The 2025 pre-Black Friday Overview (Patreon)

Primal: The Awakening

Before I get into the KDM stuff, I wanted to highlight that Primal: The Awakening by Reggie Games is releasing some new expansion stuff for Black Friday. They have chosen to do this over going back to crowdfunding and I wanted to very much reward that behaviour as best I could by mentioning it here as a part of this mostly KDM piece. Primal is a great game with a lot of accessibility for on boarding new players to the boss battling genre. It also has a really wonderful player unit system that really promotes and rewards cooperation.

Here's a link to their page, their new stuff is scheduled to go live on 17th of November. If you have the game, please do give them some love, if you don't have the game I can firmly recommend it as a great time.

Into the Unknown

I have no insight into what Black Friday offers Into the Unknown may be offering, but I can heartily recommend any of their games. Aeon Trespass: Odyssey is for my taste the strongest boss battling narrative campaign out there with a thoughtful epic for a story. It's willing to take its time with setups and payoffs while also trusting the intelligence of its players.

Kingdoms Forlorn is even more in my wheelhouse and I would call it "Oathsworn but better" as I feel those two games have the most in common. That's very high praise as Oathsworn is along with Primal the games that are most accessible for the wider audience. Kingdoms Forlorn is more technical and has a higher complexity of rules, but it's also got one of the most accessible settings and therefore makes it a better step up from Boss Battling for Beginners (aka Primal & Oathsworn).

If Into the Unknown start having more expansion stock for their games available via their webstore I'll review it. At the moment my big recommendations are both for ATO and they are the Last Tome and the Godform box, you can read reviews of those in the Reviews Collection or the Aeon Trespass Collection.

Their online store is here: https://aeontrespass.com/

Kingdom Death

It is that time of year again, the period where Black Friday arrives and I look at having zero budget for anything whatsoever. However, things might be different for you, so as such I'm going to go through all of the possible options that may be available and write a couple of paragraphs about each. I am going to cover all of the expansions released to date, but in the case of the smaller boxes I'm only going to write about the cream of the crop. If it's not here then you can read about it in the reviews collection and assume that after playing with them over time I'm giving it a C or D Grade mostly because it doesn't get much use.

Speaking of which I'll be giving things a grade this time, the grade will follow the traditional F to A structure with an S tier being held for the very best of the best. Here's a rough outline of what each grade is a shorthand for, note that I am writing these grades in advance of allocating them to any particular expansion, some grades, especially the lower ones, may not be used at all.

F – This is currently unplayable and should be avoided due to it being a waste of space, time and resources. I hope not to be using this rating.

E – This expansion has not only some deep flaws, but it is also actively harmful to your game experience and requires either waiting for updates released by APG (Adam Poots Games) or extensive house ruling.

D – There's are some glaring flaws at the heart of this, but if they don't bother you too much that is fine. This might be because the content is extremely railroaded/one dimensional, or it might be due to the difficulty design of it resulting in frustration because it makes the game too easy or too hard for the effort.

C – A solid release that is not high priority to pick up before others. It is fine as part of a bundle or if sold for a discount. You won't want this in all campaigns, but you will appreciate in certain configurations.

B – A few rough areas but overall this content improves your campaigns most times it is included.

A – The cream of the crop, these are what I consider to be “best in class” and essential purchases for players as they seek to expand their Monster experience.

S – Pinnacles of design that are engaging, fun and incredible value for money. These expansions need one to come up with reasons to not play with them in a campaign.

In addition I'm going to use the APG labelling for the monster based entries using the Pillar/Node system; [NQ1] Means Node 1 Quarry Monster; [NN1] Means Node 1 Nemesis Monster. [CO] will be core monsters, [FI] Finale Monsters, [SP] Means Special Nemesis Monsters and an additional couple I'll also be using are [W] for Wanderers and [E] for Encounter Monsters.

I'd like to stress that like all reviews, these are very much based around personal opinions; I'm not an all knowing authority on things Kingdom Death and even my opinions will change over time (I've had a rollercoaster of opinions on the Flower Knight for example). Also just because I rate something low doesn't mean it has no upsides or that you're wrong for liking it. Kingdom Death is a big game that keeps getting bigger and more complex every year, it also offers a wide range of options for various playstyles. Also in recent years it has been offering more and more tools that help players adjust difficulty up and down to match their desired experience. There is no true right way to play KDM (apart from Rawhide Armor) and that is a good thing.

I'm putting a little quick couple of paragraphs here with a full breakdown of the Gambler's Chest following later because it's a sticky point that needs to be considered from the start. The thing about the Gambler's Chest is that it is essentially bringing to the table Kingdom Death: Monster Version B, there's a bunch of options that can be added to the game some of which start to move it to being a different game that just shares main mechanics. You can think of it like Elden Ring vs. Shadow of the Erdtree. They have similar baseline elements, but they take things in a different direction. Basically I'll mini-review each different element of the chest and grade it separately.

The main reason I wanted to quickly write about it before anything else is because this is an expansion you need to seriously think about getting or not. Either the new Arc Survivor system will almost completely erase the old system for you or you'll dislike it and end up with a bunch of stuff that's sitting in the box gathering dust. As such when I score the individual elements I'll also comment on how easily one could slip them into the standard Survivor level up mechanics of Fighting Arts + Core Game Age.

Core Game Monster Scores

For comparison here's the grades I currently give to the core game monsters in order of their appearance. Note all these grades are not taking into account any possible upgrades from other boxes, the phoenix for example has had an excessive amount of additional content added to it because Team Death don't want to directly address the handful of core Phoenix cards that spoil an otherwise enjoyable experience.

[QN1] White Lion – A

[QN2] Screaming Antelope – C

[NN1] Butcher – S

[QN3] The Phoenix – C

[NN2] King's Man – E

[NN3] The Hand – D

[CO] & [F]The Watcher & Gold Smoke Knight – A

People of the Lantern – C

Personally I'd score the Screaming Antelope with a B, but that's because I love the armor set and in personal games with friends we use some of the older gear cards so it's a B grade for a house ruled version of the monster, as it stands right now in the box the Antelope is a very low C, nearly a D. Also I'd score the King's Man as an F if I could let myself get away with it, but it is playable even if I also think it should be heavily redesigned.

