This solo-player game introduces you to the dynamic world of Gloomhaven in a brand-new way. Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs takes you on an original adventure that strongly resembles the gameplay of the original Gloomhaven, yet manages to set itself apart in several ways. If you enjoy dungeon crawlers, this is definitely a game you’ll want to check out!

Rating

Overall	8
Story	7
Game sytem	9
Disgn & Art	9
Replayability	9

The Story

Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs builds upon the story of Gloomhaven and Forgotten Circles. You play as an aspiring hero who, in a quest for eternal glory, seeks to visit the hermit Hail, the great savior of the city that has endured countless calamities.

WAIT! What’s happening? You suddenly shrink to the size of a mouse and find yourself in an entirely new world ruled by lawlessness. To return to your normal size, you’ll have to fight your way through this miniature realm. Occasionally you’ll find an ally, but most of the time you’ll have to defeat monsters. Choose your character carefully before embarking on this journey.

Game Rules

Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs is a dungeon crawler in which you first choose a character and then play through a scenario that unfolds as you read the quest cards. Each turn takes place on a small map made up of hexagons printed on the back of the quest card you’re playing.

You have a character card showing how many hit points you start with in a scenario, as well as spaces to store certain tokens. The back of the card provides a short description of your hero and an overview of your ability cards. You also have an attack modifier table, which you can adjust as your level increases.

There’s a handy health tracker that lets you keep your hit points up to date as you gain or lose health.

Starting a quest: A quest is played over several rounds. In each round, you and the monsters both take a full turn. You continue until you’ve either won or lost the quest. When this happens, the scenario card reveals the outcome’s effect — after which you move on to the next quest.

Each Turn

• Apply Effects: First, apply any effects assigned for the round according to the scenario rules.

• Choose Two Ability Cards: Pick two cards from your hand. Choose one of them as your initiative card. (If your initiative number is lower than the monsters’, you take your turn first.)

• Perform Actions: Use the top action of one card and the bottom action of the other. Each section may contain different steps or abilities. After playing the cards, flip them to their B-side. Once both sides of a card have been used, place it in the discard pile.

• Short rest (optional): At the end of your turn, you may choose a short rest — take all discarded cards back into your hand (A-side up), but lose one random card from the game for the rest of the scenario. If you want to keep that random card, you may choose a different one to lose instead, but you’ll have to sacrifice 1 hit point.

or

• Long rest (instead of playing 2 cards)

• Recover cards: Take all your cards back into your hand, flipping any B-sides back to A. Then, you must permanently lose one card of your choice.

• Healing: Recover 2 hit points (optional).

•Repair Items: You may also refresh all used items (optional)

After your turn, the monsters act. Each monster performs one action (usually movement and attack), as shown on their ability cards

Contents en design

Inside the small box, you’ll find a concise rulebook — and a QR code linking to an excellent tutorial on the Dized app, which is very beginner-friendly. The reference card explaining all the icons is clear and easy to use.

The artwork and components are of impressively high quality. It’s remarkable how a complete game of this depth fits into such a small box without sacrificing the tactile and visual appeal of the original Gloomhaven series.

Inside the thiny box

• 1x rulebook
• 6x character cards
• 48x ability cards
• 14x modifier cards
• 10x monster cards
• 22x scenario cards
• 1x icon reference card
• 2x modifier trays
• 4x monster trays
• 5x healt trackers
• 24x condition tokens
• 6x character miniatures
• 10x plastic cubes
• 1x dice

Conclusion

Although the small box might suggest otherwise, Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs is a fully-fledged standalone game. The story isn’t extremely deep. Something that could be expanded in a future edition, but each quest takes about 20 minutes. Making it ideal for quick yet satisfying play sessions.

The six different characters, each with their own special levels, add strong replay value. A minor downside is that the scenarios must be played in order and can’t be rearranged.

Thanks to its compact size, it’s a perfect game to bring along when traveling alone: whether on a long trip, on a train, or on a plane. It literally fits in your pocket.

More info: www./cephalofair.com/products/gloomhaven-buttons-bugs

Text en photography: Esmeralda Wolf