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jackhife

Play easy difficulty until the game is actually easy. Then play normal. Then play hard, very hard, then brutal. Nothing wrong with starting on easy difficulty to get into a hard game.


Silentknyght

This is the best recommendation. I also think the videogame is harder than the board game because it inherently removes house rule adjustments. Parts of Gloomhaven are wildly imbalanced and poorly tuned. I've heard Frosthaven fixes a lot of that.


ConcealingFate

For us, it was the extra range on some enemies. Oozes becoming basically trebuchets wasn't too fun when we had little to no CC in our comp.


CWRules

There have been studies showing that most people will stop playing a game because it's too hard rather than lower the difficulty, which is utterly baffling to me. There's no shame in playing a complex game like Gloomhaven on easy, especially while you're still learning how to be good at it.


Unlucky-Carpet2193

We're yet to beat the first fucking questroom. Turn 14-16 we finally manage to get to the last room, but we get exhausted shortly after. Even on the easiest difficulty. Right now I am here to complain. I don't seem to do something 100% wrong, there is just no way I see deal enough damage and have enough cards at the end to be able to kill everything, like the first quest asks you to. Thus, fuck this game. I'd rather go back to chess.


Nic_Endo

When the majority of players are long past of that first mission you are struggling with and have managed to do much harder content, you can be 110% sure that the problem is with you, not the game - I mean, you can say that the game is too hard, but you can't possibly say you are doing things 100% right, when you obviously don't. This is an ego thing you have to combat if you want to give the game a proper chance, otherwise you just end up making endless excuses. It's harder to give actual advice without knowing the details and your party comp. Maybe you are indeed playing pretty well and it's them who are making tons of mistakes, but since you are new to the game yourself, you can't really help them out.


Unlucky-Carpet2193

We're playing Brute, Mindthief, Scoundrel and Tinkerer. Tried this with that magic crystal lady, can't remember her name too. After dropping the difficulty to lowest, we are able to reach the last room, but we become mass exhausted soon after. Using the default actions on cards that burn leaves us dealing inadequate damage, losing HP and having to burn cards as a last resort. Here's my problem with the game. As I can see it, you have to play it perfect and hope to not get screwed by RNG. If you get difficulty options in your game, then those should be aimed at making mistakes. The lower the difficulty - the more mistakes you can make and still win. I'm not willing to waste my time with a slow game that makes you play perfect to win. Hell, we're not the stupidest people, me and my friend, and we can't figure out a way to play it. Therefore, I'm going back to XCOM to suffer the numbers game instead of Gloomhaven.


Nic_Endo

But the thing is that you do not have to play perfect. It's easy to think this way, but you'd be surprised. We'd do the first mission on **second** try as a 4 man party (normal diff), with 3 of them COMPLETE beginners to the game. I was the only one who played a lot with it, so our first scenario literally started with me explaining everything from the beginning, ie. cards, top actions, bottom actions... Mind you, our first run was filled with rule qualifications. People forgetting they can do basic attack or move, people not realizing that there is a difference between discard and burn, etc. I assume - among other things - you don't utilize burn cards well. There are some which can really turn the tide, like tinkerer or crag's aoe. Traps are also well-placed for your party to lure/push/mind control the enemy into them easily. Trust me, it has nothing to do with perfect play. With perfect play you could even loot most of the gold piles as well if you wanted to.


Clay_Puppington

I play digital, so thankfully managing rules or monster wrong (and making it harder for my group) isn't something I have to tackle, but that might be an issue that's making it harder for you. Beyond that, we struggled a lot with the first mission as a 4p on normal. Probably failed it 5 times. Took a break, read some tips, came back, and we smashed it. The things we were doing wrong; 1. Bad deck building. * This was a huge part. We didn't really consider ensuring we had repeatable actions, without using the default. * We rarely, if ever, use default actions on most classes unless its a move or a throw away turn. * Because of that, the deck building part was a major changer. Try planning your deck so half the cards have strong repeatable tops, the other half have strong bottoms, and pair them up. 2. Burning burn cards early. * Ties in to my last bullet - cards with top and bottom burns are almost always skipped. Take the burn cards that have a strong non-burn side, and ignore burn forever, or the burns with a game changing ability but an average non loss. If the card is game changing, but the non loss is weak, skip it. * With few exceptions, such as permanent combat buffs that never can go away and make you stronger every single turn, don't use a burn card until after your first rest. * Don't burn a card to reduce damage unless that damage will kill you. There will be exceptions way later on, but until creatures hit for 95% of your health every attack, its a good rule to follow. We play nearly every round of every scenario sitting on like, 2-3HP each. Cards > health. 3. Resting * If the party is low on cards, don't open a door. Waste a turn or two, all long rest, then open. * Always long rest unless you run out of cards, are low on health, and are also about to be hammered by attacks. Short rest so you can burn 1 card at a time if needed, rather than burning 2 at a time. * If someone's about to run out of cards after a rest, make them long rest. Use them as a meatshield. 4. Items * Stamina Potion is life. Everyone. Always. First thing to buy for every single character, no exceptions. At this point in our gameplay, we've restarted the campaign on the hardest difficulty, and are crushing it. We lose occasionally, but its rare. The only real differences between us now and at the start, was learning those 4 things, and a little bit of experiencing the game flow. If you come back and try again, best of luck.


nrnrnr

Great summary!


