Halloween Survivors 2: Trick? Or Treat? (Patreon)

In this day and age it takes an absolute aeon for stuff to arrive from the US to Europe – and until a miracle happens and we get an EU warehouse which holds the promotional content on sale the same day that it is released in the US... Well, first I'll pause for you to have a quick laugh, because well we all know that's not going to happen. USA first forever!

So, that's why we're approaching Spring and I'm finally able to take a deep dive look into the Halloween Survivors – Series II – here on this patreon. The original Halloween Survivors were released all the way back in 2018, when we were fresh, naïve and season plastic miniatures only sometimes came with game content. A time before Pattern gear cards crept their way into every aspect of the additional content.

I'm actually very fond of the original Halloween survivors, they are an affordable and characterful look at the four starting survivors, with each one themed in a way that matches their known personalities. Erza is dressed as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark; Allister as a Victorian Vampire; Lucy as Frankenstein's Monster and Zachary, continuing the tradition of him being in touch with his feminine side is dressed as a sexy cat lady. The sculpts were decent, though these days they look a little dated and small when compared to the other survivors, and there was no reason to own these outside of wanting to paint them.

This brings us forward to the new release; the 2021 Halloween Survivors – Series II – which has a group of generic, unknown survivors dressed up in a showcase of the monsters. For my own purposes and entertainment I'm going to name them individually based on who Lokman Lam's illustration makes them look like. The White Lion costume individual looks like he's a fun and confident individual, so I'm going to call him Chad. The Screaming Antelope costume looks like an Amy, the Retching Costume seems like an Elizabeth and there is absolutely no doubt at all that the creep in the Big Bite Costume is a Michael. We'll have to look at his face later on, I'm sorry for that, but Michael just comes with KDM as standard and there's no way of shaking him off, he's latched onto the big black box's teat for life. Just ignore Michael's irrational writings and admire the costume instead! He made it himself! He just loves Poots THAT much, friend!

The set contains miniatures for all four of these individuals, plus four Pattern gear cards. We'll start by looking at the miniatures before moving on to the game content and evaluating how useful it is for someone who isn't a hobbyist and instead just seeks to enhance their game.

There are two sprues in the set and we'll start off by just getting the negative out of the way; somehow both sprues are labelled 'Holloween Survivors' twice per sprue. They also have names for each of the models; Lion, Screaming Antelope, Gorm Nurse and Crocodile,. I think I prefer my choices. This is a very minor negative, but it is always concerning to see simple typos like this getting through in a product which is both marketed as premium and includes a premium price. Not a deal breaker, but more a continuation to the sloppy proofing which is endemic to the franchise.

The model cuts and sprue mounting are very well done, as you can see from the video above, they all assemble easily and have decently dynamic poses – I'd say they're not as dynamic as the Sankokushin models, but they're ahead of many other board game ranges out there and they have tons of character. I really like them, especially the Screaming Antelope and Gold Cat Chad. They have a great way of expressing the character of each monster, with the Lion flexing, the Antelope looking timid, the nurse holding a big giant syringe (which is apparently just part of the costume) and the Crocodile creeping about while whispering sweet, mindless praises.

They are all without a doubt beautiful miniatures that are easy to assemble and not too difficult to gain access to areas while painting. The Crocodile has one of the largest issues, where the survivor's face is buried deep inside the jaw and due to how the model is assembled you'll either need to keep half the head removed until you've painted the face, or you'll have to be very patient and paint the face before you paint the crocodile's mouth. In particular I appreciated the design of the Screaming Antelope model, in the pictures of her you see here the antelope portion of her costume isn't glued on, it's held with just friction, meaning that I can part paint her rather than have to leave the areas mostly hidden by the costume less detailed.

So, as a hobbyist, I really like these models. I think they are a large leap forward from the previous generation and they celebrate the character of the monsters for the most part exceptionally. They're not a perfect fit for the in game world of Kingdom Death (especially the Gorm Nurse, which is completely anachronistic) but they have character, they're fun and I am thrilled that once again, we've gotten a sexy cat boy miniature.

If I was going to rank them in order of which ones I like the most I think it would be Antelope > Lion > Crocodile > Gorm. As much as I love the Gorm expansion, I don't care for the weird sexy nurse thing that most of the costume has going on. I would have preferred a big, shapeless Gorm/Elephant costume with just her face visible. It's still a great sculpt though and the headpiece on the Gorm mini is absolutely wonderful!

With all of that, lets go on to the gear portion of the game with a little dive into each costume, considering their construction costs verses the benefit they provide.

The Gold Cat Costume

Requirements: Weapon Crafter, Scrap Dagger

Resources: 1x Golden Whiskers, 1x Iron, 1x Shimmering Mane

All of these items provide 1 armor to all hit locations, a pair of affinities and an ability which is activated by these affinities being connected. In the case of the Gold Cat costume these affinities are a left red and a down blue.

One of the interesting things about these affinities is, you can't benefit from both of them if you feel that the affinity ability would be a negative. And these costumes are the first items which have abilities that cause negatives. The Gold Cat Costume has quite a serious downside in that 50% of the time it'll give all your survivors a -1 strength token at the start of the showdown. While a party of Altered Destiny (Secret Fighting Art gained through Dragon King showdown) survivors can leverage this to their advantage, for the most part this just isn't worth the risk (unless you're willing to spend lifetime rerolls on this). Every point of strength really matters a great deal and as such I don't think I'd want to activate this particular item.

