Frosthaven – The Massive Standalone Sequel to Gloomhaven

A struggling outpost at the edge of the frozen wilderness, over 100 scenarios, and everything that made Gloomhaven the top-rated game on BoardGameGeek — now built even deeper.

How to Play — Watch First

Frosthaven is Isaac Childres and Cephalofair Games' answer to an impossible question: how do you follow up the highest-rated board game on BoardGameGeek? Released in 2022 after a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, Frosthaven takes everything that made Gloomhaven a legend — card-driven tactical combat, a massive branching campaign, brilliant no-dungeon-master monster AI — and builds an entirely new game around it, set in a struggling frontier outpost at the edge of civilization.

The story follows a small settlement, Frosthaven, barely surviving the harsh northern wilderness — threatened by Algox mountain raiders, sea-dwelling Lurkers, and rumors of wandering machines. A party of mercenaries becomes the outpost's only hope, fighting through more than 100 scenarios while building up the settlement itself between missions.

Players who complete a Frosthaven campaign consistently describe the town-building layer as the game's biggest evolution — watching Frosthaven grow building by building, season by season, gives every combat mission a sense of purpose that the original Gloomhaven's city never quite achieved.

What Is Frosthaven?

Frosthaven is a cooperative legacy-style dungeon crawler for 1 to 4 players. Like Gloomhaven, combat is driven entirely by a hand of ability cards — no dice, no dungeon master, just careful management of a limited hand across each scenario. Where Frosthaven expands the formula is everything that happens between fights.

The new outpost-building layer gives players real agency between missions: constructing buildings that unlock new services, managing resources gathered during scenarios, and living through a seasonal event calendar that changes what's available and what threats loom. Combat still feels like Gloomhaven at its best — but the surrounding structure gives every scenario more weight.

What's New Since Gloomhaven

How Does It Play?

Combat plays exactly as Gloomhaven veterans expect: each turn, choose two cards from your hand, play one action from the top of one and the bottom of the other. Manage your dwindling hand carefully — resting recovers cards but costs a turn and permanently discards one for the scenario. It's still some of the most satisfying tactical combat in board gaming, and Frosthaven refines several rough edges from the original — clearer card layouts, better component organization, and quality-of-life improvements throughout.

The town phase between scenarios is where Frosthaven distinguishes itself. Resources gathered during missions fund new buildings back home, each unlocking new mechanical options — a blacksmith for better gear, a sanctuary for healing services, and more. Random seasonal events between scenarios introduce narrative surprises and new threats, giving the campaign a sense of a living, evolving world rather than a static string of missions.

Character progression follows the same satisfying arc as the original — classes unlock gradually, retire upon reaching personal goals, and hand off to new recruits — but Frosthaven's unlock triggers are less predictable than Gloomhaven's, which some players find adds mystery and others find frustrating when waiting for a specific class to become available.

Rating Breakdown

Pros & Cons

Who Is This Game For?