Review Details

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Rook City & Infernal Relics Expansion

Product Review (submitted on August 16, 2016):

Rook City is the first large expansion for Sentinels of the Multiverse. Rook City is the home of The Wraith and is akin to Gotham City, just like The Wraith is akin to Batman. It's a gritty expansion that deals with the seedy underbelly of the city and the creatures that live in the sewers. This expansion has 2 heroes and all their cards, 4 villains and all their cards, and 2 environments. It is currently ONLY available in a dual pack with the Infernal Relics expansion though it was a standalone expansion before. You can get them both for $40. Is this half of the expansion worth it?

Mr Fixer: He's like Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid. He runs an auto shop in a more ghetto part of Rook City and used to teach martial arts. After some of his students were killed in a gang drug fight he decided to leave it all alone and just run his auto shop, until some people started roughing up his assistant. Now he's back as... Mr. Fixer.

Honestly, Mr. Fixer's explanation is more exciting to read than his character is to play. He has no super powers and runs off of martial arts. He gets his power in one of 2 ways- Using Styles and Tools. He can only have 1 style and 1 tool in front of him at a time. Styles are ongoing cards that change the way Mr. Fixer fights. Styles let him deal additional damage, prevent damage that is dealt to him, and let him change the type of damage he does, among other things. Tools change the number of targets Mr. Fixer hits each time he deals damage, change the amount of damage he does, and have other effects (like destroying targets with 2 or fewer HP). The rest of his deck consists of drawing cards (or searching for specific cards), dealing minor damage, and my personal favorite, the Grease Gun. This equipment card only stays in front of you for 1 turn but all non-hero targets may not deal damage. It's super powerful and is really the only reason I'll use Mr. Fixer in a game. His nemesis is The Chairman, included in this expansion.

ExPatriette Is the other hero in this expansion. She's the or a daughter of Citizen Dawn (Who is also her nemesis) and she has no super powers either. She uses guns to deal her damage and ammo cards to help, and also has some other equipment thrown in for good measure. She runs around with weapons like an assault rifle, tactical shotgun, or 2 handguns that she can use in the same turn, as well as other weapons. She can attach 1 ammo card to each weapon which can be discarded to add additional effects to her attacks, like changing the type of damage the gun deals and dealing additional damage or changing the type of damage and dealing damage to all non-hero targets. She also has a flak jacket that prevents 1 attack of 3 or more damage from hitting her. The rest of her deck centers around drawing guns from her deck or ammo cards from her discard pile, as well as a few other cards (like a one-shot RPG). Her most powerful card is Hairtrigger Reflexes, a limited ongoing card that lets her deal 1 damage to a non-hero target whenever they enter play. I like her better than Mr. Fixer because she can deal more damage.. most of the time.


Since the heroes in this expansion stink they really, really made up for it with the villains. Rook City has 3 of the 4 villains I've yet to beat in Sentinels- The Matriarch, Plague Rat, and Spite. Onto talking about them!

The Matriarch: The nemesis of Tachyon, The Matriarch is a teenager who found a mask in a masquerade shop that lets her control birds. And let me tell you, she is freaking annoying. She doesn't look like much but she packs a powerful punch because of her ongoing cards. Everytime you kill one of her birds, the hero with the highest HP takes damage. Everytime a bird is played from her deck, you play another card from her deck. This creates some crazy situations and makes heroes who deal damage to multiple targets a baaaad thing because you're going to kill 10 birds and take a ton of damage. Plus, her mask starts out in front of her and heals her every turn. She's like the movie The Birds on steroids. It's a non-stop fight against someone who literally pecks the life out of you. It's super thematic and a blast to fight her, but I've never beaten her the 7 times I've tried. It's embarrassing, honestly. I only play with 3 heroes so that might have something to do with it.

