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Hidden Truths

Published 18 March 2026 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Hidden Truths

Announcing the Release of the Arkham Grimoire

Greetings, investigators!

After digging through the long-forgotten archives of Orne Library, the Arkham Horror: The Card Game design team is pleased to present the Arkham Grimoire. This is a collection of guidelines, player aids, and comprehensive rulings that aims to cover all known situations in the game. The Grimoire contains detailed information pertaining to advanced topics, such as the interpretation of card text, the resolution of timing conflicts, frequently asked questions, and all keywords and other rules in the game. It will be maintained online and updated regularly as new cards are introduced and new interactions are discovered. The previous Chapter One Rules Reference and FAQ will remain online for legacy content, but the Arkham Grimoire is intended to be the definitive resource for all current and future rules clarifications, FAQs, and other reference materials.

The first part of the Grimoire contains an extensive glossary with various terms, rules, and keywords. It is followed by detailed timing charts for setup and gameplay, along with diagrams for card anatomy and each card type. Expanded rules for campaign play and deck customization can also be found here, along with rules for standalone play.

The back half of the Grimoire contains several familiar sections from the Chapter One FAQ. Here, players can find a list of errata and card clarifications, frequently asked questions, and references for set (and now scenario) icons. A number of previous clarifications and/or rulings from the old Chapter One FAQ have also been incorporated as official rules in Chapter Two.

This section also contains the new list of “modified reprints.” Longtime players may recognize a handful of player cards that have returned to the card pool from Chapter One products, some of which are now sporting modified and/or tweaked abilities. Some of these changes were made in the interest of rebalancing certain card types, such as with Melee weapons like Machete. Others, such as core skill cards like Perception or Manual Dexterity, have received new art and mechanical text that slightly changes the card's function while retaining its classic identity. If players wish to play in the Legacy environment with both Chapter One and Chapter Two products, they cannot mix and match a reprint with its previous iteration; only one version of each of these cards may be used in a player's deck.

The Arkham Grimoire also presents official guidelines on how to play within the game’s Current, Limited, and Legacy environments. These environments determine the card pool from which players will assemble their decks and offer a variety of different play experiences for both new and returning players to explore. A list of products that compose the Current environment can be found here, and this list will be updated regularly as new products are released.

Finally, optional rules variants such as the Taboo List, Ultimatums, and Boons have been incorporated into the Grimoire as well. While the design team has not included any taboos in this initial release, this optional list will eventually include adjustments to card abilities and power levels as the game evolves and new, strange, and daemoniac harmonies emerge between cards in the current environment.

Read Or Die

With the Arkham Grimoire at your side, you will be equipped to take on any number of terrors, timing questions, card interactions, and unknown keywords. Happy investigating, and good luck!

Written by the Arkham Horror: The Card Game Design Team

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Intro to Arkham

Published 5 February 2026 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Intro to Arkham

A Guide for New Players Looking to Get into Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Dark entities work maliciously in the city of Arkham, doing everything within their power to realize unspeakable goals. Many of the city’s residents stand idly by or live in blissful ignorance of this growing darkness. Others, however, stand up and fight against these threats and do what they can to keep the city of Arkham and its citizens safe.

As an Arkham Horror: The Card Game hopeful, maybe you are interested in joining this defense against the Mythos, but you aren’t sure where to start. Or, perhaps, you have all the tools you need but aren’t sure how to put them to good use. Luckily, with proper guidance and understanding the basics of Arkham Horror, you’ll be confident to join the fight against the Mythos in no time.

All you need to start playing Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a copy of the core set. Within this core set, you’ll find five different investigators, a collection of player cards to build decks with, and a three-scenario campaign to play. Though the box contains pre-built decks for each investigator that you can play with immediately, you can also build your own decks with the cards included in the core set. While playing with the pre-built decks is a perfect way to jump in and start playing, understanding deckbuilding opens up more options to you as a player to express yourself through the game.

It is this player expression that makes Arkham Horror’s deckbuilding so exciting to delve into. Each investigator has a card pool with restrictions, but players are free to explore as they wish within those restrictions. One player can build Daniela Reyes (Core Set, 1) as a defensive support for the team, using cards like Bodyguard (Core Set, 16) to soak damage for others. But another player can build Daniela as a reckless damage dealer, using a Meat Cleaver (Core Set, 77) paired with Resilience (Core Set, 21) to maximize her damage output.

It’s this openness in deckbuilding that enables such deep exploration, letting players play the three-scenario campaign included in the core set multiple times, trying different decks and investigators. Different builds and team compositions can handle the campaign’s challenges in distinct ways, and discovering the strengths and weaknesses of each class and investigator is a key aspect of learning Arkham Horror.

The challenges will change from scenario to scenario, but for a better understanding of Arkham Horror: The Card Game, it’s important to know the foundational form that these challenges take. Deckbuilding can be daunting, and having the knowledge of how the game confronts you and your deck will provide a solid base for the decisions you make while building it. Let’s take a look!

The Three Pillars of Arkham Horror

When playing a scenario of Arkham Horror: The Card Game, the players will find themselves challenged by constant threats. There are enemies and pitfalls lurking around every corner, and players will need to find clues to unravel the mystery around them. These three aspects (enemies, survival, and finding clues) make up the three pillars of an Arkham Horror scenario. Managing all three is key, and knowing how they challenge you is an important baseline to learn.

Enemies can show up at any time, and they are threats that must be dealt with. If even the weakest enemy is left alone, it will cause chaos, hurting the investigators every turn. Hellhound (Core Set, 122), a monstrosity rampaging through the Miskatonic campus, is a terrifying creature that shows the risk an enemy can pose. With every attack, it will deal 1 damage and 1 horror to an investigator and also burn away the cards they control, costing valuable resources and setup time. This is why enemy management is crucial. An unchecked enemy will cause great stress for the investigators, but players have a variety of methods at their disposal to help manage them.

