Disney's Villainous Character Tier List | Game Rant
Disney's Villainous has come a long way since its inception in 2016. In those four short years, three expansions have been added on to the base game, introducing nine new villains for players to experiment with. Alongside this, Marvel's Villainous was also released, putting a whole new spin on the familiar formula and introducing new rules as well. While this growth is a great thing to see for fans of the game, it can make getting into it a little daunting for newcomers. With so many villains to choose from, players might have a hard time with their first few games. To help with this, they should pick villains that are easier to play for beginners.
Each of the villains in Disney's Villainous has their own unique objective, and though everyone follows the same rules more or less, there are a lot of different factors to consider when playing a specific villain. For this reason, some are a lot easier for new players to pick up and do well with than others, and beginners would do well to stick with those villains at least for the first few games. Ultimately players should try all the villains available and find which one fits best for them, but this list should be a good starting point. This tier list ranks the characters based on how easy they are to pick up for beginners, not how well they perform against other villains.
- Prince John
- Maleficent
By far, the easiest villains for new player to pick up are Prince John and Maleficent. Both of these characters are found in the base game's box making them easily accessible to most players and feature straightforward and easy to understand objectives. This makes things a lot easier to manage for the player, but others will be able to tell how close the player is to victory because of this as well.
Prince John simply must accumulate 20 power in order to win, and it doesn't get much simpler than that. Players could technically achieve this goal without playing any cards, making him a great choice for casual players that want to jump right in without worrying too much about optimal strategies and learning all the rules. Maleficent's goal requires her to play a curse to each location in her realm, another straightforward objective that new players should be able to handle with ease for the most part.
- Queen of Hearts
- Scar
- Cruella De Vil
The A Tier is reserved for characters that have slightly more complicated goals than those in S Tier but are still fairly easy to understand. These villains also introduce players to some auxiliary mechanics like vanquishing heroes and activating effects. Players don't have to balance a lot when playing these characters, as their objectives are mostly based on a single action. In the case of the Queen of Hearts and Cruella De Vil, this is the Activate action, and for Scar, it's the Vanquish action that players will be using a lot.
Queen of Hearts requires players to have a Wicket at each location before playing take a shot. This sounds complicated at first, but ultimately it just means she needs to play card guards and convert them to wickets throughout the course of the game. Scar introduces a new features called the succession pile, but it's easy to understand. Players just need to vanquish Mufasa and then vanquish other heroes until they win. Finally, Cruella De Vil may test player's ability to understand moving allies around, but ultimately it relies mostly on activating cards in a similar way to the Queen of Hearts.
- Hades
- Captain Hook
- Jafar
- Pete
B Tier villains tend to have multi step objectives that can be difficult to follow on a first or second game. These characters aren't particularly challenging to learn but they aren't easy either, making them a good starting place for players that want a decent challenge. Often these characters will require the player to vanquish a specific opponent or perform a set of actions in a specific order, and veteran board game players will be able to handle this even if they aren't fully aware of all the rules just yet.
Hades must get three titans to mount olympus. Though this sounds simple, the task itself is difficult as Hades' fate deck is stacked heavily against him. Captain Hook must vanquish Peter Pan at the Jolly Roger, but there are tricks to finding and moving him around that require a deeper understanding of the game than some beginners will have. Jafar's objective is multifaceted, as he must find the unlock the Cave of Wonders, find the Magic Lamp, Hypnotize the Genie, and then move the Magic Lamp to the Sultan's palace. This is a lot to keep track of. Pete also has four objectives, but despite his being randomized they tend to be simple.
- Ursula
- Yzma
- Dr. Facilier
These villains are all challenging to learn, especially on a first playthrough. Yzma and Dr. Facilier in particular can be difficult to pick up because they both introduce new mechanics. Dr. Facilier players will need to understand the Fortune pile and know how to get the most out of it, whereas Yzma players will need to deal with four separate fate decks rather than just one like the other villains. Ursula is particularly challenging due to the way she uses contracts to vanquish foes.
- Ratigan
- Evil Queen
- Mother Gothel
These villains are the most challenging of the bunch because they often require the player to think several steps ahead or be capable of changing plans in an instant. Ratigan's objective has the potential to change midway through the game, which can easily throw a new player off balance. The Evil Queen will need to manage her power while also converting it to poison in order to deal with heroes, and Mother Gothel must constantly keep tabs on Rapunzel's location. This isn't to say that new players can't use these characters, but they will be very challenging to use until players have a better understanding of the rules.
Villainous is available now.
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