The Best Hatchet Guide Ever (Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion)

[@Venturello]

This is one of the best guides I’ve seen, combining humor with thoughtful and valid advice, good strategies that got me, already at level 6, thinking and re-evaluating my gameplay. Well done and thanks!

[@MisterBoardGamer]

I could've told you that by the title. They don't miss.

[@theodor320]

You really should do something similar for all the heroes in Jaws of the Lion. Me and my friends, all newbies, would've loved something like this during the first 5 scenarios.

[@Shelfside]

Working on it, there's sooo many classes to get through, planning on Red Guard next! -Daniel

[@sullen1]

I'd love if you could post a voidwarden guide some time in the foreseeable future

[@dylannorthrup5439]

Appreciate this… playing the Hatchet myself in my first Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion campaign (haven’t played big Gloomhaven yet either), and immediately felt like I was building my starting hands wrong already at lv2. Mainly because I just always wanted to try the new cards, but the synergy felt off. Looking at the cards more analytically on how they would best be played together makes sense - of course randomly losing the one and only card you need for a combo during a rest will likely always feel bad, but I guess that’s just the nature of having such a small deck. So far, I am enjoying it - I will definitely be taking your recommendations into consideration when building my hand before each scenario. Probably the hardest decision is selecting which card replaces which, without throwing everything off.

[@fenoglio8]

lol. Your voice will forever be Hatchet's voice in my head from now on. Thanks for the entertaining and insightful tips.

[@Shelfside]

Any time!

[@j.r.shartzer]

I just got my copy of Jaws and am starting out with a Hatchet character named Jerry Sienfeld. I imagine an over-exaggerated, cartoonish, caricature of Jerry's face occasionally peaking out from the shadow of that hat and duster as he throws an axe deep into someone's frontal lobe. My demolitionist is named The Czar of Heavy Splooge, which is basically just what that character is out of the box. I mean, just look at him. He's a pervy looking little fella who takes out his enemies and obstacles by unleashing a heavy discharge on them. This is why I have to play a solo campaign. 😂😢😂 Regardless, the class tips are sincerely appreciated and will be noted for one Mr. Seinfeld going forward.

[@adamkrupil4270]

Demolitionist next

[@justinarcher9172]

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks! Subbed.

[@Shelfside]

Awesome, thank you!

[@stratoge]

We started the game on tabletop simulator and sad to see that I got basically the non-suggested card to pick from levels 2-4 (Ricochet, Sharpened Blades, Ripped from Flesh), but now I see the usefulness of the cards you suggested here. It's alright though, I'll make do with what I have and have fun with it. Thanks for the awesome guide! I may come back to check out the lvl5 beyond section later.

[@Shelfside]

It's not like the other cards are bad by any means, (sharpened blades top is really fun to combo with ricochet/barrage and fancy hat), but I personally found more success playing the way I did because high single target damage means you're speeding up the gameplay loop of kill, pick up favorite, repeat. That, and Overwatch is pure nonsense in how much work it does. -Daniel

[@jacklyncheung4993]

Love this guide! Our Hatchet and Demo just got up to level 5. Would love to see the other JOTL class guides!!

[@Shelfside]

thanks! Daniel will definitely be working on more guides in the future, stay tuned :) -Ashton

[@Shelfside]

Actually currently going through base gloomhaven atm will prob be a while till I go back to jaws hahaha -Daniel

[@jeanfoutre3620]

@@Shelfside This guide rocked so hard. Maybe it's still feasible? Other class guides would be highly appreciated!

[@bilanggoboy]

Please make guides for the other three as well! Great video thank you!

[@Shelfside]

I definitely plan on it, but at the moment we're playing through base gloomhaven haha -Daniel

[@head_rat]

I have literally taken every optional upgrade card that you didn't (except the level 5 card). Your ideas sound better than mine, fwiw. Great video. :)

[@sirhc8927]

I’m happy you’re growing but I wish to see more review than guides on existing games :-). Your review are THAT good that it overshadows everything. Please do some of Eric Lang’s games!

[@Shelfside]

thanks so much for the feedback! I really want to do one on Chaos in the Old World, or Blood Rage, but they're both out of stock :( Maybe we'll do one on Cthulhu death may die :)

[@mjtaggart]

Amazing guide. Please do one for the red guard. My (7 yo) son plays him and I need to give him some help.