Enemies can be fought against their fight value, designated by the red number next to the fist symbol on the enemy’s card. Successful attacks—such as the Fight action on Machete (Core Set, 20)—can deal damage, and when enough damage is dealt to match the enemy’s health value (the black number in the center), that enemy is defeated. Instead of fighting the enemy directly, investigators can also evade enemies, testing against an enemy’s evade value (the green number next to the shoe symbol). This will exhaust the enemy for the turn, meaning that they won’t attack this round, but it also means they will eventually ready and become a threat again for the next one. Some enemies, like the aforementioned Hellhound, have keywords that pose additional challenges. In Hellhound’s case, it has the “hunter” keyword, which means it will continue to chase you down, even if you manage to temporarily escape from it.

The next pillar of an Arkham Horror scenario is survivability. This challenge asks how much physical and mental strain an investigator can take before they are defeated. While enemies can deal damage and horror when they attack, survivability is tested more commonly through treacheries drawn during the Mythos phase. Each player must draw a card during this phase, meaning that each player’s survivability will be tested in some way. Most treacheries, like Noxious Smoke (Core Set, 130), demand that the players take a one-time test and will punish them if they fail. Other treacheries, like Unspeakable Truths (Core Set, 125), will remain in play and pose a threat over multiple turns.

Each investigator needs to build a plan for how they will survive these treacheries, and it is important to keep their risk in mind both while deckbuilding and playing a scenario. Isabelle Barnes (Core Set, 13) can lean on Aleksey Saburov (Core Set, 72) to take damage and horror for her, while Dexter Drake (Core Set, 10) can use a Ward of Protection (Core Set, 65) to cancel the treachery at the cost of 1 horror. There are very rarely “wrong” ways to protect yourself in Arkham Horror, but it’s important that you have a plan and don’t go unprotected against the Mythos.

The final pillar of an Arkham Horror scenario is the act of investigating and discovering clues. Unlike enemies and survivability, investigating doesn’t have to do with how you lose, but rather it’s how you win. During a scenario, the agenda deck is how the game advances and attempts to defeat the investigators. The act deck, on the other hand, is the investigators’ method of advancing through and succeeding a scenario. Acts are often advanced through the collection of clues, so a team of investigators must strive to discover clues, and the pace at which they do so determines how many threats they may have to face.

Your Friend’s Room (Core Set, 113B) is a location you’ll come across in Spreading Flames, the first scenario in the new core set. This location has a shroud value of 2, which is the difficulty an investigator tests against while investigating that location for clues. Your Friend’s Room also has 2 clues per investigator, which are the clues you discover upon a successful investigation. Like enemies, locations can throw additional challenges or penalties at players, such as the Science Hall (Core Set, 118) causing investigators to discard cards from their hand upon discovering clues.

If an investigator can survive enemies and treacheries, but can’t get clues, they’ll live until the end of the scenario with nothing to show for it. Likewise, if an investigator can get clues but has no protection, they’ll be overwhelmed before they know it. This is why the key to finding success in a scenario is to balance the solutions for all three pillars.

The Five Classes

To manage these challenges, each investigator “class” approaches their solutions differently. There are five classes in the game—Guardians, Seekers, Rogues, Mystics, and Survivors—and each class brings their own strengths and weaknesses.

The Guardian class is the protector class. They do what they can to keep themselves and their teammates safe. They show off their combat prowess through allies like Logan Hastings (Core Set, 18) and powerful skill cards like Vicious Blow (Core Set, 25). When surrounded by enemies, they can turn the tide with a Lesson Learned (Core Set, 22) or Scene of the Crime (Core Set, 24). However, Guardians need time to set up for their battles and will often find themselves short on resources compared to other classes.

The Seeker class is the master of investigating. They have a variety of tools at their disposal to increase their ability to discover clues. They can utilize a Fingerprint Kit (Core Set, 31) to grab multiple clues at once, boosting their consistency with a Magnifying Glass (Core Set, 34) or Sharp Rhetoric (Core Set, 35). Additionally, Seekers can maximize their card draw potential, refilling their hand with a Laboratory Assistant (Core Set, 32) or Gather Intel (Core Set, 36). While Seekers are masters of investigating, they lack permanent solutions to enemies, offering temporary fixes instead.

The Rogue class find its strengths in movement and resource economy. Rogues can move across the map in the blink of an eye with skills like Out of Sight (Core Set, 53) and allies like Olivier Bishop (Core Set, 46), evading enemies and leaving them in the dust. That said, Rogues also bring their own style of enemy management to the table. They can utilize the M1903 Hammerless (Core Set, 45) to take enemies out or Paint the Town Red (Core Set, 51) to bring one into play in exchange for a few extra resources in their pocket. Survivability is the biggest weakness in a Rogue’s kit. Their recklessness puts them at a disadvantage against the Mythos deck, putting them at risk of getting overwhelmed by the horrors around them.

The Mystic class is the class of spellcasters in the world of Arkham Horror. A Mystic’s biggest strength is that they can do pretty much anything, but they have to risk something for that power. They can take advantage of Cosmic Flame (Core Set, 59) and Second Sight (Core Set, 62) for fighting and investigating respectively, but both of these spells run the risk of hurting them. A wise Mystic knows how to navigate the advantages and disadvantages of cards like Will of the Cosmos (Core Set, 66), which provide a great reward with a great risk. This is where Mystic’s weaknesses lie: they are powerful, but this power always comes at a cost.

Lastly, the Survivor class is the ultimate class of survivability and card recursion. They often brute force their way through challenges, taking them on without knowing whether they will come out on top. A rough scrape with an enemy can be mitigated through a clever use of Bandages (Core Set, 73) while a bad token pull can be softened with “Look what I found!” (Core Set, 78). Though Survivors are durable, they need to expend more of their cards to survive, which is why cards with recursion effects like Hunter’s Instinct (Core Set, 74) can be so lifesaving, allowing the investigator to find the right card at the right time. This class has to put in a bit more effort than the others, meaning that they pose the highest risk of getting outpaced by the scenario.

Deckbuilding

Even with the knowledge of the classes, it can be a daunting challenge to know how to best construct a deck, much less upgrade it with the experience you’ve gained during the course of a campaign. There are three fundamentals to help lay the beginnings of a good deck: the investigator’s role, the deck’s foundation, and the deck’s economy. Understanding these will give strong guidance for building any deck for any campaign.