If you're wondering why the White Lion gets an A, the primary reason is because it is "Best in class" for learning the game and I do not think it could ever be replaced. Other Node 1s are fine for experienced players but none of them are better at being "My First Boss Monster" when compared to the King of the Golden Jungle. If I was more precise in scores this would be a very low A, but I can't bring myself to score it a B because of how many excellent things it is involved with.

Thirdly People of the Lantern gets a middling score because it's a poor option for a learning campaign. The game desperately needs a 10 year introductory campaign to provide something for newer players to get their teeth into, not a 30 year one that will take half a year for a once per week gaming group to complete. (Ironically I do think the King's Man would work as a final boss for a 10 year campaign)

The Original Twelve Expansions

These expansions are all still in a bit of a weird spot for the moment as they lack many of the modern updates and love that was lavished upon the Butcher and Phoenix in the Gambler's Chest (the White Lion and Screaming Antelope had some glaring content omissions in that box). As such I can only really base my recommendations upon what has already been released, one could speculate on what's going to happen, but until I have the actual boxes in my hands I'm not going to adjust these grades. Consider them representative

It's also worth noting here that in general you get more value from Quarry Monsters over Nemesis ones because Quarry Monsters turn up more often per campaign. You're getting three appearances of say the Butcher per campaign (just one for The Hand) but you might have 6 or 7 of the White Lion. Likewise higher level quarry monsters get less table time because currently we have to start our campaigns at Lantern Year 1.

Again these are in rough order of timeline appearance split:

[QN1] Gorm: Grade A

The Gorm is almost as good an introductory monster than the White Lion and is remains the expansion that I think most players should seriously consider as their first purchase. It is not a perfect expansion, but it is less expensive than the other [QN1] option of the Frogdog (which also has its own flaws, see later on in this article). It's also a very good compliment to the White Lion and offers a great pairing between the two with lots of synergies to explore, Gorm Gear almost makes White Lion Armor not just viable but good which in itself is incredible. The Gorm's biggest strengths are its showdown, its craftable weapons and alchemical crafting system. Its armor set is interesting, but ultimately it falls short of having an appropriate amount of affinities and armor points for what you pay.

The note of caution for newer players here is that the Gorm's persistent weather event makes storing resources from one lantern year to the next harder, but that is a problem which can be worked around via player choices.

[QN2] Spidicules: Grade D (Showdown gets an A Grade)

Spidicules is nearly one of the all time greats; this arachnophobia inducing nightmare kidnapper has one of the most engaging and satisfying showdowns in the game. It is like fighting against an alien mother-ship floating around the showdown, fleeing out of reach while depositing its little invaders to help it fight against the survivors. The Spiderlings (its minions) are consistent threat in the showdown and cannot be left alone because they will become exceedingly threatening if left to build up.

The negatives however revolve around the settlement side of this expansion, most of the new mechanics are great, but the craftable gear is either side-grades from existing core game stuff (especially the White Lion which has multiple similar weapons to Spidicules) or simply badly balanced by being too powerful for how early you gain it or too weak for how late it turns up.

With some house ruling this expansion can be made to shine like a flawed ruby correctly cut, but played as is out of the box it is hard to recommend. Also this is an expensive expansion that has no unique campaign in the box (something that the Sunstalker and Dragon King both have) and it doesn't even come with enough plastic Spiderlings to cover the amount that can get spawned, we don't even get some Spiderling cardboard tokens/standees which is ridiculous. Team Death could have coded a hard limit into this, or at least offer boxes of additional Spiderlings to purchase on the store, but they've done nothing to address this for years now.

With some adjustments from Campaigns of Death I can see Spidicules jumping up to an A grade because apart from the Spiderling issue nothing here can't be solved with some card updates.

[NN1] Manhunter: Grade S

The main issue the Manhunter suffers from is its node, being the same as The Butcher, a monster which has remained as fresh, engaging and exciting now as it was the first moment it stepped onto my showdown board. To be clear, the Manhunter is no slouch either when it comes to game design design, this was drafted up in a week by Zachary Barash (who now works for Wizards of the Coast) while he listened to the Undertaker's theme on repeat. It's an incredible fight that absolutely rivals The Butcher in every aspect and the only real issue here is the age of the miniature.

I think this one is a “must purchase” but only for players who have experienced a lot of The Butcher and want a great alternative to mix up campaigns in the future.

[QN2] Flower Knight: Grade C

The Flower Knight is a beautiful model with a troubled design, there is no getting around it, the Flower Knight is Kingdom Death's weakest monster, and while something has to be the weakest when you rank them all by showdown threats, the Level 1 Flower Knight actually manages to be weaker than the Prologue Showdown White Lion. There is also only a small amount of gear, which makes this monster's position as a Node 2 Quarry difficult, you can't really play just the White Lion + Flower Knight because you'll be stuck with just the Lion all the way until Lantern Year 5 and even then when you have the Flower Knight you're going to craft very few specific gear cards from it and the rest of the time you'll use the Flower Knight resources for generic armor and gaining the admittedly amazing fighting art Otherworldly Luck (which adds +1 to all rolls in the hunt and settlement phase for the owning survivor, making it a phenomenal tool for removing the most egregious parts of the 1980s “roll a 1 and die” design that turns up here and there).

It is not all doom and bloom however, the Flower Knight's L3 fight is something I genuinely appreciate and enjoy. It also offers a great tool to help newer players get to grips with reaching the middle portion of the campaign due to a soft showdown, Otherworldly Luck and flowers that can be turned into population gains. There is a place for the Flower Knight and that is making the LY5 to 15 portion of the game smoother for newer players. That and being ridiculously pretty.

