Who Goes There for advanced players

Nerd alert!

First of all, Who Goes There is my absolute favourite board game. After playing it twice, I dreamed about playing it again for four years until I decided to ask for it as a Christmas gift. The thing is, the game is hard to source and had to be imported to Europe from the US. 

Long story short, all my friends loved this game too and I was questioning if it is possible to become addicted to a BOARD GAME? At least I was obsessed. In my obsession, I tried to find out some better strategies for playing the game. A five-minute Google gave answers about the basic game rules but I wanted something more advanced. Hence this blog post. Board game freak warning! I only advise you to read it if you want to learn some game-specific strategies.

My most burning question was - which characters should we choose? I have the deluxe edition with 12 characters (4 main + 8 additional). The instructions gave a brief description of each character but I wanted deeper knowledge. So here are my observations about the characters to choose from:

1. Garry the commander - Although it is the most highly ranked character in the game, I do not personally see some other characters more valuable. Garry has the ability to defend himself and the team against attacks with a gun and bullets. The bullets in his card deck can be only used after unlocking the gun which means that in the beginning Garry does not give that much advantage. However, as the game proceeds to Phases 2 and 3, he does become more in demand.

2. McKinner- the braving the cold guy. The character is very well-equipped to sustain himself outside, hence he is a valuable member in searching for helicopter bonuses and can be really successful in the game. He is in the top three characters that I would use when playing with three players. The only doubt is - what if HE becomes infected. In that case, the character with the most value becomes the enemy. This is where teamwork comes into play. It is especially the cook´s and doctor´s obligation to manage the risks. 

3. Kinner the cook is an invaluable character with whatever number of players. Without his help, the other players become vulnerable in the food rounds. However, it is important to emphasize that he must focus on searching for food from his cards. Maybe leave fixing the boiler for someone else's task. Kinner has the best chance of infecting other players since he trades with food often, hence he must be protected too.

4. Doctor Copper is responsible for maintaining the team´s physical health. As in the cook´s role, the doctor should focus on searching from his personal cards. Otherwise, the value of the character decreases. Dr. Copper is also one of the top characters that I would use. He has a speciality card that can remove a strike from all players at his location. 

5. Blair the biologist is quite a generalist character in my opinion. His advantage is having one more first aid kit in his deck and the blood test. His locker dice has the ability to move without spending an action, which I find very useful, once the dice is unlocked and rolled lucky enough.

6. Clark the dog handler comes with some great perks and some disadvantages. His true companion, the dog, allows him to sleep alone during the sleep round, making the character less vulnerable. On the other hand, the dog must be fed as well during the food rounds, making the character 2x more vulnerable during food rounds. The advantage (or problem) is that if Clark should become infected, it is more difficult for him to infect other players. It would be suspicious if he suddenly wanted to sleep with them. You SHOULD NOT play with him unless you have the cook amongst the characters because he really needs double the amount of food. Clark does have dog snacks in his locker dice, but you must remember to keep them in advance once you have rolled them or otherwise, risk. (He only has one dog treat on his personal cards). It was quite an unfortunate game for me with him. I received plenty of vulnerable cards in the food round and became suspicious for the other members in the early game, however, I was not yet infected. I finally got the infected vulnerable card during the second phase. At some point in the game, I lost consciousness and the leader demanded to perform a blood test on me before they would recover me. Believing the result, they just let me die. I could not infect anyone before that because sleeping with them would have been suspicious and I did not have other chances for infecting them so… The dog was cute but the character itself maybe not be the most useful.

Note to self: the dog can be unlocked after paying some XP-s but it can only be trained (flipped over) after finding a special card from your cards.

7. … the walkie-talkie handler was actually a more useful character than I expected. His walkie-talkies give him reroll abilities against camp event attacks and setbacks. As soon as he wants to build something he must drop the walkie-talkie in a space that he currently occupies and its benefits become available to all players in the same location. I did not find the possibility of moving the walkie-talkies to a different space very appealing however (which can be made upon rolling the locker dice) simply because the chances of being attacked are high in any place anyway.

8. Van Hall the builder. He should be the one fixing door and boiler. For that, he should start from outside for gaining XP and unlocking his locker dice. Otherwise, he is not as useful for the team. His chances of infecting other players are also higher since he can trade with building materials more often.

Some other strategical notes

1. You should rather start searching outside rather earlier than later because it becomes 3x more expensive in the third phase compared to the 1st. Moreover, it also provides you with valuable XP, which you can use to further benefit your game. In the early games, I focused on searching from inside, thinking that this is the best way to equip myself before facing the Thing. However, it is possible to find really good weapons from outside as well. As the phases proceed, the bonuses from searching outside become a bit better too and the flamethrower can be only obtained from searching outside in the second phase. At the same time, the amount of thing attacks is equal in all phases. There are a bit fewer cards for weapons in the 3rd phase, which is logical too - you would not have as much time to use them when gaining them so late. Just remember that if you go out right away and haven´t equipped yourself yet, you take a high risk of becoming vulnerable.

2. Collaborate! It is important that each player knows their role before the start of the game and that you divide tasks broadly. They can be adjusted during the game but the basics should remain. 

3. Pay attention! One mistake can cost your life so easily. For example, I accepted a building material from a fellow player and remembered only later that I had rolled a free building material with my dice in that round before. During the card exchange, I got infected… The other time all of the players paid a canned food during the hunger pangs camp event. We had luckily gotten the food cards among the three cards that we received at the beginning of the game. It was only after that I remembered that we should have rolled the dice against camp event and not just paid it in every case. In the upcoming food round, we did not have food anymore and I draw an infected vulnerable card 🤦🏼‍♀️ So frustrated with myself.

3. Always think twice before trusting anyone. Even if they have just one vulnerable card, this may be it. 

4. Don’t make the bold assumption that the more vulnerable cards a player have the more suspicious they are because oftentimes the assumption is false. If he has one card already he can not be trusted.

3. I find that the best things to build are those which allow you to search or move with less cost, such as coats. It really makes a difference in the long run. Although building weapons is also a very high priority.

4. When the door has two strikes, repair at least one of them before searching further outside. The third one can come too easily. 

What to do if you suspect that a player is infected?

First of all, a blood test would be the best option. Remember that the host test only reveals the host but may leave the other infected players unrevealed. However, if the test is performed by someone who is infected by themselves too (and you trust them) they will probably lie about the result.

The lucky option is when the (presumably) infected player loses consciousness. In that case, you would not retrieve them and he would freeze to death. That is what happened to me. 

Attacking a suspicious player can be very effective too.