[@Shelfside]

Red Guard is definitely next in line for Jaws focused content! I still need to get people together and play as him though lol -Daniel

[@colinf7066]

Thank you for the guide! Haven’t found my grove with fancy hat, but I’m in a two player campaign, maybe that makes a difference. I’ll have to try it out

[@Shelfside]

Even without any text on the card, I feel like I'd still bring Fancy hat early on just because having a 12 initiative move 2 is still really good. Being able to reliably go before/after enemies when you want to is sooooo important -Daniel

[@BobVosh]

Follow through is one of my favorite cards for hatchet, but I'm also playing 2 player so much less options.

[@Shelfside]

On 2 player the favorite is more likely to still be on enemies so that's totally reasonable, higher player counts see it on the floor pretty much all the time lol -Daniel

[@mp10203]

What software is being used to demo the combat? Looks awesome to be able to try out some combinations before actually doing these with the friends on the real game later :)

[@Shelfside]

This is tabletop simulator, you can find it on steam! It goes on sale all the time, cheers! -Ashton

[@tomrojas2055]

Voidwarden guys!

[@absentchronicler9063]

i just hit lvl 4 hatchet while playing with my red guard friend, i always tried to save my favourite on stronger enemies but i never realized just how underutilise it, i usually save it for an elite or a boss even though im building my deck to be used with the favourite. my build looks almost the same as in the video

[@SNONYM]

Welp just realized I've been using the favorite card wrong this whole time

[@Shelfside]

Oh no what was the mistake lol?

[@SNONYM]

@@Shelfside I thought it was lost after the token returned to your card 🤦‍♀️

[@Shelfside]

@@SNONYM Rip lmao that would make the card abysmal ahahaha! Well now you know! It stays forever for you to constantly keep up a suuuper fun juggling act! -Daniel

[@SNONYM]

@@Shelfside Welp now I know better. Just got Gloomhaven so I think we're going to pause Jaws of the Lion for now.

[@Wayneorama72]

Overwatch is the one I am struggling with - I can definitely see it being useful for 4-players, but not sure about 2. 3 perhaps? Or do you think it's better regardless?

[@Shelfside]

2 would be where I'm more iffy, since you may have to play Overwatch earlier than usual in order to get the most use out of it. Hatchet already plays like a 9 card class since you open with favorite, so playing the bottom of Overwatch early better end up putting in massive work. I probably would still play overwatch's loss assuming I had the means to buff all/most of the 5 attacks, because throwing on stun makes it absolutely broken, especially since it tends to hit elites first. Even with less elites with 2p, there's less enemies in general, so stunning bad guys for two turns ends up disabling a huge fraction of total threat. The damage aspect probably wouldn't be as crazy unless you got a red guard because it's more likely enemies will focus onto Hatchet, which is why I emphasize the debuff aspect for 2p. -Daniel

[@Dzaen2]

Hello, can you tell me what was your hand at level 7?

[@TheMexicanSuperman1]

Item #33 combined with Fearsome Efficiency, with Advantage, with those +1 potion (and I guess +1 from robes/and or Fancy Hat) has been doing some major boss damage dealing for my campaign. I did 40 damage and 27 two separate scenarios. It's stupid damage! It's even better if some enemies nearby are weakened (and only 1 health) hahaha. I worry if I'll ever see this much damage from another character in base game.

[@Shelfside]

It uh... exists for sure lmao -Daniel

[@TheMexicanSuperman1]

@@Shelfside oh good. I thought I saw the peak of damage dealing.

[@jobodumb]

The item 17 was super helpful for Hatchet movement once it became available. Power pitch + Double throw with the favorite axe was my favorite combination, pretty much let me one shot every boss in the game... except that time I drew the cancel attack modifier... but i may or may not have just ignored that and drew the next card

[@Shelfside]

Yo is it cool if you edit the comment to change the name of the item to "item 17"? Don't wanna risk spoiling people y'know? I personally didn't pick up item 17 because we gave it to our voidwarden, and I felt like my movement was pretty much fine and would rather be able to go further with weathered boots on Retrieval. -Daniel

[@jobodumb]

@@Shelfside Will do!

