New to AH so forgive me if this is a newbie question.

I am a bit confused on the differences between closed and sealed gates. I need five clues in order to seal a gate. So what is the advantage of sealing a gate over just closing it?

Can closed gates be reopened?

gritbaby said:

A sealed gate gets that little Elder Sign token put on it. If you get six seals on the board, you win the game, which is pretty cool.

If you draw a Gate at that location, no gate opens, no monsters appear, and no Doom token gets placed. That's even cooler.

If you draw a Gate Burst at that location, your seal goes away, a gate shows up, and monsters get placed as normal. That's bad. But the removal of the seal happens instead of adding a doom token, so it's still pretty cool.

-Frank

Exactly. Closed gates can be reopened the next time their graphic shows on a Mythos card.

A sealed gate gets an elder sign token on it and cannot be reopened the rest of the game. If the graphic comes up, you get to ignore opening a gate and get a bit of a breather. In addition, any encounter or other event that would spawn a monster at a sealed location is also ignored.

So it is tyupically better to seal than close. The advantage to closing vs. sealing is that if you happen to close all gates and have an collection of gate trophies equal to investigators, you win. Another advantage is to close enough so that Final Battle isn't triggered because of the number of open gates.

ColtsFan76 said:

However, winning by closing all gates is made easier if you seal more locations. But while closing gates (without sealing them) keeps the number of open gates down, you're also freeing up a spot for a new gate to open, which would add another doom token. It's a balancing act in Arkham sometimes.