Cthulhu / Squid Face class guide and strategy for Gloomhaven
MandatoryQuest
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Warning spoilers inside board game players! I cover all the cards, items, enhancements, and perks for the unlockable Cthulhu / squid face class and some tips on how to play.
One round dungeon clears with this class:
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00:00 Intro
01:36 Starting cards analysis
33:26 Starting cards selection
23:24 Starting cards and items overview
33:41 Level 2
38:15 Level 3
42:48 Level 4
48:40 Level 5
53:59 Level 6
59:07 Level 7
1:06:28 Level 8
1:15:07 Level 9
1:27:49 Final cards
1:28:06 Items (spoilers)
1:32:23 Perks
1:35:49 Enhancements
1:38:01 Outro
#gloomhaven #gloomhavendigital #boardgames
06.02.2023
![Squid Game Red Light Green Light Song [Red Light Green Light Squid Game Sound]](https://squidgame.quest/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/9jchitqvkiqmaxresdefault-1024x576.jpg)
I don't know why you'd want to use the bottom of Grim Bargain, but I think I know why the muddle is there. I theorize that it is there so that you can't strengthen it and make it super powered.
I've never had such a hard time deciding between two cards, as with Plagueherald's level 2 options. I need your guidance!
Honestly I don't see the advantage of Airborne Toxin, especially over either Spreading Scourge or Baneful Hex. Having to waste a non-damage top option only to put youself in melee range next to 2 to 3 enemies, with a conditional +1 range (still close to the frontline with multitarget/hex enemy attacks, plus all the ranged enemies you've now presented yourself to), just seems too risky for the reward.
On top of the fact we already have 2 move+curse bottom ability cards, which while only targeting 1 enemy at least make the risk bearable (no need to venture into deadly enemy surround nests in order to maximize your small range) plus the top ability still being available for the turn.
I also think Spreading Scourge at 8 shouldn't be skipped for it, it's a huge 2 damage AoE if they are poisoned (just as good as Accelerated End for non-shields), plus all the curse/positive rolls you mentioned, and the Muddle is pretty valuable for this character, as it doubles the speed at which their deck pulls curses – a lot of damage mitigation through +1/+2/2x denial and curse damage – when applied in such vast amounts through this card you start to notice it fast.
Instead, what I do to spam curses is to save money and upgrade Nightmarish Affliction, with the first one increasing it from 2 curses to either 3(100g) or 4(200g), and the second upgrade making it curse 6 times with a single usage. Over the course of 2 turns having their deck reach 8 curses is quite banal this way, and all with the safety of range.
Hi Mandatory Quest.Currently unlocked this class and i really like it. I also have some questions, maybe you can help answer them:1.) a little offtopic but you said in (i think) your party composition video that music note+squid+sun are a good combo. Does this combo still works if the third character isnt the sun (one of our players isnt sure which character he want to play, while the other one and i would play music note & squid)?=> are there special decks for the conbo or can i simply use the ones shown in your guides?2.) about the items for the squid: assuming i dont choose „cloak of pockets“ and instead choose „cloak of phase(ing)“ which small items would you recommend? Thank you very much for your guides. They helped me a lot.
Great guide. In a 4-player campaign, and we double retired last session. Brought in a fresh Cthulhu and Music Note at level 6, straight into a boss fight. Halfway through, we stumbled into the curse-disadvantage strategy and spent the last half of the mission laughing at how incompetent the enemies became. Glad to see I was on the right track, and I can't wait for level 7!
Curse, poison, support, or just all in damage? What’s your favourite way to build the PH?
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YES, finally been waiting for a guide on this one. I want to play him but unsure how to approach him in a 2 merc group
Wow, finally it's here. I have been looking forward to it for months. Thanks for your effort!
Thank you!
I've wanted this for soooooo long. Thank you! This is my favorite class
Hello Mandatory Quest and thank you for this guide. I currently play this charakter quite the same way. In the digital Edition i am already at lvl 9 and love the Mass Extinction. In our weekly boardgame party i am "only" lvl 7 right now, but it doesn't cut down the fun in any way.
