Constructing a Kingdom Death: Monster Campaign (Patreon)

It's been a while since I went through all of the steps that involve constructing a satisfying and engaging campaign in Monster and with the possibility of the Gambler's Chest Expansion (GCE) maybe arriving this year and the sheer volume of additional mini-expansions released through the store it seems that this year is the best time to be doing so. It will also provide a great point for me to compare what we've had so far against the GCE when it arrives; as one expects an elevation in the quality of the GCE's content over the core box and its expansions.

I'm going to walk through each piece of content with the following considerations:

1. How “essential” it is. Outside of the core game no content is 100% essential, but there are some expansions that fix issues or plug gaps in the core game's experience and they are as close to staples as possible. The essential nature of expansions and promo content also varies depending on which of the three current campaigns you are playing; all expansions work well in People of the Lantern as that's the default bog standard game, but if there are expansions that are better or worse in Stars or Sun I will note that and explain why.
2. What synergies it has; expansions provide additional content through gear and combining gear from different monsters is a joyful experience that can reward unexpected results. I am not going to spell out all the possible synergies in detail with this, but I will make note of any really interesting links with hints as to what they are. Quick note here, sometimes the synergies are not reciprocated; that's because I'm looking at which expansion primarily benefits from the synergies and sometimes that's not equal. I also will not be listing promotional synergies in the expansions, they will be contained in the promotional entries unless there is a very strong synergy (like Flower Knight's True Blade + Vagabond Armor).
3. How it impacts on the difficulty of the campaign; monsters vary in difficulty by design; some of them can be added to make a campaign easier, others make it harder. Nemesis monsters are by design more impactful than quarry monsters; just because a quarry monster is in a campaign doesn't mean you have to hunt it.

I am also, for the purposes of this list review, going to consider every single core game Quarry and non-campaign specific Nemesis as their own “expansion”. This allows me to review what they bring to each particular campaign; this is of particular import during People of the Stars, because that campaign eschews the norm of 'survivors are disposable' by adding on the caveat of 'except for constellation survivors who are vital'. It also takes into consideration the fact that outside of the prologue White Lion fight almost every monster isn't used in one campaign or the other; either due to being replaced, not present or purely optional. We'll get to that in more details with the individual entries.

I will also walk through all of the promotional/small box content; either in bundles if they share mechanics or separately. Though I will note that if the content is tied to a specific campaign I'm not going to go into details of it here. For example the hard plastic release of the Sun Lion Armor is People of the Sun only – so if you're playing People of the Sun you should include it by default. I'm also not going to go into details of the Green Knight armor here; that's a preset nemesis/quarry package which you have to fully include if you want to use it. The only exception is the Green Helm, which uses Dung Beetle Knight (DBK) contents only; that means you can slip that Helm into any campaign where the DBK is present if you want. Go on, treat yourself, it makes your survivor look like a unicorn.

Quarry Monsters

When it comes to how many quarry monsters you want to include in your campaign, one should always bare in mind that there is no such thing as too many quarry monsters in the timeline. They are always optional, you do not have to hunt one at all if you don't want to. That written, after a lot of testing I've found that five or six is the actual optimal number to have in your pool; this means you have 2 to 3 early game options that you can rotate through, and another 2 to 3 mid to late game options you can pick from in addition to the higher level versions of the early game monsters. That provides enough variety to keep things interesting when you want to switch it up without feeling overwhelmed from too many choices. It is worth noting that both the Lion God and Dung Beetle Knight offer solid options for a 'we'll hunt this once only' quarries as there are phenomenal unlocks behind the first fight you have against them.

A couple of additional notes here; always remember that quarry content is OPTIONAL if you think something is too powerful, you do not have to craft it or even use it. KDM is your game, it is your world, play it how you want to. This game doesn't belong to me, it doesn't belong to the fun police, it belong to APG and it doesn't belong to Adam. It's your game, you bought it, you're the one playing it; so tailor your experience to how you like it. There's no awards for playing it 'purist' just like there's no penalty for playing a settlement entirely themed around clowns and only crafting gear that has a circus theme.

Have it your way.

White Lion

Campaign Essentiality: Almost Vital

Expansion Synergies: Slender Man, Lion Knight, Gorm, Screaming Antelope, Lion God (low), Butcher

Expansion Clashes: Spidicules

Difficulty Modifier: Reduces Difficulty

As Kingdom Death's training wheels monster; the White Lion is currently present in all campaigns due to the design of the prologue fight. We will see this change in the future, but for now the monster remains vital as you will always have to fight it at least once. However; its suite of early game weapons and the Cat Eye Circlet mean that this monster provides so many key tools to players that the only campaigns that currently can function without it are ones which choose to instead hunt the Gorm early on.

The White Lion not only provides premium early game weapons and probably the best support item in the entire game; it is also a very predictable and (relatively) low risk monster that has a higher than normal amount of hide resource drops. This makes it the optimal choice early on for constructing both Rawhide and Leather Armor sets; in essence the White Lion's specific armor sets are not the White Lion Armor (which remains an underpowered niche option for hipsters) but are in truth Rawhide and Leather Armor.

Of course farming this monster can provide a lot of power for an early settlement and as such it certainly makes the campaign's beginning stages easier and smoother when compared to settlements that chose to instead focus on one of the other three current early game monsters.

Its most obvious synergies are with the Slender Man and Lion Knight; both of whom have gear that requires White Lion resources to be crafted; but it also has close synergies with the Gorm due to interactions between the two monsters gear and a natural synergy with the Screaming Antelope as it provides the first spear you can pair with that monsters armor. It has few synergies with later game monsters mostly because the White Lion falls off in relevance fairly quickly due to its Level 3 specific weapon being very underpowered and the White Lion Armor lacking sufficient Armor Points to make it viable against the Node 3 monsters (Phoenix, DBK, Dragon King & Sunstalker) without heavy support.

I'll discuss the Spidicules Expansion Clash in its entry further down.

White Gigalion

Campaign Essentiality:Effectively “replaces” the L2+ White Lion (see notes)

Expansion Synergies:Same as the White Lion – but additional synergies with the Antelope

Expansion Clashes:Same as the White Lion

Difficulty Modifier:Adds some difficulty to hunts, but increases gear power a lot. Therefore a wash.

I do not consider this expansion to be a vital one to own; but if you do own it you should absolutely include it in every single campaign as the direct replacement for the higher level White Lions due to it having relevant gear and an increased challenge. It is one of a few expansions that I consider to be a flat out upgrade over the core game option (Slender Man over King's Man is the main other) and it is therefore an overall benefit for a campaign while also having a low opportunity cost to include because it doesn't remove the original White Lion; it just provides an alternative.

Gorm

Campaign Essentiality:Almost an automatic inclusion

Expansion Synergies:White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Spidicules, Sunstalker, Dragon King, Phoenix, Flower Knight, Dung Beetle Knight, Vagabond Armor

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Dangerous to Hunt Early, but makes the campaign overall easier.

The Gorm is probably the most useful and interesting of all the current early game monsters; while it has similar issues to the other early game monsters in that its armor set is overpriced for how long it takes to craft, how much it costs and the amount of armor points you get from it. It must always be acknowledged that the Gorment Mask remains one of the best head armor options in the game due to how it can provide effective immunity to Intimidation actions from monsters.

The main benefits the Gorm brings to a campaign are in its weapons and support items. It is the earliest place where one can get a shield; it has the best early game axe, club, grand weapon, instrument (at least until it gets stupidly changed to get noisy) and lantern. The weaponry it provides are strong enough to field against Level 1 Node 3 monsters; which is exactly what you want them to be able to achieve.

As a balance to this, the Gorm provides the consistent challenge of Gorm Climate and has a showdown which is more challenging and dangerous than the White Lion. It's capable of pulling out some surprising and deadly attacks that are close to lethal for early game survivors (Flatten is a great example); and its retch mechanics take a little getting used to when you first encounter them.

Screaming Antelope

Campaign Essentiality:Non-Essential

Expansion Synergies:Sunstalker, Phoenix, Flower Knight, Slender Man, Lion Knight

Expansion Clashes:Spidicules, Gorm (mild)

Difficulty Modifier:Reduces Difficulty

KDM's troubled third child has had a rough ride and is the monster which has experienced the highest amount of changes. It has fallen from being an essential piece of the game to one that can be frankly ignored if you want. It does still have some relevant options; with Blood Paint remaining one of the best offensive tools in the entire game and the armor still performing some niche options but on the whole this monster is one you would hunt mostly for the Acanthus, resource drops and unlocking the Harvest Ritual on its settlement location. It is also an essential part of the Slender Man and Lion Knight resource requirements; which keep it relevant in campaigns that include those monsters and/or the Hybrid Armors.

