Here are timestamps AND a quick 5-point review I threw together, after Kevin Erskine asked in a comment below: 1 - Love character building, leveling up, and equipping items, though it can get repetitive going through it with the same character, so variety might be limited. 2 - Enjoy combat, which is quick and streamlined but still gives some interesting mitigation and ability use. 3 - Pacing is a little off in solo. Yes, you get penalized for resting, so you have interesting choices of how far to push yourself before resting. But, unlike in the competitive game, there is no incentive to fight a lot of monsters at once, because the solo variant doesn't care about extra turns spent fighting. So that encourages the player to fight 1 or 2 enemies every time, which doesn't happen in competitive and loses some of the danger of combat. 4 - Final fight is well done. It worked well in the competitive version, and also works well here, with kind of an extended survival combat puzzle to fight through. I think the difficulty levels function mostly as intended to, though they don't change gameplay until the final battle, which is maybe a missed opportunity? 5 - Production is a mix for the design as a whole. In the end, I'd compare this game to something like One Deck Dungeon, in terms of the actual weight and choices within gameplay. But this one is much heavily produced than ODD, with miniatures that barely matter, giant boards that mark how far you've progressed and hold randomly splayed monster cards. This will appeal or not appeal to gamers based on their preferences. For me, I would have been happy if the game was half its size and cost, since a lot of the bling is extraneous (though I do love the design and organization of the character boards). 0:00 - Introduction 1:19 - Set-Up 3:55 - How to Play 12:16 - Act I 24:14 - Act III 32:45 - Act V 35:58 - Final Battle
Thank goodness for this vid. It's been sooo long since I've played, that I couldn't figure out how to do the final battle in solo. So confusing! One thing I did differently is that I still had fury cards left over by the time I got to Act VI, so I basically didn't setup a demon roars pyramid. I think that was right, but not 100%. It is still a lot of fun. Reminds me of Set a Watch. So maybe I'll break that out next.
Thanks for the playthrough! This looks like a good one. There seems to be enough dice mitigation so the luck of the roll doesn't completely steamroll you. Once again, I think your mini five review is great, I would also be worried about replayability once you've tried all the characters.
I like the slight change to time pressure in the solo variant. It seems like it could work with coop as well with a few changes. It seems athematic that the boss is hardest in the first round and gets easier. Would an inverted pyramid make for more of a ramp up in difficulty between rounds of combat? Or at least more consistent challenge?
Yeah, co-op should definitely be workable, though it wouldn't have any actual cooperation between players unless someone created those mechanics for a variant. I agree that the pyramid is front-loaded, but in a way I think that's how you want it. Your resources are dwindling every round of combat, so having the pyramid the way it is gives you more info early (so you can strategize), but the relative tension stays about the same, because dealing with 2 roar cards in round 3 is going to be similar to 4 roar cards in round 1, because my own resources are so nearly exhausted at that point. If any of that makes sense ;
@@davidko9289 oh, absolutely, that's a good comparison. But in many video games, you can often keep your health maxed out with the weaker forms, and the true challenge only comes with the final form. Here, you are getting beat down regardless the whole time :)
9:50 you do not have to use wite gem to add the die to your pool, only equip at least 1 item is required. Page 17. So: you equip 1 item, you get the extra die, gem stay on the gem pool if you don't need it. I know this manual is not well written probably the worst manual written by CGE, and I'm a CGE fan. I'm watching your video to learn how to setup the final battle :) and after that I will play my very first game of Sanctum , alone in solitary :) Solitary rules are made for players that know already how to play the game, So i have a double difficulty to understand them :)
Thanks for the clarification, but it doesn't really affect anything, since you can change your gems around whenever you equip anyway. So if you use the white gem the first time you equip, you can switch in a different colored gem for it and move the white gem the next time. I hope the video helps, and you enjoy the game!