I have a nice idea for the bottom side of grim bargain. Just imagine having the Drakescale Helm. You would be stengthend and double all the damage in one of these AoE's or multi targets. With a power potion added you could easily clear some rooms. 😉
I love how bad some of this classes cards really are and its very obvious they nerfed some stuff into the ground when they reprinted it.
Great content, thanks for sharing. Also one of my favorite classes in the game just because it's so thematic as you mentioned!
I think the only choice I'd push back on here is taking Airborne Toxin at 7 instead of Baneful Hex followed by Spreading Scourge. Even with air on Airborne Toxin, range 2 is just too close for my liking on this squishy character, especially when you have so many ranged enemies that will end up targeting 2 with huge range. In my experience I never had much of an issue loading up the monster deck with curses through Mass Extinction, flipping curses with Spreading Scourge, and enhancing Biting Gnats with curse as well. Of course you can get really crazy with Nightmarish Affliction enhancements too as you mentioned too!
Thanks again for the thoughtful work!
I personally really like using bombs for my hand slots, to really max out my burst curse early on in a mission
Awesome guide! One of my favorite class along with the Saw. I'm actually playing it now on our second run of Forgotten Circles.
It's always a blast to play, from level 1 to 9.
It's got a kind of weird level progression, as it has better attacks early and as it levels up ( mostly after level 4-5) and replacing your card it damage output lowers ( if you don't count Baneful Hex)
For enhencements, Biting Gnats is a great blank canvas.
+1 attack.or wound, and +1 target transform it in a reusable Fire Orb with a range of 4!
A great investment IMO
Awesome guide!!!
Thanks for all your hard work! Your guides have been incredibly helpful!
Awesome content! I just discovered the game recently and this is helping me a lot! Any chance you are working on the sawbones guide?
Where is the blinkblade review?
What is the character that her is referring to as a good combo? I have all 17 mercs in gloomhaven digital but it still wasn't obvious to me
One meme-y use case I could come up with for Convert the Flock is combining it with Grim Bargain bottom and that helm that makes muddle useful, so you get a two highest-level lost cards combo for 24 damage. But that still seems hardly enough given the double loss and some amount of hoops needed to jump through to set it off.
Slowly digesting all your guides, thanks for making them all! Enjoying the content
Great vid! I’m a noob who literally just started playing so sorry if my question is dumb, but how do you unlock the plagueherald?
Just curious I know U said you didn't want to spoil it but who does this character combo really well with?
My nephew and I have been debating this class's potential and we found that the poison build is, by far, his strongest damage build. Many people like the curse build, however I've found that it has 2 fundamental flaws. 1). Any additional damage from curses requires that the enemy draw those curses which, based on probability, is a low chance. 2). CC is king in Gloomhaven. Not allowing enemies to draw from the modifier deck is far more effective than allowing them to draw and hope that they draw a curse. Don't get me wrong, curses are great when you run out of CC, but poison has too many advantages over curses. Statistically speaking, with 10 curses in the deck AND if you can force the enemy to attack with disadvantage, they will still hit you over 50% of the time. That's not a great strategy. Dead enemies do no damage, and curses left in the deck aren't effective.
The real hidden gem for this class is Willing Sacrifice. It works with movement granted from other classes as well. It's brutally powerful when paired with the Soothsinger and can eliminate priority targets with ease. Especially if you use the song which allows you to before each attack which would allow Willing Sacrifice to be used. We have been opening 2 doors at once with this class and crushing enemies by turn 4.
One of the disappointing things that we experienced was that Baneful Hex just didn't really do much damage throughout a scenario. a 1/3 (assuming you have 10 in the deck) chance to draw a curse and take 3 damage just.. doesn't make the cut, ESPECIALLY, at high levels. There was never a time when Baneful Hex was so impactful that it blew us away. Most enemies have so much life at higher levels that 3 damage is just.. meh.
I encourage you to try the poison build! It's been a lot of fun for our group. Additionally, this is something to remember…. the poison build STILL prevents damage via curse loading, it just doesn't waste potential damage for actual damage.
What do you think of bombs for the single target ranged curse attacks?