It has some fun synergies; the most notable of which outside of Spears is with the Flower Knight's satchel, as that allows for a doctor playstyle because it is currently the only way to guarantee Acanthus in a showdown where it can be mechanically useful for healing. However, this is at best an edge case because the Satchel can hold a maximum of one resource (and it is heavy).

Still; a lot of what keeps the Antelope relevant isn't intrinsic to this monster however; it's due to the problems and issues that surround its replacement quarry monster the...

Spidicules

Campaign Essentiality:Non-Essential

Expansion Synergies:Gorm, Slender Man, Sunstalker, Dragon King, Phoenix,

Expansion Clashes:Screaming Antelope, White Lion

Difficulty Modifier:Increases Difficulty

As the owner of the largest suite of problematic mechanical designs in the current game options; Spidicules is a challenging piece of content to include in your campaign. Not only does it remove the Screaming Antelope entirely, thereby denying easy access to Acanthus and no chance of getting Blood Paint (though interestingly the expansion can provide a Bladder resource, just no way to craft with it); but it also has a difficult to craft armor set that is relatively weak for how late in the campaign you can craft.

If that wasn't enough; many of its early game weapons are just straight alternatives for White Lion weapons. The Amber Poleaxe is more versatile than the King's Spear; but it costs so much more in resources that it is hard to justify if you are not abusing its ability. The Hooded Scrap Katar on the other hand is just not something worth investigating if you have access to the Lion Beast Katar – so it remains uncrafted except when players are deliberately avoiding hunting the White Lion.

It does however provide a nice early game switch up if you hunt both it and the Gorm instead of the traditional duo; and the rings are a fair challenge to craft that remains engaging. This decision also makes the Amber Poleaxe and Hooded Scrap Katar viable early game weapons. It also has the default best early to mid game whip in the Silk Whip, a weapon that greatly appreciates the “monster movement” armor sets to keep it relevant until the Ring Whip can be crafted.

There is a lot of potential in this expansion still; and the problems are all exclusively stuff that can be fixed in Campaigns of Death for sure. It needs work on the armor set progression; balancing of some potentially abusive gear (Body Suit, Green & Red Rings Rings) and the timeline events need a overhaul. The key area for development is removing the clashes and increasing synergies with the White Lion's gear suite. Personally I think the Poleaxe should have the spear keyword removed for a start.

This overhaul is something I hope does happen in Campaigns of Death, because the Spidicules Showdown is close to perfection, providing a large amount of challenge and difficulty along with a unique minion based experience that can only be found elsewhere in the Sunstalker.

Flower Knight

Campaign Essentiality:Low/Green Armor

Expansion Synergies:Screaming Antelope, Sunstalker, Spidicules, Dung Beetle Knight, Lion Knight, Tactics, Vagabond Armor

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Reduces difficulty significantly

The Flower Knight is notorious for making campaigns easier*; and while the greatest offender has been neutered down to a reasonable level, there are still a whole host of things which can be utilised to help power up your survivors and settlement in a range of differing manners including, but not limited to the excellent Flower Knight badge.. The resources from the Flower Knight are perishable; which means they will be lost at the end of the settlement phase if not crafted, however in exchange for that they can be turned into powerful fighting arts like Otherworldly Luck (a premium quality of life fighting art that helps a lot on hunts and in the settlement phase); or even new survivors. One of the neater synergies is with the Screaming Antelope; where excess flowers can be converted into basic resources via the Harvest Ritual. Something which has become stronger since 1.6 brought Perfect basic resources. And of course; there is always the absolute workhorse pair of Secret Fighting Arts with Acanthus Doctor and True Blade.

While there is certainly less need for the Flower Knight the more adept you become at handling the requirements that the campaign puts on you it is often nice to have this expansion in your back pocket because of how effective it can be at giving you a way to pivot out of trouble.

*The Level 3 Flower Knight is the exception to this and you have to fight that to get True Blade; but it is still weaker than many of the other early game Node 1 level 3 monster variants.

Phoenix

Campaign Essentiality:Very Low

Expansion Synergies:Slender Man, Lion Knight, Dragon King, Screaming Antelope, Phoenix, Gorm

Campaign Clashes: People of the Stars

Difficulty Modifier:Increases Difficulty

Outside of the Lion God, the Phoenix remains the quarry I hunt the absolute least. This is due mostly to the way it interacts with the age of survivors in an unsatisfying and frustrating manner that doesn't have any reasonable mitigation outside of using either disposable survivors (with hunt XP) or outright hard countering its aging mechanics. I am so disengaged with the time based mechanics that the Phoenix provides that I hunt this monster exclusively with ageless survivors these days (and Deja Vu appearing with the L1 Phoenix can get lost). That written; there have been a lot of strides taken in 1.6 to improve the gear options this monster offers; most notable of which is the upgraded Sonic Tomahawk.

The armor set still has powerful pieces and the armor set bonus is excellent when paired with powerful early game weapons or melee weapons with reach. But the overall issue is how unpleasant and frustrating the Phoenix's aging mechanics are; if the L1 Phoenix didn't sometimes have deja vu, age survivors up (and the hunt didn't delete survivors who had too low an amount of experience) then we'd probably be in a different place when discussing this monster. Sadly it was decided that the Phoenix would have access to all of its weakest mechanical devices at all levels; so this is often the monster I skip out on in favour of the other three. I am still very fond of Phoenix Armor, but it is a flavour and mechanical fail that the armor from the “rainbow monster” has so few affinities, it makes it hard to innovate builds with.

Special note to how dramatically the Phoenix harms People of the Stars; because that campaign requires you to gain elements of star bingo in order to unlock a constellation on survivors you need as much time as possible with each survivor. Having them aged up, or possibly erased from existence is such an anathema to the ethos of Stars that I hard recommend you avoid hunting in Stars it unless you have ageless survivors available. The better alternative is...

Sunstalker

Campaign Essentiality:High

Expansion Synergies:Dragon King, Phoenix, Spidicules, Slender Man, Gorm, White Lion, Screaming Antelope, heck there's nothing this monster doesn't synergies with.

Expansion Clashes:None

Campaign Synergies:People of the Stars

Campaign Clashes:People of the Sun for narrative and mechanical reasons

Difficulty Modifier:Overall Neutral, makes the campaign easier if you intend to only hunt it at L1

The Sunstalker does for the mid to late game what the Gorm does for the Early to Mid game. It provides a wealth of gear options that have all sorts of neat synergies with other monster gear. It also gives you a 'training wheels' version of itself with the L1 Sunstalker before taking the gloves off in the L2+ versions.

Of great note is the Cycloid Scale Armor which is the default choice for making early game weapons scale into the late game by giving them sharp while also providing an excellent platform to test out odd puzzle affinity based combos, but in truth there is not a single bad piece of gear in the entire Sunstalker selection and you will almost always find something that interests you or does something in a surprising manner. It has very notable synergies with the...

Dragon King

Campaign Essentiality:High, Very High for

Expansion Synergies:Sunstalker, Gorm, Phoenix

Expansion Clashes:

Campaign Clash: People of the Stars for mechanical and thematic reasons

Campaign Synergies: People of the Sun

Difficulty Modifier:Overall neutral, reduces difficulty if you are a mono-Archer Andy

Without exception every single one of the Dragon King's weapons have too low a base strength; this is a big part of why it synergises with the Sunstalker and Phoenix expansions. This is because these two monsters also have armor that helps increase the weapons base strength to reasonable levels for fighting mid and late game monsters.

The Sunstalker in particular enjoys an absolutely massive amount of cross synergies with the Dragon King; with each monster's gear complementing the others in a wide and surprising number of ways. I am not going to list them off here; as that would be spoiling all of the surprises.

Dragon Armor is also one of my all time favourite armor sets due to it being a solid armor set with a couple of really good abilities, an excellent set bonus and the highest amount of armor points without being flammable and heavy. All of which makes it great for People of the Sun, and ideal for slapping Sunstalker ovipositors around while you're killing the Sunctopus for bits. Sunctopus is a great word, it's mine, don't use it because when I return to custom content after the GCE has finally landed I'm going to create it.

