HEROQUEST - COMPANION APP discussion

[Kurgan]

New update today!

What’s New
Apr 18, 2023

Version 1.72

HeroQuest players, we have updated the Companion App with numerous fixes and improvements:

• Fixes for the Witch Lord and Frozen Horror Bugs & Crashes

• Corrections to the Ancient Staff behavior

• A new CANCEL option if you accidentally die in rock

And added options in the Settings Menu to control Zargon difficulty & AI behavior.

Thanks to Seekhashem on HeroQuestFans discord for the news!

[Kurgan]

Advanced Goblins can move, attack and then move again on their turn. Advanced Skeletons can attack diagonally.

Double Wandering Monsters doesn't care if you run out of monsters...

Extra Mind Point means Undead monsters can have 1 MP! This would make undead susceptible to "Sleep" and "Deep Sleep" magics for the first time under the NA/remake rules...
(you can still lower MP on each monster's profile by clicking on them individually)

Very awesome, I love these options! Probably best for playing the older quests with fully equipped heroes and veteran players (but EQP/BQP are already so difficult these would probably be overkill).

Still no Rogar's Hall... still can't add Animal Companions (outside of Into the Northlands).

Edit: I love this... and in Castle of Mystery (GS: Q10) Uller's Ghost appears twice on a wandering monster with this double toggle (perfect!)
though I do see a little glitch there, if you click quickly on the ghost icon it shows an Abomination stat briefly (also Zargon announces that the monster "has been defeated" or "has died" ... Uller is already a ghost!).

[Kurgan]

Thinking more about this... as we have been discussing on the HeroQuestFans Discord.. I agree that without other changes, it isn't a perfect fix. Yeses, a monster that has stronger attack, defense, and more BP is going to be harder to kill (and more dangerous if they go after the weaker characters), but if they don't do flanking maneuvers, continue to "line up" against a single hero instead of "moving aside" after attacking to let the next monster take a swing, remain inside pits where they are weakened, etc. they won't be so effective.

Will those Skeletons who have the diagonal strikes actually utilize the "Door Blocking" technique against heroes? That would be sweet. the advanced goblins will be moving away after attacking, so in theory they could start the chain going, but not every fight is going to involve goblins or skeletons...


The "attack weak" is a good idea. Does it mean they always go after the lowest BP character? Because that means they will be targeting the Mercenaries first (since they only start with 2) and then the Wizard (with 4), instead of just the nearest target. Or would it have to do more with some other considerations like the lowest BP after they have been wounded? Or their current BP as a percentage of their current maximum? Of course all of this presumes that the player actually adjusts the BP ON the App...

[HispaZargon]

Advanced Skeletons & Goblins I think show a clear intention from Hasbro/AH to fix (or at least reduce a bit) the classic tactic of staying at the door followed by some parties of heroes. The introduced rules I think are good ideas, however I would like to have seen more special rules for the rest of regular monsters to give them more personality. Nevertheless, the changes are quite interesting, not sure if those new rules will be 'officialized' in an incoming expansion like Prophecy of Telor, Rise of the Dread Moon... or maybe another unknown mini-expansion for this year??

[Kurgan]

It will be interesting to see for sure!
.. so did some testing of my own with the companion app 1.72... monsters will indeed target the lowest body point character. if given a choice they will run past and seek out the lowest one and all gang up on them it seems to be based on current BP. they literally don't even have to be wounded (app lets you raise everyone's body points to 20 if you want to). I raise all of the heroes and merc's body points above normal and they would avoid the guy with the highest and go for the one with the lowest (even if that "low number" was the elf with 8! ).

[Kurgan]

If monsters are too far away from the action they don't bother to use turns moving closer. They will only pursue the heroes if they are within their movement range it seems.

(I guess in theory you could force skeletons to get involved by using the Bone Wand but that's only one type of monster, who happens to have a lot of movement and is thus unlikely to be the standoffish type!)

