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The 2024 Players Guide to Buying Kingdom Death: Monster – Part 2 The White Boxes
🕑 Added 2024-10-11 09:00:17 +0000 UTCWith the expansions covered in last week's post it is time to dive into the White Boxes. Now by a “White Box” what I mean is the releases that come in higher quality boxes that are usually white along with some more glossy printing of artwork on the box and plastic sprues in the box. I'm not going to cover the content that comes in the plainer brown boxes that come with photoresin prints such as the beta content because that stuff really seems to be thrown out for a single sale and once it is gone it is gone. There's a lot less thought and balance put into the brown box game content, and I'm not being rude here, when we see it get reprinted (for example Sunlion Erza, Grimmory, Screaming Sun Lucy or Lantern Armor Aya) we have so far always seen changes to the original designs that refine the mechanics or pull back aspects which were not in a direction that the design team want the for the given gear types.
My honest advice in respect to the Beta content is that it is all skippable, the best stuff gets a rerelease and comes to a white box release. So the truth is; if I wasn't picking these betas up for reviewing in order to let you guys know what is in the boxes and if they were good, I wouldn't pick them up for myself. Much of the beta content has ended up not getting used after my testing/review period and it is only really unique things like the thrown weapon Sun Armor set that I go back to (and that is because of my love for thrown weapons and endless disappointment that we don't have a mastery for such a challenging and skill intensive weapon). I've written before that I think the beta line should really be retired, but it shifts miniatures for sure.
Instead I'm concentrating on the boxes that are either intended to be in print “all the time” (print runs of course mean supply isn't always there 100% of the time) or are in print every time a given season comes around (Halloween, Valentines Day, Christian Holidays etc). This means that you can be patient about picking them up and grab them when they are available if what you see is something that you think will enhance your game experience and get regular use. As a reminder, never pick these things up from resellers unless they're asking less than or equal to the price they were at the shop. You're only feeding the cycle that keeps this content out of the hands of players if you do, this isn't a big enough franchise to support a secondary market, it's just people taking it out of the hands of gamers/collectors and then selling it back to them at a premium. Kingdom Death is not a trading card game, don't support the people who try to make it like that.
Instead, support Adam Poots Games by purchasing directly from them.
With that written, let us get to the boxes. I'll cover each one in hopefully a single paragraph and then cover the same four points as last time: Who most benefits from the expansion, if I think it is good, average or poor value for cost (assuming normal shop prices) and how complex I think the expansion is. This last category is a new one I'm including because there's now a clear difference between various expansions in mechanics, with the newer ones becoming more and more complex.
Huge warning on this one, do NOT pick up any box with pattern gear on the secondary market, older versions of content like this which have patterns include the wrong colour backs (Black instead of Orange), the newer versions should have Orange Backs meaning you don't need to do what I have to do and use opaque orange sleeves to hide the differences. I'll put WARNING PATTERNS at the start of each entry in this list which has patterns, though be aware some of these only have orange backed releases (I am simply covering all for caution's sake). You shouldn't be getting sealed boxes of white box content from the secondary market regardless, but extra care is needed here.
Next, be aware I'm grading these boxes in comparison to each other and the price, most of the time white boxes offer worse value for money than expansions or vignettes. You have to really want these for a specific reason and there are very few which are universally good. I'll note if they break that rule and become something I consider almost “essential” in the bullet point section for an entry. I also am reviewing this from the position of a gamer, not a hobbyist (painter) so the large 50mm base Painter's Scale miniatures are being considered as a detriment to value. Adjust upwards on my opinion if you value the painter's scale minis for artistic purposes.
Last of all, there are full reviews for each of these releases you can access through either the Reviews collection or the Review tag at the bottom of this post. So if you're still not sure about something you can see older takes right there. All reviews should be available to everyone, I release reviews exclusively for patrons 7 days early and then they go out to all after that.
Everything is in alphabetical order, not release date order and I won't be doing shop links this time because they're not always available, you can check what is in stock at the official store link which I'll both post here and at the bottom of this article. This won't include the latest releases, they're next week.
Link: https://shop.kingdomdeath.com/collections/white-box/gameplay
Additionally, some of these come in the Legendary Card Pack, which is a way cheaper way to get just the game content. You can see what's in it here: https://shop.kingdomdeath.com/products/legendary-card-pack-1-6-upgrade
10th Anniversary Survivors
WARNING PATTERNS
This boxed set, released to commemorate 10 years of Kingdom Death has (mostly) leather clad mid game versions of the prologue survivors. Each of these survivors is equipped with gear that comes in the box in the form of pattern gear. Pattern gear is something that gets better the more of it you have, and generic pattern gear like this that includes good daggers, axes, spears and shield that have generic costs (things available in the base box) is something that gets a lot of potential play due to always being in the pattern deck. For the model of “4x survivors plus cards” this one is pretty decent as it has 6 patterns which craft a total of 8 gear cards. It is also always lovely to see variants of the prologue four and the sculpts here are all amazing, though it is worth noting that one of the gear patterns is a bit scuffed (aka bad), another one is very situational and the apart from the shield the rest are offensive weapons which means they'll fall off in usefulness beyond a certain point.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone I think, if nothing else these are beautiful miniatures to represent leather clad survivors and the gear is solid enough for the most part.
