Complete Gloomhaven Enemy A.I and focus guide

[@MrHawtNSmexy]

Great video! However, I believe enemies healing other enemies works differently than what you mentioned at 12:45. Enemies will heal whoever has lost the most health, not whoever has the lowest amount of health. i.e. an enemy will heal a 15-health earth demon who has taken 5 damage before healing a 3-health forest imp who has taken 1 damage.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yes good clarification, that is what I intended to say but it’s not clear thanks for the comment!

[@albertoangelgildelpozo1814]

A question about healing here, imagine this position in a 5 straight forward squares: |Enemy Damaged| - 1 Square - Shaman(full) - 1 Square - Hero(his enemy) If shaman has to perform Move +1 Heal 2 (range 2); What he would do? a) Dont move and heal his friend b) Move towards the enemy hero and don't heal c) Move towards his friend and heal him

[@MrHawtNSmexy]

@@albertoangelgildelpozo1814 They would do (B), even though their heal action would fail (rule 1 - monsters are dumb!).

[@MandatoryQuest]

@@albertoangelgildelpozo1814 Move towards the enemy and not heal. Its always a melee target 1 focus for anything other than an attack ability. Monsters are dumb ;)

[@SpiderWaffle]

Yes, because it would heal low health monsters at full health all the time with this rule.

[@xethnyrrow]

Excellent and very useful video. I also like how you tied in the board game cards to show the difference between it and digital.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Thanks buddy

[@anthonyc4951]

Another great video! You're always a great source for Gloomhaven info. Keep the content coming!

[@MandatoryQuest]

Thanks Anthony appreciate it buddy

[@DimmerswitchDan]

After 100+ hrs of playing digital you start to intuitively learn this stuff, but this is still very helpful. Thanks Mr. Quest

[@MandatoryQuest]

No problem glad you found it helpful 😊

[@innocentgreen1338]

This helped a LOT!

[@MandatoryQuest]

Monsters gonna monster... Become a Patron for early access to videos - www.patreon.com/mandatoryquest Grab some sweet merch - www.mandatoryquest.com

[@totempoll27]

As always great content. I had a question regarding focus timing. Does each individual monster find its focus or as a group. let's say I have a summon and it is the focus but dies to the first attack of a monster but there are two other monsters of the same group, do the other two monsters "individual standee" refocus to me, or do they lose their attack because summon had died?

[@MandatoryQuest]

@@totempoll27 the focus for each individual standee is calculated at the beginning of its turn, so in your example it would switch to a different target. This also mean enemies can block each other forcing focus to shift too. Glad you enjoyed the video thanks for the comment :)

[@Spym4ster]

Thanks a lot for this video. I'm playing the digital version and this helped a lot!

[@MandatoryQuest]

Awesome glad it helped!

[@NikolajLepka]

In that case where the monster would walk around those bunch of pots. According to the rules as you laid them out, a ranged monster would target the Tinkerer instead of the Cragheart, despite the Cragheart being within shooting range

[@MandatoryQuest]

I'm not sure I follow can you timestamp it? Bear in mind I'm using Digital in the video to illustrate this, and at the time of recording the proximity tiebreaker wasn't actually in and working correctly, but it should be now.

[@Siggmasta]

Amazing! Thanks a lot!

[@Handalidoo]

Great video! Thanks!

[@MandatoryQuest]

Glad you liked it!

[@liquefiedpork]

I am from the future.....and this is still a huge help!

[@MandatoryQuest]

Awesome glad its still helpful :)

[@GymLeaderJustin]

It took me forever to finally understand when and why monsters move "off track" or not.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yeah once you get used to monsters its very easy to quickly decipher the board state, but it’s a big learning curve.

[@SpiderWaffle]

12:45 it's: "whichever has lost the most hit points."

[@Boombomb]

If an enemy has a ranged attack with no movement and has one enemy adjacent and another within range, will he choose to attack the closest at a disadvantage or another within range?

[@esven37]

Monsters are dumb, monsters are lazy, monsters are blind, monsters hate damage :)

[@RubenPaintsMinis]

What about loot abilities? I understood that they still act like they are making an attack and just loot whatever is around the player. I house rule that loot abilities treat hexes with coins like if they were enemies and in essence “attack,” coins with loot abilities. Just makes more sense than running at the enemy to take the money off the ground.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Official rules is it’s a non attack ability, so act as if they are performing a attack 1 melee attack. I get that thematically it doesn’t make sense, but I guess it’s at least consistent. That sounds like a fun house rule though and if it works for you go for it.

[@Yadayadayada117]

Thanks for the video. Have you thought about doing a Red Guard video?

[@MandatoryQuest]

I’m trying to focus my guides on digital for now, but in the future I’d love too.

[@anotherelvis]

Great video. Is also valid for Frosthaven? If no, what has changed?

[@MandatoryQuest]

Thank you and yes also valid for Frosthaven

[@Kentchangar]

Do you plan on doing a Monster AI video for Frosthaven? Or at least differences?

[@MandatoryQuest]

Possibly but it would be a short video for sure.

[@Sousless]

I have a question about initiative and opening a door to a room: In digital, if I open a door to a room on a later initiative then enemies in that new room still perform they actions even though their initiative turn has already passed as they have lower number on their card then my character had when he opened the door. Is this a bug or it is intended?