I would however consider using this item in combination with a Monster Tooth Necklace (MTN) and a lighter armor set, because it clicks perfectly into the right facing affinity that the MTN has and as such you only need one more affinity to get access to +2 strength for the survivor wearing this gear. That makes for a decent item to combine with a strength based rawhide survivor aiming to deal wounds through normal means instead of luck. It can also scale to be used with other armor sets, because many armor sets include the second red affinity you're seeking.

The crafting costs of this item are kind of high, you need a Scrap Dagger constructed and you're effectively spending an iron, two hide and half of a Whisker Harp to build this, but this is +1 armor to all locations and that means it's a decent deal early on. You can't be sure you'll manage to save your piece of iron until the later parts of the campaign as there are plenty of ways that the game likes to erode away resources in the settlement storage.

Overall Score: B+ I would craft this

The Screaming Costume

Requirements: Barber Surgeon, Insane Survivor

Resources: 1x Bladder, 1x Pelt, 1x Shank Bone, 1x Spiral Horn

First up, I absolutely would wear this costume because it is SO CUTE. I love its design so very, very much (it's also a fun reference to the situation where a survivor gets swallowed whole by the antelope's lower mouth and has to rip and tear their way out.

It has a decent affinity to combine with the Lucky Charm, making this a solid item for a Critical Wound based damage dealer to use. However the activated ability is a hard pass from me in most situations, having all your survivors lose movement at the start of the showdown is really rough. Movement and positioning are two of the most important tools when fighting monsters in this game and every reduction of movement is something to be avoided if at all possible. I can see this being used with Altered Destiny again, or with the Harvestman Fighting Art (or both, both is a hilarious combination) but overall the awkward positioning of the left green and right blue affinities along with a downside that can increase the chances of a party wipe means that I would not be activating the ability on this costume either.

This one is also very, very expensive with its 2x Antelope resources. But it overall is cheaper than the Gold Cat costume because the requirements do not involve crafting a weapon that you'll typically not use in showdowns because it's kind of bad.

Overall Score: C- I would craft this if I got a third bladder from antelopes. The first two bladders are always going to be used to make Blood Paint.

The Retching Costume

Requirements: Weapon Crafter, Leather Worker, Fecal Salve

Resources: 1x Crab Spider, 1x Leather, 1x Scrap

Nurse Elizabeth Ratchet's costume is notable for two reasons, first of all it does not require the Gorm expansion to be constructed (good move, it's frustrating when promotional content requires a specific expansion monster, because currently the expansion monsters are hard to get) and secondly it's really cheap to construct.

The activated ability on this one is particularly weak because it can cancel out the bonus you get from wearing the item and also harm everyone else's armor points. That's not good and as such I can't think of a situation where I'd actually want to gamble on this one.

Just like the Gold Cat costume, this one has a red and blue affinity, but here the red affinity is in a worse position, it can't be combined with the MTN and that means that this one is just +1 armor to all locations.

Overall Score: C – the lower crafting cost makes this a cheap source of armor, but the ability is a nonbo (non-combo) all with survivor builds.

The Big Bite Costume

Requirements: Dismembered Survivor, Broken Lantern, Leather Worker

Resources: 1x Leather, 2x Organ, 1x Skull

The Big Bite costume is probably the strongest one of the lot. Here the negative is not too much of a major issue because bleeding tokens can be removed by items such as Bandages. Likewise the positive isn't super great, but this is just a better balance than any of the other options.

However, the affinities are a lot harder to activate than normal. This requires a down green and an up red and the entire line has to be placed in a three vertical. That's awkward to fit in many grids, but it does work with Leather Armor.

That means this item is decent, and the crafting cost is also pretty low, the real barriers to crafting are finding that skull and getting that dismembered survivor. There are tricks that can cause dismemberment outside of a hunt (such as the Filleting Table from the Sunstalker expansion); but these take time to acquire and you may not be interested in an item like this by the time you reach the mid or late stages of a settlement's campaign.

Overall Score: A-  – Certainly the best of of the bunch, but the affinities are of limited use and hard to activate.

Final Thoughts

The largest issue with these costume items is they are 50/50 chances of getting something decent or really horrible. If they had been weighted a little more 30/70 or 20/80 then their abilities would be an interesting prospect, but coin flips are not a good mechanic outside of Krak & Sakashima EDH decks, so most of the time these are an affinity plus 1 armor to all locations.

In addition, their nature as Insight pattern gear cards holds them back a bit. Insight patterns can't be used in People of the Stars and they're ridiculously easy to get the entire lot of in any of the other two campaigns we currently have (Graves + Saga = Newborns with Insight, so immediate pattern on birth). They also have a limited lifespan elsewhere, because if new campaigns do not use Insight, then these patterns cannot be gained.

This is always the caution you need to follow with the current Insight promotional gear. It can become locked away and unavailable in any new campaign, and if the campaign(s) you come to enjoy the most do not use Insight (such as the darling of the community; People of the Stars) then you can't use this content at all without house rules.

We'll have to see where we go with this Pattern design in the future, but the truth is I feel uneasy about how much it is employed when I consider the downsides that tying it to Insight brings. I would have preferred if there had been a timeline based system, or some other mechanic that is generic and not open to abuse the way that Insight is.

Which means; if you're someone who's flush with cash, a die hard collector or a hobbyist looking for this is a decent purchase, but if you're looking for a value add to your gaming experience you're better off avoiding most of the Pattern based promotional gear unless it is really, really good.