I know I'm a bit late to the party on this one but thanks for the playthrough! Definitely helpful in understanding the game. For some reason I had a hard time with this rulebookand a few things weren't clicking.
i think im gonna have to get this one. i dunno if its the video gamer in me but i kinda just really like that item system. and i think thats enough to keep me engaged lol
Question. I just got this and am trying to figure it out. Solo rules say that you have to have completed all your first row achievements before claiming the treasure chest, so wouldn't you have to rest before moving onto final space in Act 1? That way you can claim that achievement before opening the chest.
@@OneStopCoopShop thanks, I just wanted to make sure I was playing it right, it's hard to time that rest just before the treasure in order to equip the items you need to make achievements
I have a question. At 13:58 you mention that you could take them for armor and boots but instead opted to take levels... in the rule book on page 11, section 5 it stats in its example "When you defeat this demon, you move 2 gems, blue or white. You could move the same gem twice. More details are on page 15. After gaining levels from a demon, flip it over. The other side has an item. Keep this in your item sack for now. Your sack can hold any number of items. You can equip them only during a Rest. Don't flip the demon card until you have gained the levels. This helps you track which ones you have already done and which ones you have left to do." Are the solo rules different in that you don't get to both get levels and items, or you have to choose one over the other?
Exactly correct. Solo forces the either/or choice, so you basically level up at half speed, which makes sense since you get twice the turns as in a 2-player game.
Dang. I loved Diablo but had ignored this as soon as I saw there were no solo rules. Now, I have to reconsider for nostalgic reasons if nothing else. Is a 5 in 5 coming?
I don't usually do them for add-on solo modes that weren't originally planned. But if you want a quick and dirty one, in no particular order: 1 - Love character building, leveling up, and equipping items, though it can get repetitive going through it with the same character, so variety might be limited. 2 - Enjoy combat, which is quick and streamlined but still gives some interesting mitigation and ability use. 3 - Pacing is a little off in solo. Yes, you get penalized for resting, so you have interesting choices of how far to push yourself before resting. But, unlike in the competitive game, there is no incentive to fight a lot of monsters at once, because the solo variant doesn't care about extra turns spent fighting. So that encourages the player to fight 1 or 2 enemies every time, which doesn't happen in competitive and loses some of the danger of combat. 4 - Final fight is well done. It worked well in the competitive version, and also works well here, with kind of an extended survival combat puzzle to fight through. I think the difficulty levels function mostly as intended to, though they don't change gameplay until the final battle, which is maybe a missed opportunity? 5 - Production is a mix for the design as a whole. In the end, I'd compare this game to something like One Deck Dungeon, in terms of the actual weight and choices within gameplay. But this one is much heavily produced than ODD, with miniatures that barely matter, giant boards that mark how far you've progressed and hold randomly splayed monster cards. This will appeal or not appeal to gamers based on their preferences. For me, I would have been happy if the game was half its size and cost, since a lot of the bling is extraneous (though I do love the design and organization of the character boards).
@@OneStopCoopShop Wow! Thanks for that. While I have you. Do the other characters play very differently or are they just small changes? It's one of the things I loved about Diablo. Each character plays so differently. And lastly, would you recommend it strictly for solo?
@@kevinerskine3299 the characters don't play SUPER differently. It's less variation than, for example, Too Many Bones or playing Arkham LCG as a seeker versus a guardian. But they do have their own internal combos, and their own focus, so it's still fun to play around with each of the 4. As for recommending for pure solo... if you can find it at a decent discount. Full price I think you'd need to plan on playing it both competitively and solo to get full value out of the game.
One remark - rolling two of the same numbers on dice has the same propability as rolling two different numbers. So if demons are 3 and 3 or 4 and 6, it doesen't matter - chances to hit are the same.
Pretty sure that’s not correct… let’s say I’m rolling 2 dice. I have a 1/36 chance of rolling 3+3. I have a 2/36 chance of rolling the other combo, because I can roll 4+6 or 6+4. So in that case I double my chances of killing the second enemy.
That’s a (somewhat unintuitive) rule in the core game. During setup you put a third die under the starting white gem on your board, and once you equip something (using that gem) you get the third die. Mechanically, it encourages you to rest earlier than you might want to anyway, to increase your dice odds greatly.
