Puzzlewick’s definitive Arkham Files archive · Updated August 5, 2026
A living Arkham homepage for the lore, every major game format, the right Core, the campaigns worth your time, and the rules that make a first night work.
The 2026 short answer: new LCG players start with Chapter Two Core. Revised and original Core boxes belong to the compatible Chapter One legacy library. Arkham Horror Third Edition is a separate city-board game, not the third version of the LCG.
Arkham in 90 seconds
Arkham Files is an alternate 1920s setting built around recurring investigators, Massachusetts towns, forbidden institutions, cults, monsters, and Ancient Ones. The horror is cosmic; the play is usually pulpy and defiant. You are small, but never passive.
There is no single rigid continuity. Arkham, Miskatonic University, Innsmouth, Dunwich, Kingsport, the Silver Twilight Lodge, and the investigator cast recur as anchors. Each game then retells the danger through a different machine.
Margo's nine-file investigator route
Separate the LCG from Third Edition and Mansions of Madness, choose the correct Core era, learn one scenario, then expand a campaign and its physical case system deliberately.
This is a sequence, not a shopping list. Stop when the table is doing what you wanted.
Choose format
Start with the experience you want rather than the Arkham name on the box.
Compare the Arkham formatsDecode
Current and legacy foundations explained without edition-name fog.
Open the Core decoderStart
Build the table, choose investigators, assemble decks, and begin with confidence.
Use the first-night manualPractice
Use Robert's interactive trainer to rehearse the table before opening the real case.
Open the live tutorBuy next
A clear route after the Core, with product-era traps and incomplete cycles named.
Follow the campaign pathBuild
Roles, legal deckbuilding, XP, pairings, and campaign growth beyond a starter list.
Open the deckbuilding manualRecord
Build, sync, log, and preserve the campaign without losing the physical story.
Open the digital case deskEquip
Storage, sleeves, chaos tokens, mats, and the premium upgrades that earn the ritual.
Enter the Arkham aisleMaster
Move from competent play into tempo, risk, action economy, and campaign judgment.
Enter the masterclassFeatured Fireside Briefing
The history, horror, and human courage behind Brethren of Ash. A spoiler-free briefing for the six months between Arkham’s calamity and the first knock on a Miskatonic dormitory door.
The investigator's field desk
Margo handles the shelf. Yumi builds the investigator. Robert keeps the campaign honest. Use the tools here, then open the complete version to print, save, or share it.
Browse all 20 player resources → Case file 01 · recommender ✒ Margo · The Archivist
Mark the Core and campaign material you own. The navigator separates a playable next purchase from duplicate cards, incomplete legacy cycles, and attractive boxes that cannot yet reach your table.
Open the case file
Case file 02 · recommender ✶ Robert · The Keeper
Choose a role, player count, and appetite for complexity to find a legal first-deck skeleton and a team shape that can actually collect clues, manage enemies, and survive treacheries.
Open the case file
Case file 03 · tracker ✒ Margo · The Archivist
A private, browser-saved campaign checklist for ownership, table readiness, scenario completion, trauma notes, and the one thing the group must remember next session.
Open the case fileThe active LCG foundation and future scenario dependency.
Compatible Chapter One foundations; still playable, less future-facing.
The 2018 modular city-board game for one to six players.
Discussed by players, not officially announced as of August 5.
Choose the viewpoint before the product line. The LCG puts the story in your deck, Third Edition puts the city on the table, and Mansions of Madness lets the app reveal the rooms.
The buyer’s case intake
Two answers are enough. The result names the foundation, the next box, and the trap to avoid.
New investigator · current path
It is the current one-box LCG foundation, includes Brethren of Ash, and supplies the encounter sets future Chapter Two scenarios expect.
Margo’s warning: Do not let “Chapter Two” get translated into “second edition.” It is the same compatible card game with a new Core foundation.
The naming trap, disarmed
The LCG has three Core-box iterations across two chapters. The board game has a numbered edition. They share a universe, not components.
Current foundation
Legacy foundation
Collector-only foundation
Save this before shopping. It prevents the costliest Arkham naming mistake in one glance.
Buy the Core first, finish its campaign, then expand. Children of Blood is the first small campaign. Traces to Nowhere is a standalone scenario announced for October 16, 2026. Neither replaces the Core.
The legacy shelf translator
Chapter One did not become invalid when Chapter Two arrived. Its player cards remain compatible; its scenarios were built around the older Core encounter sets. The current Arkham Grimoire is the authority for supported substitutions.
One Campaign Expansion holds the complete story. Its matching Investigator Expansion holds investigators and player cards. Buy either independently; buy both when you want both halves.