An investigator’s role is likely the first decision you’ll make when deckbuilding after choosing an investigator. There are four main roles in Arkham Horror:

The Fighter: An investigator who focuses on defeating enemies.
The Cluever: An investigator who focuses on discovering clues.
The Flex: An investigator who does a little bit of both fighting and investigating.
The Support: Like a flex, but focuses more on helping their teammates excel or survive.

In the core set, Daniela Reyes and Isabelle Barnes would make good fighters, Joe Diamond (Core Set, 4) and Trish Scarborough (Core Set, 7) would make good cluevers, and Dexter Drake would make a strong flex. However, these investigators are not locked into these specific roles, and it’s always a good idea to include options for cards outside of your role. For example, between breaks of whacking enemies with her Meat Cleaver, Isabelle Barnes can pick up some clues with a “Look what I found!” or even Second Sight (since her deckbuilding options let her use some Mystic cards).

After deciding on your role, you’ll want to build a strong foundation to ensure that you can accomplish that role. To do this, you’ll want to include assets and events that help you with your role’s goal, and you’ll want enough of them so you can do your job reliably. Since she can include both Rogue and Seeker cards in her deck, Trish Scarborough will want to include multiple good investigation assets like Thieves’ Kit (Core Set, 49), Fingerprint Kit, and Local Map (Core Set, 33) to ensure that she draws one in her opening hand. After that, she’ll likely look at investigation events like Breaking and Entering (Core Set, 50) and Working a Hunch (Core Set, 38) to round out that consistency.

Lastly—and arguably most importantly—is your deck’s economy. This fundamental aspect of deckbuilding ensures that your deck has the ability to draw cards and also pay for them. While not the most exciting part of deckbuilding, it is crucial to make your economy a focus. A staple piece of Arkham Horror’s economy is Emergency Cache (Core Set, 89). Because it’s Neutral, every investigator can take it, and it provides a good starting point to ensure you have the resources for the cards you want to play. After that, you’ll want to look through your investigator’s card pool for what can draw cards (like Gather Intel in Joe Diamond) and what can gain resources (like Sticky Fingers (Core Set, 48) in Trish Scarborough).

After establishing a strong foundation for your deck, you can build around those cards. You will want to check if your deck has the survivability to manage the Mythos phase, and then you can add in what you feel would be powerful or fun. Maybe you want to use Prestidigitation (Core Set, 52) to swap assets in and out of play as Dexter Drake? Or maybe you want to use Jim Culver (Core Set, 60) to draw extra cards on top of your recursion effects with Isabelle Barnes? Explore the card pool and find what is fun for you, because Arkham Horror’s amazing deckbuilding is the perfect way to express yourself.

As you near the completion of your deck, another consideration is your deck’s “curve.” This checks the cost of all the cards in your deck and tracks how many of each resource cost you have. If you have a lot of cards that cost 3 or more, your deck’s curve is higher, meaning that you potentially would want to run more economy than if your deck’s curve was lower with mostly 1- or 2-cost cards. When you’re first building a deck, this can be hard to grasp, but it’s something that you can pay attention to while you play if you often feel that you have too many or too few resources.

Additionally, don’t feel like you shouldn’t include Neutral cards just because they aren’t in your investigator’s classes. The Neutral skill suite of Guts (Core Set, 90), Perception (Core Set, 93), Overpower (Core Set, 92), and Manual Dexterity (Core Set, 91) can all help you pass a test and grab an extra card, which can potentially find an answer to a future threat. Unexpected Courage (Core Set, 94) can help you pass any test, and that versatility shouldn’t be overlooked. Fedora (Core Set, 87) can soak a little damage or horror if you feel you’re missing some survivability, while Broken Bottle (Core Set, 86) or Hand-Crank Flashlight (Core Set, 88) can be another asset to help build the foundation of your role.

With all this said, don’t feel as though using the prebuilt decks is a bad place to start. If you want to immediately jump in and play, you can use the decks included in the core set. With these, you can get a good idea of the investigators and how they fit into their class, as well as see the three pillars of Arkham Horror in action. After getting a game or two in, you may feel more knowledgeable and confident to try building your own decks with the core set’s card pool.

Outro

There is a lot to discover in Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Jumping in and playing the core set is a great place to start. You may struggle as you begin to face the threats before you, and they may seem impossible to beat, but if you persevere and continue the fight against the Mythos, you’ll be surprised by what you’re capable of. Explore the card pool, get to know the investigators, and build decks that speak to you as you discover all the amazing stories that exist in Arkham Horror!

Written by Justin Cauti

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A Look at Things to Come

Published 22 January 2026 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

A Look at Things to Come

Presenting the Upcoming Product Lineup for Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Hello, Arkham Horror: The Card Game fans!

Back in November, during our In-Flight Report at PAX Unplugged, we gave a brief glimpse of what the product roadmap will be for this game in 2026. In case you missed the presentation or need a refresher, you can see that roadmap right here:

Today, we’d like to provide a full breakdown of what the different types of expansions for Arkham Horror: The Card Game will look like in the future. By the end of this article, you should have a good grasp of what sort of things to expect going forward, and spoiler alert: there’s quite a bit to be excited for!

Before we dive into the full breakdown, let’s establish some terminology. Going forward, there will be two main “categories” of products for the game: evergreen products and rotating expansions.

Evergreen products, as the term suggests, are products that will stick around for the foreseeable future. These form the core backbone of the game; they will remain in print and exist within the current environment.

Rotating expansions, therefore, are everything else. Each rotating expansion will be printed enough times to support it as part of the current environment, after which it will rotate out of the current environment and will only exist in the legacy environment.

As a reminder, you choose what products you want to use for your game; if you want to keep playing with your favorite expansion even after it rotates out of the current environment, that’s perfectly fine. After all, everything in the current environment is also in the legacy environment!

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s take a deeper dive at what’s coming up for the game in the future!