The Chairman: The head of Pike Inc, the biggest business in Rook City (think Batman.. but evil) the Chairman has 2 villains you need to take down- him and the Operative. You cannot defeat the Chairmen without beating the Operative first because her villain card says that heroes cannot win the game while she's alive, which is thematic but also annoying. He's the nemesis of Mr. Fixer (He really needs to find a nemesis down to his level) and the majority of his deck consists of thugs and underbosses. Think the mob. He has crooked cops, crooked PI's, you name it. Each underboss also pulls thugs from the discard pile to bug you again and again until you shuffle his deck. He's a pain to fight because he can chain really, really easier, and all the thugs have bothersome effects, like destroying cards or dealing damage to everyone. He's a real challenge to fight and only a well-prepared team stands a chance against him.

Plague Rat: The nemesis of Chrono Ranger, the Plague Rat is some sort of mutated rat living in the sewers of Rook City. He's most likely mutated from some of the illegal chemical dumping from Pike Inc, so you can feel free to fight The Chairman and beat him up a few times because of this. The Plague Rat is REALLY, REALLY annoying to fight because he can infect the heroes. Infection cards cause heroes to damage themselves and/or other heroes at the start of each heroes turn (depending on the ongoing cards in play) and possibly to infect each even more. It makes the Plague Rat really hard to fight since not only is all his damage irreducible (awesome) but you're also beating yourself up! It's a pain in the butt to fight him because of the amount of damage you deal to each other each turn. You need to spike him and kill him quickly or he will wear you down because no amount of healing can keep up with the damage he will deal.

Spite: As a WARNING with Spite, he is SUPER creepy. My wife won't fight against him because of who he is. He's a serial killer who preys on the citizens of Rook City, and killing them is part of his deck. She doesn't like how he kills small children (or anyone, honestly) as part of his villain card. To top that off, he is stinking hard to beat.

Spite was a killer on death row before Pike Inc (them again. Beat the Chairman up again please) used experimental drugs on him to give him... powers, we'll say. Using drugs. He's the nemesis of The Wraith and is beyond hard to kill. The majority of his deck is two types of cards: Victims and Drugs. A Safe House starts out in front of him where you can "hide" victims by paying a cost on each victim card (like discarding 3 cards EACH, or others). Whenever Spite kills a victim (through cards in his deck if they aren't in the safe house) something happens, like Spite healing, or dealing damage to everyone, as well as other things. To top that off, there are 5 drug cards that can NEVER be destroyed. When it would be destroyed, it comes right back into play. These give Spite additional effects, like dealing 2 damage to a hero each time they use a power AND causing that hero to discard the top 5 cards of their deck (as well as 4 other drug cards too! Awesome!). The rest of his deck deals with getting drugs and/or victims out, killing victims, and causing really annoying effects to the heroes. Spite is a beast to fight and usually takes us down without much of a challenge.


Rook City: Shockingly, this is the seedy, underbelly of Rook City and is NOT friendly to the heroes. There is only one person to fight in this environment (a racketeer), but he damages each hero and heals. What fun. There are 2 "good" cards, people who will help you by letting you draw the top 2 cards of the environment deck and discarding one of them, but you have to damage them or one of your heroes each turn. Everything else is a hazard of rook city, like back alleys (less damage to villain targets!), falling statues, or toxic sludge (which deals 2 damage to each target with at least 5 HP and 3 damage to each target that then has at least 10 HP... AWESOME!) as well as other bad places. All of these cards can be destroyed, however, but usually only by discarding cards from your hand or playing additional cards from the villain and/or environment deck. If you want to make a villain harder, this is a great environment to choose!

Pike Industrial Complex: Go fight The Chairman on his HOME TURF! What can possibly go wrong? Everything. This is quite possibly the hardest environment in the entire game. There are no friendly cards in here (there are 2 cards that heal everyone equally, though you also reduce all damage while they are in play), though some of the cards will target the villains or the heroes with equal abandon. There are lab rats, cards that bring back the lab rats (and make them deal more damage!), and chemical explosions! My personal favorite is the Supercooled Trisolvent Vat- It deals damage whenever a hero draws a card plus deals damage at the end of each environment turn. It's great fun. Nothing in here will be helpful to you, that's for sure, and everything revolves around dealing damage. Some to everyone, some to only a few people, and some to only the heroes. If you want a super challenge, go with the PIC!