One Deluxe Expansion began a campaign, then six Mythos Packs completed it. These cards remain playable, but a missing pack can strand the story and aftermarket listings are easy to misread.
Across the room · a different game
One to six investigators move through modular neighborhoods, manage monsters and doom, resolve encounters, and unlock a branching codex across a contained two-to-three-hour scenario.
Start here: four branching scenarios and the complete city system.
The compact first refresh: two scenarios, four investigators, and more city encounters.
The large expansion: Kingsport and Innsmouth, eight investigators, four scenarios, and linked-play options.
The occult specialist: French Hill, the Underworld, four investigators, and three scenarios.
The doorway test
Choose the experience first. Product names become much less dangerous after that.
Choose the LCG when you want the deepest character arc and the richest long-term puzzle.
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Choose Third Edition when the group wants Arkham in one dramatic evening without deck construction.
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Choose Mansions when you want the easiest host job and the strongest room-by-room spectacle.
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Choose Eldritch when you want a globe-trotting disaster story assembled by the table rather than an authored campaign.
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Choose the RPG when no board or app should be allowed to fence in the investigation.
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Dunwich teaches, Carcosa destabilizes, Edge explores, and Hemlock asks for confidence. This is a better second-purchase test than chasing whichever campaign happens to be discounted.
The featured case river
Current decisions, foundational teaching, and the deep Mythos record in one cinematic slider.
Children of Blood is a three-scenario Arkham Horror: The Card Game expansion for 1-4 players, not a standalone game. Learn the current Core first, then start a fresh campaign using the expan
✶ Robert · Open the file →
For a first Arkham Horror LCG game in 2026, buy Chapter Two Core if you want the current evergreen entry, use one unmodified starter deck, follow the scenario setup line by line, and keep th
✶ Robert · Open the file →
A reliable Arkham Horror LCG deck starts with one explicit job, a repeatable engine for that job, enough economy and draw to deploy it, and a plan for the situations the job does not cover.
✒ Margo · Open the file →
The Circle Undone is worth buying for an experienced Arkham table that wants witches, the Silver Twilight Lodge, hard clue tests, faction tension, and a campaign that rewards careful recordk
✿ Yumi · Open the file → Buy The Circle Undone Campaign Expansion if you have finished at least one Arkham Horror LCG campaign and want witches, the Silver Twilight Lodge, difficult investigation pressure, branching
✿ Yumi · Open the file →
Buy the Chapter Two Core Set if you are starting Arkham Horror: The Card Game in 2026. Keep Revised Core if you already own it, or buy it deliberately for the Chapter One legacy campaign lib
✿ Yumi · Open the file →
For your first Arkham Horror LCG game, use the official starter decks, choose Easy, and play The Gathering with one or two investigators. Follow the scenario setup card literally, build the
✒ Margo · Open the file →
Arkham Horror endures because it turns discovery into a physical system. A clue is understanding. Doom is time. A location is a boundary of perception. Damage threatens the body; horror thre
✒ Margo · Open the file → Expert Arkham play is not passing more tests; it is purchasing progress with fewer actions while preserving enough people, cards, and time to survive the campaign. Read the Act, count the Ag
✶ Robert · Open the file → Brand-new in 2026? Buy one Chapter Two Core, play Brethren of Ash on Easy or Standard, and learn with two investigators if possible. Existing Revised Core owners still have a complete Chapte
✒ Margo · Open the file →
The lineage wall
The original game established the durable Arkham grammar: investigators move through a threatened city, collect clues, endure encounters, and try to close what should never have opened. Later systems changed the camera.
Second Edition widened the sandbox. The LCG moved the horror inside a character’s deck. Third Edition tightened the city into authored scenarios. Mansions made physical rooms and hidden information the star. The roleplaying game removed the board’s last boundary.
“The record is not a single timeline. It is a set of recurring witnesses.” — Margo, The Archivist
First-night desk · Yumi + Robert
Yumi handles the invitation; Robert handles the table. Their shared rule is simple: explain only the decision the player can make now, and let the scenario reveal the rest.
Practice ten guided setup and play scenarios →
Buying bench · Imani + Dax
Imani hears what groups replay and retell. Dax checks whether the box adds decisions, story, and usable cards. Popularity starts the case; value closes it.
See the newest campaign verdict →Six desks · one case
Not decorative portraits. Six different ways to keep the archive useful, factual, playable, and honest.
