking proximity, the monster will focus on the player who is acting earlier in the initiative order (the one with the lower initiative number). This is why a fast tank can sometimes draw attacks away from a slower, squishier ally, even if they are the same distance away.
40. Focus is Re-evaluated Every Single Turn
A monster’s focus is not permanent. At the start of each of its individual turns, it will run through the entire focus-finding algorithm again based on the current board state. This is crucial. You can “pass” aggro between turns by having another character move into a more favorable position according to the AI rules.
41. Manipulate Focus with Smart Positioning
Now that you know the rules, you can break them.
- Drawing Focus: A tanky character can step forward, becoming the target with the “path of least resistance,” drawing the attack away from a wounded ally.
- Dropping Focus: A low-health character can move behind an obstacle or simply further away, increasing the monster’s required movement path and causing it to focus on someone else.
Predicting Monster Movement and Actions
42. Melee Monsters Want to Get Adjacent
A monster with a melee attack will move the minimum number of hexes required to become adjacent to its focus and perform its attack. It will not waste movement.
43. Ranged Monsters HATE Disadvantage
This is one of the most important and exploitable AI rules. A ranged monster that is adjacent to its focus suffers Disadvantage on its attack. To avoid this, it will prioritize moving away to a hex where it can attack its focus without Disadvantage. You can force a ranged monster to waste its movement by standing next to it, causing it to back up instead of attacking your allies.
44. Multi-Target Attacks Seek Maximum Carnage
If a monster’s ability card gives it a multi-target attack (e.g., “Target 2” or an area-of-effect pattern), it will move to a hex where it can hit its primary focus and as many other valid targets as possible. This can sometimes cause it to take a slightly longer path than it otherwise would.
45. If It Can’t Get Closer, It Won’t Move
A monster will only move if its movement ends on a hex that is closer to its target hex than where it started. If all available paths would move it further away or keep it at the same distance, it will not move at all, even if it has movement on its card.
46. Monsters Will Not Willingly Step on Traps
Monsters treat traps and hazardous terrain as if they are obstacles. They will always calculate the longest path necessary to walk around them. The only exception is if there is absolutely no other possible path to any player character except through the trap. You can use traps and obstacles to create funnels and choke points, forcing monsters into long, inefficient routes.
47. Use Your Allies (and Summons) as Walls
Monsters cannot move through their enemies (i.e., you and your summons). You can physically block a doorway or narrow passage with your characters, forcing monsters to either attack the front-line “wall” or wait their turn.
48. Invisibility Creates Temporary Obstacles
When your character is invisible, monsters treat your hex as if it contains an obstacle. They cannot focus on you, and they cannot move through you. A strategically placed invisible character can completely block a hallway, protecting the rest of the party while monsters bunch up on the other side.
49. Elite Monsters Act First
Within a group of monsters (e.g., all Living Bones), the elite (gold stand) versions will always take their turns before the normal (white stand) versions. If there are multiple elites, they act in ascending order based on the number on their standee.
50. Monsters Only Do What the Card Says
Read the monster ability card for the round carefully. If it does not list an “Attack” action, the monsters of that type will not attack that round. If it does not list a “Move” action, they will stand still. This can give you a crucial turn to reposition or heal without fear of reprisal.
Part IV: A Mercenary’s Toolkit: Starting Class Deep Dives (Tips 51-80)
Choosing your first mercenary is a momentous decision. Each of the six starting classes offers a unique playstyle that will shape your entire campaign experience. This section provides a strategic overview of each, moving beyond the flavor text to give you actionable advice on how to play them effectively from your very first scenario.
