Lost Ruins of Arnak: Twisted Paths – Soar? Or Venture into the Dark?

The lost island of Arnak continues to call to intrepid explorers, promising long-hidden secrets deep inside the temples and jungles dotting its landscape. However, two previously undiscovered temples promise more, but at what cost?

Lost Ruins of Arnak: Twisted Paths expansion adds a brand-new double-sided main island board from designers Min and Elwin, creating new research opportunities and shaking up the island of Arnak.

Like the base game, Twisted Paths is for 1-4 players, ages 12 and up, and it plays in 30 minutes per player. It is published by Czech Games Edition.

What Does Twisted Paths Add?

The biggest (literally and figuratively) addition that Twisted Paths offers is a new double-sided gameboard. It is wider than the original board to accommodate a re-imagined research track.

Both sides also add new components. The dark Spider Temple side adds dark tablets, while the brighter Owl Temple side replaces the original temple tiles with new Owl Temple tiles, and adds a third kind of token to move up the research track.

The Spider Temple

The dark shadows of the Spider Temple hold many secrets, but getting to them is not easy. The intrepid explorers find a brand-new artifact on Arnak, the dark tablet. It looks much like the original tablets, but it promises both new discoveries and a foreboding cost.

The research track in the Spider Temple looks very different from the base game of Arnak. Instead of just a linear progression, players will encounter altars during their research through the temple. At the beginning of play, these altars are empty. However, as players progress through the temple and accumulate dark tablets, they can use these new tablets to invoke an altar.

When a player invokes an altar, they take an artifact card from the market and place it into an altar below their research token they’ve progressed the furthest. However, each dark tablet a player uses to invoke an altar during the game will cause them to lose points at the end of the game. Will using these artifacts be worth the cost?

You can also use the dark tablets when you would use a normal tablet. Rather than staying on the research track and invoking an altar, these simply return to the supply spots at the bottom of the Spider Temple board, refilling the spots from right to left.

Any dark tablets that are gained but not used, are returned to the supply at the end of the game before scoring. Then each player takes a point penalty for every dark tablet they used on an altar.

Not only does the research track receive a makeover, but so does the main island. The travel costs are quite different this time around, representing the myriad ways explorers have to move throughout the island of Arnak.

The Owl Temple

The Owl Temple shines with the promise of new discovery and opportunity. Gone are the simple temple tiles for an end-game scoring bonus. Instead, the new Owl Temple tiles provide end-game scoring and a mid-game boost. When a player gains two Owl Temple tiles, they fit together like jigsaw pieces.

The result gives the player a new idol slot to access their idol powers on their personal gameboard.

The research track also offers hidden passages that give players special bonuses. These passages are only accessible via the Magnifying Glass research token. Once a player uses their Magnifying Glass to access a hidden passage, no one else can go there. However, the Magnifying Glass cannot leave to take a different path.

When a player opens up a hidden passage, they gain access to a third research token, the Lantern. This token moves up the research track just like the other tokens and gains end-game scoring and instant bonuses just the same.

Much like the Spider Temple, the Owl Temple’s surroundings have also changed. The Level I sites are split into two levels now, with the second level adding an additional cost of two gold alongside the cost of three compasses.

What Else Does It Add?

Both sides of the main gameboard also allow you to purchase temple tiles from lower spots along the research track. At the fifth row, you can purchase a temple tile from the first row, paying its cost. When you reach the seventh row, you can purchase from either the first or second row. Then, like in the base game, when you reach the top of the temple on the research track, you can purchase temple tiles from all three rows.

There are also new Level I and Level II sites, four new guardian tiles, eight assistant tiles, ten idol tiles, six research bonus tiles, plus new rival components for playing the game’s solo mode. The game also includes four card dividers for helping organize all of your Lost Ruins of Arnak cards.

Expectations And Impressions

I certainly was looking forward to digging into Twisted Paths. I very much enjoyed the base game, and I think Expedition Leaders is a must-have for anyone who plays Arnak. So, when I heard that Min and Elwen had a new expansion to shake up the island of Arnak, I couldn’t wait to get into it.

The new Temples certainly upped the game’s replayability. The Spider Temple adds a unique press-your-luck mechanism. You are tempted to activate artifacts without sacrificing compasses to purchase them, but it comes at a cost at the end of the game. The Owl Temple gives you new opportunities for using your idol powers.

But unlike Expedition Leaders, Twisted Paths is not a fundamental game-changer. It adds replayability, yes. It’s fun, yes. However, I didn’t feel like it was a necessity.

Twisted Paths is a fun expansion, but it does require more mental tracking with the additional choices on the research tracks. My son and I enjoyed the secret passages of the Owl Temple more than the altars for the Spider Temple, but both are worth trying. However, I don’t have a problem going back to the base island board for Arnak when we want something a little simpler.

Final Thoughts

Lost Ruins of Arnak: Twisted Paths puts a new twist on the island and temples of Arnak. It requires some extra thinking and planning with the new mechanisms that might keep some from enjoying it fully.

However, if you love exploring the jungles and temples of Arnak and play it regularly, Twisted Paths should be on your shelf. Find it on Amazon, buy direct from CGE, or look for it at your friendly local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Lost Ruins of Arnak: Twisted Paths from CGE for this review.

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