✒ The record Margo · The Archivist
I separate product names, release eras, and commonly repeated claims before they become expensive mistakes.Open the complete reference →
✿ The invitation Yumi · The Hostess
I want your first night to feel like a story, not a certification exam. We begin with one clean decision at a time.Untangle the Core sets →
✶ The table Robert · The Keeper
I build the physical setup, test the teaching order, and find the little mistakes that can poison a first scenario.Run the live setup trainer →
⛩ The lineage Kenji · The Sensei
The games become clearer when you can see the design line from a chaotic city board to a campaign that remembers.Read the Mythos history →
✧ The room Imani · The Connector
I listen for what groups actually replay: the campaign people quote, the scenario that travels, the app night that converts a skeptic.Compare the co-op systems →
◆ The verdict Dax · The Critic
I ask the rude but useful question: is this box adding decisions and story, or merely asking for more storage?Inspect the campaign verdict →
The visual evidence room
The atmosphere can be generated. Buying evidence cannot. These images show the actual scale, layouts, parts, and history behind the recommendations.
A real Fantasy Flight play session: investigators, cards, chaos bag, and the conversation the system is built to provoke.
The official learn-to-play layout is the fastest way to understand investigator zones, scenario zones, act, agenda, locations, and encounter deck.
Before campaign decks, Arkham was already a city under pressure: locations, gates, investigators, and a table trying to hold the line.
A city-board system with modular neighborhoods, scenarios, investigators, monsters, clues, doom, and a codex that reveals the story.
Tiles, miniatures, item cards, and the companion app turn investigation into a spatial, cinematic one-shot.
Arkham Files shares recurring people, places, and threats more consistently than one rigid timeline. The cast is the connective tissue.
This is the evergreen 2026 Core Set: a complete starting point with a new introductory campaign, five investigators, a fresh player-card pool, and the encounter sets future Chapter Two campaigns expect.
The back panel is the quickest visual check that a listing is the Chapter Two Core rather than the 2021 Revised Core or the smaller 2016 original box.
Cards, tokens, investigators, campaign material, and play aids are shown at product scale. This is the evidence to compare against incomplete resale listings and mislabeled older boxes.
Chapter Two is compatible with Chapter One, but modified reprints cannot be doubled with their earlier versions in the same deck. The Arkham Grimoire is the current rules authority.
The official rulebook diagram identifies the token pool and the way scenario difficulty changes every test. Build this bag exactly before your first investigator draws from it.
Follow the scenario’s gather-and-set-aside instructions in order. Separating encounter sets before play prevents most first-night setup errors.
The Investigator’s Satchel · Free downloads
Twelve themed player aids covering first-game setup, the round, skill tests, enemies, upkeep, keywords, and campaign play. Print the three sheets, cut on the crop marks, and your table teaches itself.
Robert, The Keeper: “Read nothing twice on game night. Set the First Game Setup card by the box, the Round Sequence card by the chaos bag, and let the table run itself.”
Yumi, The Hostess: “I tuck one at each seat like a place setting. New guests stop apologizing for questions — the answer is already under their teacup.”
Your very first night. Follow the nine steps in order before you even open the campaign guide.
Every scenario after the first: the eight-step build order for encounter, agenda, and act decks.
Keep it beside the map row — what reveals when, and where clues come from.
Teach the whole table in one glance: where every deck, pool, and threat area lives.
The one to laminate. Phase order plus all the common actions on a single card.
Keeper’s note: the full Chapter Two action list also includes Parley and Resign — see the Keywords aid.
For the moment someone asks “wait, how do tests work?” — commit, reveal, resolve.
Keeper’s note: officially, a revealed symbol’s effect resolves before you total your modifiers.
Spawning, engaging, evading, hunter and patrol movement, and attacks of opportunity.
Doom, the agenda, and what to do with each encounter card you flip.
End-of-round order, plus how damage, horror, and defeat actually resolve.
The complete fourteen-step setup that works for any scenario in the campaign.
Fast, Hunter, Patrol, Alert, Retaliate and friends — every core keyword decoded.
Between scenarios: recording XP, spending it, and the pay-the-difference upgrade rule.
Four aids · A4/Letter · crop marks included
Rules-verified: every line on these aids was checked against the official Arkham Horror: The Card Game Core Set (AHC100, 2026) Rulebook and the online Arkham Grimoire on July 31, 2026. Where the aids simplify, the Keeper’s notes above restore the letter of the law.
Unofficial fan-made player aids, free for personal use (CC BY-NC 4.0). Puzzlewick is not affiliated with Fantasy Flight Games or Asmodee; Arkham Horror and all related marks are the property of their respective owners. These aids never replace the rulebook — they set the table for it.
Interactive table lab
Robert’s live tutor walks through table zones, setup order, tests, actions, enemies, upkeep, and common errors across ten guided scenarios. It is an unofficial physical-game companion, not a replacement for the box.
