Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
392 questions players ask about Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-24.
392 questions players ask about Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-24.
The Learn to Play guide tells solo players to control two separate characters.
No — a solo player runs two characters. Every scenario needs two to four characters (monster placement only lists those counts), and the Learn to Play guide tells a lone player to control two characters, warning that it's a more complex experience.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — the designer recommends that experienced players read the story of Scenarios 1–3, give themselves those scenarios' rewards, and start playing normally from Scenario 4 with the full level 1 decks. The Glossary's section on bringing in Gloomhaven characters uses the same starting point. If you replay the campaign to teach new players, the designer suggests using the A and B learning cards again.
“I'd recommend skipping the first 3 scenarios, reading through the story and giving yourself the scenario rewards, and then just playing scenario 4 and on normally.”
— Cephalofair, designer
The publisher confirmed in 2020 that Gloomhaven classes can be used, and the designer explained how to handle mechanics Jaws of the Lion leaves out.
Yes — any Gloomhaven class can be used, and the game includes rules for it. Start them as new characters rather than importing a developed one, and since Gloomhaven classes have no A/B learning cards, begin the campaign at Scenario 4. Where a class relies on a mechanic Jaws of the Lion leaves out, such as Invisible for the Mindthief, the designer says to use the relevant Gloomhaven rules.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Only the class carries over, not the character. The designer recommends starting Gloomhaven with new level 1 characters, because Jaws of the Lion characters finish the campaign at a high level and there is no retirement to cycle them out. Taking the class's cards and miniature to start someone new is fine; keeping a character's level, perks, gold and items is a house rule.
Yes — the party can include any number of characters, and each scenario is played by two to four of them, with at most one of each class. A new character starts at level 1 and can be created whenever you are in town. Because the scenario level uses the average level of the characters playing, mixed levels scale automatically.
The designer noted in 2020 that Jaws of the Lion has no retirement.
No — Jaws of the Lion has no retirement mechanic. Characters just keep leveling for the whole campaign, and you can swap to a different character between scenarios whenever you like.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — the campaign takes place inside the city, so there is a city event between scenarios but no road event deck.
“There are city events between each scenario, but no road events.”
— Cephalofair, designer
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
When a character reaches level 5, open that character's sealed packet; its first card tells you when to open one of the lettered boxes. If nobody is near level 5 deep into the campaign, check that you are adding the scenario completion XP each time and not resetting your total when you level up.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
There are 25 scenarios, but one campaign won't see them all: branching conclusions close some off, Scenarios 20–21 come from city events, and 22–25 are personal scenarios tied to specific characters. A party typically plays somewhere between 14 and 21. The campaign is over once you have finished the final story scenario and have no open scenarios left that you want to play.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — put the cards you removed back in numbered order and start again. The map stickers are only cosmetic, so you can track unlocked scenarios on paper instead. Putting events you have already seen at the bottom of the event deck helps you meet new ones.
No — any scenario that is unlocked and not yet completed can be played whenever you like, in any order. The numbers are only references, and a city event that unlocks a location simply adds another option; you don't have to go there next. Finishing the tutorial Scenarios 1–5 first is still recommended. Some conclusions close off other scenarios, so not every location stays available.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — section numbers just tell you which text to read when a particular door opens. Open rooms in whatever order the map allows unless the scenario's rules say otherwise.
Cards are phased in gradually. Scenario 1 uses the six A cards, Scenario 2 swaps two of them for B cards, Scenario 3 adds the first two level 1 cards for an eight-card hand, and from Scenario 4 you use your level 1 cards up to the hand limit on your character mat. Scenario 3's new cards are listed on page 19 of the Learn to Play guide: Windup and Crushing Weight (Demolitionist), The Favorite and Retrieval (Hatchet), Swift Strength and Healing Sands (Red Guard), and Signs of the Void and Close to the Abyss (Voidwarden).
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Have all your level 1 cards and use the full monster ability decks before going into it. The designer says ideally you should play Scenarios 4 and 5 first.
Read the scenario's introduction and special rules and set up the first room, then deal and choose battle goals, and only then choose your hand of ability cards, equip items and place your figures. This is the same order as in Gloomhaven.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only the character classes (without their A/B learning cards) and the battle goals carry over. Monsters, items, events and scenarios are specific to each game, and there are no rules for swapping Gloomhaven monsters into Jaws of the Lion.
Yes — nothing forbids looking at anything you'd see before the first round of each available scenario to decide where to go.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Use the Glossary's appendix on bringing in Gloomhaven characters: the character starts with all its level 1 cards plus the equivalent of the tutorial rewards, which players report as 40 gold, 10 XP and one perk.
Borrow the standard 20-card deck of one of the four Jaws of the Lion characters you aren't using, then add the mercenary's own perk cards as you gain perks.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Average the levels of the characters playing, divide by 2, and round up, rounding only once at the end. A level 1 and a level 2 character give scenario level 1 (1.5 ÷ 2 = 0.75, rounded up); levels 2 and 3 give level 2; levels 5, 4 and 4 give level 3. Forgetting to halve the average is a common mistake. The Learn to Play scenarios are played at level 1.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — the recommended level is only a default. Lowering or raising it moves monster level, trap damage, gold per money token and completion XP together, and you earn the rewards of the level you actually played. Dropping the level is the normal fix for a scenario you keep losing. Monster stat cards carry levels 4–7 on the reverse, so high levels are covered.
L is the scenario level (not your character level) and C is the number of characters in the scenario; both are defined in the Glossary. H, where it appears, is defined in that scenario's special rules as a particular monster's hit points. For example, (L+1)×C at scenario level 1 with two characters is 4. A lower-case x is just multiplication, and some translations use other letters, such as N for level.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Divide L by 2 first, then add 1, and round any fraction up. At scenario level 1 that's 1 + 0.5 = 1.5, rounded up to 2; at level 3 it's 1 + 1.5 = 2.5, rounded up to 3. When an addition is meant to come first, the formula prints parentheses.
No — C is fixed at the number of characters who started the scenario. Exhausted characters still count for boss hit points, spawns, monsters placed in rooms opened later and every other per-character value for the rest of that attempt.
No — Jaws of the Lion has no solo rule that raises the level. Gloomhaven only offered +1 as an optional variant, and companion apps apply it only when you mark the game as solo. Play at the normal level and raise it yourself if it feels too easy.
Yes — the objective formulas use the scenario level as printed, so they climb fast at high difficulty. That's deliberate: objectives have only hit points, while monsters gain several stats per level.
Only general statements. You can discuss strategy, say you'll go early or late, name the monster or hex you're aiming for, or ask someone to create an element, but you can't show your cards or state card titles, initiative values or other exact numbers. The limit exists mainly to stop one player directing everyone; relaxing it is a house rule.
The rulebook's "Card Selection" section covers this directly.
You choose them. Each round every player privately picks the two cards they want from their hand; the hand is not a draw deck.
The rulebook's "Character Turns" section covers this directly.
No — the initiative card only decides when you act. On your turn you can resolve either card first, and only then do you decide which card gives its top action and which its bottom.
The rulebook's "Card Selection" section covers this directly.
No — each turn you perform the top action of one card and the bottom action of the other. You can replace either half with the basic Attack 2 or Move 2, but that replaces the printed action rather than adding to it, so you can't take a card's printed Move plus a basic Move 2 from the same half, or two basic moves.
The rulebook's "Card Selection" section covers this directly.
No — initiative comes only from the two cards you select and play this round. A card already in your active area isn't being played.
No — the abilities in one action are performed in the order printed, top to bottom, each finished or skipped before the next. You can't move part of a Move, attack, and finish moving, or pull before attacking. You do choose which of your two actions goes first, and one action is fully resolved before the other starts.
Yes — abilities separated by dotted lines can each be skipped, so you can Move and skip the Loot, or make only one of One-Two Punch's attacks. You can even declare a basic Attack 2 or Move 2 and not perform it. The exception is an ability that harms you or your allies, which can't be skipped once you perform the action.
A Cephalofair staff member confirmed in 2020 that this rule was omitted from the Jaws of the Lion books, which corrects the rulebook's 'any ability can be skipped'.
No — if you perform the action, abilities that harm you or your allies must be performed too. The Learn to Play guide says any ability can be skipped, but a Cephalofair staff member confirmed that Gloomhaven's exception for harmful abilities was simply left out of the Jaws of the Lion books. To avoid the drawback, use that half as a basic Attack 2 or Move 2 instead.
Yes — the lost icon belongs to the whole action (that half of the card), not to one ability. Perform any ability of a loss action, even just the Move 4 on Hatchet's Extra Lift, and the card is lost, going to your active area first if the action is persistent. To keep the card, use that half as a basic Attack 2 or Move 2, or use the card's other half.
“As long there is a lost symbol on a cardhalf, it is always lost, even if you only use parts of the cardhalf.”
— Morthai, publisher
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Use that half as the basic Attack 2 or Move 2. The basic action ignores everything printed on the half, including the lost icon, so the card is discarded even if you then don't attack or move; using the card's other half also just discards it. Players also note that a card is lost only if you perform at least one ability of the loss action, so skipping every ability keeps it, but declaring the basic action is the clear-cut route.
No — you must still play two cards (or take a long rest), but you don't have to do anything with them. Declare the basic Attack 2 or Move 2 and skip it, or skip the abilities; both cards still leave your hand, to the discard pile, or to the lost pile if you performed part of a loss action.
The rulebook's "Character Turns" section covers this directly.
Right after you finish its action, before you perform the other card's action. A card whose action is persistent or a round bonus goes to your active area instead, and a loss action goes to your lost pile.
It depends on the ability. Abilities that target something — attacks, heals, conditions applied as their own ability, Loot, anything with a range — need at least one valid target, so an attack with no enemy in range can't be performed. Abilities that don't target — a Move (Move X lets you move 0 hexes unless you're immobilized), Shield, persistent bonuses, 'all adjacent enemies suffer 1 damage' — can be performed with nothing around, which is enough to trigger the action's element and XP.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
When you perform that action on your turn, not when you select cards, and it works immediately from then on. A round bonus lasts only until the end of the round, so playing it late in initiative covers less of the round. While a card is active you still play two cards each round.
No — whenever the card's trigger happens you must apply it and advance the token, even if it gains you nothing, such as a bonus on an attack that draws a null. Charges count per ability: an action with two Move abilities spends two charges of Extra Lift, and a Move you skip spends none, which is the only way to save a charge.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — unless a card says otherwise you can have any number of active cards, each tracked by moving a character token along it.
Yes — you can move a card out of your active area at any time, even off your turn, and its effect ends. It goes to your lost pile if its action had the lost icon and otherwise to your discard pile, so a discard-type card such as Windup can be moved just before a short rest to be recovered with it.