Evergreen Products

Since evergreen products form the core of the game, it’s only natural that the most important of those products is the core set itself! We first revealed the new core set for the game’s “Chapter Two” era back in late October, and we’re just a couple short months away from its release. This is the only product in the game line that new players need to pick up if they want to play the game. Existing players will also need to grab one if they want to play through any campaigns that come after it (which is fine, since the new core has a bunch of new stuff in it for veterans as well).

The new Arkham Horror: The Card Game core set is slated to release this March.

Following close behind the new core set is a batch of five evergreen investigator decks! Each of these decks provides one playable investigator, a pre-built deck for that investigator, and a bunch of player cards for that investigator’s class to expand deckbuilding options. These decks feature Tommy Muldoon as a Guardian investigator, Carolyn Fern as a Seeker, newcomer André Patel as a Rogue, Marie Lambeau as a Mystic, and newcomer Miguel de la Cruz as a Survivor. Between these five investigators and the five in the new core, you’ll have ten total that will remain within the current environment going forward.

All five evergreen Investigator Decks will release at the same time this April.

Rotating Expansions

Now that we’ve covered the evergreen content for the game, let’s take a look at the five types of rotating expansions you can look forward to in the future.

First up, we have a new product type, the small campaign expansions! These are just what they sound like: short, typically 3-scenario campaigns that provide a self-contained Arkham Horror experience, similar to the core set itself. These will alternate with full-scale campaign expansions (more on those in a moment) in the expansion release cadence, ensuring that you always have something new to look forward to!

The first small campaign expansion for the game is Children of Blood, slated to release late this summer.

On the topic of self-contained experiences, the much-loved scenario packs have always been a staple during Arkham’s first chapter, and that’s not changing anytime soon! These packs continue to provide thrilling standalone scenarios that you can slot into a larger campaign or just play on their own. Just like with Chapter One, you can look forward to getting a new scenario pack around once a year.

This year’s scenario pack is Traces to Nowhere, and it’ll hit store shelves this fall.

As we hinted at in the small campaign expansion section above, there will also be larger campaign expansions in Chapter Two! These campaigns feature five scenarios, with deeper narratives and impactful experiences that emphasize maximum replayability. While this product type shares its name with the campaign expansions from Chapter One, it is important to note that these campaigns will no longer be thematically tied to investigator expansions going forward.

And speaking of investigator expansions…

The investigator expansions also return in Chapter Two! Just like before, these expansions provide a suite of new investigators alongside a trove of new player cards to expand deckbuilding options. As we touched on above, these expansions will no longer be thematically tied to any campaign expansions going forward, which means you could get a campaign covering one piece of the Arkham Horror story or setting and then later get an investigator expansion that covers something completely different!

Finally, if the investigator expansions aren’t enough player content for you, then look no further than the deckbuilding expansions! This new expansion type can be thought of as the player card counterpart to the small campaign expansions for scenario content. Deckbuilding expansions will not contain any new investigators (usually); instead, they are packed full of new player cards across all five classes with the sole purpose of expanding deckbuilding options. Just like the small campaign expansions alternate with the larger ones, deckbuilding expansions will alternate with investigator expansions in the release cadence, giving you a steady stream of new customization options to look forward to.

Going Strong

With new evergreen products hitting stores soon and a plethora of rotating expansions on the horizon, it’s clear that Arkham Horror: The Card Game is here to stay. This game has a long and exciting future ahead of it, and we can’t wait to share it with all of you!

See you soon.

Written by Peter Schumacher
(Edited on February 9, 2026)

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The Former Spy

Published 15 January 2026 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The Former Spy

Introducing Trish Scarborough from Arkham Horror: The Card Game’s New Core Set

“You’re quite good, but nobody can catch me.”

Trish Scarborough enjoyed an exciting and dangerous career as a spy for the Black Chamber. She’s no stranger to subterfuge, but she also never expected to be at the center of her own conspiracy when a new director arrived to run the organization. After a series of increasingly menial missions, she was strongly encouraged to “take time for herself.” Suspicious of her director’s motives, she dug into the Chamber’s records and discovered evidence of corruption going all the way to the top: rumors of an organization known as the Red Coterie working behind the scenes. Framed for leaking sensitive information, Trish is now on the run and driven to restore her good name.

Back in October, we revealed the new core set for Arkham Horror: The Card Game, which heralds the beginning of an era we’re referring to as “Chapter Two.” With that new core set comes a new set of five core investigators, and one of those five is Trish Scarborough (Core Set, 7)!

Returning to the scene as the new core’s Rogue investigator, Trish retains her emphasis on sneaking past enemies but does so in a different way than before. No longer (officially) a spy, Trish must now use her skills to solve mysteries while being constantly on the run, and this is reflected in her new playstyle. Her innate ability grants her a bonus evade action once per turn, while her Elder Sign ability can let her slip away from every enemy engaged with her, regardless if she succeeds the associated test or not. Her Elder Sign ability comes with the added feature of letting her move to a connecting location, a feature shared with her signature asset, Covert Ops (Core Set, 8), which pairs well with her free evade action each turn. If you manage to pull the Elder Sign while performing an evasion test, then you could even combine Covert Ops with Trish’s special ability and move two locations at once!

Speaking of movement, many of the other cards in Trish’s pre-built deck can also boost her mobility, her evasion, or both. Take Olivier Bishop (Core Set, 46), for example, who grants Trish a bonus to her agility (and therefore her ability to evade enemies) as well as the ability to move locations as a free action once per round. The boost to agility from Olivier works great with Breaking and Entering (Core Set, 50), which lets Trish combine her intellect with her agility for an investigation. Boosting agility also makes it easier to evade enemies, which you can combo with Sticky Fingers (Core Set, 48) for an extra resource, which you can then spend on Silver Tongue (Core Set, 47) for a bigger boost to your next test. Succeeding a test by 2 or more also gets you an extra card draw with the Lucky Cigarette Case (Core Set, 44), and if you happened to commit Out of Sight (Core Set, 53) to that test, then you can get even more free movement out of it!

