Back to Arkham: Reviewing the 2026 Core Set Refresh

Welcome to this week’s review! This go-around I’m taking a look at the new core set for a popular Living Card Game (LCG). So, without further ado, let’s jump into it.

Disclosure: A review copy of this game was provided to The Meeple Digest in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game is starting a new chapter. The original core set debuted back in 2016, and a revised core set that expanded the card pool and introduced some quality-of-life improvements was released in 2021. Since the game’s inception, there have been numerous campaign, investigator, and scenario expansions that provide enough content to keep even the most dedicated fans entertained for quite some time.

So why introduce a new core set? First off, with so much preexisting content, attempting to balance new cards without introducing power creep becomes challenging. It also offers the chance to make tweaks to core cards and provide more quality-of-life improvements that come with 10 years of experience with the game. And finally, it offers an ideal entry point for newcomers that may have been overwhelmed trying to understand where to jump in with the previous content.

That’s why I think this content will appeal more broadly to Arkham Horror LCG newcomers. There are some noticeable quality-of-life upgrades such as including a bag for the chaos tokens, card dividers, connector tokens to make it easier to tell which locations are connected, and an improved rulebook that includes prebuilt starter decks for each of the five new investigators along with strategy and upgrade suggestions. One slight negative is that the insert is a touch small for sleeved cards (I used Dragon Shield standard sleeves). Also, while I appreciated the new flashlight tokens that can be used in the place of the mini-investigator cards, I can’t help but feel like they missed an opportunity to put the investigator character art on them as a best-of-both-worlds solution. All that said, the overall production value is a significant step up from the original core box.

The included three scenario campaign, the Brethren of Ash, is also a noticeable improvement over the original Night of the Zealot campaign. There’s a greater emphasis on storytelling that makes it easier to become immersed in the Lovecraftian horror setting. I’ve always found the writing and thematic setting to be a major selling point for the game, and the new Brethren of Ash campaign is no exception. The only drawback is that new campaign follows a similar structure to the original Night of the Zealot campaign, so those that have played the original campaign quite a few times might be a tad disappointed.

While I wholeheartedly recommend the new core set to newcomers, I think it’s a tougher sell to experienced fans. First off, there are limited deckbuilding options that initially felt quite jarring after playing the game with a much wider card pool. That’s not to say that you can’t personally combine player cards between sets – just be warned that it will likely affect balancing and make the game easier at lower difficulty levels. The counterargument here is that the smaller upgrade pool makes it easier to gradually introduce new players to the deckbuilding mechanisms in the game, and since the campaign is only three scenarios, players likely won’t be upgrading their decks that often.

Next, while even the new core box has some replayability by offering five different investigators, as well as player choices in each scenario, it’s still a much smaller package compared to the traditional eight scenario campaigns. Once again, I think making the initial campaign shorter makes it more approachable to new players, whereas existing fans will likely tire of the content sooner. That said, there is more slated content coming later this year, including another three-scenario campaign.

This leads me into my next point that is bound to be at least a tad controversial. The new encounter cards introduced in this core set are effectively required to be able to play future campaigns, while you’ll need the old core set to play previous campaigns, unless an official or unofficial way is introduced. For the most part, I’d still recommend newcomers jump into the new set rather than the old one, but just know that campaigns may be a bit limited at the beginning.

Overall, the new Arkham Horror LCG core set is a very solid package that introduces a lot of noticeable upgrades over the original that I’d solidly recommend to new players. For experienced fans of the series, considering that the new core set still shares a lot of similarities to already existing content, it’s a bit harder of a sell, and I can see the argument for waiting until more information on the future roadmap is released before deciding whether to jump into Chapter 2. That said, I really enjoyed my time with the new Brethren of Ash campaign, and I’m looking forward to jumping into another campaign in the future.

With that, I’ll wrap up this week’s review! If you’ve played the new core set, what are your thoughts on the changes and new campaign? I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the games I’ve mentioned or future content suggestions in the comments below. Happy gaming!

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