Tips & Strategy

Teaching order, first-game advice, Diplomas and the Phlegethon, Fraud cards, loans, Guardians, player counts and the expansions — advice, not rules.

Advice from the publisher’s forum answers and from well-known video teaches. It is advice only: where anything here and the rulebook differ, the rulebook wins.

How to teach

• Start with the goal and the link between the two halves: the shield where your Soul stops picks your quartiere in Florence. Every teach listed below puts this first.
• Show a Soul jumping occupied shields — including straight out of the Graveyard past a full Limbo — before anything else in Hell. It is the most misplayed rule.
• Teach the end scoring before the first turn: players need to know that Diplomas multiply circle fullness by Skull level.

First game

• Use the first-game setup: the I/II side of the board, Apprentice cards, Medusa and Minos, and the printed bonuses. The publisher measured about 3½ hours for a first 4-player game on the III/IV side, and about 45 minutes less on the I/II side (BGG).
• Accuse early and often. Waiting until the whole family is in Florence is the commonest reason for overlong games; so is letting Dante stop on shortcut sections (BGG).
• You do not need every Urchin, every floor and every Barrel. Build what your plan needs.
• Keep a space free in your Tower before sending out your last family member, or you will face a family council.

Diplomas and the Phlegethon

• A Diploma is worth nothing by itself. Pick one or two circles you can both lead and fill, and push their Phlegethon cubes right.
• Getting others to fill “your” circle is normal: opening a safe passage for red Souls also lets rivals score them, but a full red circle may be worth 20 points to you (BGG).
• The River Styx is the quick way to steal or tie a Diploma just before Dante arrives.
• Endgame Fraud effects that place Souls, and a well-timed Guardian move, plug the last empty shields — and the last player to move a Guardian at the end can open a hole in a rival’s circle (BGG).

Fraud cards, Barrels and money

• Look at your starting Fraud cards at once and go for the Barrels they need.
• Playing a card only for its endgame half is common and fine.
• Keep a Drachma in hand for Charon: a forced loan costs points. A third loan is not as bad as it looks — the −5 comes with a smaller end penalty — but it is rarely worth it late.

Player counts

• Solo — a tough puzzle against your own score, or the three Challenges against fixed targets.
• 2 players — the most controlled game; the starting player can always take the purple Diploma if they rush for it, but that usually scores poorly (BGG).
• 3 players — often called the sweet spot between control and interaction.
• 4 players — lively and chaotic: Hell changes a lot between your turns, so plan for one turn ahead rather than three.

Expansions

• [Bulls] An unplayed Papal Bull is worth 2 points: play it only when it gains you more.
• [P&P] Plutus’ Desks punish the routes everyone uses; Phlegyas rescues Souls stuck above full shields of their own circle.

Host game

Show the Hell-to-Florence link first, then rehearse an accusation before sending out the last family member. On turns 1–3, ask which quartiere the Soul permits and whether the Tower has the correct space for the returning accuser. Point to the matching Guest instead of treating every empty Tower space as interchangeable.

Rehearse a special-location accusation

Place a family member at a special location in the permitted quartiere, and put the matching-colour Guest in your Tower. The accuser needs an empty space on that same floor; a free space on another floor does not satisfy the requirement.

With the correct space available, move the accuser there, return the remaining family members from Florence home, add a matching Soul to the Graveyard, advance the matching Skull and take its bonus, then advance Dante past shortcuts and resolve his step. The new Soul is shared: it does not belong to the accusing player. Accuse a sinner.

Sources

• Inferno Deluxe - Unboxing & How to Play — Merry Married Meeples
• Unleash the Flames: How to Play the board game Inferno - A Soul Management Board Game — Jenders Gaming
• Inferno board game- playthrough (with explanations) — EZBoardGames
• Inferno Review: Burn Baby Burn — The Dice Tower
• The BoardGameGeek Rules forum, with answers from the publisher.