Page 17, Your First Item. "When you equip your first item you gain the die in your gem pool. Add it to your dice. It will be your for the Rest of the game. Note: You start with a white gem in your gem pool to make it easy for you to equip your first item." - you don't have to USE the white gem you start with, it just helps.
Oh no, I messed up something? I'm not clear on what you mean mean about removing boss cards after second rest. Can you explain further? In any case, thank you for watching!
@@OneStopCoopShop well, removing boss cards when resting in order to make last fight harder. I think you missed it after second rest. It was super late when I watched the video. Maybe I made a mistake.
Nice playthrough thanks. Not sure for solo play after all for me. I like the leveling up and item collection but the act of facing/fighting bad guys doesn't seem very appealing for me, seems too generic. End boss battle seemed cool however. It almost feels like roll player with monster and minions??
Interesting comparison! I like the luck mitigation and power use throughout the game, so I certainly enjoy combat here more than the little bit of “combat” in Roll Player, though I enjoy both games
Here are timestamps AND a quick 5-point review I threw together, after Kevin Erskine asked in a comment below:
1 - Love character building, leveling up, and equipping items, though it can get repetitive going through it with the same character, so variety might be limited.
2 - Enjoy combat, which is quick and streamlined but still gives some interesting mitigation and ability use.
3 - Pacing is a little off in solo. Yes, you get penalized for resting, so you have interesting choices of how far to push yourself before resting. But, unlike in the competitive game, there is no incentive to fight a lot of monsters at once, because the solo variant doesn't care about extra turns spent fighting. So that encourages the player to fight 1 or 2 enemies every time, which doesn't happen in competitive and loses some of the danger of combat.
4 - Final fight is well done. It worked well in the competitive version, and also works well here, with kind of an extended survival combat puzzle to fight through. I think the difficulty levels function mostly as intended to, though they don't change gameplay until the final battle, which is maybe a missed opportunity?
5 - Production is a mix for the design as a whole. In the end, I'd compare this game to something like One Deck Dungeon, in terms of the actual weight and choices within gameplay. But this one is much heavily produced than ODD, with miniatures that barely matter, giant boards that mark how far you've progressed and hold randomly splayed monster cards. This will appeal or not appeal to gamers based on their preferences. For me, I would have been happy if the game was half its size and cost, since a lot of the bling is extraneous (though I do love the design and organization of the character boards).
0:00 - Introduction
1:19 - Set-Up
3:55 - How to Play
12:16 - Act I
24:14 - Act III
32:45 - Act V
35:58 - Final Battle
Thank you for this video. I really struggled to understand the rules for the final battle. This playthrough made things really clear.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank goodness for this vid. It's been sooo long since I've played, that I couldn't figure out how to do the final battle in solo. So confusing! One thing I did differently is that I still had fury cards left over by the time I got to Act VI, so I basically didn't setup a demon roars pyramid. I think that was right, but not 100%. It is still a lot of fun. Reminds me of Set a Watch. So maybe I'll break that out next.
Thanks for the playthrough! This looks like a good one. There seems to be enough dice mitigation so the luck of the roll doesn't completely steamroll you. Once again, I think your mini five review is great, I would also be worried about replayability once you've tried all the characters.
Yeah, I never felt too bad about dice luck in this one. It always felt like my choice to push myself too far without resting :)
I like the slight change to time pressure in the solo variant. It seems like it could work with coop as well with a few changes.
It seems athematic that the boss is hardest in the first round and gets easier. Would an inverted pyramid make for more of a ramp up in difficulty between rounds of combat? Or at least more consistent challenge?
Yeah, co-op should definitely be workable, though it wouldn't have any actual cooperation between players unless someone created those mechanics for a variant.
I agree that the pyramid is front-loaded, but in a way I think that's how you want it. Your resources are dwindling every round of combat, so having the pyramid the way it is gives you more info early (so you can strategize), but the relative tension stays about the same, because dealing with 2 roar cards in round 3 is going to be similar to 4 roar cards in round 1, because my own resources are so nearly exhausted at that point.
