This post was last updated on February 9th, 2024
When you start a campaign your character doesn’t wear any fancy armour or carry any useful potion.
You’re pretty much a level 1 fella who’s trying to be cool killing waves of Vermlings, but in reality, you’re just a weak mercenary.
You’ve got to start somewhere, right?
It won’t be long before you venture out to fry bigger fish and fret not I’ve got you covered.
In this guide, I’ll give you an overview of all the best Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion items you should buy to strengthen your character beyond what Perks and the Attack Modifier Deck can give you.
There will be spoilers in this article, so read at your discretion, please.
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Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion Items Overview
Items are cards that provide different bonuses to your character.
There can be items that give you ongoing bonuses, such as the Iron Helmet, items that can be used once per long rest, such as the Eagle-Eye Goggles, or items that can be used once per scenario, such as the Throwing Hammer.
There aren’t limitations to the number of items you can use on your turn, but there’s a limitation on the number of items per type you can wear/carry with you.
Let me better explain.
Items are split into 5 different types: Head, Body, Feet, Hand and Small Items.
As if in the real world you can buy 20 pair of boots or 5 helmets, but you can only wear 1 helmet and 1 pair of boots.
Same here in the game, you can bring into the scenario a certain amount of items per type following this schema:
- 1 Head item;
- 1 Body item;
- 1 Feet item;
- 2 Hand items;
- X Small items, where X equals to half your level (rounded up).
————————– SPOILERS past this point! ————————–
Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion Best Items
My personal preference when it comes to the Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion best items in the game is the following:
Stamina Potion: a must-buy for each character.
Eagle-Eye Goggles: it nullifies a “Null” card (critical miss).
Steel Ring: a massive boost to your defence.
Ring of Haste: it item allows you to play 3 cards in one turn; use it when you have an odd number of cards in your hands.
How to buy and where to find the Best Items?
Items can be purchased at the Items shop in between scenarios in exchange for gold.
There are 36 types of items in the game (in single or multiple copies), but not all of them are available from the start of the game; new items get unlocked as the campaign progresses.
Of all the available items in the game, some of them can only be obtained as a reward for completing certain scenarios or when opening treasures/stepping on certain tiles in the dungeons.
Items Shop availability
- Scenario 2 unlocks items 01 to 13;
- Scenario 9 unlocks items 15 to 20;
- Scenario 15 unlocks items 21 to 26;
Items obtained through Scenario Reward
- Scenario 4 gives you Item 14;
- Scenarios 8 and 12 give you Item 28;
- Scenario 16 gives you Item 29;
- Scenario 19 gives you Item 31;
- Scenario 22 gives you Item 33;
- Scenario 23 gives you Item 34;
- Scenario 24 gives you Item 35;
- Scenario 25 gives you Item 36;
Items obtained by opening Treasures
- Scenario 3 treasure contains Item 27;
- Scenario 4 treasure contains Item 14;
- Scenario 18 treasure contains Item 31;
- Scenario 21 treasure contains Item 30;
Items obtained by stepping on Tiles
- Scenario 20 tile “F” contains Item 32;
Now that you know the location of all the items let’s have a look at the best items of the game for each character.
The Hatchet – Best Items
Items 1 to 13
Head: Eagle-Eye Goggles.
This item is a must-have to negate the “null” attack modifier card on your strongest attack. You’ll always have this item equipped until the end of the campaign.
Body: Studded Leather.
It’s good to have some protection when needed, especially if you get too close to enemies while picking up your Favourite axe.
Feet: Weathered Boots.
Movement for the Hatchet is very important and a +1 Move could make a huge difference.
Hands: Throwing Hammer.
It’s useful for adding a powerful status to one of your attacks.
Small items: Stamina Potion and Healing Potion.
The stamina potion is the best item you can buy, this should always be your first purchase.
The healing potion is useful for extra healing.
Items 15 to 20
Body: Robes of Evocation.
This item gives you some extra damage to boost your best Attack actions.
Wear the Studded Leather or the Robes of Evocation according to the scenario and your character’s build.
Hands: Black Candle.
The Black Candle is a useful weapon that adds the status CURSE to an attack. You can equip both the Throwing Hammer and the Black Candle.
Small items: Stun Powder and Mana Potion (see above where to find this item).
The stun powder does the same job as the Throwing Hammer and the Mana Potion could be extremely useful to support your Party.
Items 21 to 26
Feet: Weathered Boots -> Boots of Striding.
Buy the Boots of Striding for an extra +2 Move to a single movement. You’re going to wear this item until the end of the campaign.
Hands: Volatile Bomb.
Great AoE item to damage multiple targets.
Items 27 to 36
Small Items: Ring of Strength.
This ring lets you gain the STRENGTHEN effect, which gives you Advantage on all your attacks.
The Red Guard – Best Items
Items 1 to 13
Head: Iron Helmet.
This helmet nullifies any critical hit the enemy would draw and given that you’re the tank of the party it’s a terrific item to have.
Body: Chain Armour.
Shields are extremely useful to the Red Guard, even more so if shields are an important part of your character’s build.
Feet: Winged Shoes.
This makes difficult terrains much easier.