Special shout out to the Shielded Quiver; when you've got 3+ arrows in your gear grid because your a crystal archer, this does a great job of 'doubling' those slots. It just sadly cannot combo with the Quiver & Sun String from the Sunstalker.

Dung Beetle Knight

Campaign Essentiality:Medium

Expansion Synergies:Flower Knight, Lion Knight, Slender Man, Tactics! Green Armor

Expansion Clashes:None

Campaign Synergy:People of the Sun (thanks to a rules technicality, this may change)

Difficulty Modifier:Lowers Difficulty due to power of the gear, but the showdown is very challenging for new players even at the first level.

A perennial contender in the top three expansion monsters (along with the Gorm and Sunstalker); the Dung Beetle Knight offers a wide range of useful and powerful gear options along with the entire Black Harvest cycle of benefits. One of the most common tricks employed when 'splashing' the DBK into the game is to use the shoulder plates and DBK Knight Errant Badge with softer armor like Rawhide to provide a temporary stop gap boost of armor points.

The Sunstalker and Gorm remain my favourite two expansions, but if you said the DBK was your top choice to add to campaigns I would not correct you; it's a fine option to add to any campaign.

Lion God

Campaign Essentiality:None

Expansion Synergies:White Lion, Butcher

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Very High if you hunt it. Capable of One Hit KOs that are extremely challenging to avoid.

At the moment the Lion God is in a pretty rough position as it is a monster with a very high challenge level but a distinct lack of desirable rewards outside of the Circlet given for beating the L1. Most campaigns where this monster is tackled will either be seeking to beat it at L1 and then ignore it for the rest of the campaign or they are run by experienced players that have hardened survivors and deep tactics. I really do not have much more to say about this one, it's a monster that needs a deep reconstruction from the foundations; which is what the Silver City is probably aiming to do.

Lonely Tree

Campaign Essentiality:Auto Include

Expansion Synergies:Limited, but the various bits of fruit do have some interactions I'm not going to spoil here.

Expansion Clashes:None, though be cautious about who eats the fruit.

Difficulty Modifier:Moderately challenging in a fair manner.

I wouldn't recommend buying this expansion for full price until we see what has happened with it in Campaigns of Death; but I do think that it is a reasonable purchase at Black Friday prices and once you do have it you should include it in every campaign you play. It is a low opportunity cost monster to include because it may not always turn up and even if you get the ability to encounter it, you effectively decide when you trigger that encounter by consuming the frut. So it's easy to fit in and has no additional bloat on the campaign's length except if you choose for that to occur.

Nemesis Monsters

Nemesis Monsters are fundamentally different from Quarry Monsters in that if you add them to a campaign they are going to interact with you. They choose when and where the fight is, all you can do is decide who is going to face them and how much of a fight they are going to put up. To this end; Nemesis Monsters mechanically exist to provide checkpoints that gate later stages of the campaign by asking if you've developed well enough to be able to handle the increasing difficutly. Succeed and you get to carry on with the survivors you sent in. Fail and they will not just stick those survivors' faces onto their lanterns, but they will also often punish the settlement during the defeat condition.

They are a vital part of the games' mechanical ethos; guiding you towards the correct choices by demanding that you have them. Unfortunately; due to the “HAHA SURPRISE!” method in which the game is designed; these requirements and choices are buried away from advance knowledge. You do not get any form of hints or training showdowns where these guys are concerned. You didn't know how important Bandages are because the White Lion & Antelope don't inflict much bleed? Well the Butcher isn't going to wait for you to convert a little hide; it's got no time to waste, if you bleed it can kill you. Likewise you're not taught in any narrative sense that the King's Man wants you to have crafted shields by the time you fight it.

Instead you are expected to learn by failing; a play style that's core to 'git gud' video games like FromSoft's titles or the very game Kingdom Death skimmed most of its mechanical inspration from - Monster Hunter. In these video games you're not expected to succeed every time you face a boss, the bosses are there to test your understanding of the core mechanic of the game Attack Signal → Reaction → Punish. Or in other words; see the signal that the boss is going to attack, avoid it with a dodge/block/position play; and then hit the monster during its recovery window.

This fundamentally works for those games because of how they are designed; you do not lose your entire progress when you die, you may have to repeat the fight (and the journey to the fight); but time is essentially “frozen” until you progress past this point.

Kingdom Death: Monster borrows this philosophy hard; but it has failed to understand fully the design behind this – it's OK for a Bull Nonsense Boss to spank you into the dirt when you're sent back to a point that's only a short time before and you can get back there relatively quickly (or repeat the hunt in the case of Monster Hunter); it's an entirely different matter when you're talking about a board game; especially one which requires playtime over weeks and months. The intention with Kingdom Death's design is that you should learn through failure; but the penalty for failing is so absolute and complete that it's very concerning when you consider how long just one showdown may take.

So Nemesis Monsters often expect you to prepare for them in advance, but you do not really know what it is you are supposed to be doing. Fortunately the usual solutions of Evasion, Block, Armor Points, Bleed protection and Survival actions are all so generically powerful that they provide a common protection for the settlement's champions along with quarry monsters. The downside of that is however, we get a lot of homogeneity from one settlement to the next. When you need to put together evasive armor sets quickly, paying 5 resources for one that has +1 evasion (and that headband) is the solution; not 9 resources for something that lets you cosplay as a kitty (as cool as that actually is).

Anyway enough discussion about the mechanical goals and limitations of Kingdom Death's design ethos; let us look at what each Nemesis monster does to the campaign and what (if any) expansions it has synergy with.

Also before we begin, generic note about People of the Sun, because of how the Game Over mechanics interact with Nemesis monsters; adding any of them (including the Lonely Tree in the previous section) is a high risk manoeuvrer. But at least the Lonely Tree can be included without being encountered as anything other than an inert terrain piece (either the Nightmare Tree or as the Lonely Tree terrain itself).

The Butcher

Campaign Essentiality:Vital

Expansion Synergies:White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Phoenix

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Increases Difficulty

I've held up the Gorm and the Sunstalker as examples of what a Quarry Monster should be to the game's ethos and the Butcher is the very paragon of a nemesis monsters. This vicious brute of a foe is always threatening to a settlement, so much so that this nemesis monster is why I have a practice of running a “Nemesis Team” of survivors separately from my premium hunting survivors. This a team of capable, but disposable heroes who will tangle with any non-campaign (“Final”) nemesis monster that comes along.

The Butcher should be in every campaign, it should be your default choice for nemesis monster (outside of People of the Stars, but more on that in The Hand's entry) and despite it providing a challenge and making a campaign harder to win, it is almost entirely fair in how it does that.

Manhunter

Campaign Essentiality:Low

Expansion Synergies:Flower Knight, Sunstalker

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Reduces Difficulty

The Manhunter is an additional nemesis monster who exists via Special Showdowns, therefore this nemesis doesn't remove opportunities to hunt. Nor does it replace existing Nemesis monsters. It does however provide an entertaining and challenging showdown fight that takes place in and around this Holy Lands slaver's quote unquote wrestling ring of Pillars. This monster's challenge however is diminished a bit by it having the same 'weaknesses' as The Butcher; Evasion, Bandages, Armor Points, Block. So it doesn't make the campaign harder overall; it just adds more of the same.

When you get to the L3+ versions of the Manhunter it is a little different because of extra mechanics that are introduced (ones which are better designed than The Butcher's Invincible I might add); but on the whole because of the similar challenge level and very powerful gear the Manhunter makes campaigns easier.

The King's Man

Campaign Essentiality:None

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Increases Difficulty

The Poster Child for 'what not to design' the King's Man is a thematic success wrapped in a stale tortilla of mechanical failures. This monster remains my lowest ranked one due to a whole host of different issues that boil down to 'too much stick, very little carrot'. Thematically this should be something I love, because cursed individuals doomed to a terrible fate, but seek to achieve goodness before they succumb is a trope that I adore. However in practice; between a frustrating showdown that is turned into 'Adventures in Bookkeeping' at the L2+ version. A Trap card that is either going flat out at 100 or doing nothing at all at 0 and a curse that just encourages you to go get Crystal Skin as soon as possible. There really isn't a lot to recommend here, my final verdict is until the King's Man is heavily revised by APG you should purchase and always use the...

