Gloomhaven is the game people mean when they say a board game changed what they thought board games could be. It is also the game people buy, open once, and leave on a shelf under a layer of dust and good intentions.
Most of the time that is not a taste problem. It is a box problem. Four boxes in this line are complete games you can play on their own, they look like variations of the same thing, and the most famous one asks the most of your group’s time, patience and table space.
The publisher agrees, which is the useful part of this page.
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The Short Answer
| You are | Buy |
|---|---|
| New to this, or buying for a group | Jaws of the Lion |
| Playing alone, and want something small | Buttons & Bugs |
| Already sure you want the full campaign | Gloomhaven, Second Edition |
| Done with a Haven campaign and want the harder one | Frosthaven |
All four are complete games. None of them requires another box. What separates them is how much game you are signing up for.
Read the Publisher’s Own Labels
Cephalofair sells these four side by side and states who each one is for. Jaws of the Lion is labelled for beginners and casual games. Gloomhaven Second Edition and Frosthaven are both labelled for hardcore gamers. Buttons & Bugs is labelled for solo, quick play.
That is unusual. Most publishers want you to reach for the biggest box. This one is telling you not to, and the scenario counts explain why: Jaws of the Lion contains 25 scenarios, Gloomhaven Second Edition more than 90, and Frosthaven more than 130.
These campaigns branch, so no group plays every scenario in the box. But one scenario is an evening, give or take, and the size of the box still tells you the size of the commitment. Do that arithmetic before you decide which one belongs on your table.
1. Jaws of the Lion
1 to 4 players | Ages 14+ | 1 to 2 hours per scenario | 25 scenarios | Standalone
The entry point, and for most people the right answer. It is a full cooperative campaign set before the events of the original game, with four new characters, sixteen monster types and a story about mysterious disappearances in the city of Gloomhaven.
What makes it the starting box is how it teaches. Instead of handing you a rulebook, the first five scenarios work as a built-in tutorial that introduces one system at a time, with extra explanation printed directly on the cards during the early games. Cephalofair’s own page for it says there is no better place to enter this world.
It also removed the thing that makes the big boxes exhausting to set up. There are no cardboard map tiles to arrange; you play directly on the scenario book.
Buy this if you have never played, or if you are buying for a group whose enthusiasm is not yet proven.
Worth knowing: because it teaches as it goes, it leaves out some rules the larger games use. That is a feature while you are learning and a gap if you later move up. It also costs a fraction of what the two big campaign boxes cost, which is the other reason it is the low-risk way in.
2. Gloomhaven, Second Edition
1 to 4 players | Ages 14+ | 60 to 120 minutes per session | 90+ scenarios | Standalone
The flagship, rebuilt. The second edition arrived in May 2025 and is not a reprint: scenarios were rewritten, items rebalanced, monster behaviour clarified, and fourteen entirely new scenarios added, along with new monsters, items and events. The world and the story are the same. A great deal of the detail is not.
Buy this if you already know you like this kind of game and you want the one the reputation is built on.
Worth knowing: the listing is honest about the commitment, describing more than ninety thematic roleplaying sessions. Setup is heavy, the box is heavy, and this is not a game you carry to someone else’s house. If you are not certain your group will still be playing in six months, the smaller box answers that question far more cheaply.
Check the edition before you order. First edition copies are still in circulation and the titles are nearly identical. Open the product details and look for Second Edition stated explicitly in the edition field.
3. Frosthaven
1 to 4 players | Ages 14+ | 1 to 2+ hours per session | 130+ scenarios | Standalone
The sequel, and the largest of the four. You are defending a struggling outpost in the frozen north against creatures from the mountains and the sea, with sixteen new playable characters, three new races and more than twenty new enemy types. It does not require Gloomhaven.
Buy this if you have finished a Haven campaign and want the next one, larger and harder.
Worth knowing: this is the heaviest box in the line by every measure, including the literal one. Cephalofair labels it for hardcore gamers alongside the second edition, and its campaign is longer than either Gloomhaven box. Buying it as a first purchase is the most common expensive mistake in this series.