[NN2] Lion Knight Grade: C

I want to love the Lion Knight, there's so much character here that from a lore perspective I adore. He's a deeply flawed individual, bred to be a general in the Holy Lands army and instead he's messing about in the Plain of Stone Faces putting on plays while the powerful ancient scholars of Ash, Sam and Rand keep an eye on him (yeah they're more senior and important than he is no matter what people might think from appearances, the Holy Lands is a Matriarchal Society).

However, the showdown has an innate programming flaw where it is possible to lock the Lion Knight into doing nothing other than dash back and forth across the stage and even if you don't take advantage of that this is still one of those showdowns where you're encouraged to bring disposable survivors because you're punished for beating the Lion Knight. It's thematically appropriate, but I will never forget the disappointment one of my friends experienced when he read the victory aftermath.

There's some really fun hybrid armor sets in this expansion that use White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Core Game and Phoenix Armor to construct. That alone makes the pain worth navigating and the only shame is we don't have options for armor sets outside of the core game quarry trio.

[QN3] Sunstalker: Grade S

The Sunstalker is something that I gave an 11 out of 10 back in my long form written review and that's not changed one bit. It is not only an incredibly deep and engaging showdown with a lot to think about that evolves over time, but it also has a fantastic selection of gear cards to combine in a bunch of different ways and an armor set that forces you to re-evaluate older weapons and gear cards in a new light. In addition it has a solid campaign with interesting restrictions that change the experience. About the only real negative we have is the lack of Indomitable Resources for this one, but it still has plenty of level specific gear cards that offer a similar experience.

In many ways the Sunstalker feels like the ancestor of the later monster designs and it remains one of Adam's best works. I do however recommend pushing the toughness of the campaign's final monster up to either 27 or 30 however. That's a good stopgap to cover until Campaigns of Death revises it into a form able to stand up to the builds we put together.

The only criticism I can level here is the monster wants you to use survivor miniatures to represent its minion Shades. This works, but it doesn't look or feel as right as having dedicated shade miniatures would.

[QN3] Dragon King: Grade A

First up, the Dragon King + Sunstalker is one of my favourite mid game quarry duos, despite them both being QN3s they are wonderful complements to each other, with the Sunstalker gear making up for the strength shortcomings in the Dragon King gear being a particular boon. But they're also two of the best first generation showdown fights we have. The Dragon King absolutely sells that feeling of fighting against a titanic giant of a monster on a scale that no other monster has managed to this date. The Dragon King feels huge and powerful.

Unfortunately its gear isn't quite there at this time, the main gimmick is using nuclear weapons and slotting in power gems to make them stronger, however the gems themselves are very underwhelming and fill up slots in the gear grid. But the Nukalope expansion showcases a new kind of nuclear power gem with a better affinity design (one that I'd recommend for the cores in this expansion) so it looks like that sticking point will be solved in Campaigns of Death.

The real gem in this expansion though is the People of the Stars campaign that has players experiencing a settlement founded by the mysterious Tyrant. If players follow his guidance and allow their survivors to be shaped in the form that The Tyrant desires then the mechanical and narrative pay-offs are absurdly satisfying. This has the single best written ending of any campaign (win or lose) and employs some superb writing from Anna Poots to recontextualize the narrative on later replays. The only negative that exists right now is that the final nemesis monster needs between 27 and 30 toughness to really make that fight be gratifying, but one can easily house rule that without much effort.

[QN1] Slender Man: Grade A

For a very long time it seemed like nothing was ever going to challenge the Slender Man's position of top water/plant/monster/cryptid in Node 2. It has been a staple in my campaigns for an incredibly long time, switching out with the Lion Knight occasionally when the core quarry trio are in (for Hybrid Armor access). It is still a breathtaking design that offers an oppressive, unique showdown that feels more like a horror experience than just about anything else this game offers.

The element that holds this monster back for myself is that tie to the core three quarry monsters, there are things you get to craft when you don't have those monsters available, but their absence is felt and one can't help but feel like one is missing out when you don't have all four together. Again I suspect Campaigns of Death will address this and offer a wide variety of synergies with many quarry monsters, but time will tell.

[QN1] Dung Beetle Knight: Grade A

For many the Dung Beetle Knight is one of their favourite monsters, I'd put it somewhere in the top 10, but it's never been my favourite except for its visual design which I adore. That mixture of Kamen Rider/Power Rangers “enemy of the week” combined with the Scarab Beetle Aesthetics (we have rainbow scarabs in our garden each summer, they love our compost heap in particular) and the world building of the Phoenix face being sculpted on every Dung Ball (The Phoenix is essentially one of two “gods” that made the DBKs what they are). These are monsters that feel like they're not just sentient but also sapient. They have complex emotions and even are capable of language and understanding viewpoints other than their own. There are few monsters that make you ask “are we the baddies” but the DBK and its other “deity” the Flower Knight are absolutely two of them.

This showdown is one of those that is always challenging, that always requires work and attention in order to ensure that it doesn't spiral into a bad situation and it is punishing. But it is always fair in that punishment, you can play to mitigate or even avoid things if you have learnt the steps. There are no Deja Vu or Earthquake cards here, but the DBK still manages to top the charts for the most powerful level 3 monsters in the game and that's a real achievement.

It also brings in a fun farming mini-game and an armor set that can be combined with other armor set pieces in a wide range of ways due to not having the Armor keyword. It's a brilliant experience and the only reason it doesn't get to the table as much is because of how bad I feel about killing them.

#SaveTheDBKs

[QN1] Lion God: Grade E

One of the interesting stories about the Dung Beetle Knight is that when designing it Adam was struggling to get it to pay attention to its dung ball. Instead it would throw it once before heading off to smack the survivors around. This is not what he wanted. So Zachary Barash was asked to fix the problem.

Of course, the question here is why is this relevant to the Lion God; well it is because Zachary removed the “Rampage” trait from the DBK cards and that along with some additional tweaks got the DBK into gold standard form. Rampage was reused on the Lion God and while it is functional here that story about the DBK highlights a core issue with this monster. It feels undercooked in almost every aspect apart from story/lore.

