Drop Bears: Rapid Review
Information:
Mechanics: Action Points, Cooperative Game, Hand Management, Survival
Player Age: 16+Player Count: 1 - 4 PlayersTime to Play: 30 - 60 Minutes
Game Designer and Artist: Matthew AslinPublisher: Platypus IndustriesYear Published: 2024
Player Age: 16+
Game Designer and Artist: Matthew Aslin
G'day! It’s time to explore the Australian outback and what better time should we do this than at night?
We’re known for having some dangers here but if we tread carefully and keep visibility then we should be just…. Wait… Did you hear something?… oh, never mind, it’s only…. Crikey! We’re surrounded by fierce drop bears!
Rundown:
Drop Bear is a cooperative survival game that has players exploring tiles and trying to survive the night. The night isn’t too long as it consists of 16 rounds 8 rounds of the camper’s turns and 8 of the drop bear. The aim is to have enough joint survival points when the game ends. This is easier said than done as these survival points are also used to re-roll dice and perform special effects throughout the game. 
On a camper turn, there are two action points available for use (unless modified with utility cards). The player cannot use the same action twice on a turn and the possible actions are as follows; scout, run, rest, search, endeavour and heal.
Scout:
The scout action is how players move throughout the game. You are unable to move to a location with a drop bear, however, you can move to a previously revealed tile or un-visited location to then reveal that tile. When moving to a tile the player will be affected by negative effects, such as hostile environments (dice roll of damage) or heart rate (damage to mental health).
Run:
Running allows the player to perform two consecutive scout actions. However, there are two negatives to this action; your heart rate will increase by one and any dangerous terrain you encounter will wound the player for one damage.
Rest:
The rest action can be used to restore the player's heart rate. When invoked it will restore one heart rate, or two if the player is on a location with a campfire.
Search:
If there is a search icon on your tile then performing this action will allow you to draw one utility card from the deck. The opportunity for this icon on a tile is rare, so players must be decisive when using their utility cards.
Endeavour:
Endeavour is the main way players will gain survival points. When a player encounters a tile with a text box at the top and the flag icon, they can do an endeavour action. They will roll the dice to try to reach or exceed the indicated number. Succeeding in this task means placing an expiry token over any of the unoccupied values. When all values are expired, any camper at that tile will gain the benefit and associated survival point. The mission on a tile can only be completed once so it is pivotal to plan for these tiles if you want multiple campers to gain the benefits.
If you find an unconscious player you can save them from death by performing an endeavour action to achieve a value of 3 or more. Upon saving their life, you will gain their current utility cards and gain one survival point.
Heal:
Pay action points and will heal your camper by one health.
Alert:
In this game it is crucial to stay alert as survival is everything. Not only is your physical health important but so is your mental state. Players have to mind staying alive on two health tracks.
If your mental health reaches 4 or 5 at the end of your turn, you will panic. This causes your character to run (two Scout actions) towards a random direction dependent on a dice roll. The dangerous terrain you run into will cause one damage. If at any point you reach six on the mental health track you will fall unconscious (aka dead). If you survive the panic you will regain some mental energy and drop down to 3 on the mental health track.
Death is inevitable in this game as the players will only lose if there is one more overall death than the player count. When a character dies, the death count track will go up and the player will spawn their new camper at any campfire on the map. This new character begins with four new utility cards and moves once in a random direction.
On the drop bear turn, they will move and attack in order. There are two different methods for their turn. First, if the drop bear is on the map, they will move one space towards a camper, or two spaces if the round track is in the red zone. If they reach a camper they will then attack, otherwise, they will return to their profile card.
If the drop bear is on its profile card they will do what their name implies and drop onto a camper. Each bear has a unique priority track that will determine which player they will drop on.
Be careful though, if you are with another player then both must suffer the attack. There is one opportunity to flee when the drop bear lands on you. Pay the flee cost to move one space away and avoid the attack completely. This flee cost is not cheap and will always involve a survival point.
Production:
For a newer company based in Australia, I am pleasantly surprised by the production quality of Drop Bears. First, the miniatures are of great quality and the campy atmosphere/art of the game brings the theme to life. This is seconded by a tree-shaped tile holder and a perfect storage solution.
This solution comes with three inserts including one that doubles as a card and token holder when playing the game.
The only knock against the production quality would be that the expiry tokens can be a bit large for the small icons they are covering on the tiles.
Interaction between players:
This is a game that I find works in two parts:
the calmer exploration phase (grey section of the round track), and the tension-filled fight for survival that is the red section of the round track. The first phase has players scouting and running to get a lay of the land and determine the safe tiles vs. the ones to avoid. There are three negative effects players can find on the tiles; dangerous terrain (one damage when running), hostile environment (one attack die roll) and elevated heart rate that will increase the mental health track. The worst place a player can wander into, however, is a drop bear nest. These include numerous negative effects and an immediate attack from a drop bear.
There are (scarce) benefits to discover though, such as lessening your heart rate with a reprieve (expires after use), drawing cards from the backpack, or adding a permanent search location. This tends to be a good time for players to use their less essential utility cards to help discover more. Some utility cards also require a paired card to be found to use properly.
In the red portion of the track, the drop bears are more active and can move twice before attacking if they are on the map. They will also have fiercer attacks that are unique to them. This adds a lot of challenges when it comes to surviving, however, barely surviving isn't enough. Players need to gain enough survival points to thrive at the end of the game, this could be through combining certain utility cards, completing endeavour opportunities, rescuing unconscious campers or simply hoarding the survival points that players receive on certain rounds.
As this is a fully cooperative game where players must plan the rounds together to ensure essential/skilled campers survive for as long as possible and enough survival points can be acquired.
Determination:
- Death/unconscious is a crucial part of the game that players have to factor in.
- Interesting drop bear turns. Players could try goading the drop bear to attack certain campers or to waste a turn by being on the map and out of range.
- Interesting two health track systems.
- Fully informative cooperative game. Some players don't like this as it can lead to quaterbacking.
Drop Bears nails the survival elements. Players have to decide how best to outlive the amount of rounds, whether that is by surviving with the camper you start with or accounting for the death and pre-staging tile locations. When first playing, the grey rounds can feel a bit aimless and slow but once you understand the game these rounds are pivotal to tile exploration, completing or setting up tiles, and determining your survivor's usefulness to the team. If this theme looks intriguing and you enjoy cooperative games, I heavily recommend Drop Bears. I know this one is staying in my collection and will get definite plays during the spooky season.
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