Starting Class At-a-Glance
Before you tear open an envelope, consult this table. It provides a quick summary to help you find the class that best fits your preferred style of play.
| Class Name | Primary Role | Hand Size | Health (Lvl 1-9) | Playstyle in a Nutshell |
| Inox Brute | Melee Damage / Crowd Control | 10 | 10-26 | A durable front-liner who controls the fight with pushes and stuns, but is not a true “tank.” |
| Quatryl Tinkerer | Ranged Support / Healer | 12 | 8-22 | A master of utility with a huge hand of cards, best in larger parties where its heals and buffs shine. |
| Orchid Spellweaver | Ranged Damage / Area of Effect | 8 | 6-18 | A fragile “glass cannon” who unleashes devastating elemental magic and uniquely recovers all lost cards once per scenario. |
| Human Scoundrel | Single-Target Melee Damage | 9 | 8-22 | A fast, opportunistic assassin who deals massive damage to enemies adjacent to her allies and is an expert looter. |
| Vermling Mindthief | Melee Damage / Crowd Control | 10 | 6-18 | A complex but powerful melee fighter who uses psychic augments to boost attacks and locks down enemies with stuns. |
| Savvas Cragheart | Hybrid Ranged & Melee Damage | 11 | 10-26 | A versatile jack-of-all-trades who manipulates the battlefield with obstacles and deals direct damage that ignores shields. |
Inox Brute: The Unstoppable Force
51. The Archetype vs. The Reality: The Brute looks like a classic warrior tank, but Gloomhaven punishes players who try to absorb every hit. Your role is not to be a damage sponge, but a battlefield controller. You use your high health pool to survive the front lines while using your abilities to push, pull, and stun enemies, preventing damage to your entire party.
52. Crowd Control is Your Best Defense: Your most valuable abilities are those that manipulate enemy positioning or deny them actions. Cards like Provoking Roar (Disarm) and Overwhelming Assault (Push) are your bread and butter. Pushing an enemy into a trap deals damage and saves you an attack. Stunning an enemy prevents an entire turn of damage.
53. Movement is Damage: The Brute has several cards, like Trample, that turn movement into an attack. Always look for opportunities to line up multiple enemies and run through them. Paired with Boots of Striding, these can be some of your most effective area-of-effect abilities.
54. Avoid the Retaliate Trap: The Brute has a few cards that grant Retaliate. While tempting, building around this mechanic is generally inefficient. It is far better to proactively kill or disable an enemy than to wait for it to hit you so you can deal a small amount of damage back.
Quatryl Tinkerer: The Battlefield Medic
55. The Archetype vs. The Reality: The Tinkerer is the closest thing to a dedicated healer, but its true strength lies in its versatility and massive hand size. With 12 cards, you are the party’s stamina battery, capable of playing powerful Loss cards more freely than anyone else. Your job is to support, control, and occasionally deliver a key blow when needed.
56. You Shine in Larger Parties: The Tinkerer’s abilities, especially area-of-effect heals and buffs, scale in value with more players. In a two-player party, your healing can feel underwhelming, and you may need to focus more on your damage and control options.
57. Your Heals Cure More Than Just Damage: A small “Heal 2” might seem minor, but its most important function is often removing debilitating conditions like Poison and Wound. A timely heal can save an ally from taking continuous damage or allow their own healing to function again.
58. Don’t Be Afraid to Use Your Loss Cards: Your large hand size is a strategic resource. You can afford to play a powerful Loss card like Ink Bomb or Net Shooter early in a scenario to solve a major problem, knowing you have the longevity to recover.
Orchid Spellweaver: The Glass Cannon
59. The Archetype vs. The Reality: The Spellweaver is the archetypal mage: incredibly powerful but extremely fragile. Your entire gameplay revolves around a single, class-defining card: Reviving Ether. You will burn through your powerful but limited-use spells, then use this card to recover them all for a second wave of destruction.
60. Master the Timing of Reviving Ether: This is the most important skill for any Spellweaver player. You want to use the top Loss action of Reviving Ether as late as possible in your hand cycle, after you have played as many other Loss cards as you can. This maximizes the number of powerful abilities you get to use twice in one scenario.
61. Manage Your Elements: Many of your most potent spells require consuming an element (Fire, Ice, etc.). You must plan your turns in advance, using one turn to generate an element (which becomes available at the end of your turn) so you can consume it on a subsequent turn.
62. You Are a Ranged Character; Stay at Range: With the lowest health pool of the starting six, you cannot afford to be on the front lines. Use your movement abilities to maintain a safe distance, position yourself for optimal area-of-effect attacks, and let your more durable allies take the hits.