Originally pitched to be a punishment visited upon a settlement for killing too many White Lions, this idea was scrapped and the Lion God ended up being this Node 3.5 quarry boss with too much punishment for the rewards given. Said rewards offer little to no unique craftable gear and even the items which are intended to upgrade White Lion Armor land poorly. Add onto that the existence of the Earthquake card, which is one of a small selection of AI cards that ruins the game experience due to it being an auto-kill with almost zero counterplay outside of “remove it as a wound” or very rarely “manage to dash to a specific spot where the Lion God can't quite reach you” both of which are not engaging ways to play.

This is a monster that needs a serious reworking with multiple showdown cards replaced with stronger designs alongside a more engaging reward system than simply rare cards + iron. It has always been hard to recommend this one, it's gotten even harder now we've seen The King's design.

[SP] Lonely Tree: Grade B

About the only criticism of the Lonely Tree I have these days is its price. As game content it is something which I put into all of my campaigns without hesitation because it has a low footprint while also offering a unique special showdown. I have always recommend this one as part of a bundle or at Black Friday prices because it is a unique and engaging showdown. I think at full price it is a harder sale due to the rarity of how often you encounter it, but otherwise there's little to no issues now that it has had its typos fixed. It really is one of my favourite showdowns and it's also a fun wrinkle to other boss showdowns when it turns up as an inert piece of terrain.

It also doubles up as a Nightmare Tree and yes, the Phoenix can stand on top of it and be stable.

[Special] Green Armor: Grade B (If you already have all the required expansions)

Note: This requires Gorm, Manhunter, Flower Knight, Lion Knight and Dung Beetle Knight in order to use.

A rather unique little expansion, Green Armor requires you use the above expansions all together in order to craft it, with very few of them having any relevance outside of the Green Armor campaign (The Sword, Shield and Hat are the exceptions). Crafting this armor set is the challenging part of this process, there are very few monsters that can stand up to the full Green Armor set once it is crafted.

The Gambler's Chest Expansion

I will cover each of these elements in the order they appear in the book, except for People of the Dream Keeper which I'll put at the end. You can consider this my first mini-review of the Gambler's Chest Expansion.

[QN1] Crimson Crocodile: Grade S

This monster is my current #1 ranked best monster in the game and I can't see that changing any time soon. It's absolutely perfect for starting a campaign as an experienced player, it's challenging and powerful in a fair manner. Never being too easy, never being unfairly difficult. It is full of character and its gear selection is the gold standard for what Node 1 gear cards should be. It even manages to have a Node 1 Armor set that provides an appropriate level of protection for the amount of resources you pay.

I've got nothing but praise to give for this one, it has taken the crown from the Sunstalker and set a platinum standard for monster design.

[QN2] Smog Singers: Grade C

I so want to give these guys a higher grade, they are a wonderful concept and design. However the showdown's main gimmick is that they are punching bags you feel bad about beating up and that is thematically engaging, but mechanically it never really takes off until you're at the level 3 version. The big sticking point is that much of the gear suffers from “The Harvester Issue” due to being noisy, so without house rules, Tippex/white-out or using them only during showdowns that don't use the basic hunt table there's a lot of stuff here that's like playing with your neck in a mousetrap. It's fine until suddenly it's an absolute disaster. Without noisy I would move these guys up to either an A or a B, because the armor set and non-noisy gear is all wonderful and fun.

[NN2] Atnas: Grade D

[NN2] is a weird spot, we've got so many possible choices, but they tend to all be flawed in one way or another. Atnas has a lot of these flaws, it's thematically at odds with a lot of the rest of the game, it's a showdown that see-saws between “this is fine” and “this is fine” but you're a dog and the rest of the cafe is on fire. I've ended up putting him onto the shelf and rarely bring him out for campaigns anymore because it's just not that interesting. There's some suggestion of deeper lore/mysteries but we never get to explore it because he'd need an entire campaign around him to get into every aspect of this character.

As it stands right now Atnas is this weird guy who can help if you are struggling to maintain population numbers, but if you've got the Gambler's Chest you should have already mastered that particular skill.

[QN4] The King: Grade A

The King is our real [NQ4] monster, both the Dung Beetle Knight and Lion God claim to be [NQ4] but in the end they turn out to be [NQ3.5] at best. I've pretty much included The King in most of my campaigns, because it's one of the few places that offers real end game gear options as a reward from a challenging fight. However, this gear is really strong and it can create an anti-climatic experience at the very end of the campaign due to its high power level.

The King also has some weird friction with People of the Lantern; post Watcher you are only allowed to hunt L3 versions of Quarry Monsters, but the King is intended to be fought only in the period post Watcher any how. You'll need to figure out how you'll handle that yourself.

Overall there's a lot to like here from a game perspective, but the miniature situation really does hold it back. This isn't even the most imposing miniature in the box, that is either the Gambler, Crimson Crocodile or Atnas.

[CO] & [F] The Gambler and Godhand: Grade B

Taken in isolation from the campaign they come with there is a lot to enjoy about these two monsters, they are imposing and confident with their designs and offer a very different end game when compared to the other campaign options. However, I personally don't enjoy the Godhand showdown as much and I find the Gambler one to be a little one dimensional. So I can't give them as high a score as the Watcher/Gold Smoke Knight combo even if they have a more developed and cohesive narrative. There is a lot to like here and they benefit from being designed in tandem in a way that the Watcher/GSK didn't, but I prefer the mechanics and theatrics of the Lantern Core/Final Duo.

Also if anyone finds an unassembled Godhand miniature out there somewhere please let me know. Mine got crushed and twisted in an accident and as such I have to use the normal Hand miniature for the fight.

Arc Survivors: Grade S

If I am completely honest, I wish that Arc Survivors had been saved for a future game instead of being bolted into Monster. Yes, I still give them an S grade, but it is very clear that they are welded onto a game that wasn't originally designed in this manner. I think a new game built from the bottom up would have served this design much better. However, that is a branching path which can't be revisited and now we're in a world where we have Kingdom Death: Monster: Fighting Arts and Kingdom Death: Monster: Arc Survivors occupying the same space and adding more components plus design/testing time onto everything that is released in the future.

