On page 26 of the rulebook, each of the three scenarios in the core set has a number indicating its difficulty level. There's no mention of what the upper or lower limit on difficulty is. Regardless, I'm excited to find out the level of difficulty of the new quest in Hunt for Gollum.

While I'm waiting for June, I thought I'd ask the nice folks here: knowing that Mirkwood is a 1, Anduin is a 4, and Dol Guldur is a 7, what Difficulty Level would you like Hunt for Gollum to be? If you don't want to pick a number, you can always give a preferred rank in relation to the existing quests.

Special secret bonus question: if you'd like, you can also predict where it will actually be ranked.

I think a 3 would be good. I imagine the scenarios in the set should get harder as they go on so starting at a three would allow for some "upward mobility".

Although this is of course purely speculation, I would predict that the Hunt for Gollum scenario would be around the same difficulty level as Journey Down the Anduin. Since Escape from Dol Guldur is the "hardest" scenario we have so far and represents the final stage in our introductory story, I think that FFG would want the first scenario of the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle to take a bit of a step back in terms of difficulty. The Core set comes with a series of three progressively difficult scenarios, which results in a relatively satisfying finish and conclusion to a short story. As the very first scenario in this new cycle, I think the Hunt for Gollum definitely won't be quite so easy as Passage Through Mirkwood, which is meant to introduce absolute beginners to the game, but that it will be something more challenging that presents a level of difficulty that will probably be neither overwhelming nor intimidating to people who are still getting a handle on how to play the game.

If it's less difficult than the current hardest scenario, I think it would appear less daunting to new or relatively inexperienced card game players, and would be much more inviting for people who simply want to casually play and appreciate winning more often than not. I would imagine that as more and more Adventure Packs come out, FFG can safely assume the skill level of the people who purchase them will likely increase (along with the pool of cards they have for deck construction), and therefore the difficulty of scenarios will slowly increase. I certainly believe that that in fairly short order the Adventure Packs will reach a point where they meet and then exceed Escape from Dol Guldur's level of difficulty, but to start out I am going to predict Hunt for Gollum to be Difficulty = 4.

Further, I am going to assume that Conflict at the Carrock (the second expansion), will most likely be difficulty level 6 or 7, purely from considering how powerful the only Troll enemy we've seen so far is. However, I could also picture it being even higher depending on just how nasty some of the new Trolls are, or how vicious the "Sacked!" Treachery cards turn out to be. Still, I suppose not all Trolls necessarily have to possess beastly high stats, but we'll see in due time. Now, if the expansions would just get printed and released already!

uuuuuh, just think about the Shadows of Mirkwood NIGHTMARE mode... that could be very interesting and challenging... since the threat threshold may be set higher than 50... imagine trying to get through SIX scenarios, once all APs are out!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is going to be an exciting fall/winter

Well, currently the difficulty numbers don't really mean much. The second and third scenario of the core set are around the same difficulty if you're playing with two players (I'd rate them about difficulty 3). And for any other number of players, the difficulty numbers are irrelevant (something like 8 for the second and 10 for the third, if you're playing solo, and about 1 or 2 if you play with 3 or four players).

Narsil0420 said:

Makes sense. Or even 2 I'd think. Making the cycle 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8 for the final? Although waiting some three more month to get a 5?

Wow, I'd kind of hate it if Conflict at Carrock was a 3. Trolls should be a little nastier than that. I guess it is all pretty subjective after all, though. If they never did another number difficulty for a quest, I don't think I would mind. There's already enough room to argue on two of the three quests we currently have.

DrNate said:

The numbers at the moment seem extremely arbitrary, and I definitely agree with you about Conflict at the Carrock. I'm very curious to see if the "Difficulty Level" system will actually end up being useful, or if'll stay, well, arbitrary.

In the long run, the numbers may end up meaning something different. As mentioned before, quests will have to get exponentially tougher as time goes by because of the larger card pool. But how does it balance? A quest may be, say, difficulty 5 against today's card pool, but it will not be so a year from now. A quest that comes out in the future may be rated a difficulty 3 at that time, although if it were released today, it may be a 6. I believe, in the future, the numbers will reflect the level of difficulty against the existing card pool but will not make sense if you were to compare quests against each other.

This is all purely speculation of course, but I'm not sure if we'll ever see the numerical difficulty ratings of existing scenarios change (in an errata or something). I think that it'll probably end up being similar to when expansion packs are released for an MMO and the level cap for characters is raised. For example, a scenario currently rated "4" may always be "difficulty level 4," but as our pool of cards continues to grow and we (presumably) experience power creep, difficulty level 4 will simply represent less of a challenge than it used to be. In this same vein, I think that eventually we will see difficulty levels continue to rise as expansions come out, so that the introductory scenario for our first deluxe expansion may be difficulty 8 or something, instead of the 1 that we see in Passage Through Mirkwood, even though (considering the current pool of cards at the time of release), these quests may be approximately equal in difficulty.

The numbers are all relative to each other anyway - it's not like there's some Platonic quest out there against which all other quests are measured.

As long as 1 is easier than 4 is easier than 7, we're good. My experience playing mostly solo and two player is that these numbers are pretty representative.

As expansions come out, it's just a matter of pegging where on that scale each new quest falls. If it's tougher than the intro quest but easier than journey down the anduin, f'rex, it's just a matter of figuring out whether it's closer to one or the other to peg it at 2 or 3.

