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FAQ Last Updated: 05/17/2022 @ 8:20 AM PST
General Scenario Game Play
Q: What are the dimensions of The Crimson Scales game box?
A: Length: 19.75 inches
Width: 12.25 inches
Height: 4.625 inches
Q: What is the recommended way to begin a new Crimson Scales Campaign?
A: When beginning a new Crimson Scales campaign, you should approach it as if you just opened the box
of Gloomhaven. You have not unlocked anything as of yet. You are now at Prosperity 1, with 0 Retired characters,
using Gloomhaven rules for Prosperity and Perks.
Q: What components will we use from Gloomhaven when playing Crimson Scales?
A: You will utilize many of the components that come with Gloomhaven, including, but not limited to: board
tiles, tokens, items, battle goals, base modifier attack modifier decks (0, +1, -1, +2, -2, 2x, Null, Curses, Blesses),
etc. Note that Crimson Scales does come with its own monster and player base attack modifier decks for color
consistency, but they are no different than those that come with Gloomhaven.
Q: If I wanted to play Gloomhaven characters in Crimson Scales, will I find them to be balanced and usable within
the Crimson Scales campaign?
A: Playing Gloomhaven characters within Crimson Scales should be no more unbalanced/broken than using
Gloomhaven characters in Gloomhaven. So yes, they can be used within the Crimson Scales campaign. In fact,
City and Road events do reference those characters when appropriate.
Q: Can you play Crimson Scales campaign in Solo mode? Are there any special rules for doing so?
A: Yes. There are no special rules to do so.
Q: How does Retirement work in Crimson Scales?
A: It follows all of the normal processes that occurred in Gloomhaven. You will have a Personal Quest, and once
you complete that personal quest, you will retire, adhering to all of the steps and processes that occur in
Gloomhaven.
Q: Are there still rolling (cumulative) retirement perks in Crimson Scales?
A: Yes.
Q: In the initial setup of the campaign, it states that you unlock envelope B (from Gloomhaven), but do not get its
initial bonus. Does this mean that when checking off Prosperity boxes, you are automatically awarded the first
10 (which is what it takes to unlock envelope B)?
A: Yes.
Scenarios
Scenario 5: Blood of the Oozes
Q. After opening door 1, the text reads "Whenever an elite Blood Ooze is killed, remove the water tile on any hex
marked A and all connected water tiles. Water tiles can not be removed from the board by any other means.
Once water tiles on C hexes marked with A have been removed, the infected water has been drained."
a) I assume that only ONE tile marked A and its adjacent water tiles are removed (not all).
b) If I am playing with 2 characters and kill one elite ooze, I remove three water tiles at minimum. Does this
mean that I have "Drained the infected waters" or do I need to kill two elite oozes to take the "Remove water
tiles" action twice to "drain the infected waters?
A: Each time you remove Water tiles, you remove one connected lump of water (the one marked with "a" and any
adjacent tiles to the tile marked "a"). You need to kill one elite ooze per character.
Scenario 6: Poisoned Water
Q. It is missing from the Special Rules section, but I assume in order for a character to pick up a bottle of antidote
they must be adjacent to it, correct? Can flying characters pick up a bottle of antidote and drop it into the
fountain when on the hex with the respective obstacle, or is this not considered being adjacent to it?
A: You must be adjacent to an antidote to be able to pick it up. You must also be adjacent to the fountain to drop
it off. Flying over the obstacle in either case is not adjacent to it.
Scenario 7: Golden Eggs
Q. Do monsters created by the water tiles get a turn their first round? Or do they wait until the next round?
A: Since the monsters are summoned, they do not act until the next round.
Scenario 11: Voyage Abound
Q. Do enemies spawn in hexes that normally have a character, but temporarily don't? E.g. A Starslinger's Lost in
the Stars ability card has resulted in the Starslinger being removed from the board and it's character token
placed in its stead.
A: Yes.
Q: Do summons know about attacking through obstacles for their AI?
A: No.
Q: Where are the enemies summoned? It just says on each tile occupied with a character. But in what hexes?