It stays in your active area until its effect ends or you remove it, and then it goes to the lost pile instead of the discard pile. That stops you from cycling it back with a rest to replay it for more XP, and it counts as lost as soon as you perform the action.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
No — only the half you played is active, and you can't change it. Once the card is back in your hand after a rest, you can play it using the other half.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
They are enhancement slots, kept for compatibility with Gloomhaven's enhancement system. Jaws of the Lion has no enhancement rules, so ignore them unless you take the class into Gloomhaven.
An attack ability is a single printed 'Attack X' with its effects; an attack action is a card half (or other action) that contains at least one attack ability. Attacks that another figure grants you, such as the Voidwarden's, are usually abilities rather than actions unless the card says 'action'. Some players treat every attack as part of an action, so this matters only for the few effects that specify one or the other.
Each difficult-terrain hex you enter costs 2 movement, including moving from one difficult hex to another; stepping out into a normal hex costs the usual 1. Only the hex you are entering matters. The big painted areas without drawn hex lines are still made of individual hexes, so you pay for each one.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — in Jaws of the Lion a Jump ignores difficult terrain in every hex it covers, including the one it lands in, so the landing hex costs just 1. This is a change from original Gloomhaven, where the final hex of a jump paid the full terrain cost.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
A Jump is a normal move, counting hexes against its value, that ignores figures, obstacles, objectives, traps and difficult terrain along the way, so a trap you pass over does nothing. You must still end in a hex you could legally stop in, and the jump is limited by the original move's distance.
No — Jump lets you pass over obstacles and objectives, but you can't stop on them. You can end on a destroyed obstacle's hex or on difficult terrain.
The rulebook's "Move" section covers this directly.
Yes — the only restriction is that a move can't end in a hex occupied by another figure. Traps, money tokens and difficult terrain don't occupy a hex, so you can stop there (suffering the trap, of course).
The rulebook's "Destroying Obstacles" section covers this directly.
Yes — once destroyed, the hexes are covered with destruction tiles and become normal hexes you can move through and stop on.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — the hex grid continues under the artwork, so count every hex the obstacle covers. A three-hex-wide obstacle takes three hexes of range or movement to cross, so reaching the far side needs range 4.
No to both — there are no attacks of opportunity or engagement rules, so you can step away from enemies freely, and only attacks and other targeted abilities need line of sight.
The rulebook's "Scenario Book Features" section covers this directly.
No — partial hexes sit outside the thick border line that marks a scenario's walls, so only complete hexes are usable.
Entering the door hex opens it automatically; only characters can enter a closed door. The whole room behind it is set up at once, including its traps, regardless of line of sight, and you can keep moving with whatever movement you have left.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
An open door hex is a normal empty hex unless a figure or trap is on it; a closed door is not empty and acts like a wall that only characters can enter. A figure in a doorway is in neither of the rooms it connects.
No — in Jaws of the Lion, Push X and Pull X move the target up to X hexes, so a character can push or pull any distance from 0 to X, which also means skipping it. This is a change from original Gloomhaven. When a monster pushes or pulls you, it goes as far as it can.
Every hex of a push must leave the target one hex farther from you than the hex it came from, and every hex of a pull one hex closer; it doesn't need to be a straight line. Distance is counted like range, around walls, so you can push or pull around a wall corner. You can't swing an adjacent enemy into another hex next to you, because that step keeps the same distance.
A Push or Pull printed as part of an attack, with no dotted line before it, is an effect of that attack: it applies only to the figure you attacked, so it shares the attack's range, and it happens after the attack resolves. You can't skip the attack and still push. A Push or Pull on its own ability line states its own targets.
No — a figure is removed the moment it takes lethal damage, and push, pull and conditions are applied after the damage, so there is nothing left to move. Its money token drops in the hex where it died, so you can't pull a dying monster closer for its coin.
A pushed or pulled figure springs every trap it enters, and the forced movement carries on unless the trap kills it, stuns it or immobilizes it. So you can push a surviving monster on through a second trap, as long as each step still moves it farther away (or closer, for a pull). In Jaws of the Lion you can also choose to stop a push early.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
The player of the pushed character, as long as every step moves the full distance in the required direction. That means you can avoid a trap if another legal hex exists.
The rulebook's "Conditions" section covers this directly.
Yes — push and pull are forced movement, and those conditions only stop a figure from performing Move abilities itself. An ability that makes the target perform a Move, however, doesn't work on them.
Most players say no: once you place an area pattern, every enemy in its red hexes is attacked, though you choose the order and can rotate or mirror the pattern to leave enemies out. The same goes for 'attack all adjacent enemies'. A minority reads the Glossary's 'can be targeted' as making each target optional. Target X is different: you may attack fewer enemies than X.
You can attack fewer than X, but not the same enemy twice — each target of one attack ability must be different (so Double Throw can't hit one enemy twice). Separate attack abilities, such as the two attacks on One-Two Punch or an attack on your top and bottom actions, choose targets independently and can hit the same enemy.
The rulebook's "Attack" section covers this directly.
No — figures can't attack their allies unless an ability says so, so allies in the pattern are unaffected. Effects worded for all adjacent figures rather than enemies do hit allies.
Only one red hex of the pattern has to be within range; it doesn't need an enemy in it, can't sit in a wall, and you don't stand inside the pattern (only melee patterns show a grey hex for the attacker). You may rotate or mirror the pattern. Each target is still a separate attack, so you need line of sight to every enemy you attack.
Draw a line from any point of the attacker's hex to any point of the target's hex; if any such line doesn't touch a wall, there is line of sight. Only walls (and closed doors) block it — obstacles, objectives and figures don't, so you can shoot past them at any enemy in range. A line that only grazes a wall corner is blocked. This is looser than Gloomhaven's corner-to-corner rule, and every targeted ability, melee attacks included, needs it. The German edition mistakenly printed the Gloomhaven rule.
Count the shortest number of hexes to the target, straight through figures, obstacles and objectives; each obstacle hex still counts as one. Only walls force you to count around them. Difficult terrain has no effect on range.
An attack is ranged only if it has a Range value (the range icon); one that says 'within 2 hexes' without it is a melee attack with extra reach and suffers no disadvantage up close. A ranged attack stays ranged even against an adjacent target — it just has disadvantage — so it doesn't count where only melee attacks will do; use a melee ability or the basic Attack 2 instead.
The rulebook's "Attack" section covers this directly.
No — disadvantage applies only when the target itself is adjacent to you. You can target any enemy in range and line of sight, and other adjacent enemies don't matter. The same applies to objectives: a ranged attack on an adjacent objective has disadvantage.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — the attack value and the modifier aren't optional. You can only skip the optional effects that come with the attack, such as a push, pull or condition.
Conditions and forced movement on that attack aren't applied to a target that dies. Effects that don't need the target alive still happen, such as moving a token or effects on figures around the hex where it died. Some players argue later abilities can't refer to a dead target at all.
Add every attack bonus first — +X effects, doubling effects such as Hatchet's Double Throw, and the +1 for attacking a poisoned target — in whatever order you like. Then apply the attack modifier card (so a x2 doubles the whole total), and finally subtract the target's Shield. The designer's example: Attack 3 with The Favorite's +3 and Double Throw's doubling is (3+3)×2 = 12, then a -1 modifier and Shield 1 leave 10 damage.
“All attack bonus (like the +3 or the doubling or the effect of poison) is applied first in whatever order you want, then you apply the attack modifier, then you apply shield.”
— Cephalofair, designer
Neither — it raises the value of the attack it sits under, so Attack 2 with +1 Attack becomes Attack 3. Damage is then worked out as usual from that value, the modifier draw and the target's Shield. Abilities separated by a line are different attacks.
Yes — every attack by any figure draws a modifier, from Scenario 1 on: characters from their own deck, monsters from the shared monster deck. That includes the basic Attack 2, attacks on objectives and monsters using the simplified tutorial ability cards. Damage that a figure simply suffers is not an attack and draws nothing.
One per target. Each target of a Target X or area attack is a separate attack at the full value with its own modifier draw (two per target with advantage or disadvantage). You choose the order the targets are attacked, and each attack is resolved fully before the next.
The rulebook's "Advantage and Disadvantage" section covers this directly.
No — you draw two cards instead of one and use the better (advantage) or worse (disadvantage). You always reveal both, even if the first would already kill the target, which matters for blesses, curses and reshuffle cards.
The rulebook's "Advantage and Disadvantage" section covers this directly.
They don't stack — an attack either has disadvantage or it doesn't, however many sources there are. If an attack has any advantage and any disadvantage (for example a Strengthened and Muddled figure), they cancel and you draw one card normally. Both conditions stay on the figure and expire on their own schedules.
Compare only the two cards against the attack as it stands, treating extra effects (a condition, a heal, an element) as positive but unknown. If one card is better whatever those effects are worth, it must be used. If it's genuinely ambiguous — say +1 Stun against +2 — Jaws of the Lion lets the attacker choose under advantage, unlike Gloomhaven, while under disadvantage you use the first card drawn. Effects applied after the draw aren't considered.
At the end of the round in which a card with the shuffle icon was revealed from that deck — not immediately and not between targets. Then shuffle the discards and the remaining deck together. A shuffle card revealed but not used (the unused card of an advantage draw) still triggers it. You also reshuffle if the deck runs out.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — every scenario attempt starts with complete, freshly shuffled decks, and all bless and curse cards are removed at the end of each scenario, won or lost.
Yes — attacks never miss. A null or curse only sets the damage to 0, so poison, wound, muddle, push and pull, and other attack effects still apply, as they do when a Shield or lost cards absorb all the damage. Monster stat-card conditions work the same way. The one exception is a target the attack kills: it's removed before any effects can land.
No — conditions are applied after the attack's damage, so the attack that poisons deals normal damage. Every later attack against the poisoned figure gets +1, including the second attack of the same ability or another monster's attack in the same round. A condition an item adds mid-attack likewise doesn't count toward 'if the target has a negative condition' bonuses on that attack.
No — Poison only adds +1 to attacks against the poisoned figure. Trap damage, Black Sludge's Septic Hex and anything else that simply deals damage without the word Attack is unaffected.
Poison gives +1 to every attack against the figure; Wound makes it suffer 1 damage at the start of each of its turns. Neither expires on its own and neither stacks with itself. Any Heal removes both conditions at once, but if the figure was poisoned the heal restores no hit points — so a long rest's Heal 2 only cures poison. With Wound alone, the heal removes it and also restores hit points.
Yes — removing them only requires a heal to be performed, whatever its value. A heal whose amount depends on something else, such as damage dealt, still clears poison and wound even when it heals 0.
The rulebook's "Conditions" section covers this directly.
At the end of the affected figure's next full turn. If it hasn't acted yet this round, that's its turn this round; if it already acted, or gained the condition during its own turn, it lasts through its turn next round — so Strengthen from your first action also helps later in the same turn and on your next one. Gaining the condition again resets the timer. Poison and Wound don't expire by themselves.
A figure can carry any number of different conditions, each with its own effect, but the same condition doesn't stack — poisoned twice is still one Poison. You may still apply a condition the target already has; it just adds nothing, and the rest of the action (including its XP) resolves. Curse is different: each Curse adds another curse card to the deck.