Human Scoundrel: The Opportunistic Killer
63. The Archetype vs. The Reality: The Scoundrel is a classic rogue, but with a twist: she is not a lone wolf. Her damage output is directly tied to her allies’ positioning. Your job is to be a hyper-mobile damage dealer, darting in to deliver devastating blows to enemies engaged with your friends, grabbing loot, and disappearing before the enemy can react.
64. Always Be Adjacent: Many of your strongest attack cards gain a massive bonus if your target is adjacent to one of your allies. Before you even select your cards for the turn, look at the board and ask, “Which enemy can I attack that is next to the Brute?” This should dictate your entire strategy.
65. Master the Initiative Dance: The Scoundrel has some of the best initiatives in the game, both fast and slow. You are the prime candidate for the “go late, then go early” strategy. Use a slow turn to let an ally engage, then move in to attack. On the next turn, use a lightning-fast initiative to attack again and retreat to safety.
66. Invisibility is Your “Get Out of Jail Free” Card: You are squishy. Cards like Smoke Bomb that grant Invisibility are your primary survival tool. Use them to set up a powerful attack on the following turn, to safely open a door, or to escape a dangerous situation where you are being focused by multiple enemies.
Vermling Mindthief: The Psychic Assassin
67. The Archetype vs. The Reality: The Mindthief is a melee glass cannon, a seemingly contradictory role that makes it one of the most complex but rewarding starting classes. You survive on the front lines not through health, but through superior control. Your strategy is to use your blistering-fast initiatives to stun enemies before they can even act.
68. Always Have an Augment Active: Your “Augment” cards, particularly The Mind’s Weakness, are the core of your class. This card provides a persistent “+2 Attack” bonus to all your melee attacks. You should play it on your first turn and aim to keep it active for the entire scenario.
69. Stun, Stun, and Stun Again: You are the master of crowd control. Your ability to consistently apply the Stun condition is your best defense and your greatest contribution to the party. Prioritize stunning the most dangerous enemy on the board each turn.
70. Ice is Your Best Friend: Many of your powerful abilities, like the stun on Frigid Apparition, require you to consume Ice. Learn which of your cards generate Ice and plan your turns to set up these powerful combos. Perverse Edge is a key card for this, as its bottom action generates Ice.
Savvas Cragheart: The Earthen Juggernaut
71. The Archetype vs. The Reality: The Cragheart is the ultimate hybrid, a jack-of-all-trades who can function as a ranged damage dealer, a secondary melee fighter, and a battlefield manipulator. Your unique strength lies in your ability to create and destroy obstacles and to deal direct damage that ignores enemy shields.
72. Beware of Friendly Fire: Many of your most powerful area-of-effect attacks do not distinguish between friend and foe. You must communicate clearly with your team and be extremely careful with your positioning to avoid hitting your allies with collateral damage.
73. You Are the Shield Breaker: High-shield, low-health enemies can be a nightmare for other classes. For you, they are trivial. Abilities that cause enemies to “suffer damage” are not attacks and therefore ignore shield values completely. Prioritize these abilities against armored targets.
74. Reshape the Battlefield: Your ability to create new obstacles is a powerful tactical tool. Use it to block off doorways, create choke points to funnel enemies into a kill zone, or protect your back line from advancing monsters.
Part V: The Long Road: Progression and Power (Tips 75-85)
A mercenary’s career is not just about surviving the next dungeon; it’s about growing stronger, wealthier, and more renowned. Between scenarios, you will return to the city of Gloomhaven to level up, buy new gear, and permanently enhance your abilities. Making smart choices during this downtime is key to tackling the campaign’s escalating challenges.
Leveling Up and Gaining Perks
75. Leveling Up Only Happens in Town
When you accumulate enough experience points to reach a new level, the level-up process does not happen immediately. You must wait until your party returns to the city of Gloomhaven. Once there, you must level up, gaining a new card, a perk, and increased hit points.
76. Perk Principle 1: Prioritize Consistency
Your first few perks should almost always be used to improve the consistency of your attack modifier deck. This means choosing perks that “Remove two -1 cards” or “Replace one -2 card with one +0 card.” Thinning out the negative cards from your deck makes your damage output far more reliable and predictable, which is more valuable than adding a single powerful card early on.
