Things I Forget When Creating New Characters in Gloomhaven

July 11, 2020 ( last updated : July 11, 2020 )
gloomhaven rules levelling

After not playing Gloomhaven for a bit, my wife and I opened up the box to realize that she needed to retire her character and make a new one before we play the scenario. Easy enough we thought, we opened up the rule book to ensure we were doing it the right way and… Lo and behold we had forgotten about things that make a fairly large difference.

1. Perks

When you create a new character you get perks equal to the number of characters you have previously retired. This is something we both had forgotten about in the past so it was quite the surprise when we read that portion of the rules.

2. You get to do city activities before you retire

Before you retire you’ll be able to do various city activities such as buying items and donating to the sanctuary. This might not seem like a big deal or even related to creating a new character, but sometimes these activities have side effects such as increasing Gloomhaven’s…

3. Prosperity

Your character is able to be created at a level less than or equal to the current prosperity of Gloomhaven. Due to something we unlocked in an earlier game, one of those city activities my wife took part in before retiring increased the prosperity of the city to 3, meaning my wife was able to create a character that immediately levels up to 3. Not only does she get the extra cards for each level but levelling up also gives perks, meaning she starts this character with FOUR perks (2 from her retired characters and 2 from levelling up).

We haven’t played with her new character yet, but I bet they will be formidable! I’m not super close to my character’s retirement goal but hopefully I’ll remember these few things when I create my next character.