A: Unspecified hex locations are player's choice.
Q: What is the point of the last paragraph in the Special Rules which states "All characters start with Muddle as
a scenario effect"? No monsters are on the map at the beginning of the scenario, and all spawned monsters do
not get placed until the end of the round. It would seem that starting with Muddle is pointless. Am I missing
something?
A: No. This was a mistake and is being added to the Errata document.
Scenario 27: Frostbite Cavern
Q. According to the Special Rules in Section 29A, the Icebound teleports to "d" if it is on the a2b tile and teleports
to "e" if it is on the a3a tile. But "d" is already on the a2b tile and "e" is already on the a3a tile. I assume the "d"
and the "e" should be reversed, so that the Icebound teleports between tiles a2b and a3a?
A: Correct.
Scenario 45: Defend The Swamp
Q. According to the Special Rules in Section 50A, The Deep Terror represents the Land Leviathan. The Land
Leviathan is 1 level greater than the scenario level and has a hit point value multiplied by (Cx2)-1, where H is
equal to the hit point value of an elite Deep Terror. There is no H in the equation. Should it be (Hx2)-1 or
Hx((Cx2)-1) or ?
A: Hx((Cx2)-1)
Scenario Add-On RM2: Sinking Kingpin
Q. Does the Inox Bloodguard have the same AOE on their attacks that an Inox Bodyguard has (they aren't specified
within the Special Rules in Section 2 for Inox Bloodguard).
A: No. The Inox Bloodguard is actually a completely different monster (Boss) type, and has its own stat card. There
is an error in that the icon shown within the scenario setup shows an Inox Bodyguard while using the name of
the Inox Bloodguard.
Characters
Bombard
General
Q. Are the attacks from Bombard's Projectile mechanic considered ranged or melee? If the Bombard places a
Projectile at range and then moves adjacent to it, is the attack at the start of the next turn considered ranged
(with disadvantage) or melee (with no disadvantage). I always assumed it would be ranged (both because the
ability specifies 'range' and because, thematically, interacting it with things like 'Piercing Bow' makes much
more sense than melee items like 'Poison Dagger') but the question has been raised by others and the 'attack
line' performed on the subsequent turn to the ranged projectile-placement, does lend itself to some ambiguity.
A. The attacks are Ranged.
Q. Can the Bombard's Projectiles target closed door hexes?
A: No they cannot.
Q. Do you have to be within range to perform a Projectile attack? Can the attack be done if you do not have line
of sight? Example: I target a hex within range, then move away. Can I still perform the attack the next round?
A. In order to initially place the Bombard's projectile token on a hex, you must both be within range and line of
sight of the hex you are targeting. At the start of the next turn, you only have to have line of sight to the hex
which contains the Bombard's projectile token in order to make the attack. While you do not have to be within
any specific range, the attack is still considered a Range attack.
Brightspark
General
Q. Does Brightspark's passive abilities like "at end of turn make an attack 2 range if you didn't attack" trigger on
the turn you play them, assuming you didn't attack the turn you set it up?
A: Yes.
Level 1 & X
Q. Does Brightspark's Critical Observation apply its bonuses to additional targets if it has more targets via an
item?
A: Yes.
Chainguard
Level 1 & X
Q. Does the Chainguard's shackle modifiers from their perks apply soon enough to get bonuses like the +1 if target
is shackled on Spiked Knuckles (attacking an initially unshackled enemy)?
A: Effects from attack modifiers apply after the attack; so Shackle from an attack modifier applies after the
attack is resolved, and therefore the bonus isn't applied (similar to poisoning an enemy with a rolling modifier).
Q. If a boss/monster is immune to Immobilize, can it still be shacked for the purposes of attacking it with Ganging
Up's bottom or getting other class bonuses like those provided by Locking Links?
A: No. A monster immune to Immobilize is immune to Shackle.
Q. How does Locking Links work with items that give it extra targets like Battleaxe?
A: You choose which target to Shackle.
