Frosthaven 1.0 is here, and if you’re planning to start your adventure, there are a few things you should understand before jumping into your first scenario. The game is challenging, and even players familiar with Gloomhaven may need time to adjust to its mechanics. Party composition, card management, potions, and scenario difficulty can all make a big difference.
After spending more than 200 hours playing during Early Access, I’ve learned that success in Frosthaven isn’t just about choosing powerful heroes. You also need to understand how your characters work together, when to use your abilities, and how to prepare for the encounters ahead. A few smart decisions early on can save you from repeating difficult scenarios later.
Frosthaven 1.0 Beginner Guide – Quests, Craft Potions
In this guide, we’ll cover seven essential Frosthaven tips for beginners, including the recommended party size, unlocking classes, choosing personal quests, crafting useful potions, managing elements and initiative, preserving ability cards, and setting the right scenario difficulty. We’ll also cover a few bonus tips to help you get more out of your campaign.
1. Choose the Right Party Size and Unlock New Classes
When starting Frosthaven, you can choose between two and four heroes. Your party size matters because the game’s difficulty changes depending on the number of characters you bring into a scenario.
Why three heroes are a good starting point
Three heroes are a good middle ground for a new campaign. With only two characters, you might struggle to cover all the roles your party needs. The map size also doesn’t change, so two heroes with limited mobility can have trouble reaching objectives or dealing with enemies spread across the battlefield.
A three-hero party gives you more flexibility without requiring you to manage four characters from the beginning.
Start with the available heroes
Frosthaven starts you with six available starting classes, and the source describes them as solid choices. You don’t need to unlock a different class immediately to build a capable party.
As you progress, you can unlock additional classes by constructing certain buildings or completing specific quests. One early example is the Hunting Lodge. Building it unlocks the Trap class, which the video creator recommends as a particularly fun option.
Some unlocks depend on how you complete a quest. The video specifically highlights two pairs:
- Fist and Snowflake: Your quest outcome determines which class you initially receive.
- Kelp and Coral: The way you finish the relevant quest also affects which class becomes available initially.
Pay attention to quest choices if you have a particular class in mind. The transcript mentions a class-unlock cheat sheet, but it doesn’t provide the complete list of unlock requirements, so the remaining class unlocks cannot be detailed reliably from the supplied information alone.
2. Choose Personal Quests That Help Your Campaign Progress
Personal quests are another important decision when creating your starting heroes. They aren’t just optional objectives; completing them through character retirement can unlock new buildings and help your settlement develop.
Why personal quests matter
The video recommends choosing personal quests that are relatively straightforward to complete, especially during the beginning of the campaign. Retiring a hero fulfills their personal quest, and that can unlock buildings that benefit your overall progression.
If you don’t like the personal quests offered during character creation, the creator explains that you can return to character creation and make the character again to receive a new selection.
Prioritize useful building unlocks
The video highlights three building types worth working toward:
- Library: Recommended because it is associated with a class unlock.
- Enhancer: Also recommended because it has a class behind it.
- Gardens: Useful for producing potion ingredients.
The source mentions a personal-quest cheat sheet showing which quests unlock primary and secondary buildings, but it doesn’t include the actual quest-to-building mapping in the transcript. Therefore, it’s best not to assume which specific personal quest unlocks each building without checking the available in-game information.
Planning your personal quests around useful buildings can help your settlement develop while giving you access to more classes and crafting options.
3. Craft the Right Potions Instead of Experimenting Blindly
Potions can make a significant difference in Frosthaven, especially when you’re tackling difficult scenarios. The Alchemist lets you create potions using two or three ingredients, but experimenting with recipes without a plan can waste resources.
The creator admits to spending time trying recipes blindly during the campaign and recommends learning the useful combinations instead.
Stamina and Major Stamina Potions
Stamina Potions are among the most useful options because they help you recover discarded ability cards. Since your available cards determine how long you can continue fighting, recovering cards can give you more flexibility during a scenario.
The video recommends both:
- Stamina Potion
- Major Stamina Potion
These are particularly worth considering when you need to extend a character’s staying power.
Power and Major Power Potions
Power Potions are another strong choice. The creator recommends them because they increase the damage of attacks.
| Potion | Effect described in the video |
|---|---|
| Power Potion | Adds +1 to all attacks |
| Major Power Potion | Adds +2 to all attacks |
The transcript doesn’t provide the full recipe details for every potion, so the exact ingredient combinations beyond the shared ingredients mentioned below shouldn’t be assumed.
Plant Axenut and Aerovine in your Gardens
One particularly useful discovery from the video is that Axenut and Aerovine are shared ingredients for both Major Power and Major Stamina Potions.
If you want to make these potions regularly, growing these two herbs in your Gardens can help maintain a supply of the ingredients you need.
The creator notes that they had been planting the wrong herbs before realizing that Axenut and Aerovine were more useful for their preferred potion combinations.
Consider potions that support specific heroes
Not every useful potion needs to increase damage or recover cards. Some potions can be particularly effective for specific classes.
For example, the video mentions the Elements Potion, which creates an element of your choice. This can be especially useful for the Astral class (referred to as “Astro” in the transcript), which wants to use three elements.
The best potion choice depends on the hero you’re playing and the abilities you plan to use. Build your supply around your party’s needs rather than crafting random recipes.
4. Understand Elements and Manage Your Initiative
Element management is one of the mechanics that rewards careful planning in Frosthaven. Generating an element doesn’t always mean you can use it immediately, so you need to think about when an element becomes available and when it will disappear.
