Resident Evil Deck Building Game - Tips & Strategies

With any DBG it may sound silly to say “getting cards out of your deck is a good thing”. But in Resident Evil, it’s not the only viable strategy towards building a good deck to take on the Mansion. Cards like “Item Management” allow you to cycle up your Ammo into larger ammo, which gives you an increase in production for the cost of a single card, as opposed to buying up larger amounts of ammo and then trying to trash out the lower cost ones. It helps keep your deck size small, but still allows you to purchase more powerful weapons and actions. There are other cards that allow you to replace cards on the top of your deck or pull cards out of your discard pile, so you can get many uses of the same weapon before it shuffles into your deck.

So the next time you go about building your deck for Resident Evil, try looking at cards that allow for multiple uses of the same weapons, or a way to keep your deck thin, but to ‘trade up’ your ammo into better ammo for those late game weapons.

Resident Evil DBG has a great video game feel. From the different game modes (including a timed one), scenarios and characters and the actual victory condition that you have to beat a “boss” to end the game. (even though you win with the most Decorations).

After several plays, and in two of them meeting the boss: Uroboros Aheri, fairly soon in the Mansion deck, we decided to try to give the game a more of a video game flow.

Instead of inserting Uroboros Aheri in the Mansion Deck and shuffling the whole thing, leave the boss out. Then…

1. Separate the Mansion Deck into three equal piles, insert Uroboros Aheri into one of them and shuffle that deck. Set it aside.

2. Put the other two stacks ( without Uroboros Aheri in them) and shuffle them together.

3. Place the smaller third of the mansion (with Uroboros Aheri) on the table, then place the other shuffled two-thirds on top.

You now have a Mansion Deck that, like a video game, guarantees you won’t meet the Boss until the final stages of the game.

There are pros and cons. This house rule made survival much easier in the earlier stages of the game. It did however take away a bit of the tension of the game. I mean, there is something to be said for thinking the boss can be lurking around the next corner at any time.

But in most cases, using the Mansion Deck as is, the exploring player felt they had to at least meet the damage requirements of Uroboros Aheri(90 damage) or they might as well not explore. There are some pretty strong Infected in the Mansion Deck as it is, and you can still get smoked, but with this house rule, you can take more chances earlier in the game. Then, when the latter third of the deck begins to be explored, the tension rises, knowing you have reached the deepest part of the mansion where Uroboros Aheri lurks.

We liked the way the game flowed made players more confident, less useless cards in your deck, and built tension in the endgame. Try it!

Almost without doubt, the first two purchases should be the 30 cost ammo. The reason is to open the opportunity to hit a 50 or 60 cost purchase on turn 3 or 4. This means a Ominous battle purchase or umbrella corp. The ominous is the better choice hands down due to the destruction and draw power but umbrella gives you options if you cant buy it right away.

Sometimes during a game, you might want to help keep another player in the game so that they can weed out some of the monsters that you can’t handle yet. Or just because you want to be a nice guy (or gal).

You can use a green herb or a combination of green herbs on another player during your turn; the card says that you can heal a character, not YOUR character specifically. Such a use of a herb might earn you a little reciprocation when you’re in a tough spot later on, as well.

Sometimes the cards gross me out so I like to pretend they are something else. Like Uborous Injection looks to me like a guy enjoying a nice bite of delicious licorice ropes.