Overview

Gloomhaven is a cooperative campaign game of tactical combat in a persistent fantasy world. Players control unique characters with hand-managed ability cards, fighting through scenarios linked by a branching narrative. Each scenario is a dungeon-crawl played on modular hex tiles with monsters controlled by an AI card system. Characters gain experience, loot, and items, and pursue personal quest lines that unlock new content. Victory in a scenario requires completing its specific objective before all characters become exhausted.

Components

• 18 character miniatures (6 starting classes, 12 unlockable)
• 17 character boards and character pads
• 504 character ability cards
• 457 attack modifier cards (including player-specific and monster decks)
• 253 item cards
• 232 monster ability cards
• 240 monster standees with 24 plastic stands
• 47 monster stat sheets with 6 stat sleeves
• 150 event cards (road and city)
• 30 two-sided map tiles
• 155 two-sided overlay tiles (traps, obstacles, etc.)
• 24 battle goal cards, 9 random scenario cards, 24 personal quest cards
• 50 money tokens, 46 damage tokens, 60 status tokens
• 4 HP/XP tracking dials
• 6 wood element discs + 1 element infusion board
• 1 round tracker, 1 map board, 1 scenario book, 1 town records book
• 4 player reference cards, 1 party pad
• 3 sealed envelopes, 35 character tuck boxes, 4 sticker sheets

Setup

1. Select a scenario from the Scenario Book and arrange the required map tiles.
2. Place overlay tiles and door tokens as indicated; set up only the first room’s monsters and terrain.
3. Each player selects a character class (no duplicates), takes the character mat, ability cards for their level, item cards, and tracking dials.
4. Set up monster stat cards at the appropriate scenario level and shuffle their ability card decks.
5. Each player builds a standard 20-card attack modifier deck (modified by perks/items/curses/blesses).
6. Draw a battle goal card (keep secret).
7. Set all 6 elements to “Inert” on the element infusion board.

Scenario Level: Average character level divided by 2, rounded up. Can adjust +/- 1 for difficulty.

Turn Structure

Each round follows this sequence:

1. Card Selection

• Each player secretly selects 2 ability cards from hand.
• One card’s initiative number determines your turn order.
• Instead of selecting cards, a player may declare a long rest (if they have 2+ cards in discard).

2. Determine Initiative

• Reveal all chosen cards’ initiative values.
• Draw and reveal the top monster ability card for each active monster type.
• Sort all figures from lowest to highest initiative.

3. Character Turns

On your turn, play the top action of one selected card and the bottom action of the other.

• Default top: Attack 2. Default bottom: Move 2.
• Perform the actions in order, resolving each ability within an action sequentially.

4. Monster Turns

Each monster type acts according to its revealed ability card, following the AI focus and movement rules.

5. End of Round

• Move all played/discarded ability cards appropriately.
• Advance the round tracker.
• Shift all elements one column toward “Inert” on the infusion board.

Actions

Move

Move up to the specified number of hexes. Movement is affected by difficult terrain (costs 2 movement), and blocked by obstacles, walls, and closed doors.

Attack

Target an adjacent enemy (or at range if specified). Draw an attack modifier card and add its value to base attack. Compare total to target’s shield value, then apply damage.

• Advantage: Draw 2 modifier cards, use the better one.
• Disadvantage: Draw 2, use the worse one.
• Area effects: Attack multiple targets as shown on the card.
• Attack effects: PUSH, PULL, PIERCE, ADD TARGET, etc. applied after damage.

Conditions

| Condition | Effect | Removal | |———–|——–|———| | POISON | +1 damage from attacks; prevents healing | When healed | | WOUND | 1 damage at start of turn | When healed | | IMMOBILIZE | Cannot move | End of next turn | | DISARM | Cannot attack | End of next turn | | STUN | Cannot take any action except long rest | End of next turn | | MUDDLE | Disadvantage on all attacks | End of next turn | | INVISIBLE | Cannot be targeted by enemies | End of next turn | | STRENGTHEN | Advantage on all attacks | End of next turn | | CURSE | Add null card to attack modifier deck | When drawn | | BLESS | Add 2x card to attack modifier deck | When drawn |

Elements

Cards may infuse elements (Fire, Ice, Air, Earth, Light, Dark). Other cards can consume active/strong elements for enhanced effects. Elements shift from Strong to Waning to Inert each round.

Heal / Summon / Loot

• Heal: Remove damage and POISON/WOUND from target.
• Summon: Place a summon token with its own stats; it acts at the end of your turn.
• Loot: Pick up money/treasure tokens in your hex (or within range if specified).

Resting

• Short rest: At end of round, shuffle discards, randomly lose one card, recover the rest.
• Long rest: Declared instead of card selection. At initiative 99: heal 2 HP, choose a discard to lose, recover the rest, refresh spent items.

Items

Items are consumed (flip face down) or spent (turn sideways, refresh on long rest). Equip limits: 1 head, 1 body, 1 legs, 2 one-hand OR 1 two-hand, up to half-level (rounded up) small items.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Scenario victory: Complete the scenario’s specific objective (usually kill all revealed monsters, sometimes other goals) before all characters are exhausted.

Exhaustion: A character is exhausted when they have no cards in hand or discard to play/rest. Exhausted characters are removed from the scenario.

Campaign progression: Completing scenarios unlocks new scenarios, events, items, and character classes on the campaign map.

Final scoring: Not applicable – this is a campaign game. Progress is measured by party achievements, prosperity level, and character retirement/unlocks.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Revealing rooms: When a character opens a door, set up all monsters, overlay tiles, and tokens for the revealed room. All revealed monsters act on the current round if they have not yet taken a turn.
• Monster focus: Monsters target the enemy they can attack with the least movement, breaking ties by proximity, then initiative.
• Monster movement: Monsters will not move through traps if they can avoid it. They will move through hazardous terrain if needed. Flying/jumping monsters ignore ground-based obstacles and traps.
• Experience: Gained from specific ability card icons, end-of-scenario bonuses, and battle goals. Tracked during scenario on HP/XP dial.
• Gold: 1 money token = (scenario level + 1) gold. Collected during scenario; kept even on failure.
• Scenario failure: Characters keep all gold and experience gained, but the scenario must be replayed to progress.
• Attack modifier deck: Null (x0) and critical (x2) cards are always reshuffled back in when drawn. CURSE and BLESS cards are removed when drawn.
• Card loss: Cards with a loss icon are removed from play for the remainder of the scenario when used.
• Personal quests: When completed, the character retires, unlocking a new character class and other content.
• Prosperity: Town prosperity unlocks higher starting levels and better shop items for new characters.
• Enhancements: Between scenarios, spend gold to permanently add effects to ability cards.
• Reputation: Party reputation affects shop prices and city event outcomes.

Player Reference

Round structure: Card Selection > Initiative > Turns > End of Round

Turn: Top action of one card + Bottom action of the other

Default actions: Top = Attack 2, Bottom = Move 2

Resting:

• Short: end of round, random card loss
• Long: initiative 99, choose card to lose, heal 2

Element cycle: Strong > Waning > Inert (shifts at end of round)

Modifier deck base: 6x +0, 5x +1, 5x -1, 1x +2, 1x -2, 1x 2x, 1x null = 20 cards