Hey! We are about to give my new goodies a try (Base game+IH+Pharaoh+Lurker with herald - will be brutal) and we are wondering...Has anyone ever tried mixing Lurker and Original gates for bigger variety? (In a separate bag of course, to prevent the different backsides from killing the surprise) It seems to me that having insanely hard to close devouring gates, as well as standard gates in the mix would be more enjoyable than using only the Replacement gates, but I may be wrong.

Yes. I played my latest 150 Arkham plays with all gates in. I personally think it's a lot of fun, gives more variety to the game (you can't metagame that easily by clearing difficult gates and cashing easier trophies) and propose some interesting situations (technically you can have 4 R'lyeh gates in play at the same time)

The only problem is that clearly is less likely to be eliminated by gate stack depletion, but since it's something that never happens to experienced players, I'd say it's 100% fine

I wouldn't consider it bigger variety. The Lurker gates are all of the normal gates but with special abilities. Mixing the two sets together just makes the special abilities, all of which add to current gates , less frequent.

I wouldn't consider it bigger variety. The Lurker gates are all of the normal gates but with special abilities. Mixing the two sets together just makes the special abilities, all of which add to current gates , less frequent.

I disagree. Playing with only one set of gates makes the same patterns overpredictable. You know there are only 2 R'lyeh gates, for instance, so that once you get rid of one, Amanda will never fail her PS. You know you have a imited number of gates that are dfficult so that you can metagame on how to divide the sealing duty among your characters. Playing with all in keeps the frequencies unaltered, but gives origin to games with unexpected stuff happening (i.e. you don't see a single copy of a specific gate appearing in a whole game but you can see 4 times another gate appearing). This also makes less predictable removing matching dimensional symbol monsters, getting rid of corruptions and so on

Thanks! Another question: Can the pact cards be exhausted (lose x stamina, gain x power) only once per game, or do thex refresh at the next upkeep phase?

They refresh during Upkeep!