Thoughts: Rook City is a nitty gritty expansion that brings out the dark side of Sentinels. If you have issues with some of the villains in this expansion (mostly Spite) be warned. Just don't use him, however. I like this expansion because it's hard! The villains are super difficult to beat and the environments can make anyone harder to fight. I really like that and this is something that the base game really needed. The heroes stink, however. There's not another way to say it. Rook City adds a lot of umph to Sentinels in the villain and environment department, but Mr. Fixer and ExPatriette sit in the box almost every game and never come out. It's what's best for the heroes as a whole.

All in all, I'd recommend this expansion to anyone who wants to make Sentinels harder. I wouldn't play Spite with any younger kids, but other then that this is a HARD expansion. It's a lot of fun though.
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Infernal Relics is the second large expansion for Sentinels of the Multiverse. Infernal Relics deals with magic and creatures/heroes powered by magic (and other things). It comes with 2 heroes, 4 villains, and 2 environments. It's currently only available in a dual-pack with the Rook City expansion for $40. Is this half of the expansion worth it?

Nightmist: If you've played any of the FFG Cthulhu inspired games, this character is going to sound familiar. Nightmist is Faye Diamond, the granddaughter of Joe Diamond, who disappeared in Arkham, Mass., during the 20's. She went to investigate his disappearance and learned magic was real. She cast a spell which backfired and cursed her body to turn into mist whenever she's in darkness or shadow. Her deck, shockingly, deals with magic.

Her power allows Nightmist to deal herself 2 damage to draw 2 cards and she introduces an interesting mechanic into the game, spells (currently only in her deck). Spells are one-shot cards that require you to reveal the top card(s) of your deck. Each card in her deck has a spell number in the bottom right from 1-4 which works with spells. For example, a spell will say: Reveal the top card of your deck. Nightmist deals herself that cards spell number infernal damage and may destroy up to that cards spell number ongoing and/or environment cards. Put the revealed card into your trash. Some spells let her put the revealed card into her hand or into play, while others allow her to reveal multiple cards and pick the damage assigned to different targets based off the spell numbers she has. She also has different relics in her deck that are equipment and help her cast spells and survive. The Amulet of the Elder Gods, for example, lets her discard 2 cards to redirect damage she would take,while the Tome of Elder Magic lets her reveal cards until she draws a spell card and draw it. She can also go into mist form, making her immune to damage but unable to use powers or play cards. Her nemesis is Gloomweaver.

All in all, Nightmist is a complicated character to play that is fragile (she only has 27 health) and deals a lot of damage to herself. If you can't get some healing cards out quick, she's going to go down fast in the game and not help the team out much. I like Nightmist, but she's very situational. She'll make the entire team look like a fool one game because she's kicking trash, and the next game she'll die in 3 or 4 turns. She's very swingy but is fun to play because of the spell mechanic. Just don't count on her to fill the damage dealing or healing roll completely because you'll never know what you'll get with her.!

Argent Adept: The nemesis of Akash'bhuta, the Argent Adept is the Virtuoso of the Void, charged with making sure that Akash'bhuta doesn't break the entire world. However, Akash'bhuta has been slowly destroying the weapons of the Virtuoso's and the Argent Adept has to find them before she destroys them all.

The Argent Adept uses instruments to function and plays different musical melodies for different effects. He's the ultimate support character because of this. Essentially, his deck has 2 main components. Firstly, he has various ongoing cards that are harmony, melody, or rhythm cards. Each of these cards has either a perform, accompany, or a perform and accompany ability. For example, Rhapsody of Vigor is an Ongoing-Melody card that says: Perform: Up to 5 targets regain 1 HP each. Inventive Preparation is an Ongoing-Rhythm card that says: Perform: Each player may look at the top card of their hero deck, then replace it or discard it. Accompany: One player, other than you, may play 1 card now. There are various different cards that have different effects like dealing damage, destroying ongoing or environment cards, and other abilities. The other big part of his deck are his instruments. His basic power lets him activate a perform text, while his instruments do more. He has 6 different instruments that do different things. Drake's Pipes let him activate the perform text on 2 different melody cards, while Xu's Bell lets him activate the perform text of a rhythm card and the accompany text of either a rhythm card or a harmony card. Finally, his deck rounds out with cards that let him search his deck for cards, put cards from heroes trash onto the top of their deck, and fix the order of the cards in his deck.