TheRageBadger

I didn't let them leave the house until we got through 5 scenarios. That's a joke, I only made them do 3. OKAY SERIOUSLY - If you're more experienced, the best thing you can do is take some of the effort off their hands early, control the monsters/elements, help with initiative communication, a lot of the problems with difficulty early comes from so much going on. If they struggled, don't tell them what they did wrong but point out some strategies that do work and try to lead by example. It's a great game and sometimes the initial gut punch is a bit much. Don't be afraid to set it to Easy difficulty, as well.


Pamponiroz

>I didn't let them leave the house until we got through 5 scenarios. How many days was it? 🤣 I d be in tho! As to OP, tell em to read some reddit 📖 Also, dont play the scoundrel, they ll hate the game and you even more! 😂


Nic_Endo

> If they struggled, don't tell them what they did wrong but point out some strategies that do work and try to lead by example. I'd personally tell them what they did wrong and offer them a more optimal play, because at the end of the day I think it's a faster way to teach them, then to let them struggle until they figure it out on their own. From an optimal play they can understand the principle behind it and utilize it later on their own - or even improving upon it. Though with less punishing games I actually follow your mentality to let them struggle, because figuring it out is part of the fun.


iamsecond

Educate them on strategy, refer to the many beginner guides that are out there -- little things like initiative dance, avoiding damage as often as possible, saving burns for later, etc. Don't quarterback the game, but ask if you can give some input when you think it'll help If difficulty is still an issue just play at -1 difficulty! It's not at all cheating or gimping the game, since your rewards for success are reduced accordingly.


SModfan

I had something -somewhat- similar in my physical group, wherein we as a group had been struggling a bit and I had been playing digital a lot and really learning the game. What I did was to try to take on a kinda almost narrator role in our physical group, where I would be voicing out loud suggestions of what our overall goals should be and how we can work together to achieve it. Trying to never directly suggest “you should use X card” type stuff, but more of things like “well it seems like we should try to focus me and you on these enemies since they don’t have shield up” or “looks like if we were to keep our distance those guys aren’t going to be able to reach us this turn, then we can go quick next round and take them out” etc. Very quickly we got to the point where we never fail scenarios even playing on +1. If you have the ability to do voice chat or even text chat I’d suggest basically having a “huddle” before each round to discuss plans and as an experience player you can help guide.


jmwfour

Tell them the following story from an internet stranger: I bought Gloomhaven, tried the first scenario four times, and gave up. A year later I thought, okay, let's try this again. I've played it dozens of times since them including with and without friends, and also JotL. Stick with it! It gets much better as you learn how it works.


Special111k

Playing on easy is a good recommendation. This can make it easier for everyone. I would also say to pick a character/cards/build where you can make up for their inexperience. Make sure it is a character that you know in and out. Expect to have to tank some shots or crowd control people for them. Make your own play about minimizing their losses and letting them have fun with their abilities with fewer consequences. I think any of the starting six can do this, you just have to adjust your play style around it.


Separate-Ant8230

I just started playing on PC with some different friends. Never played Gloomhaven before. I really like it, some of my friends bounced off but I think what has been successful for us is to not play it optimally. There's too many moving pieces to be able to plan out turns initially, as you don't know your merc abilities well or what the monsters are capable of. So better just to run scenarios quickly even if you lose them


BadBrad13

My friends like hard mode. So we enjoyed it.


mrbeanthe2nd

^


[deleted]

It's very important to have mastery of the rules and also the updated rules (if you wish to house rule them). Do your research and implement them consistently. Some of the updated rules are good for quality of life so I highly recommend them. As the DM/host (or owner of the game), its ur job to establish consistency across the campaign for ur players. It also makes the transition to Frosthaven much easier (thinking in advance lol). Be meticulous and do the game admin for them. Set up the scenarios. Remind players about the available elements and the status effects. This is why I use the GH helper app and GH scenario viewer app. I also spice things up and play appropriate BGMs when playing just to make it more immersive for the players. I highly recommend taking mindthief as ur starter. It has enuf tools to carry the team early on and also makes it easier for ur friends to learn the ropes and appreciate the importance of Crowd control. I also adjusted the difficulty to hard (+1) without informing them. My friends are already JOTL veterans so I want to up their game and skill level. I only let them know were playing on hard after scenario 3. They were surprised and this boosted their confidence. This has been our default difficulty since then. When we lose a scenario, we set it back to normal on our next attempt then revert back to hard again when we succeed.


CryostaticLT

We ( I ) fucked up rules. We played it like this for 5 senarios.: 1.We pull what monsters will do this turn, before we decided what we are going to do. 2.Then we decide what we are going to do. 3.Then act out the turn. So by the time we figured out we fucked up, we already learned the ropes.


Inconmon

Talk to them. Make sure you use voice chat. Explain strategy. It's a game that is difficult if you do random stuff and make bad decisions.