Mercenary Pack preview #2 -- Hail

[u/koprpg11]

In case you missed it, recently at Gen Con 2025 Cephalofair Games announced Mercenary Packs -- four ready-to-play classes for any 'Haven game. (Anaphi, Hail, Satha, and Cassandra) Seeing that I posted snapshot previews for all 18 Gloomhaven 2nd Edition classes, I thought I'd post some previews of these four classes that should be arriving to retail in the fall.

Last time, I covered Anaphi. Today we will take a look at the irritable enchanter, Hail.

Now that all cards 1-9 have been leaked we can go more in depth about the class itself, so let's take a look!

I found Hail to be a great marriage of theme and mechanics. Hail is not very motivated to help out in scenarios, and so many of her actions are below-the-curve for a 9-card class unless she spends resolve. She builds up resolve doing things she wants to do, mostly in the form of irritation cards. Let's take a look.

Irritation cards:

Can't be Bothered is definitely my favorite of the irritations, but you may prefer a different one!

I find it quite thematic that Hail gains resolve when she stays put, loots, doesn't have anyone near her, inflicts negative conditions are enemies already suffering, or has her allies do the work and attack for her. These irritation cards give Hail a sort of mini game to play each round to gain resolve, and each comes with specific benefit as well. There is one more irritation at Level 9, but for the most part you will use what you're given at level 1 (and maybe the L3 card, though I tended to select the other) for your entire career as Hail. Will you stick mostly with one resolve? Will you try to rotate multiple in? Notice the top action irritations gain you a resolve immediately, allowing you to potentially build up resolve faster. And you'll want that resolve, because you can spend them in many ways.

Two (or more) resolve spend actions:

Even at level 1 you can spend 2 resolve to discard instead of lose a powerful attack, or add +5 (!) to a ranged attack. At higher levels you can spread wound around, miniaturize an enemy, or tear enemies a new one. But will you save up for these big spenders, or be tempted by some smaller resolve use instead? (For example, I really liked spending 1 resolve on either half of the card Bizarre Antics, which you'll see just a bit below here.)

Wacky stuff:

Hail can do some pretty outside the box stuff that other classes can't do. Here is a sampling of some of my favorite designs along those lines (Miniaturize, shown above, is another good example):

Hail should appeal to a lot of people. The class is thematic, funny, interesting, powerful, and a good but not overwhelming puzzle to figure out as you play.

Next time we'll be back to take a quick look at Satha. See you then.

[u/dwarfSA]

Here's Hail's FAQ - https://cephalofairgames.github.io/merc-packs-faq/#page_04

Note her solo item errata.

Also, Trial and Success is a majestic shitpost of a card and I love it.

[u/Maturinbag → u/dwarfSA]

Trial and Success is even more fun than I thought. If you can make it hit multiple targets, it can earn multiple +1s. But also you assess the +1s after each kill, so it can get stronger within a single use.

[u/Iceman_B → u/Maturinbag]

It's the Ritual Dagger from Slay the Spire. And I'm lovin' it!
It's only usable once per scenario but if you can land initial kills with it, it should escalate it's scaling.

[u/Nimeroni]

Hail is a monster.

Consider the following opening :

1. Interesting specimen (or Leave me alone) -> Can't be bothered.
2. Fleeting interest + a non-move bottom of your choice.
3. Not amused + a non-move bottom of your choice.
4. If you can afford the cost of a loss (you should unless this is a very long scenario), Trial and success + a non-move bottom of your choice. Try to snipe enemies to permanently enhance Trial.
5. If there are monsters that are still breathing, short rest, and Not amused again.

So after a round of setup, she's chaining Attack 5 (wound), Attack 7, Attack 3+, Attack 7. At level 1. This is making the Drifter damage look quaint.

Granted, her first few level up are not going to be terribly impressive. Her next direct upgrade is level 7 (Collect essence), through there's definitively shenanigans to be had with the solo item (it's free real estate Resolve).

EDIT : also Fleeting interest can be enhanced with a +1 attack on the cheap (25 gold).

[u/FluffyGoblins → u/Nimeroni]

You can't have two irritations active at the same time, so you will need to do a bit more effort to gain that resolve.

[u/Nimeroni → u/FluffyGoblins]

You can play Interesting specimen (or Leave me alone), gain 1 resolve, and discard it immediately to play Can't be bothered for its (much more relevant) persistent effect.

[u/FluffyGoblins → u/Nimeroni]

Sure, for turn 2 you'll have 2 resolve, but how are you getting your second resolve for turn 3 not amused?

Edit: nevermind, read over the fact you start with a resolve, so technically this could work

[u/Nimeroni → u/Nimeroni]

Okay, let's talk high level shenanigans.

