Finding the best Dark Souls Board Game expansions to add to your collection will really depend on what you like in the base game. Newer players will appreciate an expansion like Black Dragon Kalameet, which expands on the original and doesn’t add a lot in the way of new mechanics. Other expansions might appeal to those who really love Dark Souls lore.
As the original game is known for both its challenging gameplay and the high quality of the game pieces, I’m happy to report that the expansions skimp on neither department. Rather than buy all twelve expansions at once, we’re going to look at some of the best expansions for the different kinds of players. If you want to stay glued to your seat, a Dark Souls expansion will bring you hundreds of fresh hours to your sessions!
While you can expect a challenge from any of the Dark Souls Board Game expansions, I think this one might just hit the sweet spot. With a big stack of behaviour cards, each boss fight can play out differently and I find it can go for a very long time. If that’s what you love about this game, then you’ll be rewarded by this expansion! And since the campaign flows naturally from the base game, it’s a great first expansion.
For the boss miniature alone, I would say the price of this expansion is well worth the investment. I found it a bit tricky to put together, but the result is stunning. When I’ve needed a quality dragon figure for other games, I use this one!
Here is a great expansion for players who might feel a bit frustrated with aspects of the base game. With the addition of two new bosses, more enemies, and loot, this expansion offers a lot of updates.
If you appreciate Dark Souls lore, this expansion tries hard to develop story and immersion. I love that it feels like I’m really fighting Artorias and Sif. It’s very fleshed out, and a lot of the annoying grind elements of the base game are improved here. But don’t be fooled, it’s still going to take work! Just make some house rules and follow some of Steamforged’s recommended variants to adjust the gameplay to your preference.
While you might think that this expansion is a light one, I assure you that it does a lot with little. As a way of randomizing some of the mini-boss encounters, Mimics are one of the coolest twists to the gameplay I’ve seen. You might think it’s fine to skip the mini-bosses and go onto the bigger ones, but defeating these guys will give you a huge amount of treasure and Souls. By forcing you to stay prepared for surprises, I find this element gives a lot of tension to each play-through.
Although it appears to be a minor addition, the new plastic gravestones and barrels make the game layout blend much better with the other miniatures. I appreciate the effort that was put into making each piece unique and detailed.
If new boss fights are your reason for finding Dark Souls Board Game expansions, I can’t recommend Executioner’s Chariot enough. In this one, the mega-boss has some unique mechanics that separates it from the usual damage-soak strategies of your typical boss fights. Without revealing too much and spoiling the experience, I’ll tell you that the fight comes in two stages and there’s lots of enemies and layout tricks waiting to screw up your strategy. If you remember the video game version of this boss, you’ll appreciate how faithful this fight is to that iteration.
As a bonus, this expansion includes encounter cards for levels 1-3. I even use these with the base game or other expansions!
Like the last one, this is another mega-boss expansion. I found this fight to be really hard, but it was a rewarding finish! It took me and my friends quite a few attempts to win here, so I wouldn’t recommend this for the newest of players.
If you’ve played other expansions, especially Darkroot, you’ll recognize some of the previous story elements being woven in here. This is a natural and rewarding addition to the collection for seasoned players.
Once again, I want to call attention to the incredible detail on the included figurines. Manus is huge! And if you feel nervous about assembly, don’t worry. He comes all in one piece!
Each of the Dark Souls Board Game expansions offers a different take on the base game, and I find it’s worthwhile to play the base game a few times to decide what element you like best. But these expansions are a must if you want to enhance the replayability of the game!
I especially love how you can make these expansions unique to yourself. If you need to repair or customize, all the miniatures can be bent or modified using warm water. Beyond that, they all provide a good base for painting.
I find it makes the game so much more immersive when you can add personal touches. Even more so when you start adding gameplay elements from the different expansions together. Make the expansions your own!