That issue aside, Arc Survivors for me have made the old system completely redundant. I wouldn't use it on even the KDS if the Gambler's Chest was already there, because what we have here replaces the haphazard and random nature of survivor development with a more refined and controlled system. Before we had survivors who sometimes interfaced with their gear grids in a productive manner, but often didn't. Now we have survivors who can be developed and grown alongside specialised gear grids intended for them.

There is also one major issue that sticks with this system, because it adds so much more power to survivors they are only allowed a maximum of 1 Fighting Art or Secret Fighting Art (SFA) each. It's very difficult to get a Fighting Art onto an Arc Survivor, it's a bit easier with a SFA as you just pay a penalty and get it. The unfortunate thing is that Arc Survivors make Strain Fighting Arts hard to unlock and gain, which is a real shame. I've gotten around this by house ruling that Strain Fighting Arts count as Secret Fighting Arts when they are potentially gained and that's helped somewhat. But there's no official word I know of to help Strain Fighting Arts as of time of writing and they seem to be quietly moving towards retirement.

Arc Survivors are a lot more work, more bookkeeping, more mental load, but it is ultimately worth all of that. Arc survivors not only build a more engaging game experience but they also enhance the thematics of the world they live in with glimpses into such a wide range of subjects like mysteries from far away, the past, cannibalism, vermin and even the fourth wall. It's an incredible system even if KDM is now groaning and struggling to support the weight that it has brought to Monster.

Characters – Grade: A

Characters are a real treat, they offer an innate ability (or impairment) that comes from a customized deck of cards that is constructed before the start of a campaign. These offer initial directions to take characters or even entire settlements in, but they are far smoother and easier to integrate into your experience and they can elevate the Fighting Art survivors almost as much as they do the Arc Survivors. The character cards in the box are good, but the system gets even better with some of the white box releases.

[E] Encounters (Bone Eaters) – Grade: S

Encounters are quite simply the return of Wandering Monsters to the “dungeon crawl” part of KDM. This phase is also known as the Hunt Phase and it is a massive abstraction of the part of dungeon crawling that leads up to the boss battle. Your traditional dungeon crawler goes Town → Dungeon Crawl → Final Boss Room Fight; KDM goes Settlement → Hunt → Boss Battle. Dropping most of the Dungeon Crawl time in exchange for that climatic battle being more detailed and engaging.

The Bone Eaters are the first Encounter monster to be included in the game and the simple fact is I can't see myself playing KDM with them in the mix because not only are they a great experience, they also tie closely to the Arc Survivor system that we currently have due to Marrowism.

Seed and Indomitable Patterns – Grade: S

Another massive success from the Gambler's chest is the pattern system, not only does this include a deck of possible gear recipes that tie to the monsters you have in your campaign, but it also includes the brilliant Indomitable Resource Patterns that come from beating L3 versions of the various monsters. Rewards for fighting L3 monsters have traditionally felt undercooked, you might do say a single L3 Phoenix for the Crest Crown, but after that the carrot to draw you back is close to gone. If you don't need specific monster resources, why would you keep hunting a Phoenix when other softer options are available (and often more rewarding). Indomitable Resources came to fix that.

The patterns that come in this box push the Phoenix up an entire grade to a B, but it is worth noting that for some inexplicable reason all the other monsters in the core box were denied indomitable resources, this doesn't feel too bad when considering the nemesis monsters, but it feels awful to see the White Lion and Screaming Antelope lack these here.

I've not dug into Seed Patterns so much here; in truth I think their system is a little more wonky than the Indomitable one, mostly because they come in a random order and you can gain a King Seed pattern right near the start of the game (meaning it is useless for many, many lantern years) or you could get a White Lion seed pattern weapon right near the end of the game (completely useless). If the seed pattern system gets a bit more curation and refinement in its design, perhaps by having the deck gradually expand in size, or allowing some form of in campaign curation, then it'll really start to sing. It is still good, it's just not as polished as Indomitable Resources are.

Scouts – Grade: E

There are few things that I truly do not want to play with in a campaign, you can even convince me to allow the King's Man to hang around Node 2 if you really wanted it. But scouts is the exception to that rule. Scouts started out as an incredible idea, explaining why the gear would return to the settlement even if all of the hunting survivors died. It was going to be this fifth survivor who was sworn to not intervene during the showdown, instead they would provide support in the hunt and then stay on the sidelines. Only joining the fight if the players were willing to gamble all their gear on the line.

The optional nature of this system is what made the initial pitch so interesting to me, but what we got is a system that basically gives you an additional survivor who is effectively half a survivor in exchange for gambling all your gear every single hunt. What that does is it creates an environment where players are encouraged to play as safely and conservatively as possible, don't ever risk a quarry hunt that you might fail because it's game over. If you don't feel confident about a nemesis showdown, then send in disposable naked survivors. It's not something I find fun at all, either I'm leveraging the fifth survivor's pool of survival and unique gear to help dumpster monsters as fully as possible, or I'm losing all my best stuff and might as well start again from scratch.

Kingdom Death already punishes you enough for a failed hunt by denying needed resources and eliminating what might be your best units. I don't need to also be putting all the gear up for ante each session also. Your experience my differ, but this is the one of the only things that I seriously considered scoring with an F. I can't do that though because there are some sparks of brilliance in this pile of fumes, things like the Scout Discoveries and scout only gear are exceptional from a world building perspective.

Wanderer (Luck) – Grade C

Wanderers as a system is an easy A, but the best wanderers do not come in the Gambler's Chest. The only Wanderer we get here is Luck who turns up really late in the campaign, right at the point where you'd rather concentrate on your own survivors rather than explore the story of this stranger who has wandered in. Great system, Luck is just not a great showcase of what it can do for your games. Better examples are Candy, Aeneas and the Death Drifter

People of the Dream Keeper – Grade C

This is the campaign that requires you use all of the elements listed above; as such it is an experience with a lot of highs and lows. I personally think that KDM would benefit from more 10 and 15 year campaigns that either end earlier or start later in the development cycle. 30 Lantern Years is a lot, it is even more of “a lot” when you have to deal with the lower scored areas of the above items. I played People of the Dream Keeper to completion twice and that was enough for me; I am using elements of it, including its campaign specific monsters, but I'm having a nicer time now that I've cut out Scouts and Atnas from the experience in exchange for elements that engage me more.

