May 11, 2022
Gloomhaven - Asmodee Eir
Greetings, fellow mercenaries!
Now is the time for you to meet the remaining two mercenaries from the upcoming Jaws of the Lion DLC: Voidwarden and Demolitionist.
As a reminder:
Each of these characters brings something new to combat within Gloomhaven Digital, including their own unique powerful ability when they reach level 5 so be prepared for spoilers about their gameplay and stop reading now if you want it to be a surprise!
[[i]Note: some parts of this article are hidden under black lines to avoid spoilers - Hover over them if you wish to reveal the content![/i]]
The important thing to know is that these characters are available to use in your core Gloomhaven scenarios and core mercs can take part in Jaws scenarios, neither are limited to their own content, so the amount of combos has increased massively.
Control Freak
The Voidwarden has access to a wide range of abilities, suited to almost any occasion, as long as that occasion involves an assortment of fangs, claws and various rusty weapons pointed in your direction. She excels however at control, both via classic crowd control abilities, debuffing multiple enemies or by directly controlling ally or enemy actions. The sheer range of options for her top and bottom half abilities can be intimidating at first.
Also, due to her ability to buff her allies (often with minor drawbacks) she performs better in larger parties where there are more mercs to aid and more enemies to exterminate.
Call the Burn Ward
The Voidwarden’s Level 5 ability allows them to summon a Ward, a defensive obstacle that both poisons nearby enemies and protects the Voidwarden with a defensive disadvantage shield. As the Ward cannot be moved once placed, you’ll need to think ahead to ensure she can stay close throughout the scenario to continue to gain its effects. With friends like these
When playing as the Voidwarden you need to ensure your allies actually ‘want’ the bonuses you are giving them. Unlike other support classes, the Voidwarden’s buffs often come with a drawback and that has the possibility of really hampering your friends’ plans. Then again, maybe they shouldn’t have looted ‘your’ chest?
Now who have we left until last? The Tinkerer with jet boots and massive punchy gloves and a pink bandana.. Also, why haven’t I dived straight into their abilities I hear you ask, well, if you are a Gloomhaven old salt, you might be ready to say ‘Oh that Demolitionist, it works in Jaws, but if you take them into the core Gloomhaven missions the levels aren’t set up right for their abilities.’
Well, Isaac heard you, and Isaac’s design team heard Isaac, and we heard Isaac’s design team, so for Gloomhaven Digital, the Demolitionist has had a bunch of redesigns and therefore, we’ll start with the rebalance and then move onto the play style…
Firstly a number of cards have had terminology changes, but that is across the board for Jaws, mainly ‘Objectives’ changing to ‘Obstacles with hit points’ so that a number of their abilities work in the core Gloomhaven experience.
The other more major changes are as follows:
Implode Bottom - The rework here gives the ability more uses, similar to a powered up version of a couple of the Cragheart’s abilities.
Rubble Top - This was the only card that used Destruction tokens which Isaac decided to remove from the Demolitionist’s gameplay, so this ability is changed to be a powerful attack.
Rubble Bottom - Rebalanced after the changes to Destruction tokens and pushing the Demolitionist’s Dungeon altering abilities.
Nowhere to Run Bottom - Another ability doubling down on Obstacle movement.
Mech Suit Top - You still get a mech, but instead of a simple heal (Not great if poisoned!), you get a free rest.
Mech Suit Bottom - The Loot has been upgraded to a small attack plus obstacle creation.
So, how does this make the Demolitionist play?
I can move any Mountain
The Demolitionist now has their obstacle movement and creation ability turned up to 11. Obstacles can be utilized to funnel enemies into your allies’ path, or reroute them through traps. Whereas in the past the player had to juggle Demolition tokens, they have more options and keep access to the Demolitionists better cards. Just remember you can’t actually drop a rock on someone’s head, leave that to ol’ Craggie.
Mechwarrior
The Demolitionist’s Level 5 ability gives them a decent health upgrade but more importantly refreshes ALL their discarded cards. This is now a key gameplay component, the moment to drop the mech will be extremely important although a slightly easier decision than Crystal face’s Reviving Ether.Of course, the Demolitionist stomping about in a Mech also looks pretty cool!
Punch Out!
Aside from throwing rocks around and piloting a big robot, the Demolitionist is a melee damage dealer at heart, loving to get in close, smashing an enemy in the face and them pushing them away or backing off. They are best used protecting the squishier members of the team from danger.
The Demolitionist also have a pretty unique set of Perks, allowing them to remove a lot of Perks from their deck to get to their juicier hits more often, making every punch hit that little bit harder.
Perks
How convenient… I talk about Perks, and then look, a Perks section… Many fans of Jaws also have remarked in the past that a couple of the mercs are missing classic Gloomhaven Perks and this affects them badly in the full Gloomhaven campaign.
Well, again Isaac has been thinking of you, so there are some minor Perk tweaks as well in Jaws Digital:
The Demolitionist & Voidwarden get an ‘Ignore scenario effects’ perk and the Red Guard gets a perk that unlocks ‘Ignore Negative Item Effects’ to have access to the swanky armor sets.
There are a few other minor tweaks to go along with these, but you’ll be able to check them out on the Perks screen in game.
The Hatchet declared themselves ‘perfect’ and sat in the corner sharpening their axes, so it was decided to leave them be.
In Conclusion
That’s it for now, why not post a thought on which mercs you want to try out first, or come to our Discord server and discuss strategies or find other players to take Jaws on with?
You can always follow updates, share content and memes with us on our Twitter or Facebook page, and check our awesome visual content on our brand new Instagram!
See you on May 17 for the Jaws of the Lion release, adventurers!
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