Rating: B+
Value for Money: At $60 this is one of the cheaper four model sets, so its at the higher end of this scale.
Complexity: Moderate. Patterns require planning and recording of “milestones” to ensure you have the right survivor available, they're not overly complicated but they are still more complex than normal gear or indomitable pattern gear.
10th Anniversary White Speaker
I don't know if this one is a "white box" or not, it's a plastic miniature, but it's not in a white box. So I'm going to cover it here.
This release gave us the predecessor/teaser for the knowledge system. You get a fighting art that gradually evolves to be stronger and stronger. There's some nice narrative and world building in this box, but ultimately it is a strain fighting art that even when you unlock it you won't see it every campaign. That situational hard caps its value quite heavily.
Who Benefits from this most: People who want a taste of what the GCE's Arc Survivor system will be like. It's good as a 'sampler'
Rating: C. This is an interesting journey for a survivor, but it doesn't wow me.
Value for Money: Low, this isn't a miniature with gameplay use and strain fighting arts are pushed out of the game by Arc Survivors. This is an interesting “knowledge” but it is formatted as a fighting art and I suspect (guess) it may get reprinted as a Knowledge in the future.
Complexity: Moderate. If you can handle knowledges this is no biggie, but also if you have knowledges you are probably not using fighting arts very otfen.
Allison the Twilight Knight
This box gives us a modification to the Hooded Stranger story event from People of the Lantern and not only does it give a very interesting lantern it also provides a head accessory that makes utilising the Twilight Sword a bit easier (the Sentient ability on the Twilight Sword can make it hard to navigate at times). I think if one plays a lot of PotLantern this is a must have and I wish it was an inbuilt part of the base game.
Who Benefits from this most: People of the Lantern players looking to smooth out the Twilight Sword leveling process.
Rating: For what it does, this is very good at its job. A-
Value for Money: C only because it is a campaign specific thing.
Complexity: Low, it actually makes a complicated thing a bit easier to use
Before the Wall
It is easy to get the next two entries mixed up, so this is the better of the two boxes overall because it is the one which gives you the hybrid armor unlock of Vagabond armor. The other box supports this one, but doesn't include anything that you need for Vagabond Armor because that armor set can be constructed entirely from Leather Armor plus the Tabard in this box. The Ivory Gauntlets are still currently worthless and I suspect they will remain worthless even when the Ivory Dragon finally comes out. I do really like this armor set because of how it combos with True Blade from the Flower Knight.
Who Benefits from this most: Sword lovers!
Rating: B-ecause it can break the game when combined with overpowered swords.
Value for Money: Good. Vagabond Armor is something I always consider when using swords as it is great for training them.
Complexity: Low. It's a simple alternative Leather Armor set that uses a Tabard instead of a Leather Helm.
Beyond the Wall
Requirements: Best purchased with/after BEFORE the wall. Can work without them, but isn't as interesting then.
This box provides an alternative leg slot for Vagabond Armor which adds more flexibility to the build and an alternative Leather body slot for any leather based armor set. Not much more to write about it really, it's not great but it can help speed up crafting Vagabond Armor a bit. You can skip on this one and you won't miss anything major.
Who Benefits from this most: Before the Wall owners
Rating: C
Value for Money: Low it's not very good on its own and the miniature isn't very useful or pretty either
Complexity: Low. The gear is really straightforward to craft.
Death Crown Inheritor Aya
This box brings us some extra Phoenix gear that is unlocked via an AI card that then generates a specific resource that then gives access to two new gear cards. A bow and an arrow. The bow is unique and interesting, I also like the arrow but I have never wanted to craft it before the bow. It's an upgrade to the Phoenix that I almost consider essential now.
Who Benefits from this most: Phoenix Lovers and people who are tired of Deja Vu's BS.
Rating: B+ If you use its card to completely replace Deja Vu then this is S tier
Value for Money: Average. Painters miniature bringing up the price holds this one back.
Complexity: Moderate, it's a weird pseudo-indomitable resource that isn't really one.