If any of that makes sense ;
@@OneStopCoopShop It does. I'm thinking of all the video games where the final form is stronger than the previous ones, although I do see your point.
@@davidko9289 oh, absolutely, that's a good comparison. But in many video games, you can often keep your health maxed out with the weaker forms, and the true challenge only comes with the final form. Here, you are getting beat down regardless the whole time :)
Great video! Now I know I want that game for sure 👍
Nice! Hope you enjoy it if you get it.
Excellent solo game. Hopefully we will get more characters in the future
Yes! Expansions would give this so much more replay.
9:50 you do not have to use wite gem to add the die to your pool, only equip at least 1 item is required. Page 17. So: you equip 1 item, you get the extra die, gem stay on the gem pool if you don't need it. I know this manual is not well written probably the worst manual written by CGE, and I'm a CGE fan. I'm watching your video to learn how to setup the final battle :) and after that I will play my very first game of Sanctum , alone in solitary :) Solitary rules are made for players that know already how to play the game, So i have a double difficulty to understand them :)
Thanks for the clarification, but it doesn't really affect anything, since you can change your gems around whenever you equip anyway. So if you use the white gem the first time you equip, you can switch in a different colored gem for it and move the white gem the next time.
I hope the video helps, and you enjoy the game!
I know I'm a bit late to the party on this one but thanks for the playthrough! Definitely helpful in understanding the game. For some reason I had a hard time with this rulebookand a few things weren't clicking.
Glad it was useful for you!
i think im gonna have to get this one. i dunno if its the video gamer in me but i kinda just really like that item system. and i think thats enough to keep me engaged lol
It's a fun set of core mechanics.
Question. I just got this and am trying to figure it out. Solo rules say that you have to have completed all your first row achievements before claiming the treasure chest, so wouldn't you have to rest before moving onto final space in Act 1? That way you can claim that achievement before opening the chest.
Yup, reviewing the video you are right. That last achievement would have gone away before I had the chance to rest and claim it.
@@OneStopCoopShop thanks, I just wanted to make sure I was playing it right, it's hard to time that rest just before the treasure in order to equip the items you need to make achievements
I have a question. At 13:58 you mention that you could take them for armor and boots but instead opted to take levels... in the rule book on page 11, section 5 it stats in its example "When you defeat this demon, you move
2 gems, blue or white. You could move the same gem twice. More details are on page 15. After gaining levels from a demon, flip it over. The other side has an item. Keep this in your item sack for now. Your sack can hold any number of items. You can equip them only during a Rest. Don't flip the demon card until you have gained the levels. This helps you track which ones you have already done and which ones you have left to do." Are the solo rules different in that you don't get to both get levels and items, or you have to choose one over the other?
Exactly correct. Solo forces the either/or choice, so you basically level up at half speed, which makes sense since you get twice the turns as in a 2-player game.
@@OneStopCoopShop ahh. I have only played a two player game with my son. Thanks for clarifying!!
@@Liquidpaperxxxx you're welcome! I said it in the video, but we all know I talk quickly ;)
Dang. I loved Diablo but had ignored this as soon as I saw there were no solo rules. Now, I have to reconsider for nostalgic reasons if nothing else. Is a 5 in 5 coming?
I don't usually do them for add-on solo modes that weren't originally planned. But if you want a quick and dirty one, in no particular order:
1 - Love character building, leveling up, and equipping items, though it can get repetitive going through it with the same character, so variety might be limited.
2 - Enjoy combat, which is quick and streamlined but still gives some interesting mitigation and ability use.
3 - Pacing is a little off in solo. Yes, you get penalized for resting, so you have interesting choices of how far to push yourself before resting. But, unlike in the competitive game, there is no incentive to fight a lot of monsters at once, because the solo variant doesn't care about extra turns spent fighting. So that encourages the player to fight 1 or 2 enemies every time, which doesn't happen in competitive and loses some of the danger of combat.
4 - Final fight is well done. It worked well in the competitive version, and also works well here, with kind of an extended survival combat puzzle to fight through. I think the difficulty levels function mostly as intended to, though they don't change gameplay until the final battle, which is maybe a missed opportunity?
