Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a series of deck-building card games that you can build and curate to your dark heart’s delight. It’s a cooperative game, so you and your fellow players are working together to take on the horrors that await.
It’s also part of the extensive world in the Arkham Horror Files family of board games, card games, and the newest, the nicely accessible Arkham Horror: The Role-Playing Game (see on Amazon) and subsequent newly released matching expansive rulebook.
The card deck-builder Arkham Horror card game has been around since 2016. It has seen multiple expansions and revisions since its original printing. Buying the game is also not entirely straightforward outside of the base deck and campaign, as there are multiple ways to build, curate, and personalize your experience.
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Here’s a swipe-able, all-in-one carousel of everything discussed in the article, for those who feel confident enough about their Arkham Horror: The Card Game knowleged to skip the blurbs. For everyone else, keep on reading.
The Base Game
The core set contains all you need to get started. It contains five pre-built investigator decks that let you dive into the first scenario: the Night of the Zealot campaign. This will give you a great, replayable taste of the Arkham Horror Card Game world. And if you like it, you have a huge selection of expansions to consider.
Arkham Horror Card Game Expansions
Arkham Horror’s card game expansions are a bit different than the board game version. For the board games, expansion boxes include the full stories and scenarios as well as the new investigators to join in on the fun. The card game operates a bit differently. You can buy campaign expansions to add new stories to your game, and/or you can buy investigator expansions to add new characters. In other words, the new stories and new characters are sold separately. This might not be ideal for everyone, but it allows you to choose how much of an experience you want to invest in at a certain time, since you can play an expansion scenario without the newer investigators if you want to.
The Dunwich Legacy
The Dunwich Legacy was the first expansion released. It’s meant to be a gentle step up from the base game, with a user-friendly set of scenarios. In it you search for lost investigators, which coincidentally seems to tie into how the entire card game franchise builds upon itself by adding new investigator sets in each expansion release.
The Path to Carcosa
A theatre production comes to Arkham in this expansion. The added rules in this one are fairly user-friendly for new playersm but the expansion isn’t easy enough for vets to dismiss. If you have the older first edition of this expansion, you may still find the differences in this second edition engaging enough to warrant a purchase.
The Forgotten Age
This expansion has you explore the ruins of an Aztec city, with a mystery that threatens to unravel the fabric of time iteslf. This is a very difficult campaign, so it’s not recommended to newcomers until they’ve played through some of the others first. It’s also on its second edition version now.
The Circle Undone
This expansion has affectionately been called “the witches pack.” The new investigators introduced in this expansion have some powerful bonuses that are a delight to use. That’s a relief, because the campaign is one of the tougher ones of all the expansions as well. If you plan to get this campaign, you should absolutely consider getting the investigators.
The Edge of the Earth
The antarctic tundra is a classic location for Lovecraftian horrors to reside. So that’s exactly where this expansion brings you and your fellow players: to the deep freezing cold. Peril lurks around every corner, so choose your steps wisely, with or without the coordinating investigators.
The Scarlet Keys
This campaign expansion has you traversing the world as you delve into an international conspiracy involving the collection of keys and a race against the Red Coterie. With or without the investigators, this expansion is less linear to explore than most of the others.
The Dream Eaters
This campaign includes two four-part storylines: Dream Quest and the Web of Dreams stories. You can play these separately if you’re tight on time, or you can combine them together into a longer eight-part story.
The Innsmouth Conspiracy
This expansion puts you and your fellow players in an ever-changing world that morphs based on water levels that can flood various locations. This adds a dynamic layer to the strategic decision-making you’ll need to employ as you play through it.
The Feast of the Hemlock Vale
The Feast of the Hemlock Vale is a newer expansion that brings players to Hemlock Vale, where residents are preparing for a festival while somehow remaining blissfully unaware of dangers like mutated wildlife and a sinister presence lurking around them. You have three days to investigate the strange happenings, with different dynamics depending on whether it’s day or night.
The Drowned City
The newest expansions for Arkham Horror is The Drowned City. In this one, the big squiddy lord from Lovecraftian lore has awakened, and it’s up to you and your team to save the day.
Other ways to expand your deck-building adventures in Arkham
Starter Decks
Interested in adding another character to your roster but aren’t sure if you’re ready to jump into a full expansion? You can buy a few starter investigator decks. These decks are less expensive and will give you more investigators to help you through your game.
That said, these characters may not be as great as the investigators that you’ll find in the larger boxes that are connected to campaigns (see above). There are five to choose from: Harvey Waters, Nathanial Cho, Jacqueline Fine, Winnifred Habbamock, and Stella Clark. All of them are $16.99 but can be found cheaper and on sale from time to time.
Scenario Packs
There are also several standalone scenario packs available to purchase. These offer a smaller dose of action than the full expansions above. They cost $21.99 each. Murder at the Excelsior Hotel has been regarded as one of their more entry-level scenarios, so if you’re looking for something smaller before committing to something bigger, like an expansion, you might want to check that one out.
Other scenario packs include Fortune and Folly, Machinations Through Time, War of the Outer Gods, Labyrinths of Lunacy, and The Blob That Ate Everything.
Return to Boxes
Return to boxes are revamps and additions to select campaigns. They require the base campaign set to play them, and while they are a bonus, they are best suited for folks who are serious about Arkham Horror: The Card Game. They are considered to be luxury items, essentially. And some of them are not the easiest to get a hold of. In fact, when going to create this list, I found that some were discontinued or not easily found through sites like Amazon or even Asmodee itself.
Five return-to-boxes are currently available: Night of the Zealot (the campaign in the original starter box), Dunwich Legacy, Circle of Carcosa, Circle Undone, and Forgotten Age. Some enthusiasts say that Forgotten Age fixes some of the complexities in the original expansion. As you can see, when you click the name of Night of the Zealot, these are out of print, so collectors may find them difficult to come by.
Parallel Investigator Packs
Parallel investigators are alternate versions of investigators that have abilities different from those of their original counterparts, including enhanced abilities and stats. Like Return to Boxes, these are not as easily found at big retailers. Collectors will have to look around for them to get them.
The Bottom Line
If you are a fan of Lovecraft mythos-themed games, Arkham Horror is a universe you’ll absolutely want to explore. One awesome thing about Arkham Horror: The Card Game is that you can play it as a solo game, as well as with friends. The universes and iterations of games make for lots of capacities for adventure, with seemingly endless replayability for several of them.
That said, like the board games, the card games absolutely veer on the more difficult side. They have quite a bit of chance, which can drastically increase replayability as well as frustration. Setup and learning time can also take a few minutes. You’ll find that the card games are easier to set up than the board games, even without expansions, which makes the journey through less painful.
Jennifer Stavros is a contributing freelancer for IGN, covering everything from comics, games, technology, and nerd culture. She has over 15 years of experience in the gaming industry, including testing and writing for Wired, Inverse, and more. Follow her on Twitter or watch her on Twitch under the handle @scandalous.
