Arkham Horror: The Card Game Buyer's Guide

Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a co-operative card game for 1 to 4 players. The horror stories unfold in the 1920s and are based on the litterary work of H.P. Lovecraft. Arkham Horror features strong elements of deck building, a campaign system with branching paths, and a dose of luck in the form of tokens pulled from a "chaos bag". Don't know where to start? This guide is for you.

Core Set

To play Arkham Horror, you must start by buying a Core Set.

The Revised Core Set, released at the end of 2021, allows you to play with up to 4 players and is the one you should buy.

The original core set, discontinued and released in 2016, might still be available in some stores but contains less player cards and supports only 2 players. To play with up to 4 players, you would need 2 old core sets. Buy it only if you are a collector as some cards feature different artwork.

In the core set, you will find 5 investigators and 3 scenarios that can either be played individually or linked together as the Night of the Zealot campaign. The box comes with a Learn to Play guide, a rule reference book, and all the tokens required to play.

Cycles

A Cycle is a storyline made of mutiple scenarios linked together. In the core set, your investigators will play The Gathering as their first scenario then upgrade their decks. They will then play The Midnight Masks, upgrade their decks again, and finally play The Devourer Below. All 3 scenarios are referred to as the Night of the Zealot cycle or campaign.

Fantasy Flight Games have published 8 different cycles so far. Cycles are not linked to each other, so can be purchased and played in any order.

Old vs New Format

Buying a cycle can be confusing for new players since the publisher has recently changed the way cards are packaged.

In the new format, a cycle can be purchased as 2 separate products: a Campaign Expansion that contains all the scenario cards and an Investigator Expansion that contains new investigators and players cards. If you play with multiple players, you only need 1 copy of the campaign expansion. The investigator expansion, on the other hand, is totally optional. The new investigators and player cards are thematically linked to the campaign box and will give you more deckbuilding options, but you can play any cycle with any player cards.

In the old format, a cycle can be purchased as 7 separate products: a Deluxe Expansion that contains new investigators plus scenarios #1 and #2 of the campaign, and 6 Mythos Packs that contain scenarios #3 to #8 of the campaign along with new player cards. This format is a nightmare for shops and customers because you cannot play the full campaign if a single Mythos Packs is out of stock.

Fantasy Flight Games is currently repackaging older cycles in the new format, so you might find The Dunwich Legacy cycle both in the old and the new format. The cards are exactly the same in the old and new format! They are just split in a different way.

The Cycles at a Glance

There are currently 9 cycles (excluding the short one found in the core set). They are ordered by release date below.

Investigator Decks

Once you have played at least one full cycle, you should consider buying some of the five Investigator Decks. Each of them contain a unique investigator found in no other expansion along with 60 player cards. They are great to introduce friends to the game and increase your pool of player cards when deckbuilding.

Return To... Boxes

Each cycle has (or will have) a Return To box. They serve 3 purposes.

First, to store and organize all the scenario cards of the corresponding cycle with some neat dividers.

Second, they contain new encounter cards that allow you to replay the original campaign with an extra level of difficulty. Think of them as a Game+ mode.

Third, they contain a handful of new player cards and basic weaknesses.

Standalone Scenarios

Standalone scenarios are individual stories. Some of them can be played as a side-story between two scenarios of a regular campaign while some others can only be played as a one-off mission. A few of the scenarios can be played in Epic Multiplayer Mode with two or more tables playing at the same time!

• Curse of the Rougarou. Up to 4 players.
• Carnevale of Horror. Up to 4 players.
• The Labyrinth of Lunacy. Up to 12 players.
• Guardians of the Abyss. Up to 4 players.
• Murder at the Excelsior Hotel. Up to 4 players.
• The Blob That Ate Everything. No player limit.
• War of the Outer Gods. No player limit.
• Machinations Through Time. Up to 12 players.
• Fortune and Folly. Up to 4 players.
• Barkham Horror: The Meddling of Meowlathotep. Up to 4 players. Discontinued.

Print & Play Cards

Fantasy Flight Games has published some special side-stories and alternate versions of existing investigators as print & play cards. The files to print your own cards can be found on their official website (see link below).

Useful Links

Below are some external resources for Arkham Horror: The Card Game players.

• The official rules and other documents.
• ArkhamDB: a third party website that has information on all cards released and tools for deckbuilding. 

Have any questions? Feel free to contact us!

 

Last updated: December 2023.