Darkest Dungeon Board Game – What’s inside the box
I cracked opened all the components of Darkest Dungeon and counted them so you don’t have to.
If you’d like to get a better feel of these components I have an unboxing video here:
The Darkest dungeon Board Game – Kickstarter controversy
The Darkest Dungeon board game has been met with controversy: the Kickstarter project didn’t go as smoothly as planned, and a lot of rumors are going on. Allegedly, some people didn’t receive their game, years after pledging for the campaign. Others have received incomplete games, and some backers say mythic games are “holding their copy of Darkest Dungeon hostage” by asking for additional payments to fulfill the pledge. PC Gamer have a good summary of the situation, which basically boils down to the dramatic increase in shipping costs that happened around the COVID-19 and Ukraine war over the past few years. The Darkest dungeon Kickstarter was unfortunately happening right around that time period. Nowadays, it’s quite frequent for kickstarters to warn ahead of time that shipping costs might change (generally, increase) once the game is ready to be shipped. As a matter of fact, most kickstarters I backed in recent years have increased their shipping costs with an additional credit card charge on me. It’s the new industry standard, whether we like it or not. Bottom line, I don’t personally think Mythic Games are to blame for the shipping cost situation, but I do feel bad for backers who got caught in this.
Also, not having send all backer copies by now is quite surprising, if not infuriating: I personally bought my copy on sale on Miniature Market (direct link here, they still have copies at the time of writing – Amazon have some too), and, including shipping from the US to Japan, it cost me less than what backers paid…and I got my game before some of them? That’s certainly unfair, even if this time I was on the “right” side of the fence, I don’t think that’s acceptable.
Anyway, controversy aside, I was very happy with Miniature Market’s prices and service. It’s worth mentioning however that their shipping costs are a bit on the expensive side, and their packages travel much, much slower than Amazon internationally. My game took about a month to reach my doorstep, compared to about 2 weeks when I order from Amazon to my home in Japan. However, Miniature Market sometimes have really great prices, better selection than Amazon on board games, which sometimes counterbalances the shipping costs and pain. I’m adding them to my list of recommended retailers for English board games in Japan.
Darkest dungeon Board Game – What’s in the box
This is for the Core game, which is actually 2 boxes: The Core box + the Miniature box (aka Strongbox). My copy is apparently not exactly the “kickstarter dungeon pledge” (in particular it does not include the kickstarter exclusive “Musketeer” hero), but rather the retail version that is referred to as the “collector’s edition” on Mythic Games’s site. It does however include a message intended for backers, so that part is a bit confusing.
TL,DR
The “components” page of the rulebook is basically accurate, with the following caveats:
- In addition to the components listed on the manual, the box includes some “additional contents” as follows (note: your version of the manual might be up to date if you got a “reprint” or a corrected “2nd wave”, mine wasn’t):
- 4 additional “level 3” boss cards
- 10 additional XP tokens
- 10 additional buff tokens
- Depending on the edition you get, your version might or might include an additional “kickstarter exclusive” Musketeer hero. Mine didn’t.
The base game includes 11 heroes (Crusader, Hellion, Bounty Hunter, Highwayman, Vestal, Jester, Abomination, Occultist, Grave Robber, Arbalest, Plague Doctor)
Speaking of the rulebook, it has been quite difficult to find online. A working link at the time of writing can be found here.
Strongbox (miniatures)
- 122 Monster & boss miniatures
- 12 Hero miniatures (11 Heroes but Abomination has 2 miniatures)
- 1 torch (“party”) miniature
- 1 caretaker miniature
Core box
- 1 message for backers
- 1 advertising sheet for HEL and Rainbow 6 board games
- 1 limited edition “snort” print
- 14 double-sided room tiles (13 room tiles + 1 PVP Arena)
- 1 light board
- 2 Stance boards
- 1 Hamlet Board
- 1 “first game” getting started manual (tutorial)
- 1 Rule book
- 14 Dungeon tiles (12 normal tiles + 2 “darkest dungeon” tiles)
- 4 hero dashboards
- 1 Save sheet notepad (approx 30 sheets)
- 1 Save box
- ziplocs for storage (approx. 5)
- 32 dice (16 white provision dice, 8 black exploration dice, 4 death’s door red dice, 4 “regular’ gray D10)
Cards
- 22 PVP Hero Cards
- 23 Hero cards
- 16 boss square cards
- 4 monster square cards
- Mini cards pack 1
- 38 trinkets
- 11 diseases
- Mini cards pack 2
- 17 positive quirks
- 18 negative quirks
- 5 afflictions
- 5 virtues
- 8 initiative cards
- Mini cards packs 3 & 4
- 231 hero skill cards (21 cards per hero * 11 heroes)
- “Regular” size cards pack
- 17 Room cards
- 8 Boss room cards
- 17 “stygian” room cards
- 24 Curio cards
- Tarot size card packs:
- 89 monster cards (54 in pack 1, 35 in pack 2)
- 60 boss cards (in packs 2 and 3 except for 4 level 3 cards included in “additional contents”)
- 16 hamlet events (in pack 4)
- 19 Quest cards (in pack 4)
- 6 player aids (in pack 4)
Tokens
- 11 Hero “Stance” tokens
- 14 Hamlet tokens
- 56 (Heart) wound tokens (12×10, 12×5, 32×1)
- 1 Round token
- 1 light/days (“torch”) token
- 4 “Waiting hero” helmet tokens
- 1 Party token
- 1 Caretaker Token
- 10 loot tokens
- 21 room tokens
- 1 firewood token
- 12 monster tokens (4xblack, 4xwhite, 4xgray)
- 4 stress counters
- 30 xp tokens (20x 1 – 10 originally, 10 added as “additional content” –, 10×5)
- 25 gold tokens (10×1, 10×5, 5×10)
- 6 (armor) protection tokens
- 9 (shield) guard tokens
- 9 riposte tokens
- 9 mark tokens
- 9 stun tokens
- 12 debuf tokens
- 30 buff tokens (20 originally, 10 added as “additional content”)
- 28 bleed tokens (double sided, with values 1, 2, 3, 4)
- 28 blight tokens (double sided, with values 1,2,3,4)