77. Perk Principle 2: Then Add Power
Once you have removed the worst negative modifiers, you can start adding more powerful cards. Perks that “Add two +1 cards” are a solid next step. After that, you can look at adding cards with status effects or other special properties.
78. Rolling Modifiers: A Double-Edged Sword
Rolling modifiers (cards with a circular arrow symbol) are added to your next card draw. They are fantastic when you have Advantage, as you can combine multiple effects for a massive attack. However, they are also risky. A rolling modifier can be the card that pulls your “x0” Null card, causing an otherwise normal attack to miss. Be mindful of how many you add to your deck.
Purchasing Items
79. Item Principle 1: Cover Your Weaknesses
Your first item purchases should focus on mitigating your class’s inherent flaws.
- Slow Class? Buy Boots of Striding for more movement.
- Small Hand Size? Buy a Minor Stamina Potion to increase your longevity.
- Squishy Melee Class? Buy a Cloak of Invisibility for a defensive panic button.
80. Item Principle 2: Enhance Your Strengths
Once your weaknesses are covered, buy items that synergize with what your class does best.
- Area-of-Effect Focus? The War Hammer, which adds Stun to a multi-target attack, is a game-changer.
- Reliant on a Single Big Hit? Eagle-Eye Goggles grant Advantage, ensuring your most important attack lands.
- High-Shield Enemies a Problem? A Piercing Bow allows you to ignore enemy shields.
81. Don’t Underestimate Consumable Potions
Potions are often the most powerful and cost-effective items in the early game. A Minor Stamina Potion gives you extra turns, a Minor Power Potion can add significant damage to a key area-of-effect attack, and a Minor Healing Potion can save you from death. Always consider having one in your small item slot.
Enhancing Cards
82. First, Unlock the Power of Enhancement
You cannot enhance cards at the start of the game. This feature is only unlocked after your party completes Scenario #14, “Frozen Hollow,” and earns the “The Power of Enhancement” global achievement. It is often wise for a party to prioritize a quest path that leads to this scenario early.
83. Enhance Your Bread and Butter
The best use of your gold is to enhance low-level, non-loss cards that you expect to keep in your hand for your character’s entire career. Enhancing a Level 1 card is significantly cheaper than enhancing a high-level one, and you will get far more value from a bonus on a card you play twenty times than on a situational card you play twice.
84. Utility Enhancements Are Often Best
While adding “+1 Attack” is always nice, some of the most powerful enhancements add utility.
- Jump: Adding Jump to a high-movement bottom action is transformative for classes that lack it, allowing you to bypass enemies and difficult terrain.
- Strengthen: Adding Strengthen to a non-attack bottom action allows you to gain Advantage on your top attack this turn and your first attack next turn.
- Curse/Wound/Poison: Adding a status effect, especially to a multi-target attack, can be far more impactful than a simple damage boost.
85. Don’t Enhance Loss Cards (Usually)
As a general rule, avoid placing enhancements on Loss cards. You get far less value from an enhancement on a card you can only use once or twice per scenario. The main exception is the Spellweaver, whose Reviving Ether allows her to reuse her Loss cards, making them viable enhancement targets.
Part VI: Beyond the Walls: Tips for the Expansions (Tips 86-95)
Your journey doesn’t have to end with the base game campaign. The world of Gloomhaven has expanded, offering both a streamlined entry point for new players and a fiendishly complex challenge for veterans.
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
86. The Perfect Place to Start
Jaws of the Lion is a standalone prequel campaign designed as the ideal introduction to the Gloomhaven system. It features a guided tutorial spread across the first five scenarios and uses a spiral-bound scenario book instead of map tiles, dramatically reducing setup time. If you are new to the universe, starting here is highly recommended.
87. Hatchet: Master “The Favorite”
The Hatchet is a ranged damage dealer whose gameplay revolves around a unique mechanic: The Favorite. This special axe grants a powerful bonus to one attack but must then be retrieved from the battlefield. Your strategy should center on maximizing the use of The Favorite and efficiently recovering it with your other abilities.