I didn't realize this before but just for fun I tested the Pass through Rock on Castle of Mystery, and yes, you can crawl your way through solid rock to a legit room without using the teleporting doors (and have to be on the open door side to activate them anyway).


I see that the Elven Cloak of Passage still doesn't let you walk into blocked squares (single or double) like Pass Through Rock Spell Scroll does...

[HispaZargon]

This is the explanation given by Zargon on his Twitter account about the new options in the HeroQuest APP:

Zargon_Twitter_2023-04-19.JPG

[HispaZargon]

I think it has not been commented yet through this thread, so just to record that v.1.72 of the app also included the option of allowing to break the Yeti hug. The app deals with it by means of rolling 2 red dice by the Hero. If a 5 or 6 is rolled, the hug is broken and the Hero is able to escape the hug.

Really interesting seeing how Hasbro is introducing some new rules in the app not included in the official game rules. The same happened with diagonal attacks for the Skeletons and the new move-attack-move rule for the Goblins. I know they are presented as 'optional' rules but who knows if they are inplicit acceptance by Hasbro of fixes the game need since decades.

[Kurgan]

We've seen "Zargon"'s tongue-in-cheek answers (yes, the manual says Zargon has the final say, but did they literally mean the guy on twitter with that name? surely not!).

Avalon Hill seems to be officially acknowledging that there are different player preferences, so they don't say you must play this way or that way or you are going against our wishes. The last time we had such an explicit "optional" rule I think was the Japanese edition, wasn't it?

But those who never get the companion app (just like those who never visit AH/Hasbro's twitter or discord) may never know about these things... some will seek them out while most will come up with their own solutions and play the way they think is best. It's much harder to get everyone on the same page if it's not included physically in the box. Yes I know they include a flier that has a QR code to scan but that method only works if you have an iphone or android (and are registered in a supported region).

1.72 has been out awhile (wondering if we'll have to wait a month for Rise of the Dread Moon's entry? There are some new gimmicks like the Underground Market occurring in the middle of quests with the Hideouts though that could be something as simple as a popup saying refer to page XX in the questbook perhaps).

[HispaZargon]

Finally we have Rise of the Dread Moon available to be played with the official App, great news. Unfortunately Knight Fall online quest is not still available, but I guess will be soon.

Screenshot_20230812-110914_HeroQuest.jpg

I have been testing how the app works in Rise of the Dread Moon and here are my first thoughts.

The app works well, I think it simulates quite well the new mechanics ontroduced by this expansion. Waterways rules of Q1 are Ok, Use of Reputation rules ok, Lunar Charm token rules ok, Caltrops rules Ok, alchemist's benchs as potion crafting places ok, mercenaries rules ok... however I think there is one mechanic not well implemented at all, which is the disguise. A disguised Hero use to not be detected at the beginning of the quest however, for some reason the app ignores that the hero is disguised after some time later. For me it makes no sense. It also affects to the skill of making silent close attacks when disguise, for some reason it is not posible after some turns. Other problem I see is once a Hero drops the disfuise token, I have not found anywhere in the app to disguise such Hero again if wanted. Maybe the questbook rules does not allow it but it looked rare.

And I have also detected some bugs:

In Q9, Notes E do not work correctly in the app because no Lunar Charm is given, instead of that appears a note telling you that you may use a Lunar Charm in a sorcerer's table which is wrong.

In Q5, Note C room, a splash tells us that the merchant had been rescued before having rescued which makes no sense. Nevertheless it does not affect the gaming experience beacuse it appears again when the merchant is actually saved later.

In Q2, Note C: if the goblin sees a non disguise Hero, he does not activate the falling block trap in the app as the questbook says will do, instead of that, the goblin in the app just runs through the corridor for attacking the Hero.

One final side comment: Elven Archers in the app, attack diagonally with 4 attack dice (not 1 die as if they were adjacent), even being next to the target. I think this reinforces the official Hasbro concept of allowing the use of missile weapons against close objectives if they are diagonally placed.