So how do you beat the 1st campaign mission?

[Terminal Velocity]

I thought the problem was I was using 2 mercenaries and the mission did not scale, but when I added a 3rd I noticed it does scale.

I've done a few missions in Guildmaster and they are not a problem, but on the first mission of the campaign I run out of cards by the time I get into the 3rd room.
Should I replace the Scoundrel with the Spellweaver who's got that spell that returns all your cards to your hand?

[Lampros]

Damn, even the first campaign mission poses a problem? I guess I am going to be banging my head on the wall all night ;(

[Kiran]

It is quite challenging map took me 4 tries until I actually made it and even then Barely, like my last possible attack took down the last archer. all I can say don't burn your cards if you can avoid it. the high hitting attacks that burn the cards are tempting but you need to conserve your cards on that mission like your life depend on it.

[Rei]

One of the most important parts of gloomhaven is managing your stamina. If you're exhausting before you can clear the rooms, you are probably using lost cards way more often than you should. When you're just starting out, I would recommend only using 1 lost card per rest (excluding the spellweaver, who can be a bit more reckless), and try to rest only when you absolutely need to.

What two characters are you using? I like scoundrel, but they really benefit from having another melee character like the brute in the party. And remember to use the initative to your advantage. If you're far away, you can purposefully go slow and let the enemies come toward you, then move in and attack. Then next turn, you can go really fast, hit them, and then get out of their attack range.

[Terminal Velocity]

Yeah I know I got that part of the strategy playing Guildmaster in early access. Im playing the Brute and the Scoundrel.
Problem is a few bad rolls on damage and Im almost out of cards or hp by the time I get to the 3rd room with the 4 enemies.

[aLx.]

I got my ass kicked on the first run with Crag and Scoundrel because I kept burning cards. Keep those cards as long as you possibly can, even if it means using basic actions. Don't "over rest". I got through on the 2nd try (tightly, but that's the whole point of the game). Truth is you HAVE to get luck with the modifier pulls. Lining up 10+ damage and pulling the x0 will happen, and it sucks. Welcome to hell :D

[Butt.]

...I have no idea, I solo a 4 man party, and I know it scales, but after 3 tries I got TO the last room once, and TO, the 2nd room only twice. Something I am missing, also everything pulls high modifiers while I'm pulling nothing, so maybe just super unlucky, but it wasn't this hard on the tabletop version.

[Magyar5j]

Gloomhaven isn't a game for the feint of heart. It's a difficult game with mechanics that take some time getting used to. I think everyone who has played the game failed that first scenario, myself included.

Here's some tips to help you out with the game and that first scenario.

1). Know the difference between discarded, lost, and burned cards. Discarded cards have no icon in the lower right hand corner of the ability and go into the discard pile when used. Lost cards have a card with little flames on it. Burned cards have a card lying down flat like a deck of cards with what looks like a little campfire on it. Discarded cards can be recovered after a long or short rest, by many abilities, and by items. Lost cards can rarely be recovered by abilities and items. Burned cards can never be recovered. Once used, they are gone from the scenario.

2). Cards are your soft timer for completing a scenario. Once you are out of cards, you are exhausted, and thus every mercenary has a finite number of rounds before they exhaust. This can be extended many ways but it forces you to measure out when to use abilities that are discarded as opposed to lost/burned. Don't waste your abilities, even if they are powerful, too early in a scenario as you won't have enough turns to complete the objectives.

3). KNOW your enemies!!! Every enemy has a baseline set of abilities and a deck of cards which modify them. For example, skeletons have shields and always hit multiple enemies. Their movement is based on this baseline ability. Archers rarely move very far but hit like small nuclear arsenals and can't be left alone to pepper you from the back ranks. Abuse that with line of sight mechanics. Demons often have weaknesses to opposing elements so generating opposing elements can severely weaken them, but generating same elements can empower them. Fore warned is fore armed.

4). Learn to abuse the initiative count!! This is more of a veteran tactic but the initiative count can be abused to make your turns better. If you KNOW that the scenarios contain enemies that move on almost every turn, bring some attack bottom abilities and go later in the round. Let them come to you Vice versa, if you know that enemies go LATE in the round, going early can allow you to bottleneck them into a position. Going early isn't always what is best. Going late can be EXTREMELY useful. Especially as a support role to heal and pick off low health enemies.