Yes, the Glossary lists them as conditions, but they resolve instantly by shuffling a card into an attack modifier deck rather than sitting on the figure. Shield and Retaliate are not conditions; they are bonuses.
No — shuffle the Bless or Curse card into the undrawn part of the deck only. The discard pile goes back in only at the end of a round in which a shuffle card was drawn. When a monster's attack carries Curse, the card goes into its target's deck, and each attacking monster adds one.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — all of them, from every deck, at the end of each scenario attempt, won or lost and whatever their source, and each is also removed when drawn. A Bless or Curse from a city event therefore only affects the next scenario attempt. If a scenario's own rules add curses at setup, you add them again when you retry.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
There are 10 Bless cards shared by everyone, and Curse cards come as 10 for the characters and 10 for the monsters; that supply is the limit. Bless cards can go into the monster deck when an effect blesses monsters.
You still select two cards (or long rest) as normal, but on your turn you perform none of their abilities and simply discard them. The stun ends at the end of that turn. A stunned monster likewise does nothing from its ability card, not even the harmful parts.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
Conditions aren't limited by the tokens in the box; use a proxy such as a coin or a note to track extras.
No — an element you infuse only reaches Strong at the end of your turn, so you can't use it that turn. Anyone acting later in the round, allies or monsters, can consume it, and it's still available as Waning next round. If an element was already Strong or Waning when your turn started, you can both consume it and infuse it that turn, in either order, and it ends your turn Strong.
Straight to Inert, from either column, so each infusion can be used only once. Strong and Waning just track how long it lasts: at the end of each round Strong moves to Waning and Waning to Inert. Infusing an element that is already Strong or Waning sets it back to Strong at the end of your turn.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — a standalone element icon belongs to the whole action. If you perform any ability of that action, you must infuse the element at the end of your turn, wherever the icon sits; if you perform none of them, you don't. The only way to avoid it is to use that half as a basic Attack 2 or Move 2.
No — it is infused once, at the end of the turn you play the action. Using a charge later infuses nothing unless the element is printed in the charge space itself.
For characters it's always optional — you can perform the ability without the bonus. Decide before you draw the attack modifier. XP printed next to a consumption is earned by consuming, even if you then skip the extra effect it adds, such as a push, but you can only consume it as part of actually performing the ability it modifies.
Not entirely, since monsters infuse and consume them too, but you can choose never to consume elements on your own cards. You'll be weaker, the Red Guard especially.
+0. A modifier showing only an effect carries an implied +0 and still applies that effect.
Yes — following the Gloomhaven FAQ, an infusion on a modifier card is an added effect of the attack and may be skipped, for example to keep an element away from the monsters. A standalone infusion on an ability card's action is different: it's mandatory once you perform any part of that action. Monster card infusions happen regardless.
Shield reduces the damage of every attack against you for as long as it lasts, and it isn't used up by blocking. Its duration comes from its source: most ability-card shields last the rest of the round, monster stat-card shields are permanent, and some items such as the Heater Shield protect against a single attack. The card giving a round-long shield has to stay in your active area. With no shield effects active, your Shield is 0.
The rulebook's "Suffer Damage" section covers this directly.
No — Shield only reduces damage from attacks. Damage a figure suffers outside an attack, such as from traps or wound, is taken in full; it draws no modifier and gets no poison bonus either.
The designer confirmed this in 2020, and it matches the rulebook's Heal section.
Yes, unless the ability says it targets an ally. A figure is within range of itself, so 'Heal X, Range Y' can target you or one ally. The Glossary's Heal entry reads as allies only, but the designer confirmed that line was meant to say heals can't target enemies. A figure is not its own ally, so effects that only apply to allies don't apply when you heal yourself.
No — you are not your own ally, so an ability worded for allies (such as healing an ally adjacent to the target) can't target you.
Several experienced players agree; the rulebook only adds that no figure can be healed above its maximum.
Yes — a heal only needs a valid target; it doesn't have to restore anything. You still gain the action's XP and element, though no figure can be healed above its maximum hit points.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — each of up to two targets in range (you can be one of them) is healed for the full 2.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — if an ally heals you, it applies. Talk about it in general terms beforehand if you'd rather they chose someone else.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
Yes — the Glossary's Heal entry requires every target to be in line of sight of the healer, unlike the Gloomhaven FAQ's treatment of heals without a range.
No — only the maximum goes up. Your current hit points rise only when you are healed, unless the effect includes a heal.
No — without the word Attack it isn't an attack: no modifier is drawn, Shield doesn't reduce it and Poison doesn't add to it. Disarm only prevents attacks, so a disarmed figure can still use these abilities, such as the Red Guard's Sickle damage or a Black Sludge's hexes.
Yes — instead of suffering damage from a single source, you may lose one card of your choice from your hand or two of your choice from your discard pile, negating all of it however large. This works at any health level and for any source: attacks, traps, Wound, scenario effects, even the 1 damage for rerolling a short rest's lost card. There's no limit per round. Cards you selected for this round are in neither place, so they can't be used. Only the damage is negated; the attack's conditions and effects still apply.
Not directly — only cards in your hand or discard pile count. But you can move an active card out of your active area at any time; one without the lost icon goes to your discard pile and can then be one of the two discards you lose.
No — negated damage means you suffered 0. A monster ability that heals for the damage it dealt heals 0 (though the heal still clears its own poison and wound), and abilities that trigger when you are damaged by an attack don't fire. You can apply your Shield first and lose cards for whatever gets through.
Several experienced players agree, and a Cephalofair staff member confirmed in 2020 that a card is lost only when you rest.
At the end of a round, if you have at least two cards in your discard pile, you may short rest: shuffle the discards, lose one at random, and return the rest to your hand. You can suffer 1 damage to lose a different random card instead. It happens after all turns, so it doesn't replace or use up a turn, and you may do it while still holding cards in hand. You don't lose a card at the end of every round — only when you rest.
You declare it during card selection instead of playing two cards, and it needs at least two cards in your discard pile. You act on initiative 99: lose one discarded card of your choice, return the rest to your hand, Heal 2 and refresh your spent items. Monsters with earlier initiative act before you heal. You can long rest whenever you like, even with no enemies around, but it always costs a card.
Resting is optional whenever you have two or more cards in your discard pile. If you can't play two cards from your hand, you must rest: short rest at the end of the round or declare a long rest at the start of the next. You can never play just one card, and each player rests on their own schedule.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
When its hit points drop to 0, immediately, or at card selection when you can neither play two cards from your hand nor rest because fewer than two cards are in your discard pile. You can't discard cards from your hand at will to make a rest possible. An exhausted character is removed and takes no further part.
Yes — a long rest is your turn, so Wound deals its 1 damage at the start of it, before the rest's Heal 2 (which then removes the wound). If that damage would exhaust you, lose one card from your hand or two from your discard pile to negate it.
No — hand size is fixed by your class: 9 for the Demolitionist, 10 for the Hatchet and Red Guard, 11 for the Voidwarden. Leveling only adds cards to the pool you choose your hand from before each scenario.
No — once ability cards are in use, a monster performs only the abilities on the card drawn for its type that round, in printed order. No Move means it stays put (a ranged monster next to its target then attacks with disadvantage); no Attack means it doesn't attack. 'Move +0' does mean moving its full base move, and a monster whose base move is '-' can never move.
Start from the base attack on its stat card for the current level, apply the ability card's +/- (Attack +0 means the base value), add any other bonuses such as poison on the target, then draw from the monster attack modifier deck for each attack (two cards with advantage or disadvantage), and finally subtract the target's Shield. An attack reduced to 0 is still made: it draws a modifier and its effects still apply.
Only when that monster takes its turn at its initiative; they then last to the end of the round. Before its turn nothing on the card applies, and a monster stunned on its turn ignores the card entirely and never gains the bonus. Stunning it after its turn doesn't remove a bonus it already has. Only stat-card effects are always on.
The rulebook's "Monster Turns" section covers this directly.
One ability card is drawn per monster type each round and every monster of that type uses it. They act on that initiative: elites first in standee-number order, then normal monsters in standee-number order, each finishing its whole turn before the next starts.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
They share it by design: both imp types use the Imp deck and both monstrosities the Monstrosity deck, so only one card is drawn for them each round. Other monster types each keep their own separate deck.
Yes — a monster's infusion belongs to the card as a whole, so it happens as long as at least one monster of that type acts, even with no focus or no attack. Only if every monster of the type is stunned (or none is on the board) is the element not created. A consume icon is different: it only applies to the bonus it's attached to.
Yes — the first monster of the type to act consumes it (players choose which one for 'any element'), and every monster of that type acting that round gets the bonus. Monsters of the same type revealed later in the round count as a new group and need their own element. Monsters always consume an element their card calls for when one is available.
Generally no — if the consumption is tied to an attack and no monster of that type actually attacks, the element stays. If even one monster of the type attacks, it's consumed and they all benefit. A few players read the Learn to Play guide's 'monsters always consume' as consuming regardless.
It finds a focus and moves as if it had a single-target melee attack, trying to get adjacent to a character, and then just doesn't attack. Other abilities on the card, such as a heal or Loot, are performed afterwards and don't change where it goes.
No — conditions printed on a stat card, like an elite Zealot's Wound or a viper's Poison, are added to each attack the monster makes, so they apply to every attack it does make (even for 0 damage) and to nothing when it doesn't attack. The same goes for a Curse attached to an attack on its ability card. A separate condition ability with its own targeting isn't stopped by Disarm.
For bosses they are immunities, not effects added to its attacks. An immunity only stops that condition being applied; a boss immune to Curse can still draw curse cards other monsters put in the shared monster deck.
Only what that special describes, as defined on its stat sheet and in the scenario's special rules; it moves or attacks only if the special says so. 'Attack +0' or 'Move +0' in a special means its base value, and the attack still draws a modifier.
Yes — draw for every type on the board. The card's initiative decides when they take their turn, on which they do nothing from the card (no move, attack or infusion) and the stun is removed. The draw also matters for reshuffling.
The 20 standard cards marked M: six +0, five +1, five -1, one +2, one -2, one x2 and one null. The x2 and null stay in — they aren't blesses or curses. The extra monster cards are curses, added only when a monster is cursed.
Yes — all monsters share one attack modifier deck, so a curse you put on any monster can be drawn by whichever monster attacks next, and blesses that effects add to it help them all. When a monster's attack carries Curse, the curse goes into the deck of the character it targets. Curses stay until drawn or the scenario ends.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It heals the figure within range that has lost the most hit points among itself and its allies, so it can heal itself; the players choose among ties.
It isn't an attack, so focus and its initiative tiebreak don't decide it; the situation is ambiguous and the players choose. Each monster of the type performs it, so three Black Sludges deal it three times.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — monsters perform their abilities in the order printed. If the attack comes first it attacks from where it stands (with disadvantage if a ranged attack targets an adjacent character) and then moves. Effects after an attack, like a Stone Golem's self-damage or a pull, also come after it.