The Slender Man

Campaign Essentiality:Medium

Expansion Synergies:White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Phoenix, Dung Beetle Knight (via promotional gear)

Expansion Clashes:Direct replacement for The King's Man

Difficulty Modifier:Increases Difficulty a large amount

In sharp contrast to the King's Man; the Slender Man is so effortlessly superior that it's basically dumpstered that monster into the meat grinder like Pedro Pascal and served it up as burger pates.  The Slender Man is the very definition of what a difficult nemesis monster should be; it is powerful, challenging to tackle and at times overwhelming. But the rewards for including and facing it are equivalent in value. The stick here absolutely fits the carrot; you are going to be very, very challenged when fighting this monster, but learning how to battle it successfully is something that is very much worth the effort and time.

I am of the opinion this one is a must include in every campaign apart from People of the Stars; the clash in People of the Stars is because one of the routes to unlocking constellations requires +1 Accuracy and The Hand is the route to gaining that. The Slender Man replaces all 'Choose a nemesis monster' options in the campaign, so when it is included The Hand cannot be chosen and Okuyasu is let down.

The Lion Knight

Campaign Essentiality:None

Expansion Synergies:White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Phoenix

Expansion Clashes:None

Campaign Clashes:People of the Stars, People of the Sun

Difficulty Modifier:Neutral

Another expansion that needed more time in the oven; The Lion Knight has some really exceptional pieces of design; elements that surround the settlement portion of this story are both thematically wonderful and mechanically tied in strong ways to the story. This is easily my favourite “Monster Story” in the game and it has multiple excellent themes of melancholy, theater, beauty and the beast and narcissism tied into it while also giving us an insight into one of the rejects from the Holy Lands. Powerful enough to get away from its creator, but so flawed that it is obsessed with something in a similar way to its older brother.

I want to unashamedly love this expansion; it brought us the concept of Hybrid Armors (something that's so popular we just stick them in the game as available armor sets no matter what) and the entire “Play as a Showdown” schtick is just excellent. However, due to a fatal AI programming design error; the showdown can be completely cheesed to the point of neutering the monster's offense. That's a funny image, as the Lion Knight runs desperately from one end of the 'stage' to the other while two different survivors both pretend to be the “Villain”; but it's not an engaging mechanic.

The same applies to the showdown; where you are 'rewarded' for winning by having a survivor mutilated or decapitated. Thematically this still makes sense; but mechanically it's an awful stick – especially when the settlement isn't properly rewarded for losing – mostly because that would be an insane idea and result in players throwing the showdown by having the villain slain as soon as possible at L1 and L2. This punishment for winning is why the Lion Knight is not a good element to introduce to People of the Stars because you need to invest in your survivors and make them strong, so unless you're willing to throw lambs for slaughter by Lion Knight early on you don't really get to heavily engage with this expansion (but if you do, go ahead, it'll work, just don't do it until you've won a Stars campaign without the Lion Knight in it. Same principle applies to The Slender Man).

The Hand

Campaign Essentiality:Low except for People of the Stars where it is high

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None

Campaign Synergies: People of the Stars

Difficulty Modifier:Greatly reduces difficulty

A cut scene disguised as a boss; the reward for Applause is so absurdly better than the one for actually fighting that you are close to punished for not going along with The Hands charade. Now sure, thematically this is a great set piece. But an absurdly powerful being pretending to get beaten up works better in television media; not in a board game.

I won't dwell much further on this monster; play for Applause, that gives good bonuses. In People of the Stars you're going to trigger this fight a few times because the reward includes a constellation bingo slot. He exists; he's not exciting, but sometimes it's nice to have a lull and face a fight that has a different winning condition than 'kill'.

It's just been applied in a fashion that can only be called basic. This is not Okuyasu Nijimura we are dealing with here.

The Tyrant

Campaign Essentiality:Vital for Stars, not available in others

Expansion Synergies:The Hand, White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Echoes of Death II

Expansion Clashes:Spidicules, Lion Knight, Slender Man

Difficulty Modifier:Moderately increases difficulty

In sharp contrast to The Hand; The Tyrant is a subtle and multi-layered monster with many layers to its showdown and personality. The Tyrant is just like The Hand a powerful Entity pulling its punches; however because Kingdom Death's Best Boy respects strength and power he demands requires the ability to not just soak punishment but also take it. In fact as you get further into battles against The Tyrant he can draw on such an unbelievable level of power that he can... and spoilers here..

call a freaking Harvester to devour the entire showdown board before walking out of the beast and back to his throne like nothing happened at all.

Spoilers over.

When you really engage with what the Tyrant's showdown is doing you'll see that there's a precarious line you are asked to walk between leaving statues on the board and juggling the Tyrant's various moods. Honestly it is without a doubt my #1 favourite showdown we've had to date with its extreme levels of danger that can be mitigated and rewards for performing things in that way. You can get a constellation during the very first Tyrant showdown if you play correctly, one of the players I gamed with back in the UK managed that and it was impressive as heck to see.

The clashes here all involve either monsters who harm showdown survivors and therefore limit your ability to unlock constellations or in the case of the Slender Man remove The Hand from nemesis options. They're clashes which can be overcome, but you should be aware about them before you include these monsters. There's a similar issue with The Phoenix in People of the Stars and that's why I recommend The Dung Beetle Knight and Sunstalker over the Phoenix as your main hunt quarries.

In the third part we will look at all the overwhelming options that occur in the various shop releases; promotional, strains, patterns, bookmarks the whole nine yards and that will be followed with a bunch of example campaign set ups that I like with specific examples of why I put them together in these forms and what the positives and negatives each configuration offers!

Small Box and Shop Content

Here we will comb through the final category of content; the small/white/beta/seasonal/misc boxes that contain gameplay content with in game integration rules. There are a lot of different kinds of shop purchased content and while they come in a wide range of styles they all have one thing in common. They offer a small amount of gameplay content plus some miniatures, which means they are always less monetary value than the main expansions because you are paying for miniatures that may not even have a in in game use. They are also generally limited release; in that if you do not purchase them when they are in the shop you might end up not being able to buy them direct from Adam Poots Games Limited (APG) and instead have to go pay the eye watering prices demanded on the secondary market. The main way you can tell if something may come back into print is by the material the miniatures are presented in; plastic sprue miniatures historically tend to come back into print, especially if they are seasonal content. But it is still not a guarantee; APG work on a combination of concealing how good the game content well be alongside stoking people's “collector drives” (the desire to have a 'complete collection') and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).

This is, of course, not a great place for use to be in. I cannot give you an honest and timely opinion on how good the content is until after it has been in the store; been purchased, delivered to a member of this community and they pass on the information to me so I can proxy the cards and try them out in advance of my own order arriving. Without Timberwolfl and Charles' assistance in all this process I would be only able to review the stuff over a month after it entered the online shop. I really wish it could be different, but all evidence points to the fact that Adam's so secretive about his content that he could not give up that level of control over the information surrounding his releases before they are in the hands of customers.

In short; all this content in this section of the series is fleeting and you may not have it. I always advocate purchasing the content directly from the company if you have the opportunity; however that may not always be possible. In those cases you will have to decide if you are willing to pay secondary market prices, proxy the content or live without it. I wish things could be different; I wish we would see a '2023 Collected Game Content' edition each year that packaged all of the limited time cards together, but that seems like a pipedream.

When reviewing this portion of the content for its inclusion in campaigns, I am going to list any potential synergies,

The Strains

Campaign Essentiality:Auto Include

Expansion Synergies:Varies depending on the patterns/strains.

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:More options, which can make the campaign easier.

This is a blanket entry for all strains released to date; just use it all.  Include them according to the rules in the box. They are both a silly pair of systems that have been grafted onto the game's mechanics because of the popularity that Gloom/Frosthaven has. However, they do have some fun things, so one can overlook their conception.

The Strains tend to offer more value than the Patterns over multiple campaigns, so if you're picking just one system for the game and you plan to play the game's campaigns many times Strains are better. However if you play infrequently and have a single campaign that is gradually unfolding over months or even years – Patterns are better overall because of how easily they can be bolted into an existing campaign more seamlessly.

I will briefly list each of the Echoes of Death boxes as they tend to be available for purchase more often:

Echoes of Death I

Expansion Synergies:None

Rating:B

Miniature Gear:Generic & Spidicules

There are balance problems with Echoes of Death I; the strains vary from being really underwhelming all the way to utterly busted. However, the Backstabber Strain is a standout wonder and even the most broken or bad strains have their place.

