Expansion Combinations and Synergy - Part 6: The Expansion "Campaigns" (Patreon)

It's been a longer journey than I expected, but here we are at the final part of this series, roughly in time for the release of all the Wave 2: Generation 1 Expansions.  These expansions have one official set up which I will discuss briefly (as I've talked about it in more detail before) and then we'll move on to custom expansion/monster combinations.

I've made this post public, so you can share it with anyone who's interested.

The Green Armor Saga

The Green Armor expansion is the one 'challenge' expansion which we have in the game and it will remain that way until the Death Armor Expansion is released sometime in the next 1-2 years. Completed it's one of the most powerful loadouts in the game, but getting there is a heck of a journey.  

It requires the following expansions:

• Gorm
• Spidicules (Innovation, FA and Disorders only)
• Flower Knight
• Lion Knight
• Manhunter
• Dung Beetle Knight

So; first of all, an important note.  Spidicules should NOT be a quarry in this campaign mode.  You do not have time to hunt it and it's legitimately only required for the Choreia innovation, which is just a generic Forbidden Dance consequence innovation.  

Secondly; the first few times you try to build this, I recommend you remove all the disorders, innovations and fighting arts that come from any expansion other than the list above.  One of the most frustrating parts of the Green Armor Saga is you need to draw the Ghostly Beauty disorder because that the prerequisite for building the sword is tied to it. This is entirely chance based unless Murder gives you the opportunity to set it up.

Once you have Green Armor (It can be done by LY16 with a lot of focus) I recommend trying to unlock the Mask Maker and then stomping the legendary monsters.  At that point you could also introduce the Lion God into the game and take that as your challenge creature.

That's Done, let's get onto some other campaigns; in each case I'm going to recommend a set of monsters and honestly I'd also recommend just having the innovations, disorders, fighting arts and so on from those expansions in and leave everything else out.  

Before I start on this, there are also two words of warning.  If you leave Gorm Climate in the Settlement Event deck without the Gorm as a quarry, you are going to experience a very unusual and unpleasant world of limited resources forever and the Slenderman settlement event 'Slender Blight' will sometimes bring the Slenderman to your settlement. So you can keep that in your deck if you like the idea of the Slenderman being 'occasional' content the same way as the Lonely Tree.

Speaking of which; you won't see the Lonely Tree in any of these lists. That's because you should just always have it in there due to the low impact, non-intrusive way that it works. 

These lists will have all the monsters you should include as huntable ones, technically the core 3 are always available, but for these campaign setups I recommend you do not hunt them unless they are on the list.

So, let's go!

The Alternative Core

• Gorm
• Antelope
• Spidicules
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Sunstalker
• Manhunter
• Butcher
• King's Man
• The Hand

This campaign setup gives you a very different experience from normal.  The Antelope is left in because it's now linked to a huge amount of content, but the White Lion and Phoenix are excluded.  You hunt the Gorm instead of the White Lion and the DBK/Sunstalker instead of the Phoenix.

Hit Location Manipulation changes drastically when you play this campaign, because you only have the Wisdom Potion and Trash Crown.  Early game weapons are now Axe, Grand, Katar, Spear, Dagger, Club and Bows are not available until the Sunstalker turns up.

Downsides include you can't make a Zanbato to calcify (DBK) and cooking is not very good here outside of just providing a free endeavor (honestly I'm fine with that, cooking is broken as heck).

You can add in the Black Lion if you want to still be able to make the Zanbato. 

Three Lions on a Shirt

• White Lion
• Antelope
• Phoenix
• Slenderman
• Lion Knight
• Lion God
• The Butcher

This is pretty much a 'fixed' version of People of the Lantern.  I'd actually recommend completely removing all events involving The Hand as well as having Slenderman remove The King's Man so your nemesis monsters are: Butcher, Lion Knight, Slenderman.  Slenderman and the Lion Knight are very closely tied to the core game monsters, so this version gives you a lot of content revolving around those monsters.  Late game you can face Lion Gods, so it gets very tough.

Olmie Jaiver's Food Revolution

• White Lion
• Spidicules
• Antelope
• Sunstalker
• Phoenix
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Manhunter

Focused around the gaining of resources to use with Cooking; this set up seeks to explore cooking as much as possible and uses the expansions that have the most links to food in its various forms.

The Oppressed Society

• Manhunter* (Special rules)
• White Lion
• Gorm
• Antelope
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Dragon King
• King's Man
• The Hand
• The Butcher

Add Lottery to the timeline in Lantern Year 1, if you rebel against the Manhunter and win, you still suffer the defeat condition (adding Lottery to the timeline) and do not gain any of the gear rewards (I can do an updated showdown page for this campaign if you want).

In Lantern Year 5 the Manhunter gifts his cattle the Reverberating Lantern 

In Lantern Year 10 the Manhunter teaches his cattle secrets - gain the Crimson Candy innovation

In Lantern Year 16 the Manhunter gives his cattle the Tool Belt.

In Lantern Year 21 you may choose to fight the level 4 Manhunter as a special showdown and if you defeat him then remove Lottery from the Timeline - your people are free!

Your society spends most of its time under the yoke of the Manhunter. Cowed into submission, but eventually; when the big boss Manhunter comes.  This one is hard because the Manhunter will often take away very useful survivors, you might want to think hard about what principles you choose...

Spears and Bows

• White Lion
• Spidicules
• Flower Knight
• Phoenix
• Sunstalker
• Dragon King
• Core Nemesis Trio

There are a total of 4 bows in this version, try and collect them all along with the quivers and arrows.  It's impressive how powerful ranged weapons are when you use them in multiples.

Kitties on Parade

• White Lion
• Antelope
• Black Lion
• Lion God
• Lion Knight
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Core Nemesis Trio

A fun variant where the objective is for every survivor to dress up as a cat and slash things with Katars. 

The Trash Crown is King

• Spidicules (LY1)
• Antelope
• Flower Knight
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Dragon King
• Core Trio Nemesis Monsters

You only have the Trash Crown to help you with Hit Locations here, and that one turns up pretty late on and costs a lot to make.  It's an interesting ride.

I have many more, but these are some of the ones which I have played in the past and enjoyed to various degrees.  Hopefully they spark some ideas and help you.  One of the interesting things about choosing what monsters to hunt is when you remove the Core Trio of monsters (Lion, Antelope, Birb) and be very selective about your quarry monsters, it can change the experience a great deal by removing some obvious 'no brainer' pieces of gear - for example if you have no White Lion in the campaign then you'll need to adapt and find new ways of handling the Hit Location/Reaction/Trap conundrum.