5 - Production is a mix for the design as a whole. In the end, I'd compare this game to something like One Deck Dungeon, in terms of the actual weight and choices within gameplay. But this one is much heavily produced than ODD, with miniatures that barely matter, giant boards that mark how far you've progressed and hold randomly splayed monster cards. This will appeal or not appeal to gamers based on their preferences. For me, I would have been happy if the game was half its size and cost, since a lot of the bling is extraneous (though I do love the design and organization of the character boards).
@@OneStopCoopShop Wow! Thanks for that. While I have you. Do the other characters play very differently or are they just small changes? It's one of the things I loved about Diablo. Each character plays so differently. And lastly, would you recommend it strictly for solo?
@@kevinerskine3299 the characters don't play SUPER differently. It's less variation than, for example, Too Many Bones or playing Arkham LCG as a seeker versus a guardian.
But they do have their own internal combos, and their own focus, so it's still fun to play around with each of the 4.
As for recommending for pure solo... if you can find it at a decent discount. Full price I think you'd need to plan on playing it both competitively and solo to get full value out of the game.
One remark - rolling two of the same numbers on dice has the same propability as rolling two different numbers. So if demons are 3 and 3 or 4 and 6, it doesen't matter - chances to hit are the same.
Pretty sure that’s not correct… let’s say I’m rolling 2 dice. I have a 1/36 chance of rolling 3+3. I have a 2/36 chance of rolling the other combo, because I can roll 4+6 or 6+4.
So in that case I double my chances of killing the second enemy.
Why did you get the third die when resting / equipping (around 20:15)?
That’s a (somewhat unintuitive) rule in the core game. During setup you put a third die under the starting white gem on your board, and once you equip something (using that gem) you get the third die.
Mechanically, it encourages you to rest earlier than you might want to anyway, to increase your dice odds greatly.
Page 17, Your First Item. "When you equip your first item you gain the die in your gem pool. Add it to your dice. It will be your for the Rest of the game. Note: You start with a white gem in your gem pool to make it easy for you to equip your first item." - you don't have to USE the white gem you start with, it just helps.
Dang ths looks so fiddly. Bump table and game over. Are any boards recessed with slots to hold all the little markers in place?
They are not!
Why do you attack twice before advancing?
I think you haven't removed boss cards after second rest. You would still bash the boss, but would be a bit harder. Great video for a great game.
Oh no, I messed up something? I'm not clear on what you mean mean about removing boss cards after second rest. Can you explain further?
In any case, thank you for watching!
@@OneStopCoopShop well, removing boss cards when resting in order to make last fight harder. I think you missed it after second rest. It was super late when I watched the video. Maybe I made a mistake.
@@OneStopCoopShop it's me, sorry. Missed it. Thank you for the series.
@@nuuqbgg okay! Thanks for re-checking. I definitely do make mistakes sometimes :)
Nice playthrough thanks. Not sure for solo play after all for me. I like the leveling up and item collection but the act of facing/fighting bad guys doesn't seem very appealing for me, seems too generic. End boss battle seemed cool however. It almost feels like roll player with monster and minions??
Interesting comparison! I like the luck mitigation and power use throughout the game, so I certainly enjoy combat here more than the little bit of “combat” in Roll Player, though I enjoy both games
I believe you actually don't need to flip Demon Lord card after you've defeated it. Only Fury card that you need to flip.
You are correct. The only demon lord cards I flipped were the ones in his roar pyramid. Did you see a moment where I did this wrong?
Ops! Sorry. I thought it's a demon card you flipped.your video cut a bit fast. haha
Sorry about that ;)
Yay a game I almost bought!
lol, more engaging for you than a war game ;)
@@OneStopCoopShop yup. Watched about 1/3 of it. Interesting so far. I'm undecided
Completely random, but we wear the same ring.
Which one? Left or right hand?
In any case, that’s a fun coincidence
imagine what could be done if this system was combined with the cooldowns from sword and sorcery.
I'd love to see someone take some of these rules and apply them to a bigger crawler or adventure game for sure.