Gambler's Chest Expansion – Grade: A or C

A lot of how good this is for you depends on the Arc Survivors, do you crave a deeper experience for the development of your survivors, gaining more control and focus over how they develop through the lantern years. Is all that additional bookkeeping not going to overwhelm you? Then the Gambler's Chest is a grand step forward into KDM: Arc / KDM 2.0. However if you really love the Fighting Art and Strain Fighting Arc system then it will depend very much on the monsters and there's some great quarry ones in this box that if they were separate I'd have on the list of “must buy” expansions.

There's also a bit of a physical aesthetics issue with the Gambler's Chest. It's clear that Team Death's miniature design philosophy changed over the the production of this expansion, you have old and new style miniatures bundled in together and one of the key issues is that it detracts from the spectacle of some monsters and survivors, the King is the biggest loser here and it is an approximately 10 year old sculpt at this point and it wasn't even retooled for this new release. When you compare the King to Atnas, the Crimson Crocodile, the Gambler and Godhand its age is very obvious. Similar with the survivor miniatures, some of them are so much smaller with fuzzier details than ones that came along later. This is very noticeable with some of the Character miniatures vs. the Survivor Armor sets.

Packaged in with everything else pushes that down a little because of the cost and size issues, but overall if Arc Survivors really draw you in, this is something that has a lot to love. If you end up disliking Arc Survivors then there is still a lot of great stuff here, but it's an expensive pill to swallow all at once.

The Post Gambler's Chest Expansions

All of these expansions feature a similar selection of differences from the original expansion run because they are designed post Gambler's Chest. Therefore they are designed with Arc Survivors and Patterns in mind and they also feature higher levels of complexity and therefore more Showdown Bookkeeping to remember and operate.

[QN1] Frogdog: Grade B

The Frogdog is in a difficult spot. It is a very good monster, but Quarry Node 1 has nothing but amazing options. As such, its higher price point and issues surrounding copper (see my reviews for more details on that) keep it down a bit in comparison. The key thing to note here though is outside of the copper issue and the lack of interesting additional terrain during the showdown there is nothing wrong with the Frogdog at all. It's simply that the Crimson Crocodile is king of Node 1, the White Lion is the best introductory monster in the game (as it should be) and the Gorm is deeply engaging and fun despite its drawbacks.

[NN1] Pariah: Grade B

The Pariah suffers from the same problem as the Frogdog. It's in the Nemesis Node 1 bracket, meaning it is competing with the Butcher, the Killenium Butcher and the Manhunter. All of which are incredible experiences in their own right. Nemesis monsters have an additional wrinkle in that they are way more awkward if you try and fit two of the same node into a campaign.

The Pariah is good, but it is good in a category that includes 'best in the game' and as such that makes it harder to recommend. The Manhunter is a lot cheaper and still remains exciting despite its age and the Butcher looms over everything in the game with how sublime it is.

Also the normal Pariah sculpt is clearly showing its age and needed more love and attention before it went to production. It is very noticeable when you put it alongside its Inverted version, the Inverted Survivors and models like the Red Witches.

This isn't bad, quite the opposite in fact, but it is more for players who have exhausted the other options, love the idea/miniature and eventually for its part in the Inverted Mountain.

[NN2] Red Witches: Grade A

I am very, very close to giving these ladies an S tier at this point, but I need more time with them to see if their mechanics and gimmicks hold up well. The real time nature of Braal interrupting play in particular makes it hard to push this to an S grade because of accessibility issues, players who are slower to do things for a variety of reasons are punished heavily by her and there doesn't seem to be an alternative rule giving players like that permission to play otherwise. KDM is a Sandbox game for sure, but it always feels better when players are given the opportunity to customise their experience to match them.

I like what these bosses are doing, I really like how they work as there are more of them on the board and I think this is great and very much the best Node 2 Nemesis monster we've had since Slender Man.

[NN3] Black Knight: Grade S

I love the Hand, as a part of the game's world. But as the standard Node 3 Nemesis monsters this noble leaves a lot to be desired. The showdown gimmick is really fun at first, but once you get it the experience falls off. It's the kind of moment which is amazing and scary in passive entertainment like reading or watching a show/movie, but when you are experiencing it as a player the process of going through it wears out its welcome. In short it is fun when you see characters suddenly discover that they are absolutely being toyed with by something way outside of their abilities and power. That's a sweet narrative rug-pull, but it loses its impact over time.

Because of this the Black Knight was always primed to succeed unless it was a horribly botched creation, something I think Team Death have learnt enough about game design now that it cannot happen. But the Black Knight is something more than that, it's not just replacing a weak game element it is adding to both the game world and the game experience in ways that nothing else can manage. This is a stunningly good monster with incredible mechanics and flavour and it's landed itself on my top 5 monster list alongside the Sunstalker, Crimson Crocodile, Gold Smoke Knight and Killenium Butcher. I really do not want a campaign without this good boy in it. I love him so much, he deserves better than his current lot in life.

Also the miniature got some love and attention, upscaling it from an already incredible base design, while there are issues with joins when assembling it, this miniature doesn't suffer from the same comparison issues that the King and Pariah experience.

The Vignettes of Death

[QN1]White Gigalion – C

[NN1] Killenium Butcher – S

[QN2] Screaming Nukelope – Currently looking like a it is getting a B but I need more time

We currently have a total of three Vignettes of Death, all focused around upgraded forms of core monsters; the White Lion gets the White Gigalion, the Butcher gets the Killenium Butcher and the Screaming Antelope gets the Screaming Nukealope. I have not been able to fully exhaust the new Nukealope at the time of writing, so I cannot give a full and confident opinion on it. However, I do think that it is going to struggle to be superior to the Killenium Butcher by the simple fact of the Butcher's core AI and HL cards, which will make up the bulk of the cards you encounter are better designed than the Antelopes ones. Building from an excellent base has a lower bar for success than building on a weaker base because you need to repair less.