Longtime fans of Arkham Horror: The Card Game will know that extra actions and movement are classic features of the Rogue class, and another thing they have in spades is extra resources! We already mentioned Sticky Fingers, but Trish has other sources of extra resources in her deck as well. For example, the Thieves’ Kit (Core Set, 49) can let you use Trish’s agility for an investigation instead of her intellect, netting you a resource if you succeed. While the event Paint the Town Red (Core Set, 51) pulls an enemy out of the encounter deck that you must contend with, it can also grant you multiple extra resources—plus, Trish can always just evade that enemy with her abilities. Finally, though it doesn’t technically grant additional resources, Prestidigitation (Core Set, 52) does let you fast-play an Item asset for a discount, on the condition that you return something to your hand at the end of your turn. This can let you whip out an M1903 Hammerless (Core Set, 45) on an enemy you just evaded, attacking with Trish’s agility instead of her much-lower combat skill.

With how her actions flow together, Trish can adapt on the fly to any situation, which is only compounded by her additional deckbuilding options. Veterans of Arkham Horror: The Card Game will recall that the original version of Trish Scarborough could include Seeker cards in her deck, and this new version is no different. If you’re curious about what sort of Seeker cards you can find in Trish’s pre-built deck, be sure to check out our preview of Joe Diamond and the Seeker class from back in November!

Speaking of seeking, as a former spy on the run, it’s only natural that Trish would be hunted by her “associates” at the Black Chamber. Her signature weakness, the Black Chamber Operative (Core Set, 9), does exactly that, chasing Trish down no matter where she tries to hide. Since the Chamber is fully familiar with Trish’s methods, she’ll have to work a bit harder to give them the slip, leaving clues behind as false leads in order to get them off her tail. It’s going to take all of Trish’s resourcefulness and skill in order to fend off the operatives she once thought were her colleagues, but with quick thinking and a friend or two, she can pull it off while accomplishing the main mission to boot.

A Dashing Rogue

With her evasive maneuvers and ability to adapt on the fly, Trish Scarborough is the perfect example of what the Rogue class has to offer in Chapter Two of Arkam Horror: The Card Game.

Look forward to our previews of the Mystic class in the coming weeks!

Written by Peter Schumacher

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The Mechanic

Published 18 December 2025 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The Mechanic

Introducing Daniela Reyes from Arkham Horror: The Card Game’s New Core Set

“Those creatures are definitely gonna know what hit ‘em.”

Daniela worked hard to make a name for herself as a mechanic. She’d only just paid off her new garage when Arkham was devastated by that cataclysmic flood, sending her business quite literally underwater. Rather than mope, she rolled up her sleeves—like always—and got right back to work. Now she works an extra shift tuning up engines at the new meat-packing factories. But she’s started to hear talk about strange things going on in the waterfront district: locals gone missing, corpses drained of blood, and rumors of a shadowy figure that stalks the alleys at night. Daniela knows better than to dismiss these strange happenings as mere circumstance. Whatever it is, she intends to be ready.

Returning to the scene as the new core’s Guardian investigator, Daniela remains a tough-as-nails mechanic who can take a beating and dish it back in spades. The original version of Daniela was all about retaliating against enemies that attacked her, and this new, seasoned version expands on that playstyle even more. Now, after any investigator at Daniela’s location is attacked, she can punish that enemy with a mean swing. While Daniela can only do this once per round, she can use any Fight ability in her arsenal to do it, which works wonderfully with her new and improved Wrench (Core Set, 2). With her wrench in hand, Daniela can freely engage an enemy, take a hit from it, and then immediately retaliate with an attack of her own—and she can do all that without even using an action!

Naturally, with a playstyle built around counterattacks, Daniela is going to want plenty of cards to help her take as many hits as possible. Fortunately, her pre-built deck comes prepared for exactly that. For starters, the Bodyguard (Core Set, 16) ally continues the theme of counterattacks by being able to soak a hit for not only Daniela, but also any other investigator at her location, and he’ll dish out a point of damage if he is defeated. Pair that with Daniela’s innate ability and the Fight ability on her wrench, and the unsuspecting enemy could wind up taking 3 damage in retaliation—or even 4 damage, if you boosted that counterattack with Vicious Blow (Core Set, 25)! Even without the Bodyguard, Daniela can equip Resilience (Core Set, 21) to increase her own durability, and with the event Lesson Learned (Core Set, 22), she can turn an enemy attack into a source of clues. Speaking of clues, Scene of the Crime (Core Set, 24) is another great source, potentially grabbing you two at once if there’s an enemy nearby.

So now you have a decent grasp of Daniela’s defenses, but what about her offenses? While we already covered her wrench and Vicious Blow, that’s only scratching the surface of what she can do. Use Right Tool for the Job (Core Set, 23) to find yourself a Tool or Weapon asset, which could be Daniela’s Wrench or something more traditional, such as an M1911 (Core Set, 19) or a Machete (Core Set, 20). Keep in mind that Daniela can trigger any Fight ability for her counterattack, so it’s a good idea to equip multiple weapons and keep her options open. If you’re having trouble landing hits on a particularly tough enemy, equip Endurance (Core Set, 17) onto Daniela for some impressive boosts to her combat skill (so long as you have the resources to pay for them). Once you finally take that enemy down, Logan Hastings (Core Set, 18) can help you recoup the resource cost for doing so, giving you access to even more options for delivering a beatdown to the monsters of the Mythos.

At this point, you have a good grasp of the Guardian cards in Daniela’s pre-built deck. Longtime fans of Arkham Horror: The Card Game may recall that the original version of Daniela could also include Survivor cards in her deck—in fact, her deckbuilding options emphasized the Survivor class a bit more than Guardian. While this new version of Daniela has a more traditional focus on Guardian cards, she can still splash Survivor cards in her deck for some extra versatility, which is fitting for a tough customer like her. If you’re curious about what sort of Survivor cards you can find in Daniela’s pre-built deck, be sure to check out our preview of Isabelle Barnes and the Survivor class from a few weeks ago!