Echoes of Death II

Expansion Synergies:White Lion, Gorm, Winter Solstice Lucy

Rating:A-

Miniature Gear:Gorm, White Lion, Phoenix

Convalescer is one of the most problematic and overpowered fighting arts in the entire franchise; and Rolling Gait makes the best weapon type (bow) even more powerful, but in a manner that helps other survivors so I am mostly forgiving of that one. Shieldarang and Infernal Rhythm on the other hand are both powerful and fun to use. Rhythm sadly suffers from Team Death's constant overwhelming need to make Instruments noisy so your survivors can be eaten without counterplay or mitigation during hunt event 10. Currently the Gorn (Gorm Horn) is the only instrument without noisy, though there are rumblings that will change in Campaigns of Death – so the Grim Muffler from Winter Solstice Lucy is a pretty much essential partner to this set.

Echoes of Death III

Expansion Synergies:Slenderman

Rating: A-

Miniature Gear:Dragon King, Sunstalker & Generic

This selection contains some fun options without being too overpowered; Armored Fist is very notable because of  how it is a lot of effort to unlock while also being really fun and working incredibly well with the Slender Man specific arm accessories. Sword Oath is sadly pretty weak compared to the rest due to it deleting itself from your survivor on a fleebrain trauma. Stockist represents a relatively balanced bow fighting art as you have to Concentratebefore using the powerful attack.

The Pattern Gear

Campaign Essentiality:Low but Auto Include

Expansion Synergies:Varies

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Makes the game easier

Another catch all entry here, this time for the pattern gear. In essence, when you own pattern gear, you should include every single piece of it that is allowable by the inclusion rules in the box. Pattern gear is a fun wrinkle that gives you little goals and interesting unique gear. The power of this gear varies, which is why you should include all of it that is valid for a campaign, the bad/situation stuff is the price paid for the good and powerful stuff.

Here's a list of all the Pattern Gear content and what it synergises with:

• 10th Anniversary Survivors – White Lion, Generic
• Erza of Dedheim – Phoenix, Generic, Summer Cyrus Beta, Easter Aya
• Halloween II – White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Generic
• Halloween Flower Costume – Requires Flower Knight
• Oktoberfest Aya – People of the Lantern, Lonely tree, note: requires Cloth
• Halloween Ringtail – Generic, Ringtail Vixen White Box (Bookmark), Future Proofed for Halloween monsters
• Halloween White Speaker – Dung Beetle Knight & Slender Man required, future proofed for Halloween monsters
• Summer Goth Twilight Knight – People of the Lantern only
• Winter Solstice Lucy – Best Pattern Gear in the game at the moment, essential synergy with Instruments (White Lion, Flower Knight, Generic, Gorm) and the Infernal Rhythm strain fighting art from Echoes of Death 2.

Ringtail Vixen Bookmark

Campaign Essentiality:Auto Include

Expansion Synergies:Minor Pattern Synergy

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Helps stop early game campaigns falling off the wheels

Easily the best single Quality of Life content in the game; this simple bookmark helps smooth out the early game by not having your first 1 on the intimacy table net -2 population. There is little that can make a new campaign incredibly miserable to the degree that flubbing the intimacy can achieve. The survivor you gain is also not automatically useful; she gets a sufficient downside that keeps her balanced.

This is the gold standard to which small box content should be compared to and it is a hard 'must have' for all Kingdom Death Players.

Before & Beyond the Wall

Campaign Essentiality:Low

Expansion Synergies:Gorm, Sunstalker, Flower Knight

Expansion Clashes:Mild limited Cloth resource issues

Difficulty Modifier:Reduces Difficulty

Aya's first two boxes provide the contents for the Vagabond Armor; however the two boxes are not created equal; Before the Wall has the essential Vagabond Armor cards. Beyond has some optional variant gear cards. So you only really needto purchase Before the Wall; which also comes with a piece of gear that may be relevant when the Ivory Dragon expansion reaches us.

Vagabond Armor is a fun variant Leather Armor set that has very powerful sword synergies; any expansion with swords or sword related options loves this armor set. In particular The Flower Knight's L3 locked Secret Fighting Art 'True Blade' loves Vagabond Armor because the head is not covered.

If you like swords, get Before the Wall, beyond the wall helps if you want to get the armor online earlier and cheaper.

Death Crown Inheritor Aya

Campaign Essentiality:Low but Auto Include

Expansion Synergies:Phoenix

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Neutral

This later release of Aya moderately improves the Phoenix fight because it gives us another Legendary AI card; that reduces the amount of times Deja Vu turns up, which is a net positive for all aspects of a campaign. Otherwise it's yet another bow and an arrow; both of which are interesting, but the Phoenix did not need a second bow in its craftable gear – it wanted a whip made out of the Phoenix Whiskers.

You will always include this in a campaign due to the Phoenix being everywhere, but as I reviewed it previously, the Arc Bow and the Hollowpoint Arrow are both at least equal in power to these two new options. So it's more of the same, and really this one doesn't do enough to improve the Phoenix position.

Easter Twilight Knight

Campaign Essentiality:Auto Include

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Moderately increases complexity during the settlement phase.

Oh, it's the Trouble with Tribbles KDM edition. The Gibbering Hairmite is a new vermin card and it's fine, but usually it's going to cause a little annoyance when gained and after that you should probably just feed it to a Plebian survivor (Plebians/plebs are survivors with no notable features, they're the generic bog standard survivors with no injuries or special bonuses).

You'll always play with this one, but you don't need to go buy it.

Fade

Campaign Essentiality:Auto Include

Expansion Synergies:Red Witches (promised future), Before/Beyond the Wall

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Reduces difficulty

Fade's Basic Hunt Event card gives us access to a choice about gaining either a very good early game sword that has a balanced downside or +1 population if you can take the bab home. Both of these are great, you'll always put this one in your basic hunt event deck, it's just good.

Lunar Knight

Campaign Essentiality:Auto Include

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:overall neutral

This is another box with a small amount of good content. You'll always play with this one if you have it. It's not an essential purchase due to the high price, but if you also want the miniatures, this one is a good one.

White Sunlion Armor White Box

Campaign Essentiality:Auto Include in People of the Sun

Expansion Synergies:White Lion, People of the Sun

Expansion Clashes:Not allowed outside of People of the Sun

Difficulty Modifier:Provides more options, options make the game easier

This version of the Sunlion Armor is the 'canon' version, with the beta content now moving to a questionable position due to this update. I'll address that in the beta content section, but here, at this time the simple question is; are you playing People of the Sun? Then add this in.

“Winter Holidays” Santa Satan

Campaign Essentiality:Low but easy to include

Expansion Synergies:None, but may have future synergies with Atnas?

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Reduces difficulty

Note:REQUIRES Flower Knight to unlock strain first time.

The Lump of Atnas is a weird little basic resource because of how it is worded. It's essentiality something that needs the Flower Knight to unlock at first and then it just sits in your basic deck providing resources and survivors when you have enough of them.

“Halloween” Devil Satan

Campaign Essentiality:None

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Greatly Reduces Difficulty at a cost

I don't much care for this content, I would rather always get the Adventure Sword as that's rare enough. Having this self immolating spear as an alternative punishment for being insane isn't something I gel with. I leave this one in the box all of the time.

Percival

Campaign Essentiality:None

Expansion Synergies:Minor Sword Synergies so Gorm, Sunstalker, Flower Knight and Before the Wall, Willow Beta Content

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Makes things a tiny, infinitesimal smaller bit harder

Percival is just added content, if you own it you will add it in and it gives you a very humdrum secret fighting art. Percival is pretty cool, her pet The Black Knight is very cool, but this content is not cool (or good value for money). That written; you will get use out of it when combined with the Novel Sword Mastery (Willow). So this is one that has gotten stronger with time due to the sheer amount of support that  and while I don't consider it essential, I will always add it in because of its low impact.

Pin-ups of Death Volumes 1 & 2

Campaign Essentiality:Low

Expansion Synergies:Sunstalker (one gear card)

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Reduces Difficulty

The content in these boxes that matters is the Dark Seamstress who offers cheaper but worse alternatives to the body slot gear options for Rawhide, Leather, Metal (keyword) and Cycloid Scale armor sets. And also the Strange Spot is a well balanced event that can bail out a settlement who has suffered a lot of losses while also not completely ruining one gear tableau slot with its cursed item.

There's only two boxes with relevant in game content, they're very expensive for what they do, but while supplies last it is better to collect them via the 1.6 update pack.