The complete Puzzlewick archive
Every guide here is certified, dated, internally linked, and attached to this universe. No unfinished files enter the room.
Open this file first
The current Core question, a legal first deck, a playable first table, and the cleanest next campaign.
✶ Robert · Updated 2026-09-01
Children of Blood is a three-scenario Arkham Horror: The Card Game expansion for 1-4 players, not a standalone game. Learn the current Core first, then start a fresh camp
Open the guide →
✶ Robert · Updated 2026-07-26
For a first Arkham Horror LCG game in 2026, buy Chapter Two Core if you want the current evergreen entry, use one unmodified starter deck, follow the scenario setup line
Open the guide →
✿ Yumi · Updated 2026-08-12
Buy the Chapter Two Core Set if you are starting Arkham Horror: The Card Game in 2026. Keep Revised Core if you already own it, or buy it deliberately for the Chapter One
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-07-19
For your first Arkham Horror LCG game, use the official starter decks, choose Easy, and play The Gathering with one or two investigators. Follow the scenario setup card l
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-08-12
Already own the 2021 Revised Core? Play Night of the Zealot twice, then buy the modern Dunwich Legacy Campaign Expansion for your first full story. Add the Dunwich Legacy
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-07-13
Start Arkham Horror LCG with the current Core Set. After that, buy one Investigator Deck if a player needs an immediate playable character, a Campaign Expansion if your g
Open the guide →The three-volume field manual
Three connected case files take a new investigator from sealed Core to campaign-ready deckbuilding and a fully prepared Circle Undone night.
✶ Robert · Updated 2026-07-26
For a first Arkham Horror LCG game in 2026, buy Chapter Two Core if you want the current evergreen entry, use one unmodified starter deck, follow the scenario setup line
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-07-26
A reliable Arkham Horror LCG deck starts with one explicit job, a repeatable engine for that job, enough economy and draw to deploy it, and a plan for the situations the
Open the guide →
✿ Yumi · Updated 2026-07-26
The Circle Undone is worth buying for an experienced Arkham table that wants witches, the Silver Twilight Lodge, hard clue tests, faction tension, and a campaign that rew
Open the guide →The deep archive
History, scenario architecture, campaign memory, deck roles, lore, and the design line from the 1987 board game to Chapter Two.
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-07-26
A reliable Arkham Horror LCG deck starts with one explicit job, a repeatable engine for that job, enough economy and draw to deploy it, and a plan for the situations the
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-07-23
Arkham Horror endures because it turns discovery into a physical system. A clue is understanding. Doom is time. A location is a boundary of perception. Damage threatens t
Open the guide →
✶ Robert · Updated 2026-07-23
Expert Arkham play is not passing more tests; it is purchasing progress with fewer actions while preserving enough people, cards, and time to survive the campaign. Read t
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-08-12
Brand-new in 2026? Buy one Chapter Two Core, play Brethren of Ash on Easy or Standard, and learn with two investigators if possible. Existing Revised Core owners still ha
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-06-27
Buy the 2026 Arkham Horror: The Card Game Core Set first. It is the current evergreen entry point, supports 1-4 players, and includes the three-scenario *Brethren of Ash*
Open the guide →The acquisition desk
Campaigns, investigator decks, scenarios, accessories, and the wider Arkham Files family, with the traps named plainly.
✶ Robert · Updated 2026-09-01
Children of Blood is a three-scenario Arkham Horror: The Card Game expansion for 1-4 players, not a standalone game. Learn the current Core first, then start a fresh camp
Open the guide → ✿ Yumi · Updated 2026-07-26
The Circle Undone is worth buying for an experienced Arkham table that wants witches, the Silver Twilight Lodge, hard clue tests, faction tension, and a campaign that rew
Open the guide →
✿ Yumi · Updated 2026-08-12
Buy The Circle Undone Campaign Expansion if you have finished at least one Arkham Horror LCG campaign and want witches, the Silver Twilight Lodge, difficult investigation
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-07-22
Marie Lambeau is the safest single 2026 investigator-deck purchase for most players because she combines clue progress, card selection, and flexible spell play. André Pat
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-07-16
Murder at the Excelsior Hotel is the best first Arkham LCG scenario pack because its investigation, patrol and parley play, variable suspects, and many possible final act
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-07-16
Choose the Arkham system before the expansion. Buy the LCG for evolving decks and linked campaigns; Third Edition for a shared modular city and cooperative crisis board;
Open the guide →
✒ Margo · Updated 2026-07-26
Start with sleeves for active player decks, labeled dividers, a portable campaign box, and coin capsules for the original chaos tokens. Buy the Gamegenic Night Chest only
Open the guide →
✧ Imani · Updated 2026-06-21
If you can only buy ONE: get Mansions of Madness: Second Edition. It's the plug-and-play pick that lands dead-center in the sweet spot of price, variety, and easy-to-lear
Open the guide →Answers from the archive
Current, quotable answers to the questions that keep sending new investigators into the wrong product listings.
