Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
This Gloomhaven Quartermaster (Three Spears) guide optimises this item themed character to become a powerful utility and damage mercenary. This page recommends card choices, perks, card enhancements and item purchases from level 1 to level 9.
Table of Contents:
– Quartermaster Cards, Perks, Enhancements and Items Overview
– Quartermaster Cards Detailed
– Quartermaster Perks Detailed
– Quartermaster Enhancements Detailed
– Quartermaster Items Detailed
Gloomhaven Quartermaster Guide Overview
This quick overview provides a quick reference for a balanced character that deals damage and provides support.
Quartermaster Cards Overview
- Level 1: Remove Scroll of Recall, Oversized Pack and Proficiency to create your starting deck of cards
- Level 2: Bladed Boomerang replaces Reserved Energy
- Level 3: Scroll of Lightning replaces Restock
- Level 4: Giant Club replaces Cleaving Axe
- Level 5: Reinforced Steel replaces replaces Iron Bulwark
- Level 6: Catastrophic Bomb replaces Crippling Bow
- Level 7: Scroll of Judgement (level 5 card) replaces Bladed Boomerang
- Level 8: Portable Ballista replaces Impaling Spear
- Level 9: Scroll of Annihilation replaces Scroll of Judgement
Quartermaster Perks Priority Overview
- Ignore negative item effects and add two +1 cards
- Remove two -1 cards (take twice)
- Add one +0 refresh item card (take three times)
- Replace one +0 card with one +2 card (take twice)
- Remove four zeros
- Add rolling +1 modifiers (take twice)
- Add rolling stun card
Quartermaster Enhancements Priority Overview
- Add Bless or Strength to the bottom of Crushing Hammer
- Add Jump to the bottom of Hastened Step
- Add Move to the bottom of Scroll of Judgement
- Add Bless to the top of Sharpening Kit
Quartermaster Items Priority Overview
- Minor Stamina Potion
- Eagle-Eye Goggles
- Boots of Striding
- Minor Healing Potion
- War Hammer
- Hide Armour
Gloomhaven Quartermaster Guide Detailed
This detailed section has additional information on key decision points as some card choices can change based on your party size and prosperity level.
Quartermaster Cards Detailed
The Quartermaster recommended cards below are in unlock order with optional alternatives and potential traps to avoid.
- Starting Cards: With many powerful level 1 cards it can be difficult to determine your starting hand with several cards that sound really useful but rarely work in practice as they require specific setups to be effective. It’s for this reason that we pass on Scroll of Recall, Oversized Pack and Proficiency as a level 1 Quartermaster you are unlikely to have the best items for these cards. This also ensures you have the core cards that stay with you all the way to level 9 like Hastened Step (large move and good initiative), Sharpening Kit (great heal and ability to buff ranged attacks) and Crushing Hammer (our best initiative card while also adding durability with the bottom and an experience farm in the top at the end of a scenario).
- Level 2 Cards: Just like level 1 you have something that looks good when printed on the card but simply isn’t as powerful as it sounds as a level 2 Quartermaster. While players can definitely take Reforged if you want to push your build towards utility for the team I recommend Bladed Boomerang given it’s flexibility as a ranged wound attack and provides a reliable movement option.
- Level 3 Cards: If you took Reforged at level 2 for utility purposes you have the opportunity to double down further with Continual Supply if your allies have some devastating consumable items on their mercenaries. Discarding cards at our hand size is dangerous though so this path is best reserved for an experience party that can close out a scenario quickly. For the majority of Gloomhaven players and Quartermaster builds take the powerful Scroll of Lightning that provides a powerful attack 5 at range and trap pushing potential with the move 3 and push 1 bottom.
- Level 4 Cards: Giant Club is the easy damage choice that provides two attacks in a single card and even has an experience point to generate experience consistently. Fitting it into your hand is the harder challenge at this level with either Cleaving Axe or Iron Bulwark your best options given they are starting to be the weakest cards in your hand.
