What is One-Hit Heroes? And why I’m backing it on Kickstarter

I’ve been a big fan of Wiggles 3D ever since the release of 5-Minute Dungeon. A chaotic game of excited yelling, hurried card placement, and defeating dungeon bosses. Where in some cases, wears a diaper.

Their follow-up game was the equally excellent 5-Minute Mystery.

Another cooperative real-time game. This time, however, you’re finding hidden shapes and gaining clues to solve a mystery within the timeframe. Again, it’s a wonderful game but only in small doses. It gets repetitive if you play it too frequently, so it needs time to breathe between sessions.

Their third crowdfunded title was the Um, Actually… board game. I skipped this campaign because I didn’t need another trivia game.

Big mistake. Because since then, Um Actually… the show is now one of my favourite comfort TV programmes. There’s something about being a nerd and watching other nerds nerd out that feels relatable and enjoyable.

Plus you can watch some full episodes on YouTube. This one touches on Settlers of Catan.

That brings us to today.

Well… last Wednesday.

Wiggles 3D unveiled their latest crowdfunding campaign: One-Hit Heroes. A cooperative boss-battling card game where your heroes only have one HP.

Overview

In One-Hit Heroes, you play through a series of four boss battles in what they’re calling an Episode. After each boss, you’ll unlock new cards for your characters to help prepare you for the fights ahead.

From the promotional material, each boss looks to take 10-20 minutes to defeat. With an Episode lasting up to 80-90 minutes.

This is in line with their other titles, where the games are as short as they are sharp.

Gameplay-wise you’re getting what it says on the side of the box. A card-based boss battler, where the heroes only have one HP.

Players take turns scouting the boss and then playing three action, weapon, item, or reaction cards to survive and take the boss’ health down to zero.

While scouting, you draw the top card of the boss’ deck face up. This shows whether the boss is attacking, or doing something equally awful on their turn. By knowing this ahead of time, you can use your turn to prepare for the upcoming hardship by playing three cards from your hand.

Then it’s time for the boss to do their action.

One thing to be wary of is the amount of threat your character has. You gain threat by dealing damage to the boss, and using some actions. The more threat you have, the more likely you will take hits from the boss. So it’s important to work together to keep everyone’s threat as low as possible.

Because as the title reminds us, you’re playing One-Hit Heroes. Take one point of damage. It’s game over.

Although, there is some fine print here.

Each hero has up to two items on their player board. When attacked, they can choose to give up one of these items instead of health. So while it’s not technically one-hit, it’s pretty darn close.

Why I’m backing One-Hit Heroes

Outside of the pedigree of the designer and publisher, what attracts me to One-Hit Heroes is the card play and the tension.

A while ago, I tried playing Aeon’s End because I love deck builders and the boss-battling nature of the game appealed to the testosterone-fueled monster inside of me.

A monster I usually quell by drinking chai lattes and feeding the bottom of my shirt through the neck hole to show my midriff.

Yet Aeon’s End didn’t scratch that boss-battling itch for me.

I put this down to it being a war of attrition rather than the explosion of fisticuffs that my monster and I expected – and wanted. Because of this, its boss battles lacked tension and interest.

One-Hit Heroes seems to be the opposite of this.

Starting in a tense situation, and only getting more tense as the battle rages on.

Added to that are the six unique characters, with differing strengths and weaknesses and mountains of ways to combine cards to escape tricky situations.

Ultimately, it looks like a super fun board game tailored to my taste. I will say though, that for the money-conscious board gamer, there doesn’t look to be any benefit to backing early over waiting for a retail release.

Regardless, I will be backing it. I’m a big fan of the publisher and want to give thanks for the great games they’ve produced. Also, I want to get my hands on this one as soon as possible!

Click to join the campaign and become the next One-Hit Hero!

Pictures used in this article were taken by AC Atienza, part of the design team behind One-Hit Heroes, you can find more of their pictures on Board Game Geek.