Devil Satan
In this box is a spear that replaces the Adventure Sword during the basic hunt event where you might get it. The spear is a “red shirt” weapon, because the user will die after using it and its strength scales up based on the total number of dead. In essence either you leave this in storage, or you abuse it by driving up the death toll enough that the spear wounds every boss in the game on a 2+. It's simply not a fun design I'm afraid.
Who Benefits from this most: No-one really? The weapon is either not fun or you end up abusing it to a ridiculous degree. There's some edge case stuff that improves the dying part in the GCE which is at least something, but the weapon is still not interesting.
Rating: F
Value for Money: Low. Wonky, abusable gear, Painters Scale and a second model that doesn't really have much use in game. Not a fan of this one at all even though I do love the Stan twins.
Complexity: Moderate because it changes a hunt event and that's more things to remember.
Early Survivor – Zelda
We get an non-thematic unarmored survivor sculpt that has another hunt event which can sometimes result in survivor death (death during the hunt phase is the worst kind of death both for tactical and fun reasons). It's even a 20% chance of death and this card never goes away. The gear card itself is a build around dagger that is interesting, so I am a bit torn about this one. It depends what your tolerance for 'roll a die and die' hunt phase deaths is I guess. The hunt event should archive itself after giving out the dagger and that's kind of unforgivable.
Who Benefits from this most: Anyone, it's a fine usable miniature with an interesting weapon even if the hunt event design is 2016 rather than 2024.
Rating: C+ there's some interesting build puzzles surrounding this weapon which are new and unique, I like that even if the pay off right now is a bit awkward to get.
Value for Money: Very much middle of the road for a box like this
Complexity: Moderate. A real brain burner of a gear puzzle.
Easter Aya
Requirements: Dung Beetle Knight Expansion
Easter Aya brings the Ancient Egg Poots (The discord nickname for the Ancient Root) and it's a very powerful item which is well gated behind a story event and also has a reasonable strong ability.
The Ancient Root that is gained during the Black Harvest (as long as the Gatherer is insane) is a phenomenal little piece of defensive gear that triggers when you are targeted. 10% of the time it will doom you, but that is in exchange for a 6+ (50%) resulting in ignoring the first hit of the monster's attack. This item is the kind that you run all campaign because the overall result is either neutral or positive. There are moments where this will be a disaster, but they are the least likely outcome and as such this is nothing but a solid tanking item.
Who Benefits from this most: Anyone with the DBK, it's a solid piece of gear expanding one of the most interesting elements of the game's original mechanics (Black Harvest) and offers something unique that's not overpowered.
Rating: B
Value for Money: Low. Painters Scale holding it back again.
Complexity: Low, apart from remembering it this doesn't add any real complexity to the Black Harvest.
Echoes of Death 1 to 4
I'm going to put these all together because they are effectively the same thing when it comes to design and value. If you want to see the individual reviews for each box, check out the Reviews collection on the patreon. These boxes are all great fun, lovely miniatures, but the issue is that Arc Survivors essentially “delete” all fighting arts from the game apart from Secret ones. Strains do not get a special exception, so the fun of unlocking these is very muted.
My order of how good they are from strongest/best balanced to weakest:
Echoes of Death 4
Echoes of Death 2
Echoes of Death 1
Echoes of Death 3
If you want really fun unique things; Echoes of Death 2 has you throwing shields like old Captain America and also has an amazing instrument based FA (combine it with the Grim Muffler!). But overall 4 is the best purchase imo due to having no unbalanced or bad strains at all. It's the one that shows the development and maturity of Team Death at its best.
Who Benefits from this most: People still playing without Arc Survivors
Rating: B- I like the system and most of the fighting arts are a lot of fun.
Value for Money: Variable because of Arc Survivors, higher if you house rule Strains to count as Secret Fighting Arts for those campaigns so you can keep using these rare things when they come up.
Complexity: Pretty high, unlocking these strains sometimes involves a lot of planning and/or luck.
Elgnirk, the Chaos Elf
This is a special event that turns up during the holiday season and impacts only the hunt event. It's really not something that has impact most of the year and even when you are playing with it, because of the mechanics you may not even interact with Elgnirk. Even when you do, it's kind of a small thing. I tried this out and I'm not using it in the future.
Who Benefits from this most: I guess people who play massive amounts of KDM over the winter holiday season.
Rating: Bad, it can be hard to even run into this content in the first place and when I use it I am just reminded that I have this miniature for no purpose other than occasionally moving along the hunt track, something a token/standee can do just as well.
Value for Money: Very low, this is extremely seasonal content and not that interesting to boot.
Complexity: Low
Elsbeth
One miniature, one character card. This time an Impairment. While Impairments are a detriment to your survivors they are a requirement for building a character deck and this is a super mild impairment that I never worry about getting. It's a rare situation it triggers and someone has to be the straggler (same reason I don't much care about the Prepared ability gained when you get Bold during the hunt phase), so it is not like this is extra punishment for the survivors as a group. They simply now have a designated straggler to suck up all the pain and the other survivors can chill safely.