Valentines Day Twilight Knight

Campaign Essentiality:Auto Include

Expansion Synergies:Gorm, Sunstalker and anything that vomits matter like retch, bile, vomit, puke etc.

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Greatly reduces difficulty

When you get the Scrap Smelting innovation, you get the Scoopy Club, it's a free club with good stats and a solid ability that is relatively easy to activate during many showdowns. It does make the campaign easier, but you don't haveto use it if you don't want it when the settlement gains it.

The 50mm scale miniature is absolutely awful, but I love the 35mm one. In fact that 50mm miniature is so tasteless I might go making a custom monster for her in time for next year's Valentine's Day (as long as the GCE arrives on time).

Halloween Twilight Knight (Jack O' Lantern)

Campaign Essentiality:None

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Neutral

This content changed with a pattern card, but that was not well known, so I've not seen that version. The original version that came with the Halloween Twilight Knight is bad. Skip.

Easter Aya

Campaign Essentiality:None but Auto-include

Expansion Synergies:Dung Beetle Knight, Erza of Dedheim, Summer Cyrus Beta

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Reduces Difficulty

This content has gotten better and better with the passing of time thanks to the expansion of 'gain benefits from being doomed mechanics'. It's an excellent piece of gear, but that heavykeyword is a hard one to swallow at times.

Swashbuckler

Campaign Essentiality:None but auto include in People of the Lantern and campaigns with Echoes of Death I or The Lonely Tree

Expansion Synergies:People of the Lantern, Echoes of Death I, The Lonely Tree

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier:Neutral, but adds fun

I love the corsair coat, it's exactly what I want from a daft free item. The way it is linked to saviors would be a problem if you had to pay to craft it, but as it's given for free during a weird dream. Coat stand go pew pew, perfection.

Twilight Knight Allison

Campaign Essentiality:Vital for People of the Lantern

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:Only usable in People of the Lantern

Difficulty Modifier:Reduces difficulty in a welcome fashion surrounding the chore of the Twilight Sword

If you like playing People of the Lantern a lot, this is a must have inclusion. Every piece of gear in the box is great for smoothing out the Twilight Sword/Hooded Stranger experience; it should be rolled into the core game by default.

Holiday Twilight Knight

Campaign Essentiality:Low but auto include

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None (though it is a little redundant with the Slender Man's Katana)

Difficulty Modifier:Reduces Difficulty

Xmaxe is good, really good, insanely good if you know how to abuse it. I keep it in, I avoid performing insanity gain abuse like Hiccup/Gorm and accept this is broken if you kill the Legendary Phoenix and then wield this.

Till Death Do Us Part

Campaign Essentiality:Auto-include

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier: Adds options, which always reduces difficulty

This oversized card offers two alternatives to the core game Partners; one gives you a 'duos' fighting style that requires a little loosening of the normal rules to make it work (this has been confirmed to be the correct way to interpret it, both survivors use their activation on the same survivor's act) or alternatively you can pick a really good way of ensuring that your survivors pass on apositive attribute and a fighting art to a new survivor. This allows you to maintain settlement playstyles for specific weapon types in addition to using sculpture. It's GREAT!

White Speaker Sword Hunter

Campaign Essentiality:Auto-include, but not essential

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier: Net neutral

Another basic hunt event that gives us Wales' signature folklore sword Excalibur; it's a neat weapon and the entire thing works well as long as you are fine with its wielder being at risk of death when returning each settlement phase. I'm fine with that risk because I know it could happen; it's the price one pays.

Elgnirk the Chaos Elf

Campaign Essentiality:Zero

Expansion Synergies:Zero

Expansion Clashes:Zero

Difficulty Modifier: Who cares? It's content you can only use if you're playing over the holidays instead of spending time with others. Play with it then if you want.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh...................

Holiday White Speaker Nico

Campaign Essentiality:Auto-include

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier: Punishes you for cheating, did you know cheating was a legal mechanic in games of KDM? Now you do!

This one is an expensive, but excellent piece of content that I highly recommend for anyone because it is another settlement event (always nice to have); it helps players fudge situations where randomness has just completely ruined things (isn't it nice that monsters usually can't critically wound, that really sucks in Gloom/Frosthaven!) It's also available in the 1.6 Legendary Pack iirc.

Beta Rules

Campaign Essentiality:Auto-include

Expansion Synergies:Varies

Expansion Clashes:Varies (usually none)

Difficulty Modifier: More options means more power, so it reduces campaign difficulty

This is a really large set of options so I'm going to list each one below with any expansion requirements (many of them also have generic crafting costs as an alternative) and one or two lines about thematically and a rating between 1 and 5 with how good I think they are. You can check out longer form discussion on these by clicking the Review tag at the bottom of this post.

• Lantern Armor Aya – Generic – Auto-include in every campaign – 5/5
• Summer Aya – Generic – Auto-include in every campaign – 5/5
• Badar – Spidicules/Generic – Really good, fun weapon, has no mastery at the moment – 4/5
• Summer Cyrus – Flower Knight – Really good, has synergy with Doomed strategies – 5/5
• Doll – No Synergies – This one is fun if you do not abuse it with Crystaline Skin – 2/5
• White Sunlion Armor Erza – White Lion - This is the version you can partially fit into any campaign, I keep it included as another armor option. I do not use this when playing People of the Sun. – 2/5
• Grimmory – Gorm/generic – Great dagger weapons with paired design that actually works – 4/5
• Hellebore – Generic – A sweet early game option to help smooth out gear for the first 2-3 showdowns. Great stuff – 5/5
• Screaming Oni Armor Lucy – I love this one to pieces, more armor options are ALWAYS great because of how much of the game's gear space is taken up by them – 5/5
• Novice – Generic – Really good early game/new survivor weapon, fantastic design – 5/5
• Pascha – Generic – Amazing alternative to the Zanbato, scissor weapon type has no mastery though. - 4/5
• Reapokratis – Slender Man/Generic – Hybrid Armors are always good, this is an excellent alternative to have in your options – 5/5
• Vitanvox – 2/5ths of a great armor set, is really interesting to use already – 5/5
• Willow – Novel Sword technique is much better than the normal version, the weapon is also a wonderful addition to the game – 5/5

As you can see, overall the track record for beta content gear trends towards the higher side, this means that despite the cost involved in getting these, they are a net positive for players who invest a lot of game time into games (or have a lot more spending power than someone like I).

White Speaker

Campaign Essentiality:Moderate, will auto-include

Expansion Synergies:None

Expansion Clashes:None

Difficulty Modifier: Reduces Difficulty

Both items you get from this box are really good, the dagger in particular is so powerful that some people talk about leaving out of their campaigns because of how much it trivialises gaining Fist & Tooth. Myself I find F&T mastery gathering to be a necessary chore, so I am happy with anything that speeds that up and then also allows for working on Dagger Mastery once F&T is completed.

The second gear card; Bloodskin is one of the only ways players can remove bleed tokens outside of Bandages.

Take all of that and add into it how this expands on the White Speaker story event (Storytelling Innovation) and it's just good content; you don't haveto use the Speaker Cult Knife every time you get it. It's just nice to have around for situations where your settlement is struggling and you need a short term power boost; just one hit, don't worry, once we're done I'll stop using the Speaker Cult Knife. I'm not addicted, I can give it up any time. I promise.

Part four is coming soon, it will be an additional release rather than next Friday; because I have another boss battler I want to review. When I release part four I will also put out a complete 'stitched together' version of this series which you can link anyone to once it goes public the following week.

The Campaign Configurations I Use

So this is the final part; I am going to write about each of the campaign configurations I have found the most enjoyable; with explanations of why each element is included. In respect to the white box/beta/promotional content; I will not list all of it, but any notable inclusions will be listed.