On the topic of survival, we can’t end our preview of Daniela Reyes without talking about her signature weakness. Daniela is known for being tough and determined, and her fearless, go-getter attitude can often lead her to putting herself In Harm’s Way (Core Set, 3). This treachery represents the recklessness Daniela displays when throwing herself head-first into the fray, and it can cause her to wrack up injuries fast. The only way to get rid of it is to persevere through the pain and keep fending off foes, a task made more bearable when Daniela relies on her allies and her fellow investigators to help mitigate the damage coming her way.

Standing Guard

With her ability to counter enemy attacks and her tough, can-do attitude, Daniela Reyes is an excellent example of what the Guardian class has to offer in Chapter Two of Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

Look forward to our previews of the Rogue class in the coming weeks!

Written by Peter Schumacher

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The Returned

Published 4 December 2025 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The Returned

Introducing Isabelle Barnes from Arkham Horror: The Card Game's New Core Set

“My sister’s sacrifice won’t be in vain.”

Isabelle Barnes has been on the run for as long as she can remember. She finally escaped from the Olmsteads, a family cult who thought of her as the “final piece” for some dark and twisted ritual. She doesn’t know what made her so special to the cult, but now, thanks to her sister Jenny, Isabelle is finally free. But freedom came at a price; her sister gave everything to get Isabelle back, and for that, Isabelle intends to make the Olmsteads—and all those who prey on the weak and innocent—pay in blood. Armed with her lost sister’s twin .45s, Izzie can finally turn to face her pursuers head-on.

Joining the game’s roster as the new core’s Survivor investigator, Izzie steps onto the scene with a score to settle and hell to raise. Her playstyle revolves around using her high sanity to her advantage, intentionally taking horror in order to commit a skill card from her discard pile during a skill test. This lets her get multiple uses out of handy skills like Slippery (Core Set, 80) and Timely Intervention (Core Set, 81) in a single deck cycle, giving Izzie a leg up when dealing with the unexpected threats of the Mythos.

Of course, sometimes you have to deal with those threats the old-fashioned way, and that’s where Isabelle’s Twin .45s (Core Set, 14) come into play. This pair of pistols packs quite the punch, allowing Izzie to make use of both her combat and her agility skills when dealing with monsters. Even better, the .45s let you shoot twice with a single action, which means Izzie is more than capable of (and more than willing to) fire several shots in a turn against a particularly nasty foe.

As you might expect for a Survivor, the rest of Isabelle’s deck is all about pushing forward no matter what, even in the face of insurmountable odds. Since Izzie wants to deal herself horror to get multiple uses out of her skill cards, she’ll want to mitigate the horror—and damage—that she takes from enemies in any way she can. That’s where Aleksey Saburov (Core Set, 72) comes in. With his ability to heal himself over time, Aleksey can take quite a few hits for you over the course of the game, letting you get plenty of mileage out of Izzie’s otherwise low health and freeing up her sanity to use as a resource. After dealing with an especially grisly monster, use some Bandages (Core Set, 73) to patch yourself or Aleksey up, and if things start getting really hairy, you can equip Izzie with a Jumpsuit (Core Set, 75) for some added protection.

That Jumpsuit can do more than just soak a hit. If you discard it during your turn, you can retrieve any Tool or Weapon asset from your discard pile, potentially letting you get even more uses out of Isabelle’s Twin .45s. Even if the .45s aren’t in your discard pile, you could grab another handy weapon like the Meat Cleaver (Core Set, 77) instead. This beefy blade works especially well with Izzie’s playstyle, since it both hits harder when her sanity is low and lets her heal some horror when she manages to take out an enemy with it. With Izzie’s Elder Sign ability being the other primary way she can heal horror from herself (in her pre-built deck, at least), you’ll certainly appreciate the mental catharsis this giant cleaver can bring!

As demonstrated by Isabelle’s innate ability and the Jumpsuit in her deck, a staple of the Survivor playstyle involves retrieving or reusing cards in your discard pile. Naturally, there are other cards in her deck that also follow this trend, such as Hunter’s Instinct (Core Set, 74), which can pull an event back into your hand. That event could be “Shove off!” (Core Set, 79), a handy tactic that lets you both evade and damage an enemy simultaneously…if you succeed. If you fail, then the event returns itself back into your hand, which means you could try again or use it to fuel a skill test later. In similar fashion, if you fail an investigation test by 2 or less, you can follow it up with “Look what I found!” (Core Set, 78) to immediately discover 2 clues at your location, letting you “fail forward” in true Survivor style. Finally, when you really, really need to succeed a willpower or agility test, you can spend some resources to boost yourself with Levelheaded (Core Set, 76), and there’s no limit to how many times you use it!

Speaking of limits, there comes a point in every quest for vengeance where the pressure, anger, and stress gets to be a bit too much to handle. With her constantly using her own sanity as a resource, it’s only natural that Isabelle will eventually hit her Breaking Point (Core Set, 15). Depending on her current remaining sanity, this dangerous signature weakness could deal Izzie up to 3 direct damage, which is a frightening thing when she only has 5 health to begin with. Thankfully, by relying on friends like Aleksey Saburov and her fellow investigators, Izzie can put herself back together and pull through those toughest moments.

By now, we’ve given you a good look at the Survivor cards in Isabelle’s pre-built deck. Of course, most investigators in Arkham Horror: The Card Game can mix in some cards of other classes, and Izzie is no exception. While Survivor cards are her main focus, Isabelle Barnes can also include some Mystic cards in her deck. As for what specific Mystic cards are part of her pre-built deck, you’ll just have to wait and see!

Bullets in the Dark

If that’s not enough of Isabelle Barnes for you, then we’re also excited to announce Bullets in the Dark, an upcoming new Arkham Horror novel from our friends at Aconyte Books! Written by Cath Lauria, this book accompanies the release of the new core set and puts Isabelle at center stage. Looking for justice in a transformed Arkham, Izzie teams up with Tommy Muldoon, and their combined detective work reveals the city’s dark underworld teeming with murder and eldritch mayhem.

