Elder Sign: Unseen Forces - Tips & Strategies

Out of the box Elder Sign isn’t the most difficult game. Random, yes. Difficult, no. After the first couple of plays I started looking into tweaking the difficulty and it’s amazing how many variants people have come up with to increase the difficulty of Elder Sign, ranging from the obvious adding of a mandatory doom token every midnight to the more complicated face-down variants.

The easiest way to officially adjust the difficulty is with the expansion, Unseen Forces, which is a great expansion and I will always include it. But it didn’t change what bothered me the most: being devoured.

According to the official rules, when you are devoured, you just draw another character. Yep. Cheap. If I were and Elder God, I would put an end to life on Earth too…cheating investigators. Another way you can play is with player elimination. Elimination forces you to be more careful about your choices but it’s never fun being the last player in a cooperative game, or at least this one.

So. How do I deal with being devoured. Well, I followed in the footsteps of Elder Sign‘s granddaddy Arkham Horror and decided to add the “delayed” mechanic. This is how it works.

1. You are reduced to zero stamina or zero sanity.
2. Lose all items and trophies.
3. If zero stamina, go to the First Aid Station. If zero sanity, go to the Chapel.
4. Regain all stamina OR sanity, whichever was reduced to zero. You do not regain items.
5. You lose your next turn, but the clock still moves.

We’ve played this way several times and it definitely adds tension to the game without making it crushingly difficult. In addition, do not let the Chapel or First Aid Station get closed. If they close, you cannot regain stamina or sanity and you are truly devoured. There’s nothing I can do to save you. Sorry.