I'm playing the new Dark Elements co-op scenario, and I'm finding it cripplingly hard right out of the gate.

I will do my best to not spoil any gameplay elements for fans. I'm just wondering if anyone else is playing this as well, and encountering the same. Playing with 4 players seems like a fool's errand. I'm 0-3 so far, losing to Doom/Fate in the intro or first generated room.

I'm used to difficult games after playing Arkham Horror for years, and I've learned that certain combinations of player counts and difficulty are just insurmountable odds. This scenario brings forth that feeling. I'm reluctant to reduce the player count, but I'd really like to play more than just the first chamber of this scenario.

I've never played it, but I own Forgotten Souls and that's hard as hell as well. So's I can relate. I've only beat it once out of the 5 times. Even then, I sorta had to cheat ( reroll some die. ) use some of your best heroes and classes. Syndreal as a Knight or Trenloe. Elder Mok perhaps. I find Tomble as a thief is really useful in these dungeons, as he can snag search tokens without having to be adjacent to them and open doors without spending actions. And when he opens doors, his first attack usually gets that cheap pre-emptive damage ( because the generated monsters didn't have LOS. ) You also need heroes that can heal well and regenerate fatigue.

I was surprised by how much easier the coop expansions were with two heroes- they still weren't easier, but the more rapidly cycling loot track and room for error on the doom track really cut the players some slack.

Once you get some good gear, you can generally get a foothold on the dungeon. But one of the things that really makes these so hard is how fast Fatigue can generate on heroes. One second they'll be good and rested, next they are at max. And it generally is hard to do any rest actions because you are pressed for time. Usually, I try and get the heroes organized and rested before opening a door. It's worth an Advance fate if you can afford it.

Once you get some good gear, you can generally get a foothold on the dungeon. But one of the things that really makes these so hard is how fast Fatigue can generate on heroes. One second they'll be good and rested, next they are at max. And it generally is hard to do any rest actions because you are pressed for time. Usually, I try and get the heroes organized and rested before opening a door. It's worth an Advance fate if you can afford it.

Well, that and 3 rooms in a row where "heroes can only recover wound and fatigue from stand up and revive actions."

Once you get some good gear, you can generally get a foothold on the dungeon. But one of the things that really makes these so hard is how fast Fatigue can generate on heroes. One second they'll be good and rested, next they are at max. And it generally is hard to do any rest actions because you are pressed for time. Usually, I try and get the heroes organized and rested before opening a door. It's worth an Advance fate if you can afford it.

Well, that and 3 rooms in a row where "heroes can only recover wound and fatigue from stand up and revive actions."

ow..

The shortened Doom track on 4-players is brutal. Your time is so short, that unless you bowl through the biggest monsters bottlenecking the map, you'll likely get killed off in 1-3 Peril draws. Usually if you advance doom due to an Exploration card expiring, and then draw a Peril card that causes you to advance Doom, you're sunk and will never recover from that.

There is literally a very small margin for error. Each room that you go into needs to be thought out specifically. You need to figure out what the objective is and how you can complete it in the time allowed. Plus you never want Doom to advance. The Peril card that advances Doom by one is very frustrating as there is no way to recover from it. Still, if you can afford a slot, waiting one turn to rest and restore health to your heroes is worth the one Peril advance. Also- never let a hero get knocked out. If that happens, you're pretty much screwed.