Who Benefits from this most: People using the Character deck.
Rating: C
Value for Money: C
Complexity: Very low.
Erza of Dedheim
WARNING PATTERNS
This box has three patterns all of which play around with being Doomed as a mechanic. One of the gear cards requires the phoenix, the other two are generic. The Scythe in particular is very cool, but it is really random if you're going to get to craft it or not. You need not only a Possessed Survivor, but you also need a survivor who has returned from the Golden Ember (with a Skull). Believe you me, sometimes you go all campaign without crafting that.
I also like the robes, they're a bit easier to craft early on and they give an alternative for Rawhide body slot. Shame the box is so expensive.
Who Benefits from this most: Scythe lovers and people who have the Dragon King expansion
Rating: B – I like the new space this exists in. But it is hard to build the Scythe due to randomness (and you have to track survivors who encounter Golden Ember).
Value for Money: Painter's Scale again holds this back to a D
Complexity: Higher than normal patterns due to that extra bookkeeping.
Fade
Fade brings a new hunt event that offers a choice, you can risk the harvester for either extra population or gaining access to a sword that can help early settlements a lot. I really like this box as it's small scale but large impact and that is always nice. The miniature is also unique and delightful. (This is also the best use of the Harvester outside of when it is used in PotStars).
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone
Rating: B
Value for Money: Pretty good, this is extra population or a powerful early game weapon. It's never a bad card to see in the hunt.
Complexity: Low, very simple to operate.
Glow
I reviewed this one very recently. I still like it a lot, but it's hard to justify when there are better Legendary Ability choices for the Character deck. It's bizarrely better when you don't use Character Deck from the GCE because then you get a copy of it to level up without losing out on the Red Survivor (Lantern Armor Aya) or Weapon Master (GCE) legendary abilities. I definitely think this one needs house rules for GCE players in order to make use of it and it probably shouldn't have been a legendary ability in the first place.
Who Benefits from this most: Non-GCE Players
Rating: C, it's neat, but it's also competing in a crowded space with obviously better choices.
Value for Money: B+ I really like this 4x survivor model plus cards as it tends to be better priced per model than the single miniature + cards.
Complexity: Patterns so medium.
Halloween Pinup Twilight Knight
I've not had the chance to check out the new version of this, so I can't really review it except to say that I've heard it rumoured that this release now has a pattern version of the original content. Which was a bad lantern that I gave up on using very quickly. I'll try and get the new one this Halloween if I can afford it.
Halloween Ringtail Vixen
WARNING PATTERNS
Additional warning: This release relies on you owning the Ringtail Vixen release because one of the patterns (the good one) uses the event in that box.
This one has two patterns, one of which is an early game club weapon so it has the usual club spiel but it's gotten a LOT better now we have the Lantern Armor Aya because that allows you to use it without wearing Head Armor (you can also run it earlier on with Vagabond Armor if you want). The second pattern on the other hand is junk, not being able to be ambushed is not worth an entire slot on your gear grid.
Oh it's also got a spooky Pumpkin Monster bonus, but we've not had a pumpkin monster yet. Perhaps this Halloween?
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone, especially once you have Lantern Aya and can capitalize on the biggest synergy for the Brazen Bat.
Rating: C-
Value for Money: Low. Like all Painters Scale + 38mm mini + Game content the value is a lot lower than it would be without the Painters Scale mini inflating costs for non-hobbyists.
Complexity:
Halloween King Costume
WARNING PATTERN
Requirements: King's Man
All costumes have a base use as 'bad shield' where you can pop them in the grid and get 5 armor points. That's a reasonable floor for gear and something many piece of gear never even get close to. They also offer a bunch of flexible affinities and you don't need to activate the gear card bonus if it isn't good enough.
The Regal Costume lands in that category, it's expensive to craft and if you activate it then you're flipping a coin on who gets the first two turns. That's awful, but you can at least benefit from the two red affinities and the armor points. Overall though, given this belongs to one of the weakest (least interesting) monsters in the game it's a pretty simple skip because both the Lion Knight and Slenderman are better Node 2 nemesis monsters.
Who Benefits from this most: People with money to burn and lovers of accountancy during the showdown.
Rating: D, because it at least provides protection and looks cool.
Value for Money: Low because it's one miniature in one box
Complexity: Low for a pattern. You should be able to craft this every campaign.
Halloween Survivor - Flower Knight Costume
WARNING PATTERN
Requirements: Flower Knight Expansion
The flower costume offers blue and green affinities in some great orientations, but this is another costume where you don't want to. I really like this costume for Acanthus Doctors also.