As the card pool expands, the quest numbers can easily stay the same, because the raw difficulty doesn't actually matter - a difficulty 1 quest is still the "easiest" regardless of just how easy that is. If anything, as card pool grows for player decks and (theoretically) makes the game easier, we'll probably just see the ceiling on quest difficulty go up as tougher and tougher quests are designed.

My guess on Hunt for Gollum is that it'll be on the low side, maybe even a 2. It's the beginning of a new cycle after all. It wouldn't surprise me if we jump around a bit during the cycle though. The trolls will probably be tougher, so probably a 6 or even higher, but then we might come back down for the 3rd pack to something in the middle range. So, for example, difficulties might look like: 2,6,3,5,4,8 (or something). More variety than a purely linear progression of difficulty.

Perhaps, as the top limit for threat may go above 50, the difficulty of quests will reach above 10. After one or two 'rounds' of CPs, maybe a CP will introduce a quest of challenge at 11 or higher.

I can also see multiple 'sets' of quests for Nightmare mode. The Hunt for Gollum may introduce quests of 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 (with perhaps a 'resting CP' where there is no quest, only player cards). I think it would be great to see some 'resting CPs' along the way where they are all player cards without any quest cards.

This game looks great, I can't wait to see the tournament setup.

Lightdarker said:

I agree. With new powerful cards coming out, they will render earlier scenarios increasingly more trivial if you use the new cards for them. But I expect the game to be hard, since a lot of the baddies in the universe are pretty nasty. Their journeys were not an easy thing. I've felt like this game strongly follows the logic of a storyline, and this would continue to go along with it. You figure out challenges only to be faced with greater ones.

I'd say the new one will be like a 4-5. Though right now I don't know what their formula really is. Difficulty can vary depending what you're playing with.

Though I also think certain cards will continue to be desireable and may even grow in power with more choices to combo with. Gandalf seems pretty universally useful.

I understand, that there has to be room for "improvement" in the difficulty scaling. It would make sense to place "Hunt for Gollum" ver low in rating (2 or 3), so the next expansions can rise.

On the other hand: The CS already has an average difficulty of 4. Going below that would be a little anticlimactic. I buy expansions with the expectations to get a rewarding scenario. Seeing how I already gathered a lot of playstyle- and deckbuilding-experience I wouldn't want to rush through the next scenario with ease. Frankly speaking: Mirkwood already bores me. Another scenario with a difficulty rating close to Mirkwood wouldn't be satisfying at all.

I hope "Hunt for Gollum" will have a difficulty rating around 3-5.

3 only if there are new gameplay-mechanics / twists, that keep the session easy but entertaining.

4 if there is a good risk vs. reward system involved in the scenario, which keeps it interesting.

5+ for another "just" challenging scenario.

I would also like to see a lower threat level for Hunt for Gollum. As it stands, two of the three scenarios present immediate problems which, for a solo player, reduce the number of viable decks.

As the set continues, I would love to see difficulty increase, and hope we can get scenarios that offer a challenge for larger play groups as well as the top-end solo decks.

Hey if you look on the first tutorial video you can see the quest cards of the hunt for gollum adventures pack!!! There is 3 card in quest and the first stage name is The hunt begin and there is 8 progress tokens and some forced text but i cannot read to small...... Maybe someone can get it with photo shop or something?

Should be 5+ other wise is boring

I would prefer it to be in the 2-3 range. As mentioned before, scenario 2 is a 4 and already requires specialized decks to come close to beating it. Having another viable option for solo decks would be appreciated.

I would agree, it would seem like with the core set, you have a quick progression for the three scenarios, but for the upcomming packs, it think they will progress in story fashion with ever increasing difficulty. I would say the first pack will be around a 2 or 3.

Arguably a 4-5 would be best, in an effort to give us another mid-level challenge.

I don't think it prudent to bother with another entry level or 'slightly higher' difficulty level than Passage Through Mirkwood, as this is an 'Introductory' Quest, something I always bring out to teach new players the game.

Passage Down the Anduin is about right for getting your deck-building up to scracth, and I predict with more cards being added to the card pool I would imagine that this would decrease the difficulty slightly as you obtain more options and more great combo's to throw at the encounter decks.

Just my thoughts.

Well, reports are that it is a 4 difficulty

Yep - it's a 4 !!!

Cool, that's what I expected and hoped for.

But as someone mentioned before. The difficulty level seems to refer to a standard two player game. So far I haven't played a three or four player game. Are they easier, more difficult or pretty much the same?

Both times I have tackled Journey Along the Anduin I have managed to knock it off and that was playing two mixed decks using nothing more than the single core set and two twin-sphere decks. Have no had two evenings of trying to crack Journey Along the Anduin as a three player with 2 core sets worth of cards and have failed both times...

Maybe we are just crap at building decks from this card pool or maybe we have been unlucky..??? It would be cool to hear others experiences at 3-4 player level.

Difficult should be increase. I happy its starting from 4 already. Its means they understand what they doing. They should be pleased all kind of gamers.

Someone waiting for the cooperative quest, someone for solo. So quest should be ok for any kind of playing. +Casual gamers also need something.

There is only 1 quest in adventure pack . You must make all kind of gamers happy.

With my last deck almost impossible to lose second quest in core set. First one is a joke. And third one is for cooperative but i play solo mostly.

So difficult 4 is ok. I hope i future we come to 5,6,7 and so on. I really waiting for the tournaments system. Hope this wiil be exiting!!!