Each Zealot heals itself for the damage its own attack actually dealt, after the modifier and the target's Shield. If the attack deals 0 (including when the character loses cards to negate it), it's a Heal 0, which still removes the Zealot's poison and wound. Most players say a Zealot that can't attack at all heals nothing, since there is no damage to base it on.
It's disputed. It clearly takes no damage if it's stunned or immobilized, since it can't perform a move. Some players apply a reported designer comparison to Overwatch and say drawing the move counts as performing it even with 0 hexes moved; others say a monster that stays put because it's already in position never performed the move.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
The damage printed on the card, not scenario-level trap damage. The Vermling Raider's Spiked Pit puts its trap in an empty hex adjacent to the Raider, the one closest to a character, and it's placed even if the Raider doesn't attack.
The rulebook's "Monster Move" section covers this directly.
The players. When a monster's move or target is ambiguous after applying the rules, the players choose, and they're allowed to choose in their own favor.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It focuses normally, then attacks its focus plus another enemy, each with its own modifier draw; it can't hit the same enemy twice. Adjacent targets of a ranged attack have disadvantage while others don't, and the players choose the order the attacks resolve. A single-target attack never hits two characters.
No — a hex isn't adjacent to itself, so a figure sharing that hex (for instance one standing there after the rat was killed) isn't hit by an 'adjacent figures' death effect.
2 damage for each Monstrosity you attack, whether or not it dies, because each target of an area attack is a separate attack. Each instance is its own source of damage, so losing cards negates one at a time, and it's suffered damage that Shield doesn't reduce.
Most players say yes: the card damages any figure that attacks the Golem, so the damage comes with the attack even if the Golem dies. Some argue a removed figure's ability can no longer apply. Compare the Red Guard's Shield Spikes, which triggers after he is attacked and so does nothing if the attack kills him.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
A monster focuses on the character it can attack using the least movement (counted in movement points, so difficult terrain counts double). If several tie — for example every character is already in range of a ranged monster — the one earliest in this round's initiative order is the focus. Unlike Gloomhaven, there is no 'closest by range' tiebreaker, so an archer may shoot a farther character over an adjacent one. The designer confirmed this and acknowledged that the Glossary's focus examples left out the initiative values needed to read them. Some groups keep Gloomhaven's proximity rule as a house rule.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — focus is chosen first, without considering disadvantage. Only then does the monster use its movement, if its card has a Move and it can, to step away so it attacks its focus without disadvantage. With no move or nowhere better to go, it shoots its adjacent focus with disadvantage rather than switching targets. Disadvantage only matters if the target itself is adjacent.
“Finding a focus is the first thing that happens, but Disadvantage due to adjacency on ranged attacks is not taken into consideration when determining focus.”
— Cephalofair, designer
No — focus doesn't require line of sight from where the monster stands. It only needs some hex it could reach from which it could attack, and the attack from that hex needs line of sight.
Only if it has to. When finding its focus and moving, a monster treats traps (and other hazards) as obstacles. If any trap-free path exists to a hex from which it could attack any character — even one it can't reach this turn — it takes that, focusing on a different character if necessary and skipping its attack. Only when no trap-free path exists does it take the path crossing the fewest traps, even if the trap kills it. Jumping monsters ignore traps along the way.
The rulebook's "Monster Focus" section covers this directly.
Yes — focus is found as if the monster had unlimited movement on the current map, so it moves as far as it can toward the hex it wants to attack from, walking around obstacles if needed. It won't move if none of its options get it closer to that hex (counted in movement), for example when other monsters block the way.
When no hex it could reach, even with unlimited movement, would let it attack any character — every character surrounded, or a doorway blocked for melee monsters, for example. It then neither moves nor attacks, though it still performs other abilities on its card such as a heal.
No — monsters move only as much as they need. If it can already attack its focus (without disadvantage, for a ranged monster), it stays put even though its card has a Move. A ranged monster steps away only to lose disadvantage against an adjacent focus, moving just far enough, and a melee monster stops in the first hex where it can attack.
Yes, but only after securing the best attack on its focus. It first makes sure it can attack its focus without disadvantage, then moves to add as many extra targets as it can — never in a way that loses its focus or gives it disadvantage, and never into a trap just to add targets.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — attacking with disadvantage beats not attacking at all. Avoiding disadvantage only decides between hexes it could attack from.
The rulebook's "Monster Focus" section covers this directly.
No — damage taken plays no part. Focus is the character reachable for an attack with the least movement, ties going to the earlier initiative.
No — each monster picks a new focus at the start of each of its turns and acts only on this round's card. It won't hold position for a later shot, move out of the way so another monster can reach you, or avoid a hazard that will arrive next round.
Yes — revealed and spawned monsters always act in the round they appear, unless a scenario says otherwise. A type that already has an ability card this round uses it; a new type draws one. The character who opened the door finishes their turn first, and then any new monsters whose initiative has already passed act immediately; monsters that already acted don't act again.
Into the closest empty hex to the spawn point; monsters never share a hex. A hex with a trap isn't empty, so a monster won't spawn onto a trap, but a hex with only a money token is fine. If several hexes are equally close, the players choose.
Standees are a hard limit: place as many as you can, elites first, and the rest simply don't appear. Standees of killed monsters return to the supply and can be reused. The plastic stands are not a limit — if you run out of gold elite stands, mark the elite some other way.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — in Jaws of the Lion every monster drops one money token where it dies, spawned monsters included (unlike Gloomhaven), and the token is placed even on a hex that already holds money. Monsters start dropping money from Scenario 2.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Monsters in an unopened room aren't on the map at all, so they don't act. With no monsters on the board you draw no monster cards, but you still must play two cards or long rest each round, so dawdling to loot costs you cards — a cleared room is a good place to long rest.
The rulebook's "Play Area Setup !" section covers this directly.
Each monster hex on the map shows a row for two, three and four characters. Black means no monster for that count, white means a normal monster and gold an elite. Rooms behind doors are set up only when opened.
Usually yes — targets are chosen one attack at a time, so a monster that appears mid-action can be the target of a later attack, as long as that ability hasn't already attacked it. Most players apply this to area attacks too (whatever stands in the red hexes when each attack is made), though some say an area attack's targets are fixed when it starts.
They are simplified cards used only in tutorial Scenarios 2 and 3, alongside the characters' A/B cards. Scenario 1 uses no monster ability cards, and from Scenario 4 on you use each monster's full deck. Monsters draw attack modifiers in every scenario.
A trap springs as soon as a figure enters its hex, whether it stops there or keeps going — a jump springs only a trap in its final hex. Movement continues afterwards unless the trap kills, stuns or immobilizes. Unless a scenario says otherwise, a trap is removed once sprung.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
A damage trap deals 2 plus the scenario level (3 in the level-1 tutorial scenarios). A trap showing only conditions, such as Muddle and Poison, deals no damage; one showing damage plus Poison deals the normal trap damage and poisons. Traps created by a monster's ability deal what the card says.
No — traps aren't obstacles or objectives, so they can't be attacked and obstacle-destroying abilities don't touch them. A trap goes away only when a figure enters it, and Jaws of the Lion has no ability or item that disarms traps.
Yes — the Learn to Play guide says objectives are enemies to the characters and can be targeted by attacks, so abilities that affect enemies (including area damage and The Favorite) affect them too, unless a scenario says otherwise. They're immune to conditions and can't be pushed or pulled.
Yes — the 'melee only' restriction on the summoning stones is a special rule of Scenario 4 and applies nowhere else unless a scenario says so. Objectives can be hit with both melee and ranged attacks.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Mostly read as no on both: objectives are destroyed rather than killed, so 'if you killed an enemy' bonuses don't trigger, and only monsters drop money tokens. A few players argue that, since objectives are enemies, destroying one should count as a kill.
No — a multi-hex objective is one figure with one pool of hit points. Damage to any of its hexes counts toward the total, and one attack ability hits it only once even if the area pattern covers several of its hexes. When destroyed, every hex gets a destruction tile. Two neighbouring objectives with a yellow line between them are separate objectives.
Obstacles (green border) have no hit points, can't be attacked and are only removed by abilities that destroy obstacles. Objectives (yellow border) have hit points from the scenario rules and are attacked like enemies. Abilities for one don't affect the other — the Demolitionist can't destroy an objective by destroying obstacles — and neither blocks line of sight.
The rulebook's "Destroying Obstacles" section covers this directly.
Yes — an obstacle covering several hexes is a single obstacle, so destroying it from any hex removes it all, with a destruction tile on each of its hexes even if they're out of range. An enemy next to any of its hexes counts as adjacent to it, but is affected only once.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — objectives are the yellow-bordered map pieces. A scenario goal of killing a boss doesn't make the boss an objective unless the scenario explicitly says so.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Neither — you collect money tokens and treasure in your hex at the end of your turn, or with a Loot ability. Passing through doesn't loot, and ending one move on a coin doesn't collect it until your turn ends. End-of-turn looting is mandatory and takes everything in your hex.
Not then — end-of-turn looting happens only at the end of your own turn. A move granted by the Voidwarden or a monster's push on someone else's turn doesn't loot; if you're still on the hex when your own turn ends, you take everything there.
Loot X takes every money token and treasure tile in your hex and every hex within range X, so Loot 1 covers your hex and all adjacent ones. You can't pick and choose. It can reach a hex where another figure stands, but like any ranged ability it needs line of sight, so it can't loot through a wall.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — a Loot ability that wouldn't collect any money token or treasure can't be performed, so it won't trigger anything else in that action by itself.
Yes — there's no limit, so a monster that dies on a hex that already holds money drops another token there. A money token doesn't occupy a hex, and in Jaws of the Lion a hex with only a coin still counts as empty, so monsters can spawn onto it.
Only with a Loot ability on their ability card. Monsters never do end-of-turn looting, and their movement ignores loot. A monster's Loot can take treasure tiles in Jaws of the Lion; the tile is simply removed with no effect, and what a monster loots isn't dropped again when it dies. A treasure a monster took returns if you fail and replay the scenario.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
No — money tokens collected in a scenario are converted into gold at the end using the multiplier for the scenario level. A reward that says to gain gold gives gold directly.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
No — only the character who looted the treasure tile gets its reward.
No — each character may own only one copy of any item, whatever its type, and trading can't get around that. If you would gain an item you already own, or one with no copy left because other characters own them all, the usual approach (following the later Frosthaven FAQ) is to sell it straight away for half its cost.
Half the character's level, rounded up: one at levels 1–2, two at levels 3–4, and so on. The Learn to Play guide's limit of one small item is only the starting case, raised in its final rules section. There's no limit on how many items you own.
Yes — slot limits are only checked when a scenario starts, so an item from a treasure can be equipped and used right away even over the limit. Fix your loadout before the next scenario.