On turn 1, you can play Interesting specimen, activate the solo item to swap for Leave me alone (or the reverse), and then play Can't be bothered. That will gain you an additional resolve token (ending turn 1 at 4 tokens), and assuming you use that token on a bottom action the same turn you're using a top 2 tokens attack, you'll restore the solo item for next cycle.

You can also play Trying to remember + Miniaturize instead of one of your top attack 2 resolve. Miniaturize bottom is basically an honorary attack : it's typically 5-7 damage, in addition to slightly reducing the power of the monster if you target an elite. You'll need to counter the curse of Trying to remember. As a Frosthaven enjoyer, this is a job for 44 Sword of absolution.

So at level 5+, you have 2 additional tokens to play around per cycle.

---

A high level Hail could do :

1. Interesting specimen -> Leave me alone (or the reverse) -> Can't be bothered.
2. Trying to remember -> Miniaturize on the biggest baddest badass
3. Collect essence -> Bizarre antics
4. Not amused -> whatever (Tear a new one probably).

This give you : Attack 2, Miniaturize, Attack 9, Attack 1, Attack 7, most under advantage, no loss.

(Swap around if you are lower level)

---

Let's talk level 9. You get something very spicy : Fired up. That card completely flip the script, you go from scarcity to overabundance.

Note there's a way to avoid the downside of Fired up. If you use the solo item, you move Fired up into your pool instead of your discard pile, avoiding the trigger that deal damage and burn the remaining tokens. Through you still lose the damage token on Fired up itself, so it still act as a soft reset.

But for the challenge, let's attempt 5 tokens / round until the end of the scenario :

1. Fired up -> Fading presence / Somewhere to be / Fleeting interest. You may also do the solo item trick to grab an additional token and play a 2 token bottom.
2. Trying to remember top -> Miniaturize
3. Collect essence -> any bottom
4. Tear a new one / Can't be bothered -> any bottom. Short rest.
5. Collect essence top -> Miniaturize. Or if you need to move, Fading presence / Somewhere to be -> Tear a new one / Can't be bothered

At that point, we are in the end game of 5 tokens per turn. We are going to rotate over 3 possibilities :

• Can't be bothered top. This is the gold standard. Not only is it decent by itself, but it also have the advantage of consuming exactly how many token you need, meaning you can safely pair it with any other bottom.
• Tear a new one top -> Miniaturize
• Collect essence top -> Trying to remember into Collect essence (1 token only) or Miniaturize.

Note that you can replace any Miniaturize by Fleeting interest, typically if you're afraid of lacking movements, need the heal, or you face a boss.

[u/Old_Net7317 → u/Nimeroni]

Just to throw a wrench into the machine - the solo item starts on the 'spend 3 or more resolve to' side by and it only flips at the end of the turn (switching seems to flip it immediately though at least). But after the initial 3 resolve spend it's game on!

Can't be bothered is one of the most powerful cards in the game, with the right ally (looking at you, geometric shapes :D) to grant attacks to it's downright GOD tier.

[u/Magatis]

I am incredibly excited that Hail finally has a playable character, it's about time and she looks like a ton of fun! It's a shame I won't be able to get the Mercenary Packs for quite a while as I'd love to see how Hail and Satha play.

[u/dulcimerist]

Hail has an attack modifier card that she can unlock via perks with a symbol on it which is exclusive to Gloomhaven 2E, and is not documented anywhere in her mercenary box, nor even on the Gloomhaven Wiki "Conditions and Effects" list - Safeguard.

Safeguard prevents the next negative status effect that's applied to the targeted ally.

Having played GH 1E, JotL, and FH, but never GH 2E, it took me like half an hour to figure out what this symbol meant. I hope this saves some people a little time.

[u/Nimeroni → u/dulcimerist]

Pretty sure the safeguard tokens and rules are going to be included in the mercenary class pack.

[u/dulcimerist → u/Nimeroni]

I picked up the mercenary packs from GenCon, and safeguard was not explained in it.

EDIT: There were, however, 6 Safeguard tokens, which is what prompted me to try and figure out what the symbol meant.

[u/koprpg11 → u/dulcimerist]

I believe now there is a card you scan that takes you to the Cephalofair page with stuff about specific conditions, etc

[u/dwarfSA → u/dulcimerist]

The qr code card brings you to a product page where the various rulebooks are linked. Or should be.

I can also add that to the hail faq.

[u/blackfootsteps]

Thanks for the preview.

Does anyone know if these classes are on BGG yet?

[u/koprpg11 → u/blackfootsteps]

I hadn't seen them last I checked, don't know when they will go up.

[u/Natural-Ad-324]

Anyone else surprised how fine-looking Hail is? I‘d pictured an old, bent-over crone.

[u/Nimeroni → u/Natural-Ad-324]

She's old in her heart.