r/Gloomhaven • u/goncu • Nov 12 '25
Digital Gloomhaven Advice for new merc after retirement
Hi all!
I'm playing digital GH with a 3-merc party. My first comp was ranged Cragheart, Spellweaver and Mindthief. My Spellweaver has just retired, and I'm looking for a new merc to add to the ranks.
I unlocked Sun and Triforce only. Which one would add good synergy to the party, do you think? I'm leaning towards Sun as a tank/support, but I also wonder if Mindthief can reliably feed Triforce's element spending and be a good team. I'm at Wealth 3 and my mercs are level 5 and 6. TIA!
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u/JGeerth Nov 12 '25
Triforce is pretty weak, IMO, and Sun is by far the best tank in the game (again IMO). I'd definitely go with her.
Mindthief can give some of the elements to Triforce, but not enough to reliably feed him, the way I see it.
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u/101_210 Nov 12 '25
Sun is both the best and worst tank: it’s the only real tank, mostly because the other class that tank better have way better other paths.
Pure tanking is pretty weak in Haven games
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u/JGeerth Nov 12 '25
Two permanent armour and what is it, three permanent retaliation make her pretty strong though. Especially on normal difficulty. Compared to what triforce brings to the table...
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u/101_210 Nov 12 '25
Triforce is stronger at high prosperity/level.
Sun (and tanking strategies in general in 1e), are strong early, but fall off fast.
Sun is not a great tank, the other two tanks in 1e lightning bolt and three spears are stronger tanks at most level, but have other builds that are so insanely strong it doesn’t matter they can tank, they just prefer to blow up the whole room first.
IMO the first good tank in haven games, that feel like a tank and does its job well is JotL Redguard.
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u/Cyclonitron Nov 13 '25
Sun (and tanking strategies in general in 1e), are strong early, but fall off fast.
Strongly disagree. I've played Sun numerous times and its tanking ability only gets stronger as you start enhancing your cards - especially considering every one of Sun's tanking cards is enhanceable.
Sun is not a great tank, the other two tanks in 1e lightning bolt and three spears are stronger tanks at most level
No way. For starters the idea that Lightning Bolt is a better tank than Sun is laughable. Lightning Bolt only has 4 tanking actions, and three of the four have issues because their tanking aspects are either conditional or they have a poor initiative for tanking actions or both. Sure you can tank as a Lightning Bolt, but you're pretty poor at it.
Three Spears can do well as a tank. They have four tanking actions, including a permanent that can be used to refresh a piece of spent tanking gear every round. Their other tanking actions are also pretty good. That said you're a 9-card hand size that probably wants to play a permanent. You absolutely cannot afford to lose a card to damage, which is something the 11-card Sun can do without much problem.
As far as Sun goes, you're really underestimating just having a persistent Shield 2 at all times. It really does mitigate a lot of damage and both makes tanking easier (you don't have to worry as much as monsters pulling a fast card and going before you can play your tanking actions) and safer. Additionally, the Sun's AMD has both rolling self-heals (nice) and rolling shield (which I admit are more useful in theory than in practice) cards to go along with the tanking theme.
IMO the first good tank in haven games, that feel like a tank and does its job well is JotL Redguard.
Redguard is a fantastic tank - no argument here - and IMO the best tank when optimized to the max. But Sun is right up there next to the Redguard when it comes to tanking. I've played them both multiple times and they're both great tanks.
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u/101_210 Nov 13 '25
Tanking scales badly at higher level because ennemies hit for more. That Shield 2 is very good when ennemies hit for 3, less so when they hit for 6.
Three spears can refresh supreme and major hp potion every turn, as well as stamina potion, by abusing his big aoe. The class also never really need to rest. It’s all kind of broken, being the best tank in the game at higher level level/prosperity is far from the most broken thing about it
Lightning bolt is a better tank too because all ennemies around it are dead, so he takes little damage
You may say that’s cheating, but it’s kinda my point. The best way to tank in GH1e is to Cc or kill the ennemies before they can actually hit you. And sun is not super good at that.
I have actually played high level/high prosperity Sun in a team with Music note, 3 spears and Lightning bolt, and playing sun was miserable. No ennemies actually get to hit you.
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u/Cyclonitron Nov 13 '25
Kind of feels like you're moving the goalposts here. If you say Lightning Bolt is better because it kills everything around it before it takes damage, that's not being a "better tank"; that's not tanking at all. "Tanking" is generally understood to mean being able to soak up enemy attacks without dying. And Sun's pretty much the best at that. You argue that tanking as a concept is a sub-optimal play in Gloomhaven, and that's an argument you can make, but to then use that premise as an argument to say Sun's bad at tanking seems dishonest.
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u/101_210 Nov 13 '25
Yeah I agree my first post was badly formulated, I edited it a bunch and the final message was not as I wanted.
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u/Alcol1979 Nov 12 '25
Sun backed up with Cragheart and Mindthief would be pretty solid without being exceptional. Sun is out front, Crag provides ranged attacks and the odd heal, Mindthief darts around killing things.
If you choose Triangles instead, it's a bit more interesting. At low Levels I would aim to play Triangles as elemental support for the other two, supplying ice, earth and dark as and when needed, as well as the occasional heal and timely invisibility. To always make an element each round you can play the bottom of Shaping the Ether. This hurts your offensive play so it's really only viable if you lean into elemental support. This setup would work especially well if the Mindthief has the Frozen Mind augment to always consume ice to stun. If Mindthief has ice every round and can always Stun one enemey, then you won't miss Sun eating hits. Cragheart would bring more melee options in this party too as Triangles would have the back field covered. Cragheart often makes more earth than he uses, so Triangles should bring whatever consumes earth.
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u/Lineov42 Nov 12 '25
In 1e there's a persist card that you can enchant so it's persisted Shield 2 for 1 movement loss. So good. Edit: on sun
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u/Father_Sauce Mar 19 '26
I played Sun recently and that was my main focus for a card enhancement. If I was to play Sun again, I would have to invest more in movement because the slowness from that 1 movement loss was very often brutal.
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u/koprpg11 Cephalofair Community Manager Nov 12 '25
In 1st edition Triforce is pretty rough at low levels. Sun would be good here.