Who Benefits from this most: Owners of the Flower Knight
Rating: C-
Value for Money: Low, this is weak when compared to the previous release of Halloween Survivors – Series II that gave us a much better deal
Complexity: Low, this one is again really easy to craft. You'll simply need to have leather ready to go, keep a flower addiction survivor around and hunt a flower knight.
Halloween Survivors - Series II
WARNING PATTERNS
Unlike Halloween Survivors - Series I which (currently) has no game content at all, this second release has four models dressed up as monsters along with their associated costumes. The monsters are the White Lion, the Screaming Antelope, the Gorm and the Crimson Crocodile. These costumes are pretty generic in costs and while the activated abilities on the costumes tend to be bad they are still 5 armor points to all locations in a single gear card without being a shield, that can provide value in some niche areas. Overall I am underwhelmed by these, though the sculpts are very fun and it is better value for money than the later single releases above
Who Benefits from this most: Spooky Scary Skeletons
Rating: D
Value for Money: Medium, it's a four model release and they tend to be better value than the one model ones.
Complexity: Moderate, because it uses patterns.
Halloween White Speaker
WARNING PATTERNS
Requirements: Slenderman, Dung Beetle Knight
This box comes with the Black Ghost Dagger pattern. A dagger that has deflect 1 and scales to 11 strength when the monster has +10 toughness. It's a really good dagger, one of many excellent promo-daggers and I have nothing but recommendations for this one. Another spoopy pumpkin gear card.
Who Benefits from this most: Owners of the above two expansions.
Rating: A-
Value for Money: Good.
Complexity: Moderate, patterns again.
Holiday White Speaker Nico
This is a single settlement card, which is a fun one that is unique in that it can give you a "game state reload" or change your principle and also makes cheating a legitimate mechanic in the game that you need to track on your settlement sheet. This card means no-one can ever criticise anyone for playing the rules wrong or fudging things, the Cheat Count is a real thing.
Who Benefits from this most: Cheaters!
Rating: C
Value for Money: Low, you can get this card and others in the 1.6 Legendary upgrade, and that was a lot less expensive.
Complexity: Medium-Low. You do need to track how many times you “fudge the rules” when this is in your settlement deck and most settlement sheets don't have a 'Cheating count' for good reason.
Indomitable Survivors
I'm putting all of these guys together, because I need to save space/time somewhere and the honest truth is they're all similar in value (though Lenore and Xell benefit more because you don't need an expansion to use them, I've therefore ranked them all below in value for money order which is based on how often you face the monsters and how likely it is one will own that given monster.
Longclaw Lenore – White Lion
Stampede Glaive Xell – Screaming Antelope
Greatest Gaxe Morg – Gorm
Gusk Knives Grimmory – Gorm
Lordsruin Titus – The King
This entire series is really good, Indomitable Patterns are far more interesting and engaging than their predecessor which was level specific strange resources. You are encouraged to hunt the level three monsters repeatedly in a campaign because there's variation in the best reward. It's a really good system and every one of the releases so far has been unique, cool and appropriately powerful. Obviously you need The Gorm for two of them (but you should have that expansion anyway) and Titus is the lowest value because he's linked to the Level 3 King and that's a GCE monster you don't get to fight too much per campaign.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone who owns the appropriate monster
Rating: S tier, I consider Indomitable Resources to be peak KDM design.
Value for Money: Medium, they are single miniature single Indomitable resource releases, that means they're worse value than say a box that held four of them at a time.
Complexity: Low. Indomitable Patterns are a lot easier to operate than patterns, often you can craft them the very year that you get them.
Lantern Armor Aya
WARNING PATTERNS
This is simply a really REALLY good box that everyone should get. See the review for more details, I recommend this one despite the price.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone. This is the best Character ability in the game and a really good pattern armor set to boot and you'll want it even if you are not using Arc Survivors yet.
Rating: A+
Value for Money: Medium. Due to the painters miniature the value here is not as good as it could have been, but the game content is really good. Maybe you can split the costs with a hobbyist?
Complexity: Medium. Mostly because of the huge range of different things Red survivors can do.
Lolowen
Lolowen comes with an OK ability that has extra showdown cognitive load on it (you need to go first to make use of it, but it is a good bonus) and a pattern weapon that needs to either be gained very early in the campaign (it's got 3 strength) or be combined with Lantern Armor (it's a club) in order to be useful, and guess what, you need a club to make this club. The rub is that there are better clubs in the core game so you'll use a superior club to craft a weaker club. Honestly, I couldn't write a better joke than that.). The pattern also needs Scrap Smelting, so that means the club is already sunsetting its viability window by the time most settlements will get it (until Blacksmith). It's overall not a super exciting box and I couldn't even remember what was in it before rechecking my notes, it's that unremarkable. Nice miniatures though.