88. Red Guard: The True Tank
Unlike the Brute, the Red Guard is designed as a more traditional tank. He excels at manipulating enemies, absorbing damage with his shield, and protecting his allies. His abilities often create difficult choices between dealing damage and controlling the battlefield to keep his party safe.
89. Demolitionist: Wreak Havoc
The Demolitionist is a melee damage dealer with a unique focus on destroying obstacles. Many of her abilities gain significant power when adjacent to or after destroying an obstacle. Your goal is to position yourself to turn the environment itself into a weapon, clearing paths and unleashing devastating attacks in the process.
90. Voidwarden: The Master Puppeteer
The Voidwarden is a complex support character and arguably the most difficult of the Jaws crew to master. She has very few direct attacks. Instead, her power comes from controlling monsters, cursing and poisoning enemies, and, most importantly, granting attacks to her allies, allowing them to act out of turn. Success with the Voidwarden requires excellent communication and a deep understanding of your party’s strengths.
Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles
91. A New Kind of Challenge for Veterans
Forgotten Circles is a direct expansion to the base game, designed for experienced players who have completed the main campaign. Its scenarios are significantly more complex, often resembling intricate puzzles rather than straightforward dungeon crawls. The new campaign requires the new Aesther Diviner class to be in the party for every scenario.
92. The Aesther Diviner: A Support Role Reimagined
The Diviner is a support class unlike any other. With a small hand and low health, she must avoid combat at all costs. Her power lies in her unique ability to manipulate the future by rearranging the top cards of monster ability decks and player attack modifier decks.
93. Master the New Mechanics: Rifts and Teleport
The Diviner introduces new mechanics. She can create Rifts on the map, which interact with her other abilities to damage or debuff enemies who pass through them. She also makes frequent use of Teleport, which allows her to move instantly to another hex, bypassing enemies and obstacles, though it is not considered a “Move” ability.
94. Your Job is to See the Future
Playing the Diviner effectively means constantly looking at the top of the decks. You can see a monster is about to perform a powerful heal and move that card to the bottom. You can see your ally is about to draw their “x2” modifier and warn them to use their biggest attack. Your contribution is not in damage dealt, but in information provided and disasters averted.
95. Be Patient and Read Carefully
The scenarios in Forgotten Circles often have unique and complex rules. Read the scenario introductions and special rules multiple times. The solutions are often less about raw power and more about understanding the specific puzzle each scenario presents.
Part VII: The Veteran’s Edge: Advanced Tactics & Hidden Rules (Tips 96-115+)
You have mastered the basics, learned your class, and understand the enemy. Now it is time to ascend to true expertise. The following tips cover advanced strategies and clarify some of the most commonly misunderstood rules, giving you the edge needed to conquer the most difficult challenges Gloomhaven has to offer.
96. Element Management is a Team Sport
Elements you create (Fire, Ice, Air, Earth, Light, Dark) are infused at the end of your turn. They then become available for any player or monster to consume on any subsequent turn. Coordinate with your team. If your Spellweaver needs Ice for a powerful stun, and your Cragheart can generate it, have the Cragheart act first. A waning element can still be consumed.
97. The Tricky Rule of Rolling Modifiers
This is a common point of confusion. When drawing from your attack modifier deck:
- With Advantage: You draw cards one at a time until you have two non-rolling cards. You then combine all the cards you drew (including all rolling modifiers) and choose the better of the two non-rolling outcomes.
- With Disadvantage: You draw two cards. If one is a rolling modifier and the other is not, the rolling modifier is ignored entirely. You simply take the effect of the non-rolling card.
98. Always Focus on the Objective
It is easy to get caught up in trying to kill every monster and loot every coin. However, many scenarios have alternate win conditions, such as “Survive for 10 rounds” or “Escape to a specific tile.” In these cases, killing enemies is secondary. Prioritize movement, crowd control, and invisibility to achieve the goal. You can win an escape scenario even if every character becomes exhausted on the exit tile.
99. Line of Sight is Corner-to-Corner
To determine if you have Line of Sight (LoS) to a target, you must be able to draw a line from any corner of your hex to any corner of the target’s hex without that line being blocked by a wall. Obstacles and other figures (allies or enemies) do not block LoS.