Half its printed cost, rounded up. A sold item goes into the shop, so it (or anyone else) can buy it back later. An item gained as a reward or from a treasure doesn't appear in the shop until someone sells it.
Items yes, gold no. In Jaws of the Lion characters may trade items between scenarios (unlike Gloomhaven); ownership passes to the new character, who can then use or sell it. Gold can never be transferred between characters — that restriction is deliberate.
Only when the game tells you. There is no prosperity track in Jaws of the Lion; scenario rewards add new batches to the shop (for example, Scenario 9's reward adds items 15–20), while some items are only gained from treasures, events and rewards and reach the shop only if someone sells them.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — the game has two copies. The character who loots the treasure takes one, and the reward copy goes to whichever character the party chooses.
Yes — at the end of every scenario, won or lost, all items are refreshed along with your cards, so each scenario starts with everything ready.
You can use the item whenever its effect applies; afterwards turn it sideways, and it stays unusable until refreshed, usually by a long rest. 'Once per long rest' doesn't mean it can only be used while resting.
No — that all happens between scenarios. The only mid-scenario change is equipping an item you loot from a treasure.
Yes — anything that changes your attack (Eagle-Eye Goggles, Power Potion, Poison Dagger, Studded Leather) must be declared before you reveal the modifier. Items that react to damage, such as the Heater Shield, are decided afterwards, once you know you would take damage. A Power Potion's +1 is part of the attack value, so a x2 doubles it.
Yes — items can be used before, between or after your two card actions, since your turn lasts until you end it. A Stamina Potion can recover a card you've just played once it's in your discard pile, but not a lost card, and the recovered card can only be played in a later round.
There's no Jaws of the Lion ruling. Under the Gloomhaven FAQ an item that gives you an action can't interrupt another action, and in Jaws an action is a whole card half, so such an item goes before or after it. Items whose effect isn't worded as your action — the Fateful Compass makes another figure act — are generally allowed between abilities. Some players allow any 'during your turn' item between abilities.
As their text allows. Studded Leather is used when you're attacked, before the attacker draws its modifier. The Heater Shield is used when you'd actually suffer damage after all shields apply — so not if Studded Leather already brought it to 0. Chain Armor is activated on your own turn and lasts to the end of the round, so it won't help against monsters that act before you.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It doesn't add an attack or a target: it lets one single-target melee attack ability target an enemy up to 2 hexes away, still as a melee attack with one modifier draw. It works with any single-target melee attack, including the basic Attack 2 or one line of a card with separate attacks like One-Two Punch, but not with Target X or area attacks. It combines fine with the Poison Dagger.
Only on a single-target attack ability. It can be used on one of One-Two Punch's separate attacks, but not on an area or Target X attack, unlike the differently worded Gloomhaven Battle-Axe. Its pattern needs both targets adjacent to you, so it can't stretch a reach attack like Desert Night, and it doesn't combine usefully with the Iron Spear.
It depends on the wording. Each target of an area or Target X ability is a separate attack, so an item that affects 'a single attack' (Throwing Hammer, Poison Dagger) applies to only one of them. An item that affects the whole attack action (Power Potion, Eagle-Eye Goggles) applies to every attack on that card half. Each Overwatch trigger is its own attack action, so such a bonus covers only one.
They give advantage to every attack in one attack action — your top or your bottom, not both — so each target of a multi-target attack, or both attacks of a two-attack card half, gets it. If you also have disadvantage, the two cancel and you draw one card. Decide before you draw a modifier.
Probably not — item effects are abilities, and Stun stops a figure performing any abilities. Some tables play that Stun doesn't block items, but nothing in the rules exempts them.
It's a separate action used before, between or after your card actions, not a modifier on an ability. Choose yourself or an ally within range 5, who shuffles a Bless into their modifier deck; no attack or modifier draw is involved. The Oak Charm comes from an outcome of City Event 01.
Before drawing the modifier for one of your ranged attacks, use the candle; if the target survives, it gains Curse and a curse card goes into the monster deck. A curse added this way stacks with one the attack already had.
Monsters still focus on whoever they can attack with the least movement; the shawl only matters when that ties, treating you as acting at 99 so they pick someone else. The only character a monster will pass over in favour of the shawl-wearer is one taking a long rest, who always counts as acting after everyone. Your real initiative doesn't change.
The ring extends your turn, so end-of-turn looting comes after the extra bottom action; use a Loot ability if you need to pick something up before it. The card you play for it counts as played and goes to your discard pile.
No — the bonus only applies while you're performing a Move, and abilities happen in order, so once the Move is finished and the push begins you can't add the extra hex.
It ends at the end of the round in which the goal was met. Everyone who still has a turn that round takes it, so they can grab last-minute loot (and short rest at the end of that round), but no new round starts — anything still on the board is lost. To collect more, delay completing the goal.
No — success only comes at the end of the round, so if all characters are exhausted before then, the scenario is lost, immediately. Conversely, if the last character kills the last monster using their final cards, the scenario is won: you only exhaust from running out of cards at the next card selection, which never comes.
Yes — 'kill all enemies' covers every monster in the scenario, so you must open every room and defeat what's inside. Only a 'kill all revealed enemies' goal is met by clearing the monsters currently on the map.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Each character records the XP on their dial and converts collected money tokens to gold, exactly as after a win, and keeps any treasure they looted. What you miss out on is the completion bonus XP, the conclusion and its rewards, battle goal checkmarks and the city event, which only follow a success. Because you keep what you earned, retrying gradually makes the party stronger.
Yes — you go back to town after any scenario, won or lost, so you can level up if you have the XP, buy and sell items, and then attempt any available scenario; you don't have to retry the failed one immediately. No city event is drawn after a failure.
Everything is set up fresh — monsters, objectives, money tokens and any goal treasures — and you draw new battle goals. The one exception is a numbered treasure tile a character already looted: each can be looted only once per campaign, so it's left out. A treasure that a monster took, or that nobody looted, is set up again. Effects from the previous city event don't apply to the retry, and blesses and curses are cleared.
Not under the rules — the Learn to Play guide says completed scenarios can't be replayed, and Jaws of the Lion has no casual mode, so an unlooted treasure is lost once you win. Replaying anyway is a house rule; if you do, scenario rewards should be given only once.
Yes — if the scenario is completed, every character who took part gets the completion XP and scenario rewards, converts their money to gold, and keeps the XP on their dial, even if exhausted before the end. They can also earn a battle goal checkmark if they met the goal.
No — at the end of every scenario you recover all lost cards and items, and you build your hand fresh from your card pool before the next one.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — that is a reward of one particular scenario. Normally your gold comes from money tokens collected during play and from rewards that say so.
Standalone XP on an action is gained every time you perform at least one ability of that action — not when you use it as a basic Attack 2 or Move 2. XP printed next to an element consumption is gained only if you consume it, and XP inside a charge space only when that charge is used. XP always goes to the character who played the card.
No — XP printed on the action is gained once, when you play it and the card goes to your active area. If the XP is printed inside one of the card's charge spaces, you gain it when the token moves off that space.
No — XP is gained once for performing the ability, however many targets it hits or an item adds, unless the card says it's per target. If the XP depends on a target meeting a condition (for example being next to a wall), each qualifying target counts.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — you gain no XP at all in Scenarios 1 and 2, and none is awarded retroactively. XP from cards and the scenario completion bonus both start with Scenario 3. If you skip the tutorial, the starting XP and gold are given by the rules for starting at Scenario 4.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Scenario 5's rewards include an extra 25 XP on top of the normal completion bonus for Scenarios 3, 4 and 5, so every character finishes with at least 43 XP plus whatever they earned from cards — enough for level 2.
Each character who took part gains 4 plus twice the scenario level (6 XP at level 1, 8 at level 2, and so on), only when the scenario is completed. It comes on top of XP earned from cards and any XP listed in the scenario's rewards. There's no cap at the end of the XP dial.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — at the end of every scenario, won or lost, add the dial's XP (plus any bonus) to the total on your character sheet, then reset the dial to zero for the next one. The total on the sheet never goes down.
You add one card of your new level or any lower level to your pool, so a card you skipped earlier can be taken at a later level-up. Choices already made are permanent; there's no official respec, though some groups borrow Frosthaven's paid respec variant as a house rule. Before each scenario you pick your hand from everything in your pool.
You gain a perk each time you level up and whenever a reward says to gain a perk. The check boxes track checkmarks — from completed battle goals and from rewards that give a checkmark — and every three checkmarks give a perk; once all boxes are full, further checkmarks do nothing. There's no automatic perk per scenario.
You can take that perk once per box. Each perk you gain checks one box.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
As soon as you gain perks. You don't add the whole pack to your deck — only the cards your chosen perks call for.
There isn't one to add — that perk removes both a -2 and a +1 card from your deck.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Neither — before every scenario attempt, including a retry, shuffle the whole battle goal deck and deal two to each character; chosen and unchosen goals all go back. Unlike events, battle goals are never removed from the game.
Only if you met your goal and the party completed the scenario; an exhausted character can still earn it. Goals stay secret until the scenario ends, and each player tracks their own on the honor system. Only your own character's actions count toward it.
No — once you're in a hex adjacent to a monster, leaving that hex for any reason fails the goal, even to reposition next to the same monster, move through an ally or jump an obstacle; being pushed out counts too. You're free again once no monster is adjacent, for example after it dies or you push it away.
“The intent is that if you are in a hex adjacent to a monster, you may not exit that hex without failing the goal.”
— Satire, publisher
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — the designer confirmed Curse counts as the negative condition you apply. You still need to have a negative condition yourself when you apply it, and Curse never counts as one you have, since it resolves instantly.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — you need strictly fewer money tokens than every other character; a tie, even at zero, fails.
Yes — the Learn to Play guide treats objectives as enemies to the characters, so they count for goals about enemies (such as killing one while adjacent to another enemy).
No — a destroyed obstacle no longer exists, and adjacency means sharing a hex edge, so a hex touching a wall only at a corner isn't adjacent to it. Some doorways do share an edge with a wall and count.
Yes — you still have to play two cards, but you can declare a basic action and not perform it, since any action may be skipped. The goal fails only if you actually perform a basic action.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — performing an action with the lost icon counts even though the card stays in your active area for now.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Health goals look at your hit point dial at the end of the scenario, so reaching 0 counts as low health, while exhausting from running out of cards doesn't change your HP; you still only get the checkmark if the scenario is won. Being a monster's focus isn't being targeted — that happens only when it actually attacks you.
Several experienced players agree, citing the Learn to Play guide; the designer confirmed only that city events come between scenarios.
After every successfully completed scenario from Scenario 3 on, including side scenarios unlocked by events — never after a failure. If you skip the tutorial and start at Scenario 4, start with a city event. Play it even when the story says the next scenario is urgent.
Shuffle it before the campaign: it comes in numerical order with the events that unlock side scenarios at the bottom. After that, draw from the top; a resolved event that isn't removed from the game goes to the bottom, and newly added events are shuffled in.