Hands: Iron Spear and Heater Shield.
Iron Spear to buy for extra reach and the shield to increase your defence.
Small items: Stamina Potion and Healing Potion.
The stamina potion is the best item you can buy, this should always be your first purchase.
The healing potion is useful for extra healing.
Items 15 to 20
Small items: Stun Powder and Mana Potion (see above where to find this item).
The Stun Powder to inflict STUN on your attack and the Mana Potion for infusing elements your allies need in a specific turn.
Items 21 to 26
Body: Chain Armour -> Bladed Armour.
Amazing armour that gives you increased defence to counter an incoming attack, while inflicting some damage to the enemy.
Items 27 to 36
Hands: Heather Shield -> Tower Shield.
This item is the evolution of the Heather Shield and provides you with even more defence.
Small Items: Fateful Compass and Steel Ring.
Fateful Compass is an amazing item for crowd control and Steel Ring is a must-have if you run a Shield-based build or just to increase your defence.
The Demolitionist – Best Items
Items 1 to 13
Head: Eagle-Eye Goggles or Iron Helmet.
The Goggles if you have the Red Guard in the party as he can absorb enemies attacks, otherwise take the Iron Helmet as you’ll be the one who gets the most attacks being in the front line.
Body: Studded Leather.
Disadvantage to the enemy and 1 shield for you, I prefer this over the Chain Armour for this character.
Feet: Winged Shoes.
You massively need a jump action to properly play some of your best cards.
Hands: Poison Dagger and Iron Spear or Heater Shield.
The Poison Dagger is a must-have so you can maximize some of your attacks inflicting a negative status effect.
For the second hand, I’d go for the Iron Spear if you have Red Guard in your party, otherwise, the Heather Shield would be a better option.
Small items: Stamina Potion, Healing Potion and Power Potion.
The healing potion is the small item you should buy first as you don’t have any healing cards.
The stamina potion is the other best item you should buy, especially because of the 9 card deck.
The power potion will be handy in certain scenarios where you can exploit some of your AoE attacks.
Items 15 to 20
Hands: Battle Axe.
It’s useful when you need an AoE attack rather than a single target one.
Small items: Stun Powder and Mana Potion (see above where to find this item).
The Stun Powder to inflict STUN on your attack and the Mana Potion for infusing elements your allies need in a specific turn.
Items 21 to 26
Feet: Boots of Striding.
Buy the Boots of Striding for an extra +2 Move to a single movement and choose between this item and the Winged Shoes in according to each scenario.
Items 27 to 36
Feet: Winged Shoes or Boots of Striding -> Jet Boots.
This is the item you’ll wear until the end of the campaign and it provides a useful Move and Jump boost to a single movement.
Small Items: Ring of Strength and Fateful Compass.
This ring lets you gain the STRENGTHEN effect, which gives you Advantage on all your attacks.
The Fateful Compass is a very useful item to place an enemy next to an obstacle.
The Voidwarden – Best Items
Items 1 to 13
Head: Eagle-Eye Goggles or Iron Helmet.
Not very important for this character, you can pick whatever the rest of the team leaves on the table.
Body: Studded Leather.
Disadvantage to the enemy and 1 shield for you, good.
Feet: Weathered Boots.
The basic movement of this character sucks, hence it’s good to have +1 Move in your hand when needed the most.
Hands: Throwing Hammer.
This is a good item to inflict an additional negative status on one of your attacks.
Small items: Stamina Potion and Healing Potion.
Both are very useful for getting a card back and for healing yourself.
Items 15 to 20
Head: Amulet of Life.
This is possibly the best item you can give to her since she can clear the self-inflicted POISON status.
Hands: Black Candle.
Good to have it in your hands since you’re the CURSE master.
Feet: Comfortable Shoes.
This is a permanent boost to your basic movement and it’s very useful since you don’t have nearly enough movement cards; you want to play away from the enemies, true, but sometimes having a basic move of +3 rather than +2 can help you reach certain hex tiles on the map.
Small items: Stun Powder and Mana Potion (see above where to find this item).
The Stun Powder to inflict STUN on your attack and the Mana Potion for infusing elements your allies need in a specific turn.
Items 21 to 26
Feet: Weathered Boots -> Boots of Striding.
Buy the Boots of Striding for an extra +2 Move to a single movement. You’re going to wear this item until the end of the campaign.
Hands: Volatile Bomb.
Great AoE item to damage multiple enemies that combos very well with some of the Voidwarden high damage attacks (e.g The Last Journey).
Items 27 to 36
Feet: Winged Shoes or Boots of Striding -> Jet Boots.
This is the item you’ll wear until the end of the campaign and it provides a useful Move and Jump boost to a single movement.
Small Items: Fateful Compass, Ring of Haste and Robes of Command.
The Fateful Compass is an extremely useful item to place an enemy where it’s needed and since you’re the support role in the party you should be using this item.
The Ring of Haste is an absolute killer equipped by this character; you can play some incredible combo given how many useful bottom action cards this character has: Taunting Fate (bottom) into Hateful Blast (top) into Stand Fast (bottom) stacks an incredible amount of damage.
The Robes of Command is another item that allows you to crowd control the map.
Peace.