[@MandatoryQuest]

That is as intended and the official rule for both physical and digital. You would finish your turn then all enemies that should of acted due to having earlier initiative will take their turn. The revealed enemies will slot their turns into the current round by initiative. The only time enemies will not take a turn is if they are a summoned enemy and they were summoned that round. Think summoning sickness from Magic the gathering. Revealing enemies is not summoning them.

[@Sousless]

@@MandatoryQuest Thanks for clarifying this!

[@richardebourne6332]

I had a question and I wonder if you can help. Quite new to gloomhaven but we played scenario 8 recently and I parked my scoundrel in the door and went invisible. Given the bodyguards wouldn't be able to reach anyone due to the 'obstacle', from your video monsters are dumb means they would not move even if they could see ppl thru the door. We deliberated a while and ended up not moving them. Then because their special 1 is an aoe, even tho I was still invisible (going late) they did move to try and hit ppl just behind me outside the door. But only 1 could do so, and therefore the other didn't move. Does that sound right?

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yes it sounds like you did it right. They only move if they could, with a hypothetical infinite amount of movement, reach a hex to do that rounds drawn attack from. Sometimes you might draw an AoE which could reach someone just behind you meaning they would move, but they might block the other monsters of the same type so not all would move.

[@richardebourne6332]

@@MandatoryQuest thanks MQ for the quick reply. I was worried it had worked out too well, with one being isolated giving me my attack bonus before doubling up via smoke bomb! I'm sure I'll have more questions, but your posts are very clear. And since I'm the leader of our group it's on me to get this stuff right!!

[@GymLeaderJustin]

8:40 Who would an archer attack? If its infinite movement would focus the tinkerer, but the brute is in closer range, would it still attack the Tinker because it's the focus due to the infinite movement?

[@Kwprules]

The rule is actually to minimize the number of hexes that you'd have to go to be in range to make an attack, assuming they're making a ranged attack. So if two characters are already in range, that step is pretty much skipped. Then, in Gloomhaven, they target the closest character to them, whereas in Jaws, a ranged character will hit the lower initiative even if someone else is closer. That's why I don't like the Jaws rules--if there's a group of characters spread around someone with low initiative, ranged enemies will all focus the person right in the middle of the pack, which seems wrong to me.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yeah although it adds general complexity the proximity rule actually works well for ranged. Will be interested to see which way Frosthaven goes with it.

[@Kwprules]

@@MandatoryQuest I think Isaac has said that this Jaws rules change will not be making it to Frosthaven, although other rules changes will.

[@MandatoryQuest]

​@@Kwprules Weird to not introduce a simple extra rule, I wonder how many JoTL players will just continue playing the simplified rules if not prompted.

[@prisonmike1576]

@@Kwprules You're correct, Issac did say that.

[@mineraldo]

Thanks! I actually had one rule wrong, I thought the tie-breaker was like in JotL (just initiative, no 'closest ennemy in a straight line'). That is what happens when I am not the one controlling the monster AI. Or should be the AS (Artificial Stupidity)?

[@MandatoryQuest]

Hehe it’s an easy to mistake to make, and to be honest it might be the future rules going forward anyway.

[@Ruffy1991]

But if u are invisible in a door, does the enemy walk as close to it, when other players are behind? Especially when Monsters have Range attacks?

[@MandatoryQuest]

If they have a ranged attack action that turn and could get into range by moving then yes, if they can’t make their range they will stand still and not move. Enemies with melee attack actions without jump or flying will never move, and enemies playing a non attack ability without jump or flying will also not move but will perform their action e.g heal or summon. An easy way to think about it is that melee attack enemies just still consider the door to be closed, they can’t “see” past you blocking the door with invisibility. Hope this helps!

[@rigdigwus]

what if a ranged enemy is adjacent to a character with low initiative (10) but could reach another character with high initiative (80)? Does the monster not move at all because it can reach a char without moving or does it move away from the adjacent character and attack it because it has a lower initiative?

[@MandatoryQuest]

It would move away (as long as it has a move action, and would not harm itself in a trap or hazardous terrain) to avoid disadvantage against the adjacent character. If it did not have a move it would still attack the adjacent character but at disadvantage. The closest is always the first focus decider, initiative is only a tie breaker when they are the same distance from the enemy. This is how you can manipulate enemies into focussing your tank character or a disadvantaged attack.

[@rigdigwus]

@@MandatoryQuest oh wow we played it wrong the entire time then :D thank you

[@MandatoryQuest]

@@rigdigwus no problem you probably just made it harder :)

[@CJ-te2mu]

I was able to follow early on but then things got real confusing . I'll keep trying.

[@MandatoryQuest]

It can get difficult when you get to the tie breakers for sure, but hopefully it will click for you.

[@TheBossGrand]

What about looting? How is focused set

[@MandatoryQuest]

Enemy looting? Same as any other non attack action. They will focus and move towards that figure as if they want to perform a melee attack then perform their loot. If there is ambiguity then players decide so you might be able to prevent some looting actions from being effective.

[@TheLazzanova61]

I believe the invisibility at the door rule changed. Monsters would move through an invisible person.

[@MandatoryQuest]

That’s a new rule in Frosthaven the sequel. You could retro actively apply it, but it’s not officially the rule in GH or Jaws of the Lion.

[@user-bj3jv7fd1b]

3:25 man I hate you. I thought someone started to shoot outdoors. Dislike b/c of that

[@MandatoryQuest]

hehe sorry ;)