I do think the Nukelope will end up better than the Gigalion, that's simply a natural part of being a later design; the more that Team Death design their monsters, the more cohesive and enjoyable their designs become. So at time of writing the guaranteed sure fire hit here is easily the Killenium Butcher which is one of my top five monster showdowns (along with the Crimson Crocodile, the Sunstalker, the Black Knight and the Dragon King) and the gamble is the Nukelope. The Gigalion is a fine boss, but it doesn't benefit from the experience of design and feedback that the other two have, also the problems with the White Lion have never been the showdown, it is the gear that's been at the crux of the reason why the White Lion doesn't get the highest possible grade. To briefly explain why I've gone from an A grade monster to a C grade Gigalion is that because as much as I try, I cannot bring myself to score the Gigalion harder. It really doesn't improve the White Lion experience (same thing with the Lion God) enough and in some ways makes it slightly more tedious.

While I'm still writing about the Nukelope I want to express disappointment that this box doesn't seem to come with updated Blue and Red cores to match the Green Core design. That would have been a lovely gesture to the players and also gently encourage people to pick up the Dragon King if they don't already have it.

White Boxes

I am only going to list the cream of the crop here, if I haven't listed it you can check the reviews collection, but there are so many that I cannot realistically write about every single one. The best kind of White Boxes are ones that either fix a core issue in smoothness of playing the game, or provide more depth for existing content that you already have.

Indomitable Survivors: Overall Grade A

Indomitable Survivors are across the board exciting and engaging; however the best ones are for the monsters that turn up earlier in the timeline because you are required to hunt L3 versions of the monster in order to get the resources. Earlier in the timeline means you get more time to acquire and experience the weapons. As such the Node 1 and 2 Quarry Indomitable Survivors have more intrinsic value than the later ones. This probably will change when the First Hero expansion is released and we can start settlements at later portions of the campaign, but for now pick the Indomitable Survivors for the Quarry Monsters you most enjoy fighting against and fight against more often than others. Currently that is Gorm, White Lion, Spidicules and Screaming Antelope. I really recommend the Gorm ones most of all, but the Spidicules and Antelope ones are also great.

The Phoenix ones are also very good, but so are the Phoenix Indomitable resources in the Gambler's Chest and the Phoenix is a meaningful drag factor to them. Domino still absolutely rules as a character though.

I also class Basara, Death Crown Aya as being pseudo-Indomitable survivors though they provide other options rather than just indomitable ones. Death Crown Aya is very welcome because it gives another legendary card to replace the copy of Deja vu that mysteriously vanished when it came into contact with the five phoenixes that live in our home.

Lantern Armor Aya: Grade A

If Lantern Armor Aya didn't have the Painters Scale miniature increasing the price of this one it would be another S tier release because of how incredible everything game-wise in this box is. We get an alternative version of Lantern Armor that is super sweet, and we also get the single most fun and powerful Legendary Character which gives a survivor born with it "Weapons in your gear grid gain all weapon type keywords." Something that opens up so many possibilities, combos and options. This one is a gem despite the price tag.

10th and 15th Anniversary Survivors: Grade S

Of these two it is the 15th Anniversary Survivors who really I really, really recommend, but the 10th Anniversary ones are a great supplement to get once you have the Gambler's Chest. The 15th Survivors though offer an upgrade to the Blacksmith that rounds out the core game in a robust and engaging manner.

I really cannot recommend that one enough.

Allison: Grade A

Allison's content supports the core campaign by giving players some extra gear cards, one of which not only supports using the Twilight Sword, but it also works with other Sentient weapons if you pick those up at some point. I am of the opinion that this should be baked directly into the People of the Lantern experience instead of leaving it as an extra to order, but it is what it is. If you play PotLantern a lot, and lets face it, one almost certainly does, then this helps make one of the more unpleasant parts of the campaign progression be smoother.

Note Allison's content comes in the Legendary Card Pack along with some other promotional stuff that's otherwise harder to find.

Ringtail Vixen: Grade S

There's nothing more destructive to a settlement run than hitting a 1 on your intimacy early in a campaign. The Ringtail Vixen offers a solution to this by giving the settlement an alternative the first time that a 1 is rolled. This does of course make the game easier, but honestly losing 2 survivors + not gaining one when a 1 is first rolled isn't true difficulty, it's just variance giving you a kick in the head. It doesn't feel good and it encourages throwing the settlement away immediately and trying again because you've only got a small amount of Lantern Years into the game.

Glow: Grade B

Glow is a character card that comes with a bunch of interesting gear designed to work together. The main limitation here is that it is your Legendary Character Card and that is limited to 1 of its type per campaign. I overall do recommend Red Survivor from Lantern Aya instead of Glow because they're both occupying the same space except Lantern Aya's Character card is significantly stronger and more engaging to play with.

The Survivor Tokens in this box are very useful btw.

Echoes of Death 1 to 4: Grade Various, overall C

A fun concept that has sort of run its course. I've written about the Strain Fighting Arts issue above, so I won't retread it here beyond noting that if you're into Arc Survivors then there is very little here for you. But even without that there's diminishing returns due to these strain fighting arts being capped at 5 per campaign.

All of them bundled together in a single box might be an interesting purchase for people who are still using the normal system, but be aware that they are rare things that tend to pay off for KDM lifestyle gamers who play multiple times a week. Be aware some strain fighting arts are massively broken, but the majority offer fun upgrades to the game, especially weapon use. I like them so much I'm considering introducing a house rule that operates the strains in a similar way to the Character deck. That is once Nightmare Training is innovated New Survivors are born with a randomly generated strain fighting art locked onto their survivor sheet.