5). Bring healing.... on every mercenary. Always. Don't EVER EVER EVER rely on allies to keep you alive. In the same theme as healing.. crowd control abilities are almost ALWAYS better than healing abilities. A stunned ooze can't replicate nor can a stunned cultist summon. Disarmed archers BEHAVE as if they are melee and will move closer to you EVEN if you are in their attack range. For example, if an archer's ability is Move 2, Attack 2, Range 4, if your mercenary is withing 3 tiles and disarms them, they will Move 2 towards your mercenary as if they were a melee enemy... although you are within range of the attack!!! Crowd control and status effects are key in winning scenarios. Wounds bypass shields!

6). Lastly.. take the time to study the game. Really study the game and mechanics. If you go online and read the Gloomhaven Rulebook (which you can find online) you will see that the game is wonderfully complex and adds a great deal of depth to your choices.

Don't give up! Keep at it and hopefully these tips will help you early and later down the road.

[Terminal Velocity]

Yeah 5th time I try the first campaign mission and it's a total failure. This last time I had to burn 3 cards just to keep the scoundrel alive by the 2nd room. Rolling 0 damage and enemies hitting for 4 and 5.
I think Im going to give the campaign a miss and go to play Guildmaster mode. Seems a bit more "balanced" at the moment.

[NoXinator]

We played the first mission with the fire mage, scoundrel and the tank (beasty monster something), and we won on our first try with on the very last round (no more cards left). I think most people play it too safe and take too long to get going. You have to be aggressive and run up to the 3 archers in the second room so they are disadvantaged. You can also cancel their turn if you use the invisibility cloak correctly,

[aLx.]

Oh and, for obvious reasons, start on Easy, if you werent already...

[Terminal Velocity]

What for, the game should be balanced around Normal. If the 1st campaign mission requires such rolls that a lot of people only manages to complete it by chance with their very last cards, something's obviously not right. Two or three 0 damage rolls will ruin your round.

[Tykk]

The tabletop campaign is much harder than Guild Master, so much so that tabletop players often complained about how easy GM is. Most scenarios on tabletop are longer, so characters are just on the edge of exhaustion by the end.

GM's short scenarios conditioned players to try and grab every single gold pile and to be very liberal with the use of loss cards. Those are bad habits to have on tabletop.
Either grab gold as you push toward the end of the scenario, or just push, leaving the gold behind. Don't take dead turns that are only meant to grab gold.

Keep loss cards for the end of a scenario, for situations in which non loss cards will cost you multiple turns (pushing damage through lots of shields when no one has good non loss ways to do it, for example), or for situations in which the loss card will save you multiple turns (very crowded room, big loss AoE).

Basically, TT campaign is a lot less forgiving than GM. If GM is your only Gloomhaven experience, it's going to take you a bit to adapt.

[Zlare]

Yeah I gave up after five runs. The last room is FULL with enemies and it seems impossible to reach it with enough cards. The beginning of the campaign on normal should be balanced to ease players into the game and not build a wall before their first step. This is bad game design...

[Magyar5j]

Try this out TV.

Mindthief, Brute, Tinkerer.

Use abilities that control enemies in the first room. Like Provoking Roar, Pervese Edge, Stun Shot. Then focus one enemy down at a time. This allows you to set up a turn so that on Round 2 you can deal massive damage before the enemy gets to go. If they draw the Shield and Retaliate card, you will have to change it up but otherwise you can eliminate most enemies in the first 3 or 4 rounds.

Continue to use abilities that deny enemies damage. Immobilize on melee enemies is as good as a stun!

Make sure you are READY when you open that door. Don't have half your cards discarded and needing to take a Long Rest. Those archers are FAR away and you don't want to give them any additional rounds to do damage to you. Cloaks of Invisibility and movement related boots can be very useful. Go directly for the archers. Don't fiddle around with the Bandits. They will come to you, but those archers are absolutely brutal from a distance. The Mindthielf and Brute are EXCEPTIONALLY well suited to force enemy movement and the traps do a lot of guaranteed damage.

Same principal for the last room. Don't open that door till you are good and ready and this is where you can stand to use a few "lost" cards, like Trample. The ability to leap over the skeletons and engage the archers immediately will help immensely so be ready to do that with your damage dealers. The tinkerer REALLY shines in this last room as they usually have plenty of AOE cards with status effects, (FLamethrower, NetShooter, Ink bomb) that can make this room a breeze. Be ready to use them!

Good luck and keep trying!

[Danii]

Originally posted by Zlare:

This is bad game design...

We finished the first dungeon in the 6th run. Finally a game that's not boring me with holding my hands for half the game. I had fun in all 6 tries. This is good game design.