100. Your Summons Have a Mind of Their Own
When you summon a creature, you do not control it directly. It is an ally, but it acts according to the monster AI rules. It will find its own focus and move accordingly. A summon always takes its turn immediately before the character who summoned it, using that character’s initiative for the round.
101. Attack Effects Apply Even on a “Miss”
If you draw the “x0” Null card, your attack deals zero damage. However, any additional effects listed on the attackāsuch as Poison, Stun, Wound, Push, or element generationāare still applied to the target. A miss is not a total failure.
102. Healing Removes Poison First
If a character is Poisoned, any “Heal” ability used on them has a different effect. Instead of restoring hit points, the heal removes the Poison condition and then does nothing else. You cannot heal a poisoned character until the poison is removed.
103. Spawns vs. Summons: A Crucial Distinction
Monsters can enter the map in two ways, and the difference is vital.
- Summon: A monster summons another monster into an empty hex adjacent to it. If there are no empty adjacent hexes, the summon fails.
- Spawn: A monster spawns at a specific, designated hex on the map. If that hex is occupied, it appears in the nearest unoccupied hex, no matter how far away that is. You cannot block a spawn point.
104. Looting Treasure Chests
Treasure chests can be looted with a “Loot” ability or by ending your turn on the hex they occupy. The reward is gained immediately. If it is an item, you cannot equip or use it until your next scenario. Be warned: not all treasure is beneficial. Some chests contain traps or other negative surprises.
105. Play Until the Very End
Even if one or more mercenaries become exhausted, the scenario is not over. The remaining players continue to play. As long as at least one character is still standing and the victory conditions are met, the entire party wins the scenario.
106. Monsters Don’t Spawn Loot
When a monster dies, it drops a money token on the hex where it died. This is true for all normal and elite monsters that are part of the initial scenario setup. However, monsters that are summoned or spawned during the scenario do not drop money tokens when they die.
107. Pushing and Pulling into Traps
Forcing an enemy into a trap with a Push or Pull ability is one of the most effective ways to deal with high-shield enemies. The trap damage is direct and ignores all shields.
108. End-of-Turn Looting
In addition to specific Loot abilities, any character automatically loots any money tokens or treasure chests in the hex they occupy at the very end of their turn. You do not need to spend an action to do this.
109. Long Resting Can Delay Exhaustion
If you only have one card left in your hand at the start of a round, you cannot play two cards and must rest. If you also have one or fewer cards in your discard, you cannot rest and will exhaust. However, if you have two or more cards in your discard, you can perform a Long Rest. This effectively gives you one more round of “life” at initiative 99, during which you can still draw enemy focus, refresh items, and heal before exhausting at the start of the next round.
110. Status Effect Duration
Most conditions (Stun, Disarm, Muddle, etc.) last until the end of the affected figure’s next turn. This means if you are stunned on your turn, you skip your next turn entirely. If a monster stuns you on its turn, you will be stunned for your upcoming turn in that same round (if you haven’t acted yet) or for your turn in the following round.
111. The Digital “Restart Round” Mulligan
Exclusive to the digital version of Gloomhaven, there is a “Restart Round” option in the pause menu. This allows you to rewind to the start of the current round, before anyone has acted, with full knowledge of what the monsters will do and what your attack modifiers will be. While some consider it cheating, it is an invaluable tool for learning the game’s complex interactions or for recovering from a simple misclick without having to abandon the entire scenario. Use it as a learning aid to see how different card choices would have played out.
112. The World is What You Make It
Ultimately, Gloomhaven is your story. The rulebook is a guide, not a holy text. Feel free to adjust the difficulty, be more lenient with communication, or house-rule minor issues to fit your group’s playstyle. The most important tip of all is to have fun forging your legend in the dark and dangerous world of Gloomhaven. Good luck, mercenary. You’ll need it.
Disclaimer:Ā This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights forĀ GloomhavenĀ belong to the developerĀ Flaming Fowl Studios, Saber Interactive.
Find the game here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/780290/Gloomhaven/
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