Survivors of Death 1 and 2: Grade C (nearly a B)

Survivors of Death is the successor to Echoes of Death and so far it has shown to be somewhat solid, but also frustrating. There's elements of these boxes that should have been bundled with the expansions (looking at you Frogdog Indomitable Pattern) and other elements that don't pay-off right now because they lack support (Anti-Ranged Knowledge, Crossbow). However, they do fit better with the newer KDM designs and there's nothing as broken as some of the strain fighting arts in this selection. However the entire thing is very uneven, with it split between Strain Fighting Arts, Knowledges, Characters, Seed Patterns and Indomitable Patterns. This means you're getting content split between KDM:FA and KDM:AS.

It's also worth noting that sometimes the content requires specific expansions/monsters on top of the Gambler's Chest; SoD1 wants the Frogdog. SoD2 wants Atnas and People of the Stars.

Overall the Survivors of Death series is really aimed at the most entrenched part of the fanbase and miniature painters. This is something that Echoes of Death suffered from already, but it's dialled up to a spinal tapping 11 in SoD.

Skrelle: Grade B

More settlement events are always welcome, especially ones like this that offer a fun little mini-game with a rewarding conclusion. Skrelle is one of these and has been something I've appreciated more and more as time passes, not only is it fun (and reduces the odds of game ruining settlement events) but it's also promoting picking Pictographs, which one of those innovations that doesn't have an obvious pay off due to it mostly being buried in the hunt event table. Skrelle makes me pick Pictographs higher, and that's good for the game experience.

Seed Pattern - Willow: Grade B

Willow offers a really sweet take on Weapon Specialisations where survivors gain access to “novel proficiencies”. This is a system that offers alternative styles for existing weapon types. In Willow's case it is Swords and requires the Lantern Sword to kick it off. Interestingly the Lantern Sword is something you can actually pick up a lot earlier than unlocking the Blacksmith due to various possible events happing in the game. I love what this one is doing, which is a lot for a low cost.

Seed Pattern Jackel: Grade B

Whips and Thrown Weapons are under supported in KDM. Jackel helps address the Whip situation with a great whip. She also provides a female Count Armor survivor for use in combination with the Black Knight expansion.

Winter Solstice Lucy: Grade S

Note: This one probably isn't going to be available until the December Holiday sale. I cover it here because it's super important for the game.

One of the largest areas where game design is spoiled in KDM is around instruments. Instruments have noisy as a keyword. Noisy has the hidden downside of 'Roll a 10 on the Basic Hunt Table and you die.' This means the correct answer to 'should I bring a noisy gear card on a hunt' is always no. That limits game space both for designers and players. It's one of the worst parts of KDM and Team Death seem married to not changing it.

The Grim Muffler from this box changes that as it allows us to ignore one noisy keyword on a gear card in our grid. Suddenly we get access to a wide range of not just gear cards, but also fighting arts and other mechanics. It opens up the game to experimentation and brings me a lot of joy. That's why despite the cost of this one I can't give it anything other than an S Grade because it is fixing a problem that shouldn't exist and is stubbornly not being addressed by the designers.

Wanderers (Candy, Goth, Aeneas and Death Drifter): Overall Grade A

The newer wanderers showcase a lot to love about this system as they all turn up earlier than Luck. This is the part of the campaign where unique survivors with alternative options and powerful gear can have a meaningful impact. Candy and Aeneas are the best of the two, Death Drifter is a solid third. Goth on the other hand is a wonderful concept, but in game she's a bit of a mixed bag.

In particular I can't recommend Candy enough, if you want more about that one I've written a review recently and that can be found in the review collection.

Final Thoughts

Here's the list of what I think the cream of the crop of each release are for a given player experience, they are not in a specific order:

Amazing for Everyone:

Red Witches or Slender Man

Black Knight

Sunstalker

Ringtail Vixen

Wanderer Candy

Wanderer Aeneas

Winter Solstice Lucy

15th Anniversary Survivors

These expansions shore up the lacking areas in the core game experience which is the King's Man, Phoenix and the Hand. The Black Knight is also one of the best nemesis showdowns alongside the Butcher. In the case of the Slender Man or Red Witches it depends what you want from your NN2. Slender Man is a simpler, but still difficult fight that has close ties to the Lion, Antelope and Phoenix as it uses their resources for crafting. The Red Witches on the other hand are more complex and offer difficulty in an alternative way.

I am also of the opinion that the Phoenix has too many hurdles and requirements for it to be a good part of the core game experience, the Sunstalker is still one of the best quarry monsters in the game and if you go the route of picking up the Red Witches it is easier to also pick up the Sunstalker which will offer a different Node 3 monster and you won't lose out on the Slender Man/Phoenix synergy. It also gives you a second, slightly shorter campaign which is a boon.

Of course if you really enjoy the Phoenix, King's Man or Hand and don't feel they need to be replaced then these expansions drop in interest.

For Newer Players:

Gorm

Flower Knight

Manhunter

Frogdog

Allison

Sunstalker

Lonely Tree

These all offer alternatives for early game content by supporting the core game experience or offering alternatives that are just as good. The Flower Knight is very much something to make the game easier, the others here are simply good stuff that I think you have to provide good reasons to not use it.

For Intermediate Players:

Dragon King

Dung Beetle Knight

Killenium Butcher

White Boxes (especially Indomitable Survivors and Wanderers)

I do really recommend the Dragon King and Sunstalker as a joint package, but they are expensive and if there's one I'd leave for later in ones KDM experience it is the Dragon King due to price and being a slightly weaker design than its Solar companion.

At this stage I think players will really love the upgrades that the Killenium Butcher brings to old faithful and white boxes are worth exploring. Especially ones that enhance areas of the game that you are looking to explore further.

For Experienced Players:

Gambler's Chest

Pariah

Nukalope

Finally I think that these three can be left until quite a bit later in your purchases. The Gambler's Chest is the big one because if you click with Arc Survivors then it's going to kill the old system of survivor advancement entirely. The Pariah and Nukalope are here mostly because I need more time to work out how good they are and also I absolutely have to highlight that me rushing out to recommend the Pariah or Nukalope based on early plays just isn't going to happen. I need my time with these two to see if they are all time classics that enhance a KDM collection or if they are instead lipstick on a pig.