Who Benefits from this most: I think most people can skip on this unless they love bunnies.
Rating: D
Value for Money: Painter's mini with weak content means a fail from me.
Complexity: Moderate, but the pattern is easier to craft than many.
Lunar Aya
WARNING PATTERNS
It's the worst content that's been released in years and I consider it the worst promo content ever released in a white box. That's all I'm spending on this one (nice miniatures though).
Who Benefits from this most: No-one, in fact this is an active way to make the phoenix and pattern system a bit worse.
Rating: F
Value for Money: Virtually non-existent except for the model.
Complexity: Moderate as it uses a pattern.
Lunar Twilight Knight
Unlike Aya, this release is great. The Fish of Abundance is a great gear card and the hunt event it comes from is well balanced. The only
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone
Rating: B-
Value for Money: Low. But I like the miniatures which is a unique sculpt style for KDM
Complexity: Moderate
Lune
Pretty miniature. Instrument related ability that only works for a single round and triggers once, so it has some synergy in going after a Grim Muffler musician (or in a nemesis showdown). It's better for people who house rule the harvester away.
Who Benefits from this most: House rule players and instrument lovers.
Rating: C
Value for Money: C+ I like the miniature which is a unique sculpt style for KDM
Complexity: Low
Morgan the Savior
I still do not like what they did to Morgan in this sculpt. The new character card gives you a savior who exists to basically be a 'reload' for a survivor who dies in the showdown, but that kills them in the process. It's interesting, but ultimately you're not going to play with this because it is a legendary ability (and the worst one of the lot).
Who Benefits from this most: I guess people without the Character deck?
Rating: E
Value for Money: Bad. This one is an easy skip.
Complexity: Medium-Low, same as most saviors.
Mystery Birthday Gift
I will still not spoil this one, but I will say that for $60 this is a terrible deal. It was nearly a good idea, but it is too stingy in what it contains. It is a cute idea for a birthday present, but only for surprising an existing KDM player on their birthday and be aware you will need to play the game on that day. If you want to see what it contains, here's the official link and you'll have to scroll down a lot to get past the spoiler warnings: https://shop.kingdomdeath.com/collections/white-box/products/birthday-gift. If this one covered multiple birthdays for the price I would rate it higher.
Who Benefits from this most: The birthday boy/gal I guess?
Rating: F, easy skip and I won't change this rating unless the price drops to $20 or more cardboard is put in the box
Value for Money: Very low
Complexity: Moderate
Oktoberfest Aya
WARNING PATTERNS
Requirements: Screaming Antelope, Lonely Tree
This is a selection of patterns that have variable value. The Weapon is tied to the existence of a savior via the Ethereal ability, which is a pretty awful drawback and means it's got a limited space where it can be used and a limited lifespan. The Lonely Tree based item has become better since the GCE brought us the bleed-centric Crimson Crocodile armor set and the last piece is a dual slot armor (body, waist) that works well for a newbie support survivor.
Who Benefits from this most: Owners of the GCE and Lonely Tree
Rating: C-. Not the biggest fan of this selection, but it has got better with time.
Value for Money: Lower due to Painter's Miniature again.
Complexity: Moderate
Percival
Another neat hunt event from the period where Team Death were making great hunt event cards. This one has got better with time due to the design focus on making true “Sword & Board” a playstyle in KDM. It's interesting because it is also a Secret Fighting Art that you can move around survivors. Also the miniature is a gorgeous tribute to a long dead lady.
I'm also a bit disappointed that there didn't seem to be any interactions between the Black Knight and Black Guard Style in the Black Knight expansion. If I missed them, please let me know.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone, especially if you have Regalism (Arc Survivors)
Rating: B+ (this one has grown over time like a fine wine)
Value for Money: B+
Complexity: Low
Easter Twilight Knight
This box contains a kind of cute little vermin resource, but it doesn't have any cooking recipes with it so it ends up making one of the interesting and underutilised mechanics in the game a bit weaker. I like the Joke/Star Trek reference more than the actual application of this one.
Who Benefits from this most: I think most gamers can skip on this one
Rating: D
Value for Money: D+ if you want the mini
Complexity: Medium-Low, it does increase bookkeeping
Pinups of Death (All)
Requires Sunstalker for one item.
The settlement events are the good things in this selection, if you want them you should target the boxes that give you them. The plastic miniatures are all gorgeous and wonderful sculpts, but they might not be your jam. I honestly can't remember which box has the good stuff, but I do believe some of the cards are in the Legendary Card Pack and it's better to pick that up if you need just the cards. For the most part I'd leave the packs with miniatures for deals split with someone who wants the minis.