[@byne2323]

Surprised no one has mentioned this, but you are playing stun wrong. There is no circumstance in which stun lasts 2 rounds. When you stun something, the enemy is stunned until the end of it's next turn. If you were to go before the monster in the round order, it's next turn is its upcoming turn in the current round. This is covered in the Gloomhaven FAQ, and also is demonstrated in the Gloomhaven digital steam game.

[@Shelfside]

So if you stun a monster in the middle of its turn, it immediately stops whatever it's doing. Because an Overwatch with stun hits them at the end of their movement, this will almost always stop whatever they're doing because most monster abilities do their bulk of their action after their move. However, the stun will leave at the end of the monster's next turn, not this current one, which effectively means it's been stunned for 2 turns. Try out a stun trap on Gloomhaven digital if you need proof! -Daniel

[@jveenbaas]

no idea if you are gonne respond on a 2 year old video , but lets try anyway . we started this game not too long ago , i play the Hatchet , now lvl 5. i love youre playstyle and thought behind it . 1 thing really puzzles me though ; why choose repeat shot at lvl 2 when you already have Follow through? isnt repeat shot just marginally better ? and then perhaps Ricoshet or sharpened blade would be a better choice ? hope to hear from you. kind regards Johan

[@Shelfside]

Repeat shot is better initiative and more damage, plus if you have to use it without the favorite it's still attack 3 which is average damage instead of below the curve. Attack 5's at low levels are premium actions and adds a lot more damage over the course of a scenario. Also the bottom loss is a great burst damage option that is amazing for emergencies and doesn't need setup. Ricochet and sharpened blades are good in a vacuum, but just aren't the stronger options imo when considering hatchet's mechanics. For both having terrible initiatives, they aren't powerful enough to justify getting initiative screwed more often with your hands. Plus, single target is where hatchet excels anyways, and high single target damage is more valuable than AOE damage the majority of the time for immediately being able to reduce room threat by removing a damage source very quickly. Fearsome efficiency absolutely justifies its bad initiative for the sheer amount of damage and tempo it provides, First turn favorite circumvents a critical drawback of not contributing damage in the first turn, which is super dangerous since right at the start is when the room is at its most threatening since nothing is dead yet. You're not only getting solid damage in, but you're also starting the favorite juggling cycle 1 turn earlier which definitely outpaces anything else you could be doing in terms of sheer damage over the next few turns. -Daniel

[@jveenbaas]

@@Shelfside i never thought of using fearsome eff. in turn one with the favorite until i watched youre video, att 4 in turn one and then having the +2 bonus in turn 2 ...thats way better than i usually do :) thanks for clarifying things a bit more for me , cant wait till our next session.

[@mufasa5851]

Why do you not use follow through earlier since you do use repeat shot later? FT seems to me like just a mini repeat shot and serve similar functions.

[@Shelfside]

Good question! Here's why: -Repeat shot is an attack 3 (this matters a lot over the course of a scenario plus is viable when you dont have the bonus whereas follow through attack 2 isn't) -Follow through has bad numbers, range 4 is almost useless because you want your range 3's because of all your move 3's -Follow through's move 2 really hurts its bottom -39 initiative is terrible, 31 is a little less bad -Repeat shot top has a much better combo with fearsome efficiency bottom because of faster initiative plus more damage -Repeat shot's bottom loss does come up if you need emergency burst damage -Daniel

[@johnunderwood4953]

Hatchet's Favorite is thrown AFTER the attack is resolved. You're playing it wrong if you think the +3 from the Favorite is added during the attack resolution.

[@Shelfside]

If that was the case, it would state the target would suffer 3 damage instead of saying +3 attack. Anything that modifies attack would have to be before modifiers are drawn, as there's nothing that changes the attack value after resolution. boardgamegeek.com/thread/2456069/article/35211761#35211761 -Daniel

[@johnunderwood4953]

@@Shelfside Yep, you're right! I checked Isaac's KZbin "Frosthaven: Day 13 Puzzle Solution" video, and he has The Favorite doing exactly that--adding +3 to the attack value BEFORE resolution. I've been crippling Hatchet, but not any more. Thanks!

[@Shelfside]

@@johnunderwood4953 No problem! Think of moving the favorite token after the attack as the cost you have to pay for increasing the attack value by 3. -Daniel

[@TheMexicanSuperman1]

I just saw this video and wished I had seen it sooner, I didn't choose the level 2 card suggested, so I had to take accept what I chose. ANYWAY, QUESTION: I never bought the suggested boots but my team just unlocked items 10-15 and I see a particular item that allows for our favorite number of movement. I can afford it, so should I get it? It seems pretty powerful for not a loss. Would that change any selections for my cards either? (I'm about to get to level 4 so I don't mind talking about previous cards). I'm sure the core stays the same, but some of those move 3's are not needed anymore, right?