The format will be:

Title:[Fun nickname]

Campaign:[People of (Lantern/Sun/Stars) or Any]

Nemesis Inclusions: [Name, Name, etc]

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: [Name, Name, etc]

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: [Name, Name, etc]

Notable Small Box Inclusions: [Name, Name, etc]

[Body of text explaining reasoning in one or two paragraphs]

Generic Notes before we get into it:

• Lonely Tree is an auto-include in every campaign if you own it.
• Main targets are quarries included for multiple hunts with many pieces of gear as options
• Optional targets are either quarries hunted just once for specific options, or there in case the players get bored and/or want a challenge
• In People of the Stars, where you have choice over what nemesis monster you face at times, I will list the core game nemesis monsters I recommend
• I am going to start with People of the Sun, then move on to People of the Stars before ending with People of the Lantern. The reason for this is that People of the Sun and Stars have additional restrictions/requirements/milestones so they have a tighter and more selective bunch of expansions that work well with them.
• I am not going to include the Green Armor; that's a pre-built configuration and you can run it in any campaign; but it has clashes in Stars and because it requires two nemesis monsters it also increases the difficulty in Sun (also in Sun only Hellfire Secret Fighting Art survivors can wear Green Armor because the boots are heavy).
• Again I am treating the core trio of monsters as 'expansions' and wherever I write the White Lion you should consider it White Lion & Gigalion unless I specifically call out just one version of it.
• Always include the Ringtail Vixen Bookmark, promotional basic hunt events, promotional settlement events, strains and patterns, they're too good to miss out on.

Title: Expanded People of the Sun

Campaign:People of the Sun

Nemesis Inclusions: Lonely Tree as terrain

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Gorm, Dragon King,

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: Lion God, Phoenix, Dung Beetle Knight

Notable Small Box Inclusions: Screaming Oni Armor; White Sunlion Armor (I include both the original and the beta because the beta version is different and it allows cloth on the waist which the updated version doesn't (boo). Reapokratis Gloomleather, Vagabond Armor

This is the set up I now use as my People of the Sun default; with the early game revolving around crafting the two White Sunlion Armors and the two Screaming Antelope armors before graduating towards the three leather options. Gloomleather is notable because it has an alternative generic crafting cost of 1x perfect organ, 1xleather, 1xscrap for the Gloom Cowl. Finally in the late game I will aim for Dragon Armor as my main end game set because once I've experienced Phoenix Armor vs. a Sunstalker once, I don't really need to repeat that.

Because People of the Sun can have such powerful survivors the Lion God and Dung Beetle Knight can make for great 'hard mode' challenges if things are getting a bit rote. However it is worth highlighting that without Surge the Dung Beetle Knight fight is a real test of endurance and patience. Someone's got to push that ball each turn and that's all they're doing. The “armor” not having the armor keyword makes it all worthwhile though, high armor point protection that circumvents the campaign's limitations without needing Hellfire? Yes please.

Title: All Boss Rush, All the Time

Campaign:People of the Sun

Nemesis Inclusions: Manhunter, Slender Man, Lion Knight, Lonely Tree

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: As above

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: As above

Notable Small Box Inclusions: As above

A variation for players who like to live on the edge and are fine with their campaign ending suddenly a lot sooner than expected, this campaign has multiple Nemesis fights along the entire timeline and losing a single one of this is game over, which adds an extra challenge into the Lion Knight showdowns because of the punishment delivered for winning. The Slender Man additionally turns up in the ending boss rush instead of the King's Man and the L3 version of that beast can be campaign ending all on its own. Not for the feint of heart, but something for veterans who like to live on a knife's edge.

I'd also like to highlight that the sub-theme campaigns of People of the Skull and People of the Bloom are a lot of fun in People of the Sun. So you can freely add those into the mix if you want to.

Title: Expanded People of the Stars

Campaign:People of the Stars

Nemesis Inclusions: Manhunter, Lonely Tree

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Gorm, Sunstalker, Dung Beetle Knight

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: Lion God, Phoenix

Notable Small Box Inclusions: None

You can be a lot freer with your decisions in People of the Stars; however there should be some caution surrounding the Slender Man, Lion God and the Phoenix. The Slender Man is notable because its inclusion removes access to The Hand; and the Hand is a source of +1 accuracy for unlocking constellations. In the case of the Phoenix; because you are looking to improve and preserve key survivors for the final battle you can't really go after it without having access to a lot of ageless. The Lion God is something of low risk addition, you do not have to go after it if you do not feel confident of a win, however Stars survivors are more powerful and may want the challenge.

Because of mechanical survivor punishment in the Lion Knight and Spidicules I do not recommend them for your first expanded game, but if you want an extra challenge then having the Lion Knight, Spidicules and Slender Man is going to rack up the difficulty and force you to figure out alternative ways to get constellations and keep them alive.

In the case of the additions, I want 4+ main quarry targets in all my campaigns and the Sunstalker has fun synergy with Stars specific gear; the Gorm can help mix up the early game once you have your Whisker Harp (plus Baby Rage Elephand is just good content). The Dung Beetle Knight provides a challenging fight along with good gear and the Manhunter has synergy with many of the other choices.

For the remaining campaigns they are all going to be People of the Lantern variants I like to play.

Title:Expanded People of the Lantern

Campaign:People of the Lantern

Nemesis Inclusions: Manhunter

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: Gorm, White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Sunstalker, Dragon King

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: Phoenix (because you have to), optional Dung Beetle Knight

Notable Small Box Inclusions: Allison of course; but pretty much whatever you want.

This is my default choice for playing people of the Lantern. Experience has made it very clear that just having three quarries results in an experience that can become monotonous and rote; this is not aided by rough design and the imbalances in both the Screaming Antelope & Phoenix. Work has been done on them with each update; but they both remain below the average standard for quarry monsters.

The Gorm adds an excellent alternative target to the White Lion; while also supplementing it with a lot of complementary elements. It's interesting how the Gorm complements both the White Lion and the Screaming Antelope, but Spidicules clashes with the White Lion (due to redundant gear) and of course replaces the Antelope.

At the top end; the Sunstalker and Dragon King represent the best pairing of big monsters and will remain that way until we get Node 4+ monsters like The King or Screaming God. There are so many synergies and exciting interactions between these two that it is hard to pass up on using them as a pair; especially because of the previously mentioned awkwardness that comes both mechanically and thematically from stuffing them into the campaign that comes in their box.

One can also add in the DBK here if they desire, but I find that for the most part 5 quarries is enough for 30 lantern years unless there are some very fortunate resource drops that speed up the grind.

Title: The Extinguished Swords

Campaign:People of the Lantern

Nemesis Inclusions: Slender Man, Manhunter (but not in the way you think)

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: Gorm, Spidicules, Sunstalker, Dung Beetle Knight, Phoenix, The Flower Knight

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: White Gigalion (White Lion will be faced only during the Prologue, after that its banned except for Gigalions)

Notable Small Box Inclusions: Anything to do with Swords, including the sword based Strain Fighting Art.

So this one requires a little bit of house ruling; during this campaign you will be adding the Manhunter timeline event Lottery to the timeline on the following lantern years (5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 26) . What this represents is a settlement that's very near to the Holy Lands and is being constantly raided by the slavers. Note that if you lose a showdown against the Manhunter when resisting this will create more Lotteries because the defeat mechanism results in a Lottery also happening in the following year. There's so much pressure and if you want to make it even harder you can rule that resisting is not allowed at all, this is just life for the survivors.

In addition to that; the monsters included are, with the exception of the Flower Knight, all particularly nasty foes to face either due to their respective strengths or pressures they put on the population. The Flower Knight is included because it is also a sword themed monster; but in addition to that it also offers a way to replace population losses if you are desperate. However, I'd recommend just using the showdown for those moments where your population is heavily depleted, otherwise stick to the L3 showdown, it's really cool and has some great rewards.

Title: People of the Bloom Expanded

Campaign:People of the Lantern

Nemesis Inclusions: Lion Knight

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: White Lion, Spidicules, Screaming Antelope, Phoenix, Dung Beetle Knight

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: None

Notable Small Box Inclusions: Halloween Flower Knight Pattern

Until we get a proper People of the Bloom in approximately 2045; when the Abyssal Woods campaign arrives, this is what I play when I want a relatively balanced People of the Bloom experience; People of the Bloom has wacky interactions with the Sunstalker, so I tend to leave that for People of the Blooming Sun (where Warriors of the Sun can enjoy the power), I also deliberately keep both the Spidicules and the Screaming Antelope in for this one. It's not strictly correct according to the rules, but it is interesting and mixes things up.

Title: People of the Skull Expanded

Campaign:People of the Lantern

Nemesis Inclusions: Normal selection, though you can add the Lion Knight if you want some extra head gear.