Get ready for a thrilling crime noir adventure when Bullets in the Dark arrives in spring of 2026. Be sure to sign up to the Arkham Horror newsletter and follow Aconyte Books on social media if you want to find out more!

Surviving the Horrors

With her ability to utilize her own sanity and her perseverant drive for vengeance, Isabelle Barnes is a fantastic example of what the Survivor class has to offer in Chapter Two of Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

Look forward to our previews of the Guardian class in the coming weeks!

Written by Peter Schumacher

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The Private Investigator

Published 13 November 2025 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The Private Investigator

Introducing Joe Diamond from Arkham Horror: The Card Game’s New Core Set

“I can’t stop now. Not when I’m so close to the truth.”

Joe Diamond has more experience with supernatural nonsense than most. He has developed a keen intuition and a knack for getting to the bottom of even the most uncanny occurrences, helped in no small part by his willingness to get his hands dirty. But in recent weeks, even Joe has been hard-pressed to stay on top of his work. His desk is flooded with photos of grisly murders and reports of disappearances: people from all walks of life vanishing without a trace. Joe isn’t sure how each of these events is connected, but he’s not about to let the case go cold.

Returning to the scene as the new core’s Seeker investigator, Joe puts his extensive experience as a private eye to use in solving mysteries and hunting down clues. While the original version of Joe had a secondary “hunch deck” that represented his keen insights, this more seasoned version of Joe focuses on straightforward investigating and drawing lots of cards. Both of the inherent abilities on his investigator card give you an extra draw when they trigger, ensuring that you always have the tools you need to keep the investigation going.

One such tool is Joe’s signature event card, Detective’s Intuition (Core Set, 5). If you manage to draw this versatile card during your turn—such as through the use of Joe’s inherent abilities—then you can draw two additional cards on top of it, giving you even more assets and events to work with. The rest of Detective’s Intuition is also nothing to sneeze at, with three handy skill icons and the ability to grant some extra resources on top of a bit of healing.

Joe’s intuition isn’t the only source of extra cards in his kit. His pre-built deck comes with some other handy ways of netting you some additional draws, such as the ever-useful Laboratory Assistant (Core Set, 32), who not only draws you two cards when you play her, but also increases your hand size by 2 (which certainly helps with all the extra cards you’re drawing). There’s also the new event card Gather Intel (Core Set, 36), which can be played in response to an enemy approaching and potentially nab you the perfect tool to deal with it…or not deal with it, if you’d rather just slip Through the Cracks (Core Set, 37) and avoid the monster altogether.

Of course, as a Seeker, Joe’s primary role in the game is investigating locations and discovering clues. Classic cards like the Magnifying Glass (Core Set, 34) and new cards like the Local Map (Core Set, 33) are useful staples in any Seeker’s deck, and they’re especially handy with Joe thanks to his ability to draw a card after he successfully investigates. To get even more bang for your investigating buck, call on Dorothy Simmons (Core Set, 30) for a boost to your intellect and a potential bonus resource after a successful investigation. You can then use that resource to pay for the ability on Sharp Rhetoric (Core Set, 35), giving you an impressive boost to your next investigation, and if you use a Fingerprint Kit (Core Set, 31) in tandem with a bit of Deduction (Core Set, 39), that next investigation could net you a whopping three clues at once! Finally, when you run out of actions, you can rely on Working a Hunch (Core Set, 38) to squeeze one more clue out of your turn before it ends.

By now, you have a good grasp of the Seeker cards in Joe’s pre-built deck. However, longtime fans of Arkham Horror: The Card Game may recall that the previous version of Joe Diamond could also include Guardian cards in his deck. While we don’t have any Guardian cards to show you today, rest assured that this new Joe can still splash some of that class in his deck—he is a hardboiled detective, after all!

Of course, no detective is without their flaws, and Joe Diamond is no exception. For every strength, there must be a weakness, and Joe’s signature weakness is Dead Ends (Core Set, 6), a blunder that can easily come up during a game thanks to Joe’s excessive amount of card draw. While hitting a dead end may not harm you in the short term, where it really hurts is when the scenario concludes, since you’ll find yourself with 2 less experience if the card is still in your hand. Having to dedicate resources to solve Dead Ends can be a real pain, especially when there are more pressing (and dangerous) matters to attend to, but if Joe wants to continue to grow as a private eye, this is one challenge he’ll have to overcome.

Seeking the Truth

With his ability to draw lots of extra cards and his determination to solve the unsolvable, Joe Diamond is a terrific example of what the Seeker class has to offer in Chapter Two of Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

Look forward to our previews of the Survivor class in the coming weeks!

Written by Peter Schumacher

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The Next Chapter

Published 31 October 2025 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The Next Chapter

Announcing Chapter Two of Arkham Horror: The Card Game

“What lay behind our joint love of shadows and marvels was, no doubt, the ancient, mouldering, and subtly fearsome town in which we lived—witch-cursed, legend-haunted Arkham, whose huddled, sagging gambrel roofs and crumbling Georgian balustrades brood out the centuries beside the darkly muttering Miskatonic.” – H.P. Lovecraft, “The Thing on the Doorstep”

It’s been months since the calamity. The people of Arkham, Massachusetts slowly work to put their lives back together in the aftermath of Cthulhu’s rampage. Rivertown is still underwater, once-prominent leaders have fallen from grace, and much of the city remains in a state of ruin. Despite the upheaval, life goes on, and when a new wave of disappearances casts its shadow over this broken town, it’s up to a handful of determined investigators to solve the mystery before it’s too late.

The world has changed. The page has turned. And now, a new chapter awaits.

Fantasy Flight Games is thrilled to announce a new core set for Arkham Horror: The Card Game!

Serving simultaneously as both a continuation and a fresh starting point, this new core set heralds the beginning of what we’re calling “Chapter Two” for the game. Taking place several months after where The Drowned City left off, this box provides a new introductory campaign, five mechanically new investigators, and a fresh card pool to expand your collection—or start a new one!

Note: This article is primarily geared toward existing fans of Arkham Horror: The Card Game. If you’re a newcomer who is looking to learn more about the game itself, we’ll provide that alongside an in-depth preview of the new core set at a later date, so stay tuned!