[@Shelfside]

Do you mean item 17? Cause if so, there's a couple factors that are worth mentioning first. If you have a voidwarden, they get first dibs on item 17, since they have an incredible amount of powerful bottom actions, but not a lot of movement as a result. Otherwise, for hatchet, it's an ok pickup in my opinion, because the flexibility it allows isn't as powerful as just adding more movement to retrieval since it becomes busted with more move. Essentially, item 17 allows you to have a hand with that doesn't care about having movement, which is good in levels 2-4 since level up cards dont have good movement at this point unless you took sharpened blades at lvl 3. It would be at its most useful lvl 3 & 4 since, as you've probably noticed, I had to cut out a move 3 just to make room for these level up cards. However, once you hit lvl 5 and beyond, movement is no longer an issue at all anymore, so then item 17 basically becomes useless. Also also I was definitely being obnoxious and asking our voidwarden for moves fairly often at level 4 ahahaha -Daniel

[@TheMexicanSuperman1]

@@Shelfside Oops, yeah. Item 17. I am ALWAYS asking my Voidwarden to move me into BOSS rooms, so that I can double throw a Favorite Hatchet with Power Pitch or Fancy Hat. Hahaha. Anyways, thanks for the tip. I'm trying to avoid looking at Level 5 info and I appreciate the heads up without a spoiler. But man, level 5 can't get here fast enough. P.S. I am struggling with wind generation, any thoughts on that?

[@Shelfside]

Wind isn't really an actual focus for hatchet, it's just kinda slapped on haha. For early levels, I try to just budget the one opportunity I get from Power Pitch bottom, though I recall pretty much always using it on Stopping Power until I stopped bringing it. I don't think there's actually a wind build until later levels (sorry for constantly mentioning lvl5+ stuff, but late levels have drastically more build options). -Daniel

[@TheMexicanSuperman1]

@@Shelfside no worries. I just thought I was doing something wrong. Man. I just broke out Overwatch and it was SO AWESOME! Thanks for taking the time to comment :) love your gloomhaven content!

[@Shelfside]

ayyy np have fun throwing the favorite and stunning stuff with overwatch lmao -Daniel

[@zylokun]

Ha ha... hatchet go brrrrrr

[@supersteve76]

Does Hatchet do the +3 damage as soon as the FAVORITE token is placed on an enemy? Or does it take effect the next attack?

[@Shelfside]

As it's placed on an enemy! Think of moving the favorite token as the cost you have to pay in order to buff whatever single ranged attack you choose. -Daniel

[@supersteve76]

@@Shelfside I thought so!! I like to think of it as an extra (his favorite) ax attack LOL May I ask? How many PERSISTENT ACTIVE ABILITIES I can have in play at the same time? Im assuming its more than 1 and Ive been playing that way. Am I wrong? Thanks!!! :-)

[@Shelfside]

@@supersteve76 You can have as many as you like, though I wouldn't recommend too many if you don't wanna lose all your cards too quickly lmao

[@denismcguire5123]

"F that guy and throw the Favorite at him." 🤣 Definitely my favorite character to play, but not the most helpful to the team. 😕

[@Shelfside]

Hey being a damage dealer is real helpful to the team lmao. More dead bad guys means less damage to the tank and less healing needed! -Daniel

[@madhubhatt2985]

Second like I'm never this early to anything

[@craigtyler7235]

does anyone know what this interface he used to demonstrate the moves? Is it an online game site like Board Game Arena?

[@Shelfside]

I used Tabletop Simulator!

[@ianmcat]

You don't have to take the level 5 card. I chose another the level 3 or 4 instead over this as the level 5 card is pretty underwhelming.

[@Shelfside]

I actually like having both on hand because of their initiatives and incredible bottoms! Also is it cool if you edit your comment to avoid spoilers? Don't wanna potentially ruin the surprise for any new players coming in to watch this guide lol -Daniel

[@ianmcat]

@@Shelfside done. Difficult to ruin the surprise though when the overriding emotion will be one of disappointment. I am so jealous of the demolitionist's surprise

[@tamasnemeth7659]

Could you guys do a voidwarden one?