Awesome guide! Related question about Spread the Plague, is it suppose to always poison the Plagueherald as well? Or is that just a bug in the digital version?
One enhancement I've found useful is adding Curse to the top of Paralyzing Bite, although possibly too expensive now with the rebalancing in digital. I found myself frequently killing with my 3/4 attack curse cards at earlier levels and not getting the curse since enemies have to be alive to be cursed. Paralyzing Bite is only being used when I'm not able to kill an enemy. I think Nightmarish Affliction is a better card to enhance, probably Winged Congregation as well, but past that there's not much that stands out except perhaps adding an effect to Biting Gnats (which may be a card you swap out then bring back in after saving for that more expensive enhancement).
Instead of black Tide at lvl 7 you can pick up that other lvl 6 card
**Other Class Spoiler***
Playing the Note now. Seeing Baneful Hex, the synergy is just setting off HUGE ALARMS in my head. Dirge + Hex is super powerful.
I've been playing this class a bit now and there's a couple things I do different: I take under the skin and not rot maggots because I don't play solo and poisoning your allies will happen a lot at range 2. Shield-busting is also important to be able to repeat. Bonus: fixes move issues and may allow to get initiative boots instead which is nice to fix on this character. I also keep bitting gnats and enhance curse and targets on it (on tabletop this also stays for all future characters created and is a great customized power buff) it allows to simply "top-up" curses on demand. I also ignore airborne toxin because the range is too small or needs equipment or elements to use effectively. I end-up taking Spreading scourge at level 8 for all those flips and muddle will really force enemies to miss and catch your curses (which is also why you need to "top-up" with things like bitting gnats). I found that this scales really well with my party and would probably just use different enhancements if my party dished curses themselves and there was an overload of them.
Hey, great video and guide as always!
I really love your GH videos!! Feel like you touched all points really well but I wanted to add my opinion when playing this class SPECIFICALLY with Music Note (SPOILERS LOCKED CLASS AHEAD!) since they work sooo well together and facilitates most of your stuff. Also, currently playing music note with a friend with chutulu + sun and 3 spears.
If music note has one of the 2 songs that heal allies, then Spread the plague is literally a +1 for free basically. My friend just poison someone each turn and you dont care since musicnote just cancels it almost for free. Sometimes it can be a bit annoying but if healing is really needed you can opt to not poison one turn.
At lvl 7 you can (and should/must) go for Baneful Hex if music note is lvl 4 or higher. Disorienting dirge is OP as hell so you dont have to curse so much yourself. You put 2-3 curses, the note puts the rest and there you go. Also it's way easier to keep the monster's deck stacked since 2 classes are adding curses regularly (if at 10, bard just switches to the disadvantage song and problem solved).
Music note helps you survive and play more aggressively. My friend can go nuts sometimes and doesn't need to care with positioning since he knows my note has heals/dmg negation/cc to protect him and buff him(strengthen and blesses go really well with chutulu deck).
To sum up, lots of classes go really well with the music note but i think chutulu really is one of the best companions for music note, they really synergize SO WELL that I wanted to share this contribution of ideas 🙂
The Spellweaver does not get a kill one enemy effect
The bottom of virulent strain with the top of Accelerated End seems like it could work super well
Bottom of Grim Bargain with item no. 108?
Use it to fire off convert the flock. And then re-spec into a better build.
Edit: For some extra fun, run:
-108
-73
-43
-54
-41
-56
Big numbers go brrrr.
(Yes. I know this is probably terrible)
If you play Airborne Toxin top, consume Air and have a Hawk Helm, will you target all enemies within range 3? Awesome guides btw!
I go back at lvl 6 to take both Accelerated End/Willing Sacrifice. Neither of the lvl 6 cards do too much for you (Stinging Clouds has a better alternative at lvl 8 for Mass muddle and Black Tides is nice move and Dark but you can get it through other cards). Willing Sacrifice potentially turns all your move abilities into Move + Deal 3 true damage with infinite range/no LoS requirement for the rest of the scenario which is really good while Accelerated End of course just synergizes with poisoning everything.
Which character does he refer to as ~that little character?