Strong and waning elements
The element display shows which elements are strong and which are waning. A waning element is about to expire at the end of the current round.
When you generate an element on your turn, you generally need to plan to use it on a later turn rather than assuming it’s immediately available for your next action.
This makes timing important. Creating an element too early or failing to account for its state can leave you without the element you need.
Plan ahead when generating elements
The creator demonstrates generating Earth with a top-card ability and converting Wind into Darkness. Both elements remain strong and can be used in the following round.
The key lesson is to coordinate your abilities with the element cycle. When possible, use a waning element to create a strong element that will last long enough for the next round.
This can help you avoid wasting an elemental effect and make your turns more predictable.
Combine fast and slow initiative cards
Initiative management is just as important. A common mistake is to use your fastest cards in the first few rounds without considering what happens later.
Instead, the video recommends combining a fast card with a slow card when appropriate. This preserves flexibility, allowing you to choose a faster or slower initiative depending on the enemies’ actions and your team’s plans.
Coordinate your heroes’ turns
Your party’s initiative choices should support one another.
For example, the video describes a combination involving the Bone Shaper and Banner Spear. The Bone Shaper can set up summons, which the Banner Spear can then use to support its moves. Getting the order right can make this combination more effective.
The creator also notes that the Bone Shaper can sometimes place a summon at the start of a scenario through a perk, reducing the need to spend a turn setting it up.
Protect your tank with initiative planning
When an enemy can attack multiple heroes, the video recommends having your tank act at a lower initiative value so the enemy is more likely to prioritize that character.
Use this advice alongside the actual enemy targeting rules and your party’s abilities. The goal is to help your more fragile characters avoid unnecessary damage while your tank takes the pressure.
5. Manage Lost Cards Carefully to Survive Longer
Ability cards are one of your most important resources in Frosthaven. Losing cards can provide powerful effects, but every loss also reduces your future options.
The creator recommends reserving card losses for high-impact abilities, such as summons or permanent buffs, instead of spending them carelessly.
When should you lose a card?
A card loss can be worthwhile when the ability has a major effect on the battle. Summons and powerful buffs are examples of abilities that may justify the cost.
However, you should also think about how many cards you need to keep available for the rest of the scenario. Losing too many cards too early can leave you with fewer options when the battle becomes more dangerous.
Keep a card available to prevent damage
One of the most important lessons in the video is that an available card can help you mitigate damage.
The creator demonstrates a situation where Coral dies because no card was left available to absorb the damage. In the same situation, using Coral’s special ability with three cards leaves no card available for mitigation.
When the turn is repeated using two cards instead, one card remains available. Losing that card to mitigate the incoming damage allows Coral to survive.
The practical takeaway is simple: don’t focus exclusively on maximizing your current turn. Consider whether keeping an extra card available could prevent a character from being defeated.
Balance immediate power with long-term survival
Before using a loss ability, ask yourself:
- Is this ability powerful enough to justify losing a card?
- How many cards will I have left for later rounds?
- Could I need a card to mitigate damage?
- Will this ability help finish the scenario sooner or prevent a dangerous situation?
You won’t always need to save every card, but making deliberate decisions about losses will give you more control over your character’s survival.
6. Choose the Right Scenario Difficulty for Your Party
Frosthaven’s scenario difficulty can be confusing at first. The skull icons associated with scenarios represent complexity rather than difficulty, according to the video.
The actual strength of monsters and hazards depends on your party’s level and the difficulty setting you choose.
How scenario level works
The creator explains the scenario-level calculation as the average level of your heroes divided by two, then modified according to the selected difficulty.
For example, if all your heroes are level four, the average party level is four. Dividing that by two gives a scenario level of two before any difficulty adjustment.
The transcript presents this as the creator’s understanding of the calculation, so check the game’s current rules if you need the exact formula for a particular setting.
Don’t assume higher difficulty is always better
Your ideal difficulty depends on the heroes you’re using and the scenario you’re attempting.
This becomes especially important when you retire experienced characters and begin playing with fresh, lower-level heroes. A scenario that was manageable with your previous party may become extremely difficult with a new group.
If your party is struggling, consider lowering the difficulty or returning to the scenario later. There’s no benefit in repeatedly attempting a fight that your current party isn’t prepared to handle.
Use the Codex to prepare for encounters
The video recommends using the Codex to check which monsters appear in a scenario and filter their statistics by the relevant scenario level.
This lets you see what you’re likely to face before entering a fight. If you know the enemies and their expected strength, you can make more informed decisions about party composition, ability cards, and preparation.
Planning every detail isn’t necessary for every scenario, but checking enemy information can be worthwhile when you want to avoid multiple failed attempts.
7. Make Use of Retraining and Pets
Beyond the main combat and progression systems, the video highlights two additional features worth knowing about: retraining ability cards and bringing pets on adventures.
Retrain ability cards at the Library
The creator explains that, under the available home-rule features, the Library can let you retrain or respec ability cards when you level up, provided you spend gold.
In the example from the video, retraining costs six gold per level. At level four, that would amount to 24 gold.
Treat that figure as the example given by the creator rather than a guaranteed current price. The transcript notes that home rules are not fully implemented, so the feature and its cost may depend on the version or settings available in your game.
Retraining can be useful when you want to change your character’s build without starting over.
Capture pets and bring them on adventures
The video also reveals that you can capture pets and take them with you on adventures.
To use this feature, you need to build the Stables. If you enjoy collecting pets, this is another settlement upgrade to keep in mind as you progress.
The supplied transcript doesn’t explain how to capture individual pets or whether they provide specific combat benefits, so those details aren’t included here.