Arkham Horror is the central name in Fantasy Flight Games’ Arkham Files setting: an alternate 1920s world where ordinary but unusually capable investigators confront cults, monsters, portals, and cosmic entities. The setting appears across a living card game, several board games, an app-guided game, fiction, and a tabletop roleplaying game.
Both. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a campaign living card game. Arkham Horror Third Edition is a cooperative city-board game. Mansions of Madness Second Edition is an app-guided board game, while Eldritch Horror is a global adventure and the Arkham Horror RPG uses a human Keeper.
Buy Chapter Two Core if you want deckbuilding and a continuing LCG campaign. Buy Third Edition if you want one contained cooperative board-game night. Buy Mansions of Madness Second Edition if your group wants cinematic exploration with the app handling much of the teaching and hidden information.
Chapter Two Core is the clean current entry and the encounter foundation for the active release path. Revised Core remains a complete Chapter One starting box and is worth buying deliberately for that legacy library, but a new player does not need both to begin.
Neither. Fantasy Flight explicitly says Chapter Two is not a new edition: it is the third Core-box iteration for the same compatible card game. Arkham Horror Third Edition is a different cooperative board game released in 2018.
Chapter Two and Chapter One use the same underlying LCG system, but the current and legacy product lines are organized differently. Existing collections remain useful; new buyers should follow the current release labels and use our deconfusion guide before mixing carts.
A Campaign Expansion contains the story scenarios. An Investigator Expansion contains investigators and player cards used to build decks. Matching campaign names and cover art do not mean one box contains the other.
Replay the Core campaign once, then choose one complete campaign. Chapter Two owners can move to Children of Blood, the first small Chapter Two campaign. For Chapter One/Revised Core players, The Dunwich Legacy is the clean teaching campaign and The Path to Carcosa is the classic story-forward next step. Do not buy a random old Deluxe or Mythos Pack unless you have verified the entire legacy cycle.
Yes. The LCG is one of the strongest solo systems in the family and can be played true solo or two-handed. Third Edition also supports solo play. Mansions can be played solo through the app, though its table conversation is part of the appeal.
The LCG has the steepest first-night rules load because deck legality, timing, tests, enemies, and scenario setup arrive together. The physical flow becomes much easier after one guided scenario. Third Edition is moderate, and Mansions of Madness is the gentlest host job because the app carries hidden information and scenario administration.
Not one rigid chronology. Arkham Files repeatedly uses the same investigators, neighborhoods, institutions, monsters, and cosmic threats, while individual games and campaigns can reinterpret events. Think of it as overlapping continuity anchored by people and places.
Under Dark Waves is the largest overall expansion. Dead of Night is the compact first refresh, and Secrets of the Order is the occult-atmosphere specialist. The best first purchase depends on whether you want breadth, efficiency, or theme.
No remastered Chapter One campaign line has been officially announced as of August 5, 2026. Players are discussing what remasters could look like, but there is no confirmed title, SKU, preorder, or release date. Treat remaster listings and promises as rumor until Fantasy Flight publishes a product announcement.
Streets of Arkham is the broad first recommendation. Horrific Journeys adds vehicle spectacle, Path of the Serpent leans into jungle pulp, and Beyond the Threshold or Sanctum of Twilight are smaller targeted additions.
No accessory is required. Coin capsules or upgraded chaos tokens improve the most-handled component, sleeves are most valuable for player decks and encounter sets in active use, and a storage system becomes useful only after the collection grows.
Use the format chooser if you do not yet know which Arkham game fits. Use Yumi’s Deconfusion Guide if you are choosing an LCG Core. Use Robert’s live setup trainer if a box is already on your table. Use the Mythos Masterclass for history, lore, and expert play.
Margo’s research ledger
Last source review: August 5, 2026. Product taxonomy, dates, compatibility, and rules are checked against publisher material, the Arkham Grimoire, and current rulebooks. Remaster discussion is labeled as unannounced until Fantasy Flight publishes a title and SKU. Community advice is synthesized in Puzzlewick’s voice rather than copied. Retail buttons lead directly to the matching Amazon listing and are labeled separately from research citations.
The fortune-teller's table
“Ohh the ball is GLOWING tonight — okay, three came up and you HAVE to see these.”— Imani, The Connector
✦ a little gift from the table
