Magic & Teamwork in Gloomhaven [Prosp 2 Spoilers]

[Minor Prosperity 2 spoilers ahead. Stop reading now if you want to avoid]

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Gloomhaven does magic in a very original and unique way. The cost of Magic in most games are mechanically represented by a separate resource, like a Mana value. Once you run out of Mana you can't use your magic powers anymore.

In Gloomhaven the cost of Magic is preparation and/or team work. Magic works either because you planned ahead to create an element, or someone at the table figured out how to Teamwork and made an element for you. Abilities tend to work OK on their own, but gain a bonus if a certain magical element is infused in the room. This bonus can be a small damage boost to a significant change to the spell effect. 

Below is the rulebook entry to ensure for Elemental Infusions. 

Some abilities have an elemental affinity associated with them (either Fire, Ice, Air, Earth, Light,or Dark). If any of these symbols is visible by itself in an action’s description , it means that by performing any part of the action, the figure must infuse the battlefield with that element. This is represented by moving the corresponding element’s token to the “Strong” column of the elemental infusion table at the end of the turn in which the ability was used.

At the end of every round, however, all elemental infusions will wane, moving one step to the left in the table, from “Strong” to “Waning” or from “Waning” to “Inert.”

...and it is not possible to create an element and consume it on the same turn, but it may be consumed by anyone with a later turn in the initiative order of the same round.

The infusion occurs at the end of the player turn, which means you cannot create an element and consume it in the same bottom / top actions. This means either a teammate needs to go at a lower initiative to create an element for you or you need to have had the foresight to create the element in the previous round.

These ideas are important to internalize, especially if you're playing Solo as you're playing at a higher difficulty. You're going to need the team synergy to compensate for the stronger enemies.

Dirt tornado is the perfect representation of how much impact consuming the right elements has. Consuming Earth for this ability basically doubles your damage. Yuuuuge.

Not only does consuming elements power you up, for Characters like Cragheart, you absolutely need to consume elements to progress and level up. Most of his cards require the consumption of Earth elements to gain XP.

So how can you lend a hand if your team is sporting a Cragheart? Especially one that eats up Earth elements like Chicken Nuggets with Schezwan sauce? Some practical tips below. 

1. If you can this turn, let Craggy know you can make Earth elements. Got a Tinkerer or Brute? Pack Toxic Bolt / Eye for an Eye to get that extra Earth infusion for your Cragheart. 
2. Buy Item 20 (Prosperity 2). Your team has a low initiative non-magic user like the Scoundrel? Ask her nicely to bring the potion anyway. This means the Scoundrel can go early in the round, drink the potion for the Earth Element so Craggy can smash bad guys harder. 
3. Say you've got Spellweaver and Cragheart who can both consume Earth Elements. It's gaming courtesy for the Spellweaver to ask if the Cragheart needs the Earth Element since the Cragheart is far more dependent on Earth Element than Spellweaver. The Cragheart is also far more likely to go later in the round. 
4. Another, less reliable way to optimize elemental infusions is to use perks to add rolling attack modifiers that create elements. If you choose to go this path, you should look into enhancing your cards with Strengthen or buy items like Eagle Eye Goggles that give you advantage on attacks (so you flip through as many cards as you can). 

Having dependable team members who you can depend on to create elements in a pinch means you can bring more powerful cards that consume those elements. Choo Choo, it's the Cragheart pain-train!

Peace out,
May the Lurkers peacefully leave the Gloomhaven docks.