The Argent Adept is currently one of the weakest characters in the game with 24 HP. He takes a few turns to get going but he can support your characters all across the board. He's the best supporting character in the game but cannot be counted on to deal a lot of damage. He can deal a bit but it's nothing major. I like the Argent Adept, but other people don't. He's the favorite of my wife because she loves music, and he can be a great benefit to any team that needs support, whether in healing, dealing more damage, or taking less damage. He just stinks against anyone who destroys ongoing cards or equipment cards with ease (like his nemesis...)

Gloomweaver: Living in the Realm of Discord (environment in this expansion), Gloomweaver is worshiped by voodoo cults and primitive tribes. He feeds off the gloom and despair of the world and has decided his time to reveal himself has come.

Gloomweaver's deck is full of villain targets. He brings out cultists, zombies, relics, and voodoo curses (called pins), all of which are targets. You win the game against him if he hits zero health OR if you've destroyed 3 of his relics and they are in the trash at the same time. He only has 4 non-target cards in his deck. Cultists deal damage and sometimes bring zombies back from the villain trash. They also can turn into zombies. Zombies deal damage. Voodoo pins go next to different heroes (like the one with the least cards in play, or highest HP) and damages them at the end of their turn or has other effects. Relics deal damage to each hero that can be negated by discarding cards.

There is nothing surprising or crazy about Gloomweaver, and he's pretty easy to kill. He only has 90 HP and not much damage reduction or healing. He almost always dies because you kill him, not because you've killed 3 relics. He's interesting but relatively easy to fight.

The Ennead: The nemesis of Ra, the Ennead are 9 former archeologists for hire who were taken over by ancient Egyptian gods who are very, very angry. Especially at Ra, for possibly imprisoning them in the first place. They want revenge.

The Ennead are unique because there are 9 different villains to fight. Each one is essentially a mini-hero with health ranging from 24-32 (like the heroes), an incapacitated side with an effect, and a power that triggers from certain cards in the villain deck (which is only 25 cards). At the start of the game you set up the Shrine of the Ennead, an indestructible card that you put all the members of the Ennead under. You then draw the top H Ennead cards and that's who you fight (some cards add more and in advanced mode you draw 1 extra card each turn, so you'll go after all 9). If there are no villain targets left, you win!

The Ennead are.. difficult to explain. Each card in their deck is a one-shot and has a symbol on it (like a hand, or an ankh). Each Ennead villain have different abilities that trigger that first time a card with a matching symbol is played each turn. For example, if you play Ancient Magicks from the villain deck (one-shot, hand symbol), the card triggers and any villain with a hand icon also has an effect. Set, one of the villains, has the ability to deal each hero target 1 lightning damage. These effects trigger for each different villain you fight and each different card you draw.

The Ennead are tricky to fight because you have to keep track of who does what. It's a bit of a pain if you don't have the IOS app to do so. They are really interesting though because of the different effects each one has. Their biggest problem is that you can get a really easy team and wipe them out before they are too much of a problem, or they will completely crush you. It all depends on who you flip over at the beginning and what cards you draw from the villain deck! I like them though because they are really different.

Apostate: The nemesis of Fanatic, Apostate is just like Fanatic, but with black wings. He claims to have created Fanatic and that she is not an angel. He summons demons to fight for him and uses relics just like she does.