A Cephalofair staff member answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
No — the box has more events than one playthrough uses, which leaves fresh events for a replay and spares for anyone who draws an event when they shouldn't. If you won't replay and want to see them, you can draw extra events.
First finish the scenario: record XP and gold and clean up (recover cards and items, remove blesses and curses). After that the town activities — the city event, buying and selling, leveling up — can be done in any order, even shopping both before and after the event; just level up whenever you have the XP. Battle goals are dealt later, as you set up the next scenario.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It's one total for the whole party, divided among the characters however you choose — '15 collective gold' is 15 in all, not 15 each. Paying collective gold works the same way.
Players lean this way but some disagree, and there is no official ruling.
Each character pays as much as they can and every character still gets the reward, as in Gloomhaven.
Only for the next scenario attempt: each character starts it with that condition (a Wound deals its damage at the start of their turns, a muddle lasts until the end of their first turn) or with the bless or curse card shuffled in. Everything is cleared at the end of that attempt, won or lost, so it doesn't carry into a retry.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Before. You decide to use The Favorite before drawing, and its +3 is an ordinary attack bonus, so a x2 doubles it and a null still deals 0. The card's 'after the attack' wording is about when the token moves to the target, not when the +3 is added.
“Attack bonuses are always applied before the attack modifier card. The +3 would be doubled, and the null card always causes zero damage.”
— Cephalofair, designer
After the attack resolves, the token moves to the target even if the attack dealt no damage. If the attack killed it, the token goes in the hex where the target died, and Hatchet has to loot it back.
No — the +3 applies only to the one attack that moves the token from the card onto the target. The token then rides along with that enemy, and later attacks get nothing extra unless another Hatchet card rewards hitting your Favorite. To use the +3 again, get the token back onto the card first.
Once, when you play its top action and the card goes into your active area. Using the +3 or getting the token back gives no more XP, and since the card stays out all scenario you normally play it only once.
The designer explained in 2020 that this was changed so other characters don't take the token.
No — only the Hatchet gets the token back by looting its hex. Others can loot money or treasure there, but the token stays. The designer explained that an earlier version let other characters take it and players disliked it.
While it's on a living enemy it moves with that enemy and can't be looted. Once the enemy dies, the token lies in that hex — an enemy stepping onto it doesn't take it — and Hatchet loots it with a Loot ability or by ending his turn there; walking through doesn't. Only a Loot ability returns it in time to throw again that turn, since end-of-turn looting comes too late. It also comes back at the end of the scenario.
Yes — most players treat the token as lootable by Hatchet alone, so he can pick it up by ending his turn there or with a Loot ability even if nothing else is in the hex. A strict reading notes the token isn't itself a loot item, but that would leave it unrecoverable.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It stays in your active area for the whole scenario, whether the token is on the card or not, so you don't need to rest to reuse it. Because it has the lost icon, removing it sends it to the lost pile, so you can't cycle it back through a rest or use it to negate damage or pay for a rest.
No — the token only reaches the target after that attack resolves, so these bonuses need it to have been placed by an earlier attack. You can throw it with one attack and then cash in Follow Through on a later attack, even in the same turn. An enemy merely standing on a dropped token doesn't have it.
No — it applies to one attack only, the one whose target receives the token; choose it before drawing any modifiers. The same goes for Hatchet's other bonuses that check for the token: on an area attack they help only against the target actually carrying it.
Yes — the level 5 card makes the axe miniature the Favorite token for both The Favorite and The New Favorite, so Retrieval, Follow Through and the rest work with either. If The Favorite is active when you play The New Favorite, The Favorite goes to the lost pile and the token is placed on the new card wherever it was.
He can — objectives count as enemies for attacks. Getting it back is debated: most players drop it in the objective's hex when it's destroyed, as if it had died, while a strict reading says objectives are destroyed, not killed, so it never drops. Retrieval-type cards work before then, and it always returns at the end of the scenario.
Use one of Hatchet's round character tokens (or the axe miniature at level 5) to show where the axe is. It's a token, not a figure, so it doesn't occupy its hex or block anyone.
It adds +3 to the attack value, not to range. Playing it uses your top action, so you can use it that same turn only if your bottom action is a ranged attack.
It doubles your next single attack — on a multi-target ability like Bombardment, only the first target — as an attack bonus applied before the modifier. Add the other bonuses (such as The Favorite's +3) first, double, then draw: the modifier is applied to the doubled value, and a x2 modifier doubles again.
The persistent bonus starts after the card's own Move 4, since abilities resolve in order. From then on every Move ability Hatchet performs gets +2 and spends a charge — whether he wants the extra movement or not — including a move granted by the Voidwarden and each of Disorienting Barrage's three moves. A Move he skips spends nothing.
It interrupts the monster right after it finishes a Move ability within range, before its attack, so it can kill the monster first. A push or pull doesn't trigger it, and neither does a monster with no Move on its card or one that's immobilized or stunned. Whether a monster that performs a Move but stays put counts is debated; a relayed designer answer says it does, as a Move 0.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — an active persistent effect triggers whenever its condition is met. To avoid it (say, against exploding rats), move Overwatch to your lost pile beforehand. It keeps working while you long rest, and if its attack pushes the monster out of reach of its target, the monster simply can't attack.
It must target a different enemy within 2 hexes of the first target, measured from wherever that target ends up after any push, even if that's beyond Hatchet's own range. Line of sight and disadvantage are still checked from Hatchet, so being adjacent to the first target doesn't matter.
The top action's heal targets an ally adjacent to the attack's target, so it needs the attack and can't heal Hatchet. The bottom heal has a range and no ally restriction, so it can. The attack, including a Rat Monstrosity's death explosion, resolves fully before the heal.
Each attack that kills its target can send its excess damage to an enemy adjacent to that target, so with Volatile Bomb each kill carries over separately. The excess is suffered damage, so Shield doesn't reduce it. A boss killed by the first hit is removed at once and can't be saved by healing from the follow-up.
No to both — it isn't an attack. You can skip any of its separate abilities, but if you perform even one, you gain the XP.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — area patterns can be rotated and mirrored, so you need to be adjacent to two enemies that are adjacent to each other. Each is attacked separately with its own modifier draw.
One enemy adjacent to Hatchet, of his choice, up to 2 hexes away from him; it's a separate push, not an attack.
If you perform its top action's move or shield, you gain the XP and infuse Dark, the card stays active as a round bonus until the end of the round, and then goes to the lost pile. Using the top as a basic Attack 2 avoids losing it.
Yes — it boosts your next attacks with no restriction, so the basic Attack 2 counts. Its infinity symbol means it stays active until its charges are used, you remove it, or the scenario ends.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Enemies adjacent to the target of the attack. The Glossary's page on attack modifiers clarifies this and a couple of other perk cards.
“Enemies adjacent to the target. This and a couple other perks are clarified on p4 of the glossary.”
— Cephalofair, designer
The designer answered the line-of-sight point directly on BGG in 2020; experienced players agree on how Crash Protocol's charges are spent.
They work the same way, with one difference: Crushing Weight's bottom deals damage rather than targeting, so it doesn't need line of sight (and it's not an attack, so it doesn't trigger attack effects). Crash Protocol counts individual attacks, so an area attack hitting several enemies next to walls gets +2 on each of those attacks and spends a charge for each.
The thick dark border lines of the map, whatever the artwork shows; partial hexes at the edge count as wall, and a hex counts if any of its edges borders one, even if it's also next to a door. Whether a closed door counts as a wall here is debated: some players treat closed doors as walls for everything except character movement, while others note the rule only says so for monster movement and line of sight.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Whenever an ability tells you to destroy an obstacle, you may instead destroy an imaginary one-hex obstacle in any empty hex. With Remote Detonation, for example, you pick an empty hex within range and attack every enemy adjacent to it. It gives one imaginary obstacle per destroy ability, so it doesn't create endless chains with Crash Protocol.
“Basically, any time an ability asks you to destroy an obstacle, you can destroy an imaginary one-hex obstacle instead.”
— Cephalofair, designer
Per individual attack, not per action or turn. Once active, each of your next attacks takes a charge whether you want it or not: both attacks of One-Two Punch, or two targets of an area attack like The Big One (you choose which, since you pick the order). Turns without attacks use nothing. Only the half you played is active, and afterwards the card is discarded.
They're separate attack abilities, each drawing its own modifier, so the second can hit the same enemy or a different one, and you may skip either. Its Push and Muddle belong to the attack they're printed with, so if that attack kills the target they're lost, and the XP for hitting the same target twice needs it to survive the first hit.
Only one hex of the pattern has to be within Range 2, even an empty one, so it can reach farther; the Demolitionist may even stand inside it. Every enemy in the red hexes must be attacked (allies are unaffected), each as a separate attack needing line of sight, and since it's a ranged attack only the targets adjacent to her suffer disadvantage.
No — it's a consumption. The crossed-out icon means you may consume Earth to deal 1 damage to each enemy you move through (the move has Jump), and you gain 1 XP once if you consume it, however many enemies you pass.
Every hex of the move must bring you closer to the target; X is the number of hexes you moved, and moving away and back, or not moving, gives no attack. Opening a door partway doesn't break the move or reduce the bonus.
Explosive Blitz: finish the Move 3 first, then if you opened a door at any point during it, stun enemies within range 3 of where you ended. Explode stuns only enemies adjacent to the destroyed obstacle, so never the Demolitionist herself.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
For as long as the card stays in your active area — the rest of the scenario unless you remove it, which sends it to the lost pile. Its Shield 1 applies to every attack against you.
It damages objectives, since they count as enemies, but not the Demolitionist herself. The destruction token stays where it is. The improved version infuses Earth and gives its standalone XP regardless, plus another XP when you end the jump on an obstacle.
No — the first action destroys it before the second starts. To get both effects you need two different obstacles. With Knock Out the Support you may also take the Move and skip destroying anything.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
No — the poison shares the stun's target. You can still choose a stun-immune boss and poison it, as long as it isn't also immune to poison.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
No — 'objective' means the objective map tiles (attackable terrain with hit points), not the scenario's goal.
The designer confirmed this reading of the Sand Devil in 2020 and added its movement limits.
It isn't a summon or a figure: it's a token the card treats as a trap for monster focus and movement, so monsters path around it when they can. Its 1 damage and Muddle hit any figure that enters its hex or that it moves onto — enemies, allies and the Red Guard alike. The designer added that it ignores difficult terrain but can't be moved through obstacles, objectives or walls.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
It ignores difficult terrain but can't be moved through obstacles (including the Voidwarden's ward), objectives or walls; the designer added this clarification, which isn't printed on the card. Closed doors count as walls for it, so it can't enter a closed door hex, even while carrying a character.
“it is unaffected by difficult terrain but can't be moved through obstacles or objectives (or walls, of course).”