Pinups of Death 2 has the best game content out of all the boxes. It's the one pictured above. But I believe the legendary card pack has this card also.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone, more settlement events are always a good thing.
Rating: C-
Value for Money: D- unless you want the miniatures.
Complexity: Low
Ringtail Vixen
One of the gold standards for a white box, this gives you a bookmark that goes into the Intimacy page for your campaign, then the first time you roll the worst result, instead of losing two survivors you gain +1 survivor (who has bonuses and drawbacks). This is a huge boon because failing your first intimacy roll and losing both survivors is a massive issue that can start a death spiral for a beginning settlement. I love this card, it's perfect.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone, the bookmark in this box helps reduce one of the earliest campaign killers from putting a settlement immediately into dire straits.
Rating: S tier
Value for Money: Really high, this is content that can have massive impact in every campaign.
Complexity: Low. It's a bookmark that goes in your rulebook for 50% of the campaigns.
Santa Satan
Requirements: Flower Knight Expansion or Holiday White Speaker Nico
The game content here is a new resource that was probably going to have some interactions with Atnas, but that seemed to be scrapped. It's not a complete detriment to have in your deck once it is unlocked, but that strain unlock requires the Flower Knight to achieve.
Who Benefits from this most: I think this is an easy one to pass on.
Rating: D. It's a solid enough variant ??? basic resource, but the print quality makes it stand out from the rest and it reduces the odds of getting Perfect Resources.
Value for Money: E. Painter's Scale strikes again.
Complexity: Low, it's not even super difficult to unlock.
Screaming Sun Lucy
Requirements: Sunstalker Expansion for People of the Sun
Both the sun armor sets are great for People of the Sun, this is the one which I have to admit is a little bit less valuable because Screaming Armor is already good in PotSun. However, I still highly rate this because it is a dagger focused set and if you've not played with daggers you're missing out. Easy recommend.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone who plays People of the Sun.
Rating: A-, love the model, love the mechanics. This one is gold.
Value for Money: Average. Just because it is campaign locked.
Complexity: Low
Skrelle
A new settlement event that provides an evolving Innovation. This is a fun card and has been nothing but a boon to my campaigns, bringing fun and an appropriate level of reward for the work put in.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone
Rating: A-. I love this thing so much.
Value for Money: B-
Complexity: Medium-Low. You have to remember to tend it in order to get the benefit.
Summer Goth
WARNING PATTERNS
All three of these patterns are late game People of the Lantern exclusives. You can't use them until after you've beaten the Core Nemesis for the campaign. That means they have a low rate of availability and they're going to sit in your pattern pile for a long time. The three items are all interesting enough and have the fun image of bikini clad male survivors marching into battle. But overall it's quite hard to justify having this. The Arm slot gear is probably the best thing (this is also one of the few places with gear that doesn't have weapon, armor or item keywords, an interesting oddity).
Who Benefits from this most: People of the Lantern players
Rating: C-. I like the ideas here, but it's got a limited window of use per campaign.
Value for Money: E. Painter's Scale.
Complexity: Moderate cause of patterns.
Survivors of Death I
Requirements: Frogdog, Gambler's Chest
This new line follows the model of Echoes of Death but expands it to include patterns and knowledges. The first release here is a bit shaky. The Frogdog Indomitable Pattern feels bad that it wasn't included in the expansion box, the strain fighting art has arc survivor problems, the Seed Pattern is lacking support in the same way that thrown weapons lack support and the knowledge is ridiculously situational right now as it requires monsters with ranged attacks.
Who Benefits from this most: Owners of the Frogdog and Gambler's Chest
Rating: C+
Value for Money: B. Even if I'm not totally wowed over this, the 4x model release boxes still represent better value than the single model ones.
Complexity: Moderate, due to patterns knowledges and a strain.
Swashbuckler
I barely could remember this one existing! It's a fun coat that attacks, but it is tied to a savior existing and once the savior is gone then the coat leaves as well. As such it's really one for the lifestyle gamers
Who Benefits from this most: PotLantern lovers.
Rating: D
Value for Money: Low. There's fun to be had here, but it's limited to unlock and use.
Complexity: Moderate.
Valentine's Day Pinup Twilight Knight
So this one is a bit expensive, but I love the small scale Allison miniature and the Scoopy Club is a great weapon to help players even if we could have done with a vomit token to track when the club is full. Sure it's gained for “free” but I've found that very useful when struggling and not overpowered when doing well.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone, it's a generic unlock and it's a club, they never go out of fashion.
Rating: B+
Value for Money: D+. This has my least favourite painter's scale miniature.
Complexity: Low.
