Ending the Game

The game ends in one of two ways: the investigators either overcome the mythos threat, or they are defeated by it.

Victory

The investigators win the game in any of the following three ways:

Close the gates

1. An investigator must close the last open gate on the board, such that there are currently no open gates
2. When the last gate is closed, the players must have a number of gate trophies equal to or greater than the number of players. These gate trophies do include the one just awarded for closing the last gate, but do not include any trophies the players have already spent.

If these two conditions are met, the players immediately win. Stability is restored to Arkham and the Ancient One slips back into slumber for a few more millennia.

Seal the gates

If at any time there are six or more elder sign tokens on the board, the players immediately win. The Ancient One is driven away and peace returns to Arkham.

Banish the Ancient One

If the Ancient One awakens but the investigators manage to defeat it, the players immediately win. The Ancient One is banished beyond time and space.

Scoring Victories

If the players achieve one of the preceding victory conditions, the investigators have defeated the mythos threat and saved Arkham. The player with the most gate trophies is awarded the honorary title of First Citizen of Arkham. In the case of a tie, the title goes to the player with the most monster trophies.

You can rate your victory by using the following scoring system.

• Start with the highest printed number on the doom track of the Ancient One.
• Subtract the terror level at the end of the game.
• Apply the following modifiers:
  • -1 per unpaid/defaulted Bank Loan
  • -1 per elder sign played during the game
  • +1 per unspent gate trophy at the end of the game
  • +1 for every three unspent monster trophies held at the end of the game
  • +1 per sane, surviving investigator at the end of the game.

Comparing your scores

More scores from Arkham Horror players and teams can be found on the League page.

Defeat

If the Ancient One awakens and defeats all of the investigators in battle, the space-time continuum ruptures, the Ancient One is unleashed, and all of mankind suffers for the investigators' failure. In this unfortunate event, all players lose the game.

With certain Ancient Ones, there may be other immediate defeat conditions.

In some expansions or variants, there may also be additional defeat conditions. For example, in the King in Yellow expansion, turning over Act III from the Act deck causes an immediate defeat.