Okay, first things first, let’s address the elephant in the room…

Is This a New Edition?

Nope! This is the same Arkham Horror: The Card Game you know and love. If you’re a longtime fan of the game, you could almost think of this new core set as simply another expansion to add to your collection. You can mix and match the player cards from this box with everything that came before it and everything that will come after it; it’s all fully compatible because it’s all the same game!

That said, if you or your friends are completely new to the game, then this new core set serves as the perfect starting point for launching your Arkham Horror adventure. This core set will replace the Revised Core Set from 2021 and become the new evergreen core experience for the game going forward. This does mean that scenario content released after this core set will draw from the new core’s encounter sets rather than those of the 2016/2021 cores, so that will be something to keep in mind if you’re on the fence about taking the plunge.

So, What’s New About This Core Set?

In short, a lot! Even if you already own everything for the game, you’ll still want to pick up this new core set, since its contents are fairly different from the cores that came before. While there is a handful of familiar cards from the old core sets and/or previous expansions, the vast majority of player cards in here are completely new. Let’s take a quick peek at some of them!

For starters, let’s look at the Bodyguard (Core Set, 16). This sturdy Guardian ally can help protect more than just your own investigator, and he’s able to take a pot shot on his way out of play. Pair him with Resilience (Core Set, 21), and you’ll be able to keep your investigator in the fight for a long time.

On the Seeker side of things, we have the Local Map (Core Set, 33), a handy investigation tool that can also help move you around more quickly. Pair that with Sharp Rhetoric (Core Set, 35) and the classic Magnifying Glass (Core Set, 34), and your investigator will be able to gather clues like never before.

As for our dashing Rogues, the M1903 Hammerless (Core Set, 45) is a potent little pistol that lets you fight with your agility instead of your combat skill. This, naturally, combos well with the agility-boosting Olivier Bishop (Core Set, 46), who can also save you an action when you want to move to a connecting location.

Mystics, meanwhile, gain access to the Cloak of Resonance (Core Set, 58), which can not only offset the horror you take from your spells—such as the classic Ward of Protection (Core Set, 65)—but also let you deal a bit of damage on the side. With Cosmic Flame (Core Set, 59) letting you wield your willpower in a fight, you can match the mysterious powers of the Mythos with some arcane forces of your own.

Finally, the Survivors welcome the addition of Aleksey Saburov (Core Set, 72) to their roster of allies. With the ability to heal himself over time, Aleksey is a solid friend to have who can help your Survivor…well, survive. Add in some Hunter’s Instinct (Core Set, 74) to help you retrieve a handy level 0 event from your discard pile—such as the classic Emergency Cache (Core Set, 89)—and you should be fit to weather the horrifying storms on the horizon.

As we alluded to before, a new core set also means a new introductory campaign, Brethren of Ash! A string of disappearances has cast a shadow over Arkham, lighting a fire under you and your fellow investigators as you work to get to the bottom of the mystery. Consisting of three scenarios, this mini-campaign serves as a great way to bring new players into the game, while also serving as a compelling, bite-sized tale for veterans. What new horrors will you discover within, and what rewards will you reap for solving this case?

And speaking of rewards…

One new feature for the game that you’ll see a lot in Chapter Two is the introduction of “reward cards!” These special player cards are—as their name implies—earned as rewards for winning a campaign, finishing a specific scenario, or fulfilling some other special condition. You can’t include a reward card in any of your decks until you’ve officially unlocked it in-game, which means these rewards serve as a form of permanent progression as well as proof of your investigating chops.

The new core set introduces the first of these reward cards: Collector (Core Set, 181), which you can earn by completing the Brethren of Ash introductory campaign. In exchange for increasing your deck size, this special neutral asset lets you include a Relic or Charm card from any class in your deck, opening up all sorts of new deckbuilding opportunities. Anyone who wants to build around a specific Relic or Charm will find this to be a potent reward indeed!

Who Are the Investigators?

As we mentioned earlier, time has passed within the narrative of Arkham Horror. Because of this, Chapter Two’s expansions will see a mixture of new faces and returning favorites joining the game’s playable roster of investigators. That said, even though some characters are returning, you’ll find them sporting new stat lines, abilities, and/or deckbuilding restrictions, making them almost entirely new characters. After all, people grow and change over time!

We’ll provide more in-depth details about the investigators in the new core set at a later date, but for now, here’s a sneak peek at two of the playable characters that will kick off Chapter Two:

Joe Diamond returns to the scene as a Seeker investigator who can hold his own in a fight. While his class remains the same, his abilities are very different: gone is the hunch deck, in favor of a new emphasis on straightforward investigations. What does this mean for Joe’s playstyle? You’ll have to stay tuned to find out!

Isabelle Barnes has been on the run for as long as she can remember. She finally escaped from the Olmsteads—a family cult who thought of her as the “final piece” for some dark and twisted ritual. She doesn’t know what made her so special to the cult, but now, thanks to her sister Jenny, Isabelle is finally free. But freedom comes at a cost; her sister gave everything to get Isabelle back, and for that, Isabelle intends to make the Olmsteads—and all those who prey on the weak and innocent—pay in blood. Armed with her lost sister’s twin .45s, Isabelle can finally turn to face her pursuers head-on.

Introducing Isabelle Barnes, sister to the dilettante Jenny Barnes. Where Jenny was a Rogue, Isabelle joins the roster as a Survivor, and she certainly means business. Izzie throws herself down the path of vengeance with everything she has, even willing to use her own sanity as a resource to achieve her goals. Look forward to finding out more about Isabelle Barnes in her own dedicated preview at a later date!

What Comes Next?

Everything we’ve shared today is just a taste of what’s to come. We meant it when we said this new core set is the beginning of the next chapter for the game, and there is a lot to look forward to starting next year.

If you’re hungry for more info about the new core set, Chapter Two, or Arkham Horror in general, then be sure to tune into the In-Flight Report on November 22 during PAX Unplugged!

See you then.

Written by Peter Schumacher

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in our forums!