Apostate is a weak villain (66 HP) but always starts with his sword, Condemnation, in play. This deals the hero with the highest HP 3 damage at the end of the villain turn and takes 1 less damage from everything. His super annoying ability is that if there is a villain relic in play and you reduce him to 0 or fewer HP, the relic gets destroyed and his villain card gets flipped (but he only has 20 HP). You cannot kill him until there are no relics in play.

His deck has 8 relics in it, 1 of which, Condemnation, starts out in play. The others have annoying effects, like playing the top card of the hero deck everytime a hero draws a card, or dealing additional damage each time Apostate deals melee damage. They also summon demons and summon each other as well.

The rest of his deck consists of demons, villain targets that deal damage, heal relics, and have other effects, one-shots that deal damage and have other effects, and the ongoing card apocalypse, which destroys all other cards besides relics and character cards at the start of the environment turn. Annoying, to say the least.

Apostate is a pain to fight because he and his relics keep coming back. And he keeps getting rid of everything so unless you have someone to get rid of Apocalypse you're just screwed every 10ish turns. Makes it really hard to get anything going. I like that, however, because it doesn't allow you to sit back and wait until you have a ton of cards out in front. You have to hit him fast and hard to kill him and win.

Akash'bhuta: AB from here on out, AB is the spirit of chaos and destruction in nature. She feeds off of the destruction and wants to destroy the world continually so she can feel happy and fulfill her purpose.

AB is a beast with 200 HP but do not let that scare you. Her villain deck has primeval limbs in it, villain targets that have various effects and deal damage but which deal their starting HP value to AB when they die. You're cutting off her limbs so it makes sense. The really, really annoying limb is the one that makes it so certain heroes cannot deal damage during their next turn.

She also destroys equipment and ongoing cards, heals the limbs and all environment targets, and deals damage with her deck. Everytime an environment target comes out she also plays the top card of her deck, which can be annoying because it usually is another limb that will whap you on her turn.

Despite having 200 HP AB is not that hard to fight. If you kill her limbs quickly you'll run down her health like crazy. She doesn't deal enough damage to make you worry about it. The biggest downside is if you're the hero with the lowest HP because all her don't deal damage effects target you. Really stinks when you can't deal any damage and limits your options and fun severely.

Realm of Discord: This is one ANNOYING environment deck. It consists of distortions and targets with a couple one-shots thrown in. Distortions are cards that destroy all other distortions when they enter play and have various effects like making all ongoing and equipment cards targets with 6 HP (annoying or beneficial, depending on the fight) or making all non-hero targets immune to damage expect for the target with the lowest HP (beyond super annoying). Some also let you draw/play more cards or either play a card OR use a power. The most annoying target is ethereal bonds, a card that deals damage to the hero with the highest HP and prevents them from dealing damage for the next turn. That SUCKS!

This environment definitely is a rough one that is really hard to beat. It's almost as annoying as some of the villains in the game.

Tomb of Anubis: The Tomb of Anubis is full of mummies, trials, and treasures (And Anubis himself!). Mummies are targets which deal damage or put more environment cards into play. Trials are cards that stay in play until the heroes do something to destroy it, like take damage or discard cards. They deal damage to everyone, make heroes discard cards, and have other effects. However, if you destroy an environment card and there is a treasure card in play, you gain the treasure. Treasure cards stay in front of a hero and give them an additional power like healing or dealing damage.

This environment makes the game harder for the heroes but it can also make it easier since it usually hits every non-environment target in the game and not just the heroes.

Thoughts: Infernal Relics is a... meh expansion. I like the heroes but they are really fiddly and take a lot to figure out. The villains are interesting but 2 of them are easy (Gloomweaver and AB) and the other 2 are easy or hard depending on the game (Apostate and The Ennead). The environments are really hard, with the Realm of Discord really upping the ante for the heroes, and are the definite highlight of the expansion.

I'd recommend this expansion to anyone who likes the cards mentioned above or who just wants more Sentinels. There's nothing here to write home about, but there's nothing here to really drive you away either. It's just... meh. I don't regret buying it, but I wouldn't give it to a friend unless they really liked Sentinels.