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: Gorm, Screaming Antelope, Dung Beetle Knight, Dragon King, White Gigalion/White Lion, Phoenix and Sunstalker

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: None

Notable Small Box Inclusions: Grimmory. Pasha,

This campaign tends to start off quite difficult, but once you get rolling the survivors can become very powerful, also there's only one shield option with bone, the Scrap Shield and it's really interesting to be forced to use it over the normal selection of Knuckle Shield → Leather Shield → Bacon Shield

I do not craft full Rolling Armor for everyone during this campaign as that can make the latter part of the campaign just feel like easy mode; instead I tend to try and avoid using it too much; mostly just crafting the shoulder pads.

There are so many quarries in this list because bone weapons are spread far and wide between them; this allows the Skull settlement to go after just about any type of weapon apart from Whip (because while we have concept art for a bone whip, it was not released so far).

Going Further

So what about building your own campaign construct? Well given that in the official rules all the innovations, disorders, fighting arts and similar are put into the decks regardless of what monsters are available (enjoy the trepanning survivors who get Flower Addiction without an Owl Spirit to punch) the important things to pay attention to are the available weapons and armor sets. You want to make sure that the weapon types you want to play with are in the mix; either because you have a specific group playstyle you want to pay attention to, or you want as many different options available as possible.

With armor it's a little different; because the core game armor progression of Rawhide → Leather is so strong; you don't really need to lean on anything early on; but you might want to if you're planning to construct hybrid armors or you have a friend who dresses up as a cat at conventions and that's their fursona or they're super into the rubber gimp look. In those cases if you are a gracious host; you might want to make sure that armor options from the White Lion and Gorm are options. It's a silly board game where anime people flog to death a big kitty who's ancestors used to rule the land; fun should be something you're always trying to promote. Which is of course subjective, some people find fun in overcoming challenges, others find fun in feeling powerful, that's why being intimately knowledgable of the various monsters nemesis or quarry and the other plethora of options helps a great deal. You can craft a fun experience for novice players and cater to their expectations.

We'll look at an example in respect to the different weapon types looking at which monsters one would hunt in order to create decent progression for a given weapon. Please excuse the Whip and Thrown weapon situation; I've been asking for it to be rectified for what? Over half a decade now and we get nothing.

Anything in italics is a Pattern gear. Again I'm ignoring Green Armor as it is a pre-baked in campaign package.

Axe

• Bone Smith
• Gorm
• Spidicules
• Weapon Crafter
• 10th Anniversary Survivors
• Phoenix
• Sunstalker
• Blacksmith
• Lantern Armor Aya

Bow

• White Lion
• Flower Knight
• Phoenix
• Sunstalker
• Dragon King – Arrow & Quiver
• Slender Man  – Arrow
• Echoes of Death 2 and 3

Club

• Bonesmith
• Gorm
• Weaponsmith
• Valentine's Day Twilight Knight
• Halloween Ringtail
• Slender Man
• Echoes of Death 2

Dagger

• Bonesmith
• Novice Beta
• Gorm
• White Lion (the original version is horribly overcosted, use the Gigalion one)
• Hellebore Beta
• Phoenix (very good in People of the Skull who don't break them)
• Grimmory Beta
• Screaming Oni Armor Lucy Beta
• 10th Anniversary Survivors
• White Speaker box
• Dragon King
• Blacksmith
• Sunlion Armor Erza White Box (PotSun only)
• Halloween White Speaker (requires Dung Beetle Knight and Slender Man)
• Echoes of Death 1

You can see how much love Daggers have received through additional content. #JusticeForWhipsAndThrownWeapons

Grand Weapon

• Gorm
• Weapon Crafter
• Sunstalker
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Blacksmith
• People of the Bloom

Instrument

• Winter Solstice Lucy (Essential imo)
• Echoes of Death II (Fighting Art)
• White Lion
• Gorm
• Skinnery
• Flower Knight

Katana

• People of the Sun (sort of)
• Slender Man
• Phoenix

Note: This is currently a very weak weapon category; the weapons we do have are mid → late game in power, but the mastery suffers from the same 'lose the survivor' issue that the Twilight Sword has.

Katar

• White Lion
• Screaming Antelope
• Spidicules
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Lion Knight
• Dragon King
• Blacksmith (Lantern + Gigalion Only)

Scimitar

• Spidicules
• Badar

Note: There is no mastery for Scimitar at this time.

Scythe

• Dragon King
• Erza of Dedheim

Scissors

• Pasha – snip snip snip, Pasha's coming for those White Lion testes!

Note: No mastery at this time.

Shield

• Gorm
• Leather Worker
• Dragon King
• Phoenix
• Blacksmith
• 10th Anniversary Survivors
• Echoes of Death 2

Spears

• White Lion
• Spidicules
• Weapon Crafter
• 10th Anniversary Survivors
• Sunstalker
• Phoenix
• King's Man
• Blacksmith
• Devil Satan

Swords

• Bonesmith
• Weapon Crafter
• Phoenix (especially in People of the Skull)
• Gorm
• Spidicules
• Flower Knight
• People of the Bloom
• Vagabond Armor
• Dragon King
• Sunstalker
• Blacksmith
• Fade
• Doll
• Oktoberfest Aya (Needs a Savior and Screaming Antelope)
• White Speaker Sword Hunter
• Echoes of Death 3

Tactics

• Flower Knight
• Lion Knight
• Dung Beetle Knight

You just need one of these three in a campaign to get rolling with tactics. I'd recommend always having all the tactics cards you own in the deck.

Thrown

• Bonesmith
• Spidicules
• Sunstalker
• Dragon King
• Dung Beetle Knight (I guess bombs count at least this is a good bomb)

Tools

• Bonesmith
• Manhunter
• Sunstalker
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Valentine's Day Twilight Knight

Twilight Sword

• People of the Lantern (Hooded Stranger)
• Random gain during a hunt event
• White Box Allison

Note: The Twilight Sword is essentially a Chekhov's Gun/Gift or Sword of Plot Advancement that exists to help the settlement overcome its first main antagonist while also providing a little mechanical world building about the Twilight Order, their motivations. It also gives the Gold Smoke Knight a small amount of characterisation in one hunt event (#73 – Golden Ember → Explore the Crater).

Fist & Tooth

• Gorm (L2 Version Only)
• Spidicules (Fighting Art – Females only)
• WhiteSpeaker
• Echoes of Death 3
• Dragon King (Introductory Event)

Quick set of notes here for this category; most of these are not gear cards, but are instead abilities or fighting arts. The most useful overall is the Dragon King which will give you Acid Palms at the cost of losing one slot to a cursed item (something you can live with because with Acid Palms you do not need anything other than your fists).

Additionally the overall best Fist & Tooth fighters are exclusively female because once you open the Spidicules expansion you are adding in a Secret Fighting Art that can only be used by female survivors and an innovation that can either give female survivors that SFA (at the cost of a male survivor, MMMmmmmm nom nom crunch) or male survivors Harvestman. This along with quite a few other factors is why I advise female hunters over males, with the exception of male Harvestman survivors in Phoenix Armor. Females in KDM have a few mechanical advantages over the males.

Last of all, survivors training the Fist & Tooth Mastery are great places to use Scimitars, Thrown Weapons and Scissors as they currently have no intrinsic Weapon Mastery of their own. The other option is to stack as much luck as possible on your F&T survivor; which the Death Mask from The Butcher's Mask Maker excels at.

Whips

• Skinnery
• Spidicules
• Leather Worker
• Blacksmith

If you want to assess how robust a weapon type is; you can also figure it out from these lists; if it appears on some early game, mid game and late game content you know you can invest into it early on and develop the Weapon Mastery naturally over time; if it is lacking early game options then it tends to be something you'll have to rush/force later on if you want the Mastery and if it lacks late game options then there's little point in pursuing it because the Mastery will fall off.

Whips suffer a great deal because we have a tricky to craft early game whip (Rawhide) which would be good except it requires ammonia and when you have ammonia you can already craft the Hunter Whip. The Spidicules Silk Whip is just a superior Hunter Whip, so these clashes make progression for the weapon type really disjointed early on. Also, in late game you have only one option (Ring Whip) and you are going to need to use that option alongside either a Rainbow Belt or Polishing Lantern to overcome the Early Iron drawback (at least until you oxidise it, but that is People of the Lantern only).

So you can just look at the weapons you are interested in and you'll get a good set of nemesis/quarry monsters fairly fast. This doesn't even lean into all the various synergies you'll find; it leaves your group to discover them along the way. I have an idea about how this could be pushed further, but it will take some time to execute and as such I'll only start work on it if there's a fairly large amount of requests for it.