4. Buttons & Bugs
1 player | Ages 14+ | 20 to 30 minutes per scenario | Standalone
Read the player count again, because it is the single most important line on this page.
Buttons & Bugs is for one player. Not one to four. One. There is no group mode and no two player variant. If you buy this expecting to play it with your partner or your children, you have bought a game nobody else at your table can join.
Taken for what it is, it is clever. You have been shrunk to the size of a button and are trying to get big again, across a campaign of up to twenty scenarios with six classes, in a box that fits in a coat pocket. A scenario takes twenty to thirty minutes rather than an evening.
Buy this if you play alone, or you want the Gloomhaven combat puzzle without the Gloomhaven evening.
Worth knowing: it is the only one of the four Isaac Childres did not design. Joe Klipfel and Nikki Valens did, with Childres writing the campaign story. It deliberately strips out the branching story, the unlockables and most of the world building. It is the system, not the saga.
What Else Shows Up, and What It Actually Is
Search for Gloomhaven and the results fill with boxes that are not games. None of these gives you a playable campaign on its own.
- Mercenary packs. A single character in a box, sold as an add-on for people who already own the game it belongs to. The name of a Haven game in the title does not make it a Haven game.
- Solo scenario packs. Extra challenges for players who already own the relevant box, usually one per class.
- Storage organisers. Wooden inserts and trays from other companies, which list every Gloomhaven product they fit in their titles. Genuinely useful once you own the game, and confusing while you are still buying it.
- Player dashboards and accessories. Dials, card holders and mats. Quality of life, not content.
- First edition Gloomhaven. Not an accessory, but not the current version either. Check the edition field.
Before you order anything with Gloomhaven or Frosthaven in the title, look for three things on the page: a player count, a campaign of its own with a scenario count, and a clear statement that it is a complete game. If the listing says it requires another game, or if what it describes is a single character, one extra scenario, an insert or a set of trackers, it is not something you can play on its own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Gloomhaven should I buy first?
Jaws of the Lion. It is a complete standalone campaign, it teaches the system across its first five scenarios, and Cephalofair themselves label it as the beginner box. Of the three boxes you can play with other people, it is also the least demanding on your wallet and your calendar.
Do I need Gloomhaven to play Frosthaven?
No. Frosthaven is a standalone sequel with its own campaign, characters and components. It is set in the same world but requires nothing else.
Is Jaws of the Lion an expansion?
No. It is a complete game with its own 25 scenario campaign and four characters. Those characters can also be used in the larger Gloomhaven game if you own it.
Can you play Buttons & Bugs with more than one person?
No. It is designed for a single player, and there is no multiplayer mode.
What changed in Gloomhaven Second Edition?
Released in May 2025, it revised scenarios, rebalanced items and adjusted how monsters behave, and added fourteen completely new scenarios along with new monsters, items and events. The setting and the core system are unchanged.
How long does a Gloomhaven campaign take?
Longer than almost any other board game, and it depends on your group. The campaigns branch, so you will not play every scenario in the box, but the counts show the scale: 25 scenarios in Jaws of the Lion, more than 90 in Gloomhaven Second Edition, more than 130 in Frosthaven. At roughly one scenario an evening, Jaws of the Lion is a few months of regular play and the two big boxes are a commitment most groups measure in years. Buttons & Bugs runs up to 20 scenarios of twenty to thirty minutes each.
Are these games cooperative?
Yes. There is no game master and no traitor. Everyone plays a mercenary and the game itself runs the monsters.
What age are they for?
All four are rated 14 and up. That reflects the complexity rather than the content.
Where This Leaves You
If you have never played, buy Jaws of the Lion. If it does not click, you have lost very little. If it does, the larger boxes are still there, and you will arrive at them knowing the system instead of learning it from a commitment measured in hundreds of hours.
If you play alone and want something you can actually finish, Buttons & Bugs is the one, as long as alone is genuinely what you mean.
And if you already know this is your kind of game, take the second edition rather than the first, and check the listing says so.
If you are shopping during a sale, our guide to telling a real discount from a fake one covers how to check a listing before you order. And if a long campaign is not what your table wants at all, Top 10 entry level games is a better place to look.
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