— Cephalofair, designer
It's optional — the card says you may move that figure with it, so you can slide the devil out from under a figure and leave it. Carrying works like forced movement, so Immobilize doesn't stop it, and it works on allies too. A carried figure can pass through its own allies but must end in an unoccupied hex, and it isn't hurt by the devil it rides with. Only one figure can be on the devil at a time.
Only on entering: when a figure moves onto the devil, or the devil moves onto a figure ('or vice versa'). Leaving does nothing. So in one move you can slide it off one enemy and onto two others, hitting each once, or move it off an enemy and back on to hit it again.
It's disputed. Many players treat it like a trap a jumper passes over, so only a jump that ends on it triggers it. Others point out that the card triggers on entering its hex and a jumping figure still enters every hex it passes, so jumping doesn't avoid it.
Once per round, at the start of the Red Guard's turn, starting the turn after the card is played. It still moves when he long rests, since a long rest is still his turn. Start-of-turn effects like this, and Wound, resolve before 'during your turn' items can be used.
No — a spawned or revealed monster doesn't enter the hex it's placed in, because entering a hex is tied to movement. So neither Flame Shroud nor the Sand Devil triggers.
“A spawned monster doesn't technically enter the hex it in which it is spawned. Entering a hex is specifically tied to movement, which it is not doing”
— Cephalofair, designer
Each time an enemy enters a hex adjacent to the Red Guard — on its own move or when pushed, pulled or otherwise forced. Every adjacent hex it enters counts, even several in one move, and each uses a charge. The damage happens immediately, so a monster can die before it attacks. It doesn't trigger when the Red Guard moves next to an enemy.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
You choose the order, and both still trigger because both were caused by entering the hex — even if the first kills the monster, Flame Shroud spends its charge and the trap is sprung and removed. The player likewise chooses the order of other bonuses that trigger at the same moment.
“You can choose the order, but they both still trigger, since the trigger for both was that the monster entered the hex.”
— Cephalofair, designer
Yes — the trigger is the enemy entering the hex, so the charge is spent (and any XP on it gained) even though that enemy takes no damage.
The Red Guard — credit goes to whoever's ability dealt the damage, whoever's turn it is.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — an exhausted character is removed and its active cards go to the discard or lost pile, so their effects end.
Yes — 'all adjacent enemies suffer 1 damage' doesn't target, so you can perform it with nobody adjacent, which is enough to infuse the element. Loot, by contrast, can't be performed if it would pick up nothing. Using the half as a basic Move 2 infuses nothing.
Yes — abilities resolve in order, so the coin drops when the enemy dies and the Loot that follows can pick it up.
They're attack effects: optional, up to the value, applied after each attack to that attack's target if it survives, so you can't pull first or pull someone you didn't attack. With Swift Strength's Target 2, decide for each target separately.
Damage equal to your total Shield at that moment — it grants no Shield itself, so keep shields up, and an item such as the Heater Shield adds to it. It counts your full Shield value, not just what was blocked. If the attack kills the Red Guard, he's removed before Shield Spikes can respond.
The bottom infuses Fire and Light (consumed elements show a red X), gives Shield 3 for the round and 1 XP. On the top, consuming an element gives its bonus — including the XP — once for the ability, not once per target, and you must actually attack to use it; the push is optional.
Consume that element: if it's Strong or Waning, you may spend it to add the effect listed after it, such as more attack or extra XP. It doesn't create a separate attack.
No — the area attack always happens, attacking each enemy in the pattern separately, and gives 1 XP if it hits anyone. Consuming Light adds +1 Attack, Muddle and extra XP. Players mostly say a monster that spawns mid-attack (say from a dying Monstrosity) can't be added, following a Frosthaven ruling, though Jaws has no official answer.
It's a single-target melee attack with extra reach — no Range value, so no disadvantage up close — and its Disarm is an attack effect on that same target. A disarmed Red Guard can't use it at all, losing its effects with it.
The top's two attacks are separate abilities, so both may hit the same enemy. On the bottom, you finish the jump first — it must end in a legal hex, so not on an enemy even if the damage would kill it — and then each enemy you passed suffers the damage once, however many times you jumped over it.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No to the first: the effect starts after its own attack resolves, so it only adds damage to later attacks on that target this round. Yes to the second: it isn't a condition, so an objective's immunity to conditions doesn't stop it.
Yes — it's worked out each time he's attacked, from the number of adjacent enemies at that moment, and applies to that attack.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
At the end of your turn, like every infusion; consuming happens during the action, but the new element only becomes Strong when your turn ends.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
No — disadvantage isn't a condition. The negative conditions are Muddle, Immobilize, Disarm, Stun, Wound and Poison.
The designer ruled on this in 2021, replacing his earlier answer in the same thread.
Only if it doesn't cut the map in two. Like obstacles in Gloomhaven, the ward can't be placed so that one part of the map is cut off from another; narrowing a passage into a chokepoint is fine. The designer's first answer said obstacles can't go in doorways at all, but on realizing the ward is an obstacle-creating ability he gave this general restriction instead, which the card itself doesn't print.
“Like obstacles in Gloomhaven, you cannot use it to cut off one part of the map from another.”
— Cephalofair, designer
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
It's removed. An exhausted character and all their cards stop affecting the scenario, and moving the card to the lost pile likewise takes the ward off the map.
It's considered an obstacle for all purposes, placed once when you play the card. Its poison hits enemies only when they enter a hex next to it, not enemies already adjacent or ones that spawn there. Its disadvantage effect, like any ability with a range, needs line of sight. Monsters don't avoid it, since it isn't a trap.
Always one of the Voidwarden's allies, chosen by you, within line of sight but at any range — even when a monster draws the card from her deck through Master Influence. The card counts as +0 for the attack, and it's a plain Heal 1, not attack value plus one.
“That attack modifier always heals an ally of the Voidwarden, even if drawn by a monster.”
— Cephalofair, designer
The designer ruled in 2020 that monsters can't attack themselves; the line-of-sight point is agreed by experienced players.
It can't attack itself. The monster is the attacker, so it needs line of sight to its target; the Voidwarden's range and line of sight matter only for choosing which monster she controls, checked once at the start.
Yes — granting is her ability, and it's performed as long as she has a valid ally (or enemy) to give it to; whether the recipient then attacks, or has anything to attack, doesn't matter. An older Gloomhaven FAQ entry said otherwise, but it was changed after consulting the designer. XP that depends on what the attack does, such as a consumption bonus, still needs the attack.
The ally's. The granted attack is the ally's own attack, so they draw from their own deck and can use their own items and active bonuses (such as Windup), and their own conditions apply. The Voidwarden's items, conditions and bonuses don't, apart from what her card or Master Influence explicitly adds.
It draws from the monster deck unless Master Influence is active. Its stat-card effects (a Zealot's Wound, a viper's Poison) apply, and so do its own conditions — a muddled monster still picks the worse card, even though you control it — but its ability card for the round doesn't. A plain 'Attack 3' replaces its base attack; only 'Attack +X' adds to it.
Immediately, on the Voidwarden's turn, whether or not the recipient has already acted — even if they're long resting. It isn't the recipient's turn, so Wound doesn't tick, end-of-turn looting doesn't happen and 'on your turn' items can't be used, and the figure still takes its own turn at its initiative. Monsters she makes attack still perform their own card later.
No — the recipient's conditions still apply: a stunned figure can't perform granted actions at all, a disarmed one can't attack and an immobilized one can't move (though it can still be pushed or pulled). The Glossary's 'on its turn' wording for Stun is treated as a leftover from early Gloomhaven printings.
The figure that performs the attack. An ally she grants an attack to gets the kill; a monster she forces to attack gets credit for no one.
Yes, it gives advantage on that attack, but it isn't removed: it lasts until the end of that character's own next turn. The Voidwarden's Strengthen does nothing for an attack she grants someone else.
It stays active all scenario. In each action where the Voidwarden grants attacks, only the first granted attack gains advantage, and you may consume any one element to give that attack +1 — consuming again in each new action, never more than one element. While it's active, monsters she grants or forces attacks to always draw from her deck. Forcing a monster to attack counts as granting. It can't target her, since she isn't her own ally.
Yes — its trigger is simply the start of each of your next five turns after you play it, so the token advances and you gain any XP it reveals whether or not an enemy is within range 2. With no enemy in range the curse just doesn't happen; it can never curse you or an ally. The card is lost when the charges run out.
The figure it heals. The Poison has no separate target, so it lands on whoever you heal — an ally, or the Voidwarden herself — and that figure's next heal will only remove the poison. You can't target an enemy with it, since a heal can't target enemies.
By default, beneficial abilities target allies or yourself and harmful ones target enemies; a negative condition can be put on an ally or yourself only when the card says so. Abilities that say 'ally' never include the Voidwarden, since she isn't her own ally — she can use a basic Attack 2 instead. For mixed abilities the main effect decides.
Yes — you control the forced move, so it ignores monster movement rules: you can bend its path and move it into and through traps, and it suffers each one, stopping only if a trap kills, stuns or immobilizes it. It still can't move through characters, but can pass through other monsters.
No — the move applies to 'the target', the enemy you disarmed within range 3. Skip the disarm and nobody moves, and since Disarm only targets enemies you can't use it to move an ally. Its attack resolves before the ally's self-damage.
Yes — the controlled monster can move without needing a target afterwards (even moving into a trap or 0 hexes), and it attacks only if it has a valid enemy. The same monster does both parts. Its range and line of sight are checked when you pick it, and you gain the XP even if it only moves or dies in a trap.
Each enemy within range 3 when you perform it makes one melee Attack 2 against a single adjacent enemy of your choice, one after another in the order you pick. Each attack resolves fully before the next, so a monster killed earlier doesn't get its attack. Whether Taunting Fate's attack-action bonus applies to these attacks is debated, since granted attacks may not count as actions.
Attacks yes: objectives are enemies to the characters, so an ally's granted attack or a forced monster attack can hit an attackable objective. A standalone condition ability is different — most players say objectives, being immune to conditions, can't be its target, though some argue it's allowed.
Whatever the granted attack says: Wicked Scratch's has no range, so it's melee and the ally needs an adjacent enemy; Gift of the Void grants Attack 2 with Range 3, so it's ranged. The ally suffers Gift of the Void's 2 damage after attacking, as plain damage Shield doesn't reduce, and Poison on the target still adds +1 to the granted attack.
No — the stun ends early only if the card leaves your active area before the end of the round or a target suffers damage that round. The normal end-of-round discard doesn't cancel it, and the curses and Dark stay regardless.
Each time an ally attacks an enemy that has Poison, that ally may Heal 1 self, up to the card's three uses. The charge is spent whenever that happens, even if the ally declines the heal. Its persistent part can always be performed, so you can infuse Dark even with no enemy to poison.
The damage the target actually suffered, after its Shield, including overkill beyond its remaining hit points. If the Battle-Axe makes it a two-target attack, each attack carries the heal, so the ally heals for each.
The forced attack's damage is reduced by its target's Shield as usual, which in turn lowers what the attacker then suffers; the attacker's own Shield doesn't apply to that non-attack damage. Effects resolve in sequence, so a boss killed by the attack is gone before any healing it would have gained.
