Leviathan Wilds

The Leviathans, formerly gentle giants, have torn the world apart. You and your fellow members of the Climbing Guild are tasked with restoring these awe-inspiring creatures. Work together to free them from the crystals that are driving them into a frenzy.

Leviathan Wilds is a cooperative boss battler for 1-4 players ages 10+ and plays in 60+ minutes. It was designed by Justin Kemppainen and published by Moon Crab Games.

Setup

Set up the Leviathan you’ve chosen for this game. Each Leviathan has its own set of threat cards to shuffle and place under the Rage tracker. But every Leviathan has spaces for “crystal” dice that must be hit and destroyed to win the game.

Climber Setup

• Each player assembles their player decks by choosing one of eight Climber characters and one of eight Classes, taking the matching wooden Climber meeple and shuffling their respective Climber and Class cards together
• Each player takes a player board and places their Climber character’s cover card in the space on the board, then places the red health marker, teal Blight marker, and the focus token in their respective spots
• Players should also follow any additional setup instructions on their character or class cover cards, then place their shuffled deck of cards to the left of the player board where it says “Grip”
• Each player draws three cards from their deck to create their starting hand
• Finally, each player places their Climber on any starting spot on the bottom row of the Leviathan.

Gameplay

On your turn, do four specific things:

1. Reveal the threat by flipping over the leftmost facedown threat card under the threat tracker, then placing an attack marker on the corresponding spot on the map (if required)
2. Activate your climber by selecting one of the three cards in your hand and placing it in the slot at the top of the player board to use it for action points according to the value at the top-left of the card, then using those action points
3. Resolve the threat by following the instructions on the threat card
4. Draw back up to three cards to end your turn.

What To Do With Action Points?

Thankfully, each player’s board has a built-in reference for what you can do with your action points. Here’s a quick recap:

• Climb one spot orthogonally for one action point. If you land on a red harmful terrain spot, you take one point of damage. If you land on a yellow difficult terrain spot, you discard the top card from your draw deck, AKA “grip”.
• Jump two spots orthogonally for three action points (this is handy for avoiding terrain that will cause you damage or to lose a grip)
• Glide downward, spending action points for each spot you go down (this works diagonally as well)
• Strike a crystal, using one action point per strike
• Rest on a ledge for two action points, to recover your grip. Shuffle your discard pile and place the cards facedown under any remaining cards in your draw pile.
• Mend one damage, spending one action point

You can also use skills from the cards in your hand. These can be unique actions or boosts to existing actions. If you use a card’s skill, discard it after resolving the text.

While you are moving around the map, you encounter mushroom tokens. The mushrooms are one-time bonuses that are hidden until harvested by a player.  Both harvesting and using mushrooms is a free action during your movement. Plus, you can throw a mushroom token to a fellow climber up to three spaces away (orthogonally, of course) as a free action.

Losing Grip

Your draw deck represents your “grip”. Remember, you and your fellow players are members of the Climbing Guild. You’re traversing these mammoth Leviathans by hand. Just like rock climbers in real life, your grip is the most important thing out there. If you completely deplete your deck, you lose your grip. And then you’re falling a long way down.

Unlike in real life, you don’t take fall damage in Leviathan Wilds. Harmful terrain will cause a point of damage if you enter it during your descent, but you won’t go splat when you hit a ledge or the bottom of the map.

Unfortunately, if you’re not careful about when you lose your grip, you might end up with some wasted turns trying to scale the Leviathan again. But, falling can be a legitimate tactic to avoid taking damage from a Leviathan’s attacks. Plan accordingly.

Attacking Crystals

The main objective in Leviathan Wilds is to destroy the crystals stuck in the Leviathans. There are two types of crystals, as represented by the dice: purple and teal. Purple crystals don’t cause you any problems, so strike them as you wish to destroy them.

Teal crystals, however, are Blight crystals. When you strike a teal crystal, you take one Blight. If you strike the crystal multiple times in one turn, you still only take one total Blight. So, once again, plan your attacks carefully. Make sure you’re attacking that teal crystal repeatedly to maximize the value of your attack.

Game End

A game of Leviathan Wilds ends one of two ways: death or victory. Throughout the game, players are taking damage and Blight. If ever a player’s health and Blight tracker cubes would occupy the same slot or even pass over each other, that Climber is defeated and eliminated. Each surviving Climber gets one more turn to try to destroy any remaining crystals. If any crystals are still present, the Climbers lose.

The Climbers win if they destroy all the crystals (and complete any additional objectives on the scenario card, if applicable).

Impressions

There is a lot to love about Leviathan Wilds. The Leviathan art in the book is gorgeous. The replayability, between 17 different Leviathans and the ability to mix and match character decks and role decks, is fantastic. Plus, you can play easier or harder Leviathans, depending on how casual or demanding an experience you want. I love the little lore drops on the individual Leviathan cards, both pre- and post-battle.

I also think the Grip mechanic (your cards acting as a countdown timer for you losing your grip) is great. It’s thematic and forces players to constantly keep an eye on their dwindling draw pile and where they are on the Leviathan map.

This is a very deep game, especially when you start fighting more advanced Leviathans. The book is organized by difficulty. The first Leviathan, Sage, is the introductory mode. This is a great way to play with younger players or introduce new players to Leviathan Wilds. Sage focuses on the core mechanics of the game. As you advance through the map book, Leviathans will introduce new ways of attacking and even new mechanics to the game.

Pictured in this review is the Founders Edition of Leviathan Wilds. It includes wooden tokens for character-specific powers and the focus token. It also includes a bonus Mutation pack to create even more crazy combinations with the Leviathans for added replay value. Yes, they found a way to create even more replay value beyond the different character and role combinations. Now, the Leviathans receive “mutations” to change how you interact with them.

Leviathan Wilds can take a while to set up, which is a bit of a drawback. However, if you enjoy cooperative boss battler games, it scratches that itch in a unique way. If you remember the video game Shadow Of The Colossus, this is like that – but as a cooperative board game with a happier ending.

You can get Leviathan Wilds directly from Moon Crab Games’s distributor, on Amazon, or ask for it at your friendly local game store.

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Moon Crab Games provided The Family Gamers with a promotional copy of Leviathan Wilds for this review.

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