White Speaker
One of the classics, this set used to have players complaining that it was overpowered, but the power creep in the GCE has put that to rest in my opinion. This contains two great gear cards, one excellent weapon that makes the chore of levelling Fist & Tuff a lot easier and the second is a rare form of bleed removal that works passively and it has great affinities. Easy recommend here.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone.
Rating: A+. This one has gotten finer with time, like blood wine.
Value for Money: Good.
Complexity: Low. You simply need to plan ahead and learn to navigate the innovation system.
White Speaker Sword Hunter
Also known as “The One Where You Get the Welsh Sword” this is an interesting hunt event, that when triggered gives you a solid little sword for a while, but there's a risk that not only will it get taken from you, but its wielder will be slain. I actually find the risk/reward here to be very nicely balanced. So this one gets a thumbs up from me (like all White Speaker boxes so far).
Who Benefits from this most: Owners of the various Sword & Board synergies.
Rating: A-
Value for Money: C. The miniature doesn't really have a home in game except for maybe if you play with the White Speaker variant in the GCE.
Complexity: Low.
White Sunlion Armor - Erza
Requirements: Sunstalker Expansion for People of the Sun
The second of our Sun armor sets (please, please give us Aya, Zachary and Allister soon), this set takes White Lion armor and makes it viable in PotSun without needing the Hellfire SFA. That's a great deal and on top of that it even goes further by improving pounce and having synergy with the Dagger/Tool that comes in the box. It has turned a mediocre set that you ignore in PotSun into something worth getting excited about.
Who Benefits from this most: PotSun lovers. Get a tan!
Rating: B+. I think the weapon is better in the Lucy version.
Value for Money: Good if you are a sun dog.
Complexity: Moderate. Make sure you have a sickle and the Screaming Sun/Screaming Antelope armor and this one is easy to unlock once the terrain turns up.
Winter Solstice Lucy
WARNING PATTERN
The pattern card we get from this box is an accessory that provides a little bit of survival protection against the cold and most importantly allows us to remove Noisy from one gear card, meaning we can finally run an instrument without fear of a survivor being deleted with no possible counterplay (outside of not using noisy gear, which is the default best choice). I hate this part of the game because it is such a terrible experience for a player to get “rocks fall, you die lol” during the hunt phase. It feels cheap and most of all it means an entire category of noisy keyword gear cards should not be used. Team Death steadfastly refuse to fix this problem at the source even though the community has made it clear that in general they're not interested in the dynamic. So the Grim Muffler exists as a compromise, one survivor gets to carry one instrument.
Naturally because I love instruments and bards the Harvester makes me very sad, so I love the Grim Muffler.
Who Benefits from this most: Everyone
Rating: A, I can't quite S tier this, though it gets the highest grade in my heart because it includes Lucy and a way to make instruments not suck.
Value for Money: Very high. Yes this is expensive, but the pattern unlocks an entire class of gear card that previously was stupidly high risk to use. I consider it frankly an essential part of my campaign progression.
Complexity: Moderate. It's a pattern, there's weird things you need to keep a track of.
X-mas Special Pinup Twilight Knight
This box comes with Xmaxe which is in essence a superior version of the Gloom Katana from the Slenderman. I really like this weapon a lot, it's fun and strong (if you don't abuse Insanity loops to get huge amounts of insanity) while also being a sweet pun. However this is an expensive box with just a painters scale miniature and some Xmaxe sculpts to add onto models if you want.
Who Benefits from this most: Anyone, it's a generic crafting cost weapon.
Rating: B if you don't abuse it (same issues that surround any weapon with potentially unlimited strength scaling)
Value for Money: E this is as bad as it gets outside of boxes where the content isn't fun.
Complexity: Low, you simply need to remember it exists and then craft it.
You can see what white boxes are in stock on the store at this link here: https://shop.kingdomdeath.com/collections/white-box/gameplay
Always purchase direct from Adam Poots Games wherever possible and never pay additional mark ups for secondary market items.
There's a LOT of boxes, I think I've covered them all, but If I've missed anything, you can check the full reviews in this collection here.
Comments
Renan Kiritani
the great ones are so hard to find.. I hope they reprint Percival, Fade and White Speaker (OG)
pilow
I have never bought a white box, except for Echoes of Death. This review allowed me to create a very tight, sorted (ranked), argumented, Black Friday wish list. Thanks a lot for the time it must have taken to write it.
Fen
Sorry for not replying before, sometimes these things slip my mind. As for BF, no idea, it'll be big for sure but that's only based on the past. I couldn't possibly speculate.
Timo Wilkening
Thanks mate. Do you thing black friday will ne crazy like last year? I have a big wishlist!!
steve
Thank you!!!
Deltium
Fen, thank you so much. As a new player this is indeed very helpful.