[@Shelfside]

hey man! These take a LONG time to make, so we'll have to see if Daniel gets around to it! -Ashton

[@tamasnemeth7659]

@@Shelfside cool. Im just amazed that this guide is the only where it is not only about card analysis. Gg

[@Shelfside]

No yeah that's something that always bothered me a ton when i read other guides so I wrote this as if I were teaching my past self lol. Other jaws class guides are super on the backburner right now, playing through base gloomhaven and tainted grail right now. -Daniel

[@rolandcooke]

I really like this build because it is the first to make use of Air, the other builds have blown it off, but I always thought it was good, even if I couldn't fully articulate why, although even with a lack of good experience with the game, I could already see the Air/Push synergies you nicely laid out in this video I don't think you identified which of your existing cards you would replace with your chosen L9 card? (You can just say e.g. Top row, fourth from left, to keep spoiler-free :D )

[@Shelfside]

Yea the reason i didnt include that was because I never actually played with it so I can't definitely say for sure, but on first glance I'd definitely swap out Center Mass since everything else is way too important. Also I wanna point out that most people play Gloomhaven at smaller player counts, which means wind is weaker as a build plus you can't afford to have as many slow cards as I do. I probably wouldn't have taken those cards had I not had the aforementioned teammate who could make wind for me, but at the same time there's only really two cards here that regularly use wind so I might've anyways considering how frequently I'm attacking with the perk deck making wind fairly often. -Daniel

[@rolandcooke]

@@Shelfside - that makes sense. Our group is four players, and I definitely identified with what you were saying. We just hit L5, and my (old) Favorite is already on the floor a lot as it is, so I was even considering not taking TNF as my new card! But I like your thinking of taking them both, good synergy. Assuming I have understood the JOTL rules correctly, I don't like the restriction of (nominally) not being able to rebuild my loadout from scratch. I assume it is to minimise brainhurt for new players, but I actually would look forward to try out new structures, even with a restriction of one card per level (ish).

[@Shelfside]

@@rolandcooke Yea, gloomhaven is like that as a whole, and tons of people online have come up with house rules that allow them to swap out cards they took. Off the top of my head the popular ones I remember were: -Being able to try out each new card for a scenario before actually picking one -Donating a certain amount of gold to the sanctuary (not in Jaws) allows a respec -Fuck it and just freely allow picking one of each level, there's so much game to experience so why not lol (though I would add if you want this to be balanced don't let people look at a scenario before making their choices, "lock in" a card pool before picking scenario)

[@amansparekh]

Is it hard to get to level 9 by the end?

[@Shelfside]

I think so, yeah. That is, assuming you first try most scenarios. Finishing Jaws of the Lion is around 20 scenarios including side quests which just isn't enough exp to get you to 500 unless you repeat scenarios. -Daniel

[@amansparekh]

@@Shelfside going to play at higher difficulties for more xp

[@jeanfoutre3620]

I wish i had seen this before locking in my 3 potions after scenario 3, feeling all clever and all.... now i don't have my boots (or my goggles) and i feel naked and blind!

[@jeanfoutre3620]

Damn. You can't bring multiple potions when at level 1. Even worse.

[@crowlord1972]

This is a very nice guide by you, but i have a comment if you allow me to express it....many people who are watching your videos are not native english speaker....you speak very fast and we do not always follow you...try to speak slower please...unless of course you want to make your videos only for native english speaking people

[@Shelfside]

Hey! I'll let Daniel know, thanks for the feedback :) -Ashton

[@Shelfside]

Yeah I did try and cram in more info so this video wasn't like 30-40 minutes long. I'd recommend using auto captions or setting the video to playback at .75 speed and see if that helps! -Daniel

[@crowlord1972]

@@Shelfside unfortunately it did not help at all....i understand english well and captions will not help either because they write wrongly what you say...you can make a longer video if you want to say more things...the same complain was expressed by many users in boardgamegeek too who saw your video...so please try for your next videos to take my comment into account...thanks

[@jinthad]

🍍 👎

[@johnroemeeks_apologetics]

Enjoyed the guide until you dropped the F-bomb, then that was it for me. Your videos would appeal to more people if you kept it clean

[@Graysaint]

Great review, cursing unnecessary.