Yes — it's a normal heal, so it removes Poison and Wound; on a poisoned ally it removes the poison and restores no hit points.
Neither — the goal's two parts can be done in any order or mixed, so you can kill monsters before the stones are gone (a designer answer relayed by players). But you need both: destroying the last stone doesn't win while enemies remain, including the ones it spawns.
Ranged attacks are clearly excluded; whether untargeted damage counts splits players, with no ruling.
Not by ranged attacks — even from an adjacent hex with disadvantage, a ranged attack never counts as melee, so use a melee ability or the basic Attack 2; The Big One can't hit them either. Non-attack damage such as 'all adjacent enemies suffer 1 damage' is debated: some read the special rule as restricting only what can target the stones, so untargeted damage still hurts them, while others read it as only melee attacks can damage them.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Normal — the German text is a translation error, corrected in the German publisher's errata to match the English version.
It doesn't exist until its door opens, and only then do its special rules start. It has 10×C maximum hit points and arrives with 4×C damage already marked (18 of 30 remaining with three characters at level 1), and its maximum scales with scenario level like any boss. Every time another figure — character or monster — suffers damage, it heals that much at once. You win by damaging it to 0; if it ever heals back to full, you lose. The boss still uses its ability cards alongside these rules.
Damage negated by Shield or by losing cards is never suffered, so it heals nothing. Overkill counts in full: it heals the whole damage a figure suffered after Shield, even beyond that figure's remaining hit points. Its healing is still a heal, so while it's poisoned the heal only removes the poison. Most players also let Knock Out the Support's 'heals have no effect' block it for that round, though some argue the scenario's healing isn't covered.
You choose the order of the targets and resolve each fully before the next, so hitting the Tumor first can kill it before it heals from the other damage. A boss reduced to 0 dies immediately, so a lethal attack (even one a forced Zealot makes) leaves nothing to heal. Ricochet's two attacks are sequential.
No — a figure isn't its own ally. It has no range limit, though heals still need line of sight.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — a '-' move only means it can never move on its own, even with a Move on its card. According to the Learn to Play guide, pushes and pulls still work on such a boss, and so do moves granted to it by another figure; players treat items like Fateful Compass the same way.
No — Scenario 6 is won by destroying the objectives, so keep going until they're gone. Monsters sealed off by obstacles and objectives with no path to a character stay put, though their non-attack abilities can still hit you. The hex linking the two map pages is a door.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — the stand makes the hex 'neither empty nor occupied': not occupied, so figures can move through it, end there and loot its coin or Hatchet's Favorite; not empty, so nothing can be placed or spawned there. If someone is on that hex when the Zealot revives, the Living Corpse spawns in the nearest empty hex, so you can't block a revival this way.
Both the Zealot and the Living Corpse it becomes are separate monsters and each drops a money token when killed. The Favorite drops into the hex where the Zealot died and stays there; the Living Corpse that rises is a new enemy and doesn't carry it.
No — the goal is to kill the Blood Horror, which can't suffer damage while any Zealot is alive; then survive to the end of that round. You can still attack it (and apply conditions it isn't immune to) while it's protected, and it springs traps without taking damage.
Its jump has no limit, so it can travel back through earlier rooms to the farthest revealed dead Zealot (Zealots in unopened rooms don't exist yet). Its other special revives only dead Zealots in the room it's in — never one lying in a doorway, which belongs to no room. Revived Zealots come back as Living Corpses and don't act in the round they spawn. Only Zealots leave stands; a killed Living Corpse is gone for good.
Yes — every blue hex is a doorway, and monsters behind it aren't placed until it's opened; purple marks difficult terrain. If there aren't enough Living Corpse standees for a revival, the extra corpses simply don't appear.
They're traps, not figures, so nothing stops them sharing a hex: a figure entering it springs both. They can't pass obstacles, so they go around to the closest hex toward their target, players choosing between equal options. Any figure, monsters included, springs them. Their effects are in the scenario key.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
Normal movement rules apply: they can't move through obstacles or walls or into occupied hexes, so a blocked shift — or one at the bottom edge — simply doesn't happen.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
One for each of the four starting pillars destroyed, four in total; the left two spawn at A and the right two at B (early printings that read otherwise have a misprint). They act in the round they spawn.
“4 total.”
— Cephalofair, designer
After each attack on it — per target, so an area or multi-target attack hurts you once for each pillar it hits — even if the attack deals 0 or destroys the pillar. It hits whichever figure attacks, monsters included. It's suffered damage rather than an attack, so you can lose cards to negate it.
It's an indestructible obstacle (a chasm) whose hex grid continues under the art, so jumping across it costs a hex of movement per hex. By the card's wording, entering it with Crash Protocol still gives +1 Move for each obstacle hex, since the scenario only forbids destroying it — though some players house-rule that the bonus needs the obstacle destroyed. The large Black Sludge's room is difficult terrain, and that Sludge moves normally.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
All eight tables are placed whatever the player count and all must be destroyed; the count only decides which spawn imps (A with two characters, A and B with three, all with four). Each two-hex table is one objective with (2+L)×C/2 hit points, rounded up. Spawning tables each produce one Black Imp at the start of every round from the round after their room opens. No doors open until the central table in the main room is destroyed.
At the end of the round the Black Imp is replaced by an elite Blood Imp and the Zealot itself becomes stunned; the new Blood Imp first acts next round (Black Imps act in the round they spawn). If no Blood Imp standee is left, the Black Imp is still removed. Whether stunning the Zealot prevents the conversion is split: some treat it as the Zealot's ability that Stun blocks, others as a scenario rule Stun can't touch.
It spawns only when a figure dies (or a character is exhausted) from the damage of a dying Rat Monstrosity. In the first round, before anything spawns, you still play two cards as normal and can use it to set up.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Any figure — monsters included — standing on an A hex can spend 4 movement in a single move to go to an unoccupied B hex and use any movement left over; you can't spread it across turns or go back from B to A. Bring a Move 4 card or boots.
The designer confirmed the Blood Imps in 2020; the chained-attack details are agreed by experienced players.
Normal Blood Imps — his stat card's mention of Black Imps is an erratum. His chained special needs the first melee attack to happen; with no adjacent character the whole chain fizzles, and every later target needs line of sight from him. He's immune to Curse, but can still draw curses others put in the monster deck.
“They are normal Blood Imps.”
— Cephalofair, designer
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
Each of its hexes is difficult terrain even though no hex lines are drawn, so 2 movement apiece, 6 in total.
Yes — that special rule completes the scenario at that moment rather than at the end of the round. The 'C' on the treasure count means the number of characters.
Monsters with Loot can take them — the rule doesn't say who must loot them. Once unlocked, Scenario 19 stays available until completed; nothing locks it.
The lettered goal tiles are lootable, so end-of-turn looting or any Loot ability in range picks them up, spawning their monsters, which act that round. 'Find all goods, then kill all revealed enemies' doesn't forbid killing enemies earlier; once all goods are found you must finish the remaining revealed enemies. On a retry, remembering which hexes hold goods is fair.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
1 — the number is missing from the printed special rule. Once the Chaos Demon dies the special rules stop and they return to normal hit points.
“Reduce their hit points to 1.”
— Cephalofair, designer
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Every hex a figure enters in the room behind door 2 deals the damage, not just where it stops, until the Chaos Demon dies. Jumping doesn't avoid it, since a jumper still enters each hex. Door hexes and the Chaos Demon's own room aren't affected. Any figure attacking a Giant Viper there takes the special damage, including a monster you force to attack it.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
In the nearest empty hexes to the golem if none adjacent are free, limited by the viper standees available (killed vipers return to the pool). The golem suffers the damage first, so if it dies the scenario is won and nothing spawns. Like any event-unlocked scenario, you can retry it after failing.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — it's a misprint: swap B and C, so the Giant Vipers go on C and the Vermling Raider on B.
“Yes, B and C should be swapped.”
— Cephalofair, designer
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — none of that triggers it, and conditions applied with non-attack abilities are fine too. Damage a monster deals, even one you control or move, or damage from a trap you placed, isn't damage the character caused.
“The effect wouldn't trigger on any of the things you mentioned. The Voidwarden can have the Hatchet or enemies attack, and you can throw on conditions using non-attack abilities.”
— Cephalofair, designer
They can attack: the special rules say the arena wall doesn't block line of sight and spell out what happens when a non-Hatchet character damages an arena monster. Hexes across the wall aren't adjacent, though, so abilities needing adjacency can't reach, and one strict reading notes the rules don't define range across the wall either. Nothing can move across the wall.
Any attack or heal ability can target a crowd member; instead of dealing damage or healing, place that many damage tokens on it. Crowd members ignore every other effect — conditions, push and pull — and can't be hit by non-attack 'suffer damage' effects, though the rest of your ability still applies to other targets.
At the end of each round, to each character standing on it; 'characters' means player characters only, so monsters are unaffected.
They're allies, so ally heals can heal them, but they remain objectives: immune to conditions such as curse, impossible to move through without Jump, and never able to attack even if granted one. They have none of the Voidwarden's ward-card effects.
The designer confirmed this escape route in 2020.
Yes — the designer confirmed that's a valid way to complete it. Only characters need to escape, so the Sand Devil can be left behind in a collapsed room. You can also lose cards to negate the damage of dropping a room on yourself.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — not suffering damage doesn't stop them being attacked or receiving conditions and other attack effects such as push; Wound just does nothing.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
Yes — they work as separate rooms, so the monsters on the far side don't start moving until a character enters their room.
Yes, other vipers are its allies, so a target next to them triggers the +2. Fast Fang reads Move +1 Jump, then Attack +0 Target 2 in English; a version missing the attack is a translation error.
Treat it as a positive effect of unknown value for the monster, like every non-numeric effect on a modifier card when comparing advantage or disadvantage draws. Counting it as a negative is a house rule.
Only the card's own Loot 1 adds damage tokens; the persistent part just lets you discard it later for +2 Attack per token. The -1 resolve is paid when you play the card, like consuming an element, not when you discard it.
The first time each round that an ally (or Hail) attacks while within range 3 of Hail, that attacker gets the bonus and Hail gains resolve. Range is checked when the attack is made, and attacks from farther away neither benefit nor use up the trigger. On the round you play it, if an ally in range has already attacked, it doesn't trigger that round.
No — summons perform abilities rather than actions, since they play no cards, so a summon's turn doesn't trigger it; only a character performing an action does.
Yes — each grant needs the ally within range 3, but you may give more than one to the same ally. One reply reads it as needing a different ally each time.
Both: every ally adjacent to the attack's target, plus Hail herself wherever she stands.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
No — the opening 'Gain 1 Resolve' happens once; only the 'first time each round…' clause stays in effect.
One experienced player's answer; there is no official ruling or wider agreement.
During a scenario, her pool is the ability cards she didn't bring into that scenario.