The #1 decision when playing 7th Continent Solo is whether you will play with the custom character meant for solo or whether you want to play with named characters (1-4). Depending on how you play, the game changes based upon how many characters are involved and I will walk you through all of the options so you can make the best decision for you and have the best chance of success!
3 Options for Solo Play
- Option #1 – Play with the single custom character meant for solo play(best option for newer players)
- Option #2 – Play with 2-4 named characters (best option for good multi taskers who want to play the most powerful way possible)
- Option #3 – Play with 1 named character (hardest game difficulty, but easier to manage vs multiple named characters)
Option #1 Play With the Single Custom Character Meant for Solo Play
- Step 1 – Take one of the blank create your own explorer cards (these are easily missed because there are no rules for this in the actual book, just the blank cards) and follow the instructions on the card.
- Step 2 – Take 5 character specific cards from among those available. This is the hardest step for new players so below are the 5 I recommend. They are mostly to make the game less punishing by allowing you to replenish your action deck easier or use less action deck cards (as good as replenishing if you don’t use them!) and so they will be good no matter how you explore the continent or what curse you tackle!
Best Solo Cards for the Custom Explorer Character
- 1) Gourmet
- 2) Nomadism
- 3) Water knows the way
- 4) Unexpected properties
- 5) Sixth Sense
- Step 3 – Get your 4 fire tokens. Having 4 fire tokens when solo and the ability to have -3 cost applied to moving between fires is a huge boon and really helps you move around for free and get back to base camp when you really need to.
The custom character for solo play is more powerful than any of the named classes when you take the right skills. Also the ability to have more fires in play and the ability to move for free between them, the majority of the time, is a major boon. I recommend playing this way when you are new as it is the best combination of being powerful and reducing the time it takes to manage more than 1 character.
Option #2 Play With 2-4 Named Characters
Step 1 – Decide how many characters you really want to play. The more characters you have the more work it will be to manage each of them and the less ideas/skill and items each will be able to use or hold. The magic number of players is 3 for power, and 2 for ease of use.
Step 2 – Make sure that your chosen characters synergize well with each other. Try to ensure you have good coverage for types of items you can make so you have options for a multitude of situations. Victor Frankenstein is the best character but for your reference I have ranked them below!
Best Named Characters For Solo
#1 Victor Frankensten
#2 Ferdinand Lachapelliere
#3 Keelan Mccluskey
#4 HP Lovecraft
#5 Elliott Pendleton
#6 Dmitri Gorchkov
#7 Mary Kingsley
Another benefit of playing with multiple named characters is that you physically make your action deck bigger because you are adding 5 character cards per player. Functionally this gives you more life, as cards = life in the 7th Continent.
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Option #3 Play with 1 Named Character
Choose Victor Frankenstein as he is the best character overall and the best for solo play when using a named character. His hand size ability just makes a huge difference and he can get a lot of cards back with Forbidden Experiment and then the Obey cards are going to be very useful for you.
It’s totally ok to choose someone else but if you are new and really want to play with just 1 named character Victor will give you the best chance to succeed!
Final Thoughts
-The more characters you play with the more table space it will take, which can really impact your enjoyment. Nothing worse than having to move cards around all the time to make space. And don’t forget as you play a session more and more table space will be eaten up by the ever growing map.
-Some cards work differently at different player counts so make sure you are watching for that!
-When playing solo with multiple characters make sure you build a habit of declaring out loud which of the characters is the active character! It’s probably one of the easiest rules to forget and it does make a difference in the game when you retroactively choose the best character for the situation. Also don’t forget that when you have multiple characters involved in an action, and you fail that action, the active character gets the Paranoid state. I have forgotten this way too many times.
-If you do choose to play with multiple named characters don’t forget you can add or remove characters as you go along. So if managing 4 characters is too much you can reduce the amount or if you need to add some in then you can as well.
