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The Gloomhaven board game is the top-rated board game in the world. While it is a complex, cooperative campaign game, the massive variety of scenarios allows you and your friends to play game after game without repetition. Gloomhaven can be played solo or with up to four players. For your most enjoyable gaming experience, here are nine Gloomhaven tips to help you on your quest.

1. Select Your Gloomhaven Board Game Character

When you open your Gloomhaven board game, the first step is to look at the six available characters. Each character has a specific motivation, hand size, and abilities that will determine how they act during a scenario. If you're playing Gloomhaven solo, you have to play two characters, so be intentional about how you pair them. Remember that you are selecting your character for the long haul, so be relatively confident that you understand the character before beginning play. The remaining characters don't get unlocked until later in the game when you've achieved certain levels, so no peeking! 

2. Set Up Your Card Decks and Scenarios

The second item in this collection of Gloomhaven tips is to get your card decks and scenario set up entirely before beginning to play. You'll notice that there are a lot of pieces that you'll need to make this game work. Each player will need an Attack Modifier deck for their character and a single Personal Quest card. You'll need Monster attack cards and Road and City event cards. You must set up your scenario's map tiles and lay out the tokens for money, damages, and conditions. Phew! While there is much prep work, gameplay will flow better when this is all done ahead of time. Once your pieces are laid out, begin reading about your campaign in the scenario guide.

3. Visit Gloomhaven Early and Strategically

A top Gloomhaven strategy for success is to visit the town of Gloomhaven early and strategically. When you and your party first visit Gloomhaven, there are a few things you can do. You can resolve a City event card, which typically has beneficial outcomes for you and your party, such as earning experience points. Additionally, you can shop for items you can use during your quest. You can also visit Gloomhaven after completing each scenario. If you've earned enough experience points during your quest, you can level up and earn perks in line with your new status. You can also announce a character's retirement in town, which has numerous benefits such as unlocking new characters or scenarios and increasing the town's prosperity, benefitting both you for the play of future characters and the other players in your party.

4. Track Gloomhaven's Prosperity

As you play, keep track of Gloomhaven's prosperity. The more prosperous the town, the more benefits are available to your party. As Gloomhaven increases its wealth, more items will be available at the market, and each new character will begin to play at a higher level. Forgetting to track the town's prosperity will ultimately hinder your character's abilities, so keep a close watch!

5. Maintain Your Party's Reputation

It can be challenging to make a good impression at first, and it's no different in Gloomhaven. When your party first arrives in town, your reputation is at zero. The results of certain events or the completion of a scenario can positively or negatively affect your reputation. When your party's reputation goes below zero, the prices at the market increase. Conversely, the better your reputation, the more the sellers at the market are willing to give you a discount!

6. Choose Top or Bottom Actions

Once your party is ready to begin your scenario, you'll have more decisions to make. Each player will choose two ability cards and determine whether to play the top or bottom of each card. When deciding which part of each card to play and which part of the action to skip, it's critical to pay attention to what is happening on the board and where you are in the order of play. Each monster will have a certain number of hits that it can take, and your position on the board will influence your success. Keep in mind, as well, what the overall objective of the quest is, and choose the actions that are most likely to help your party achieve the desired result.

7. Learn Automated Monster Rules

The monsters in Gloomhaven are not controlled by a player but rather respond "automatically" to the actions on their cards. Familiarize yourself with the type of monster you're facing and what that monster can do to determine how you'll react. Remember that you have both a scenario goal that you're working on as a party that will allow you to win the scenario and an individual goal that you're working to achieve so that you can retire. The monster's actions are automated but can hamper either goal.

8. Take a Rest

Your Gloomhaven characters can become exhausted during a quest. When a character becomes exhausted, they must sit out of the game until the scenario is completed. Since sitting out of the game prevents you from helping to achieve the party's and your individual goals, be strategic with your long and short rests. A short rest occurs during the cleanup phase at the end of a scenario after you've completed your actions. Pay attention to the number of cards in your hand because having too few leaves you exhausted and forces you out of a round. During a long rest, you can't complete any actions during the round, but you get to heal some damage and restore any items you may have lost during play. There are benefits to both types of rest, so be strategic about taking each type to allow you to play as effectively as possible.

9. Card Sleeves for Gloomhaven

The last of the Gloomhaven tips is to protect your game using sleeve cards. When you play Gloomhaven as a campaign, you'll play with the same cards for a long time. Prevent wear and tear with plastic sleeves to enjoy your game as long as possible.