- Level 5 Cards: Level 5 offers two tempting choices which is why I recommend they are both added to your hand eventually. Reinforced Steel is the slightly better option with the shield 2 bottom being a fantastic first room choice as players are generally ambushed by enemies in the first room. The real strength though is the top once it is safe to play which is our best persistent option and allows us to consistently regain spent items. On the other hand the Scroll of Judgement top is not particularly useful but a bottom move stun is a nice addition to our kit and I recommend taking this at level 7 as your other cards at this level are mediocre.
- Level 6 Cards: Depending on your party composition the Quiver of Arrows card can be insanely powerful with team co-ordination to optimise. If you have at least 2 ranged mercenaries it’s a satisfying utility choice. Most players will be taking Catastrophic Bomb at level 6 though with the ability to boost the 1 attack through items, perks and the bottom of Sharpening Kit which allows you to hit an entire room and hopefully draw one of your item refresh modifiers.
- Level 7 Cards: Level 7 has the weakest options and I recommend going back to your level 5 options to select Scroll of Judgement. For level 7 options Refreshment is not particularly useful as we shouldn’t absorb another persistent loss or burn card at our hand size. Scroll of Blizzards is slightly better but we already have Catastrophic Bomb that fills a similar ranged attack role for us although the bottom can be interesting to stop a group of melee attackers and move away.
- Level 8 Cards: Fortified Position can be tempting at level 8 given it effectively can be an improvement to Crushing Hammer bottom with a larger move and shield value with lower initiative which is something the Quartermaster is always desperate for. While this path is tempting the ability to replace our Impaling Spear with a stronger variation that can reach further and provide added utility against shielded enemies is simply too strong. This does mean we lose an important bottom move 4 card which will put extra pressure on using our boots appropriately and reclaiming them with Reinforced Steel.
- Level 9 Cards: If you’re playing Guildmaster mode in the digital version of Gloomhaven the Bag of Holding is a great way to farm gold with the largest loot while also being a top action. Outside of this specific situation though the Scroll of Annihilation is the card you want given it provides an area of effect disarm and the backup top action that can kill anything at the cost of a burn. The replacement card at this point is quite flexible as well based on your party dynamics and playstyle although Scroll of Judgement is the most obvious given it performs a similar role.
Quartermaster Perks Detailed
Perk choices are straight forward although the Quartermaster does have the unique refresh item perks that are ideal for your playstyle of getting items back. I recommend taking these after you remove some of your negative attack values and the ignore item effect perk given we generally have an armour focused chest piece though. From this point onwards it is the typical pathway of buffing our attack to help improve key cards like Catastrophic Bomb and grab the rolling modifiers in the order of stun > target > muddle > pierce which is simply based on the usefulness you can expect when these randomly appear.
Quartermaster Enhancements Detailed
The Quartermaster has oa tiny number of enhancement slots available and with the strong base values and utility of your cards the enhancements are not really anyway.
If you have gold to spare though I would always prioritise options that buff your movement with either extra movement or jump. The best options include Hastened Step or Crushing Hammer with Scroll of Judgement or Scroll of Lightning being secondary options depending on the hand you build. Other enhancement options are focused around Bless and Strengthen on your Crushing Hammer or Sharpening Kit cards that can empower our own damage or allies. Beyond these there really aren’t any other options other than empowering Portable Ballista attack with Wound, Poison or even Disarm depending on your wealth if your team lacks these sort of debuffs.
Quartermaster Items Detailed
From the pool of starting items the Quartermaster benefits from the Minor Stamina Potion to help mitigate our small hand size and Boots of Striding to buff our terrible movement values. Building on this with defensive options like the Minor Healing Potion and Hide Armour will ensure when utilising your mostly melee attacks you can survive a few. If your team lacks crowd control the combination of War Hammer and Cleaving Axe or Impaling Spear can also be quite effective while you have these cards.
Beyond the starting items players will want to focus on upgraded variants of these items and options that can be refreshed through Reinforced Steel that add utility like wound, poison or curse..
For information and build guides on other Gloomhaven character options visit our Gloomhaven classes overview and the related Gloomhaven class tier list.