Chieftain
General
Q. If the Chieftain opens a door on the turn of her mounted summon, revealing enemies with quicker initiatives,
who acts next in initiative order?
a) The Chieftain, as summons always act 'immediately before the summoner'?
b) The newly revealed enemies, as their quicker initiative would 'slot in' between the mounted summon's turn
and the Chieftain's?
A: B. The mounted summon's turn is separate from the Chieftain's.
Q. If unmounted, the summon acts under normal summon rules, correct?
A: Correct.
Q. When the Chieftain is mounted and able to control the mount's abilities, can you also control ability order? Can
I have the mount attack and then move before using the Chieftain's ability cards?
A: In general, no. You control the actions, but they still retain the ability order of Move, then Attack. The only
exception is if an ability card specifically states that you can do so (e.g. the bottom of Level 4 War Paint).
Q. Do AoE attacks damage/affect both the mounted Chieftain and their summon?
A. Yes. This only applies to red AoE multi-target attacks/abilities. Any single target attack/ability would apply to
the summons first (as summons are focused first, unless this default order has been changed by some ability).
Hierophant
Level 1 & X
Q. How does Infect interact with abilities which grant shield, such as the top of Faith Calling on the Hierophant? If
a character with Infect is in range of this Shield effect when it is played, then removes the Infect condition later
in the round, are they able to gain the effect of that Shield, or because they were Infected when the ability was
played, they aren't able to regain the effect of that Shield?
A: For all Shield aura effects, once Infect is removed they can begin using Shield again. A character still has
Shield while they have the Infect condition, it just has no effect.
Q. How does the Hierophant's Faith Calling and/or Standing Ground work? The wording is like an aura in
Gloomhaven (see Tinkerer's Flamethrower) where an ally can move in or out of the aura and gain/lose the
benefit. However, this doesn't work with single target beneficiaries. What if one ally is in range of the ability at
the time it is played (and they gain a Prayer) but another ally moves within range of it on their turn? Do they
gain 'Shield 1'?
A: The Prayer benefit applies immediately at the time of playing the card. Allies can then move into the aura later
and benefit from the Shield effect.
Q: The top of Faith Calling says "Shield 1. Affect all allies within Range 2. If you affect one ally with this action, give
the ally one "Prayer" ability card. Is this suppose to be "If you affect exactly one ally" or "If you affect at least
one ally"?
A: The intent is "exactly one ally" at the time of playing the card. Therefore, additional allies may still gain the
benefits of the Shield aura at any later point in the round.
Q: The bottom of Sacred Death allows you to recover one lost card and two discarded cards. In addition, you may
immediately play the bottom action of one discarded card recovered this way. After doing so, is the discarded
considered played again, and thus discarded, or do you get to play the bottom action and still place it back into
your hand?
A: If you play the action of the recovered card, it is not returned to your hand, but instead goes to the appropriate
pile (discard or lost) after being played.
Level 5
Q. Can the Hierophant stock pile more than one token on Spiritual Gains in one rest cycle? The wording on the
card is "Whenever you perform an action on an ability card that triggers the lost card icon", which implies you
can, but the card also says "you may remove the token from this card" which is singular, suggesting you can only
have one on it at a time.
A: Yes.
Spirit Caller
General
Q. Can you choose the order of activation for the Spirit Caller's spawns? For example, attack first, then move, or
choose to move first and then attack?
A: Yes.
Starslinger
Level 1 & X
Q. Lost in The Stars refers to the round after it is played right? Basically making it invisibility except enemies can
stand on you, your allies can't heal you and you always go last next round without needing to long rest?
A: Yes, this is correct.
Attack Modifiers
Luminary
Q. For the Luminary's attack modifier card 133, do we need to consume an element to perform the Glow ability
when this modifier card is drawn?
A: No.
Starslinger
Q. For the Starslinger's attack modifier cards 194 & 195, which read "Force the target to perform 'Move 1'", who
controls the movement? Does the character control the movement, or is it controlled by normal AI movement?
A. The player controls the movement.
Conditions
