We’ve plunged into the depths of Dungeon Drop quite a few times since we did a Kickstarter preview back in 2019 — before The Cardboard Cantina even existed! Now, thanks to the newest expansion from Phase Shift Games, we are returning to the dungeon. In addition to several new game modes, designer Scott R. Smith has added additional classes, quests, monster types, and more to the challenges that now await adventurers who pick up this expansion. For this particular delve, we will be bringing along our friends in a whole new way; instead of competing against one another, we will work together to achieve goals as a group with the new co-op mode!

As with many other dungeon crawlers, there are not only tons of different types of loot to be found within Dungeon Drop (and its expansions), but many distinct monster types as well. With the addition of Dungeon Drop: Dropped Too Deep, players get to experience what happens when they traverse farther down into the dungeon’s underbelly than ever before. To further immerse players in the narrative, this expansion introduces huge monsters to the dungeon – think similar to the discovery of the Balrog from Lord of The Rings – and the many challenges associated with them. Giant Gelatinous Cubes, Flame Demons, and even a Cyclops are a few of the new terrors that players can come across as they advance through the dungeon. To better prepare for these epic battles, new equipment and potions have been added as well as the ability to level up player characters and multi-class! With all of these big additions, however, the setup and core mechanics remain mostly the same. There are a few extra steps added to gameplay (such as “Awakening the Dungeon” so the huge monsters get a turn) and several cubes that get swapped out, replaced, or added to the mix.

The new co-op mode (a.k.a. Fearless Fellowship) allows players to work together towards the completion of Group Goals instead of the previous, secretive Quests. These new goals will show what special conditions need to be met to complete them. These may include particular requirements for creating a room or information indicating the type of cubes and/or meeples that will need to be a part of a player’s stash. They may also be something else entirely that is unique to the specific goal. Additionally, players may forego either or both of their actions (activating one of their character’s abilities and Looting The Room) and replace them with a Fellowship Action. Fellowship actions allow players to swap out Group Goals, shuffle treasure around between players, or flick a Hero meeple in hopes of getting it into a better position. These co-op games vary in difficulty ranging from Novice to Legendary – and they certainly do get challenging since the number of rounds is still only three! Playing with the Fearless Fellowship mode will also require players to look at the game differently. It is no longer about collecting loot and/or monsters for points, but about distributing tasks and creating rooms one may not normally consider trying to loot to complete these new goals.

When the Kickstarter campaign mentioned that there would be more challenges within Dropped Too Deep, it certainly was not lying! If playing with the huge monsters (regardless of mode), the game can be much harder to survive than ever before. Armor, potions, and shields are now crucial, so if your group’s drop skills aren’t all that great, good luck getting these items in time to use them! Not only are the huge monsters harder to defend against/kill, but players can find themselves caught in a dungeon with more than one with them, each of them possibly triggering multiple times in a turn should anyone make a room with a Forbidden Pillar. While unsure how we felt regarding the difficulty increase, we found the changes very enjoyable once we had a few games under our belt and the learning curve was behind us. Also, within the contents of this small box, Dropped Too Deep includes quite a few other options for those looking to mix it up and provide variety as well as replayability. In particular, we were excited to find there is a solo mode available (Solo Spelunker) and that it is compatible, like all other modes, with all of the currently released mini-expansions. Dropped Too Deep does require a copy of the base game to play, but with the addition of so many modes, classes, character races, and challenges, it is absolutely worth taking a look at!

All photos of Phase Shift Games products were taken and edited by Krista unless otherwise specified.