The Coldest Night

About this board game

The Coldest Night is a cooperative strategy card game for 1–4 players, with a play time of about 20 minutes. Players work together to keep a fire lit by feeding it fuel from a deck of cards.

Every card presents a crucial choice in the fight against the cold. Each one provides a certain amount of heat to the fire, but it can only be burned when the fire is above the required heat level. Managing these changing requirements is central to the game’s challenge.

The fire is constantly dying out, so the group must think carefully about how to use its cards. Playing a card at the wrong time may leave the fire without enough heat for the next card, while the right sequence can keep the flames going and open the way forward.

• Cooperative play: Players must work together toward a shared objective.
• Heat management: Cards add heat, while also demanding a minimum heat level to burn.
• Card sequencing: The order in which cards are used is vital to surviving the cold.
• Deck-wide challenge: The goal is to burn everything in the deck before the fire dies out.

With its focused rules and urgent central dilemma, The Coldest Night turns every card into part of a larger plan. The group must coordinate its choices and sequence the available fuel carefully, keeping the fire alive long enough to burn through the entire deck.

Released in 2020, The Coldest Night offers a compact cooperative experience for a solo player or a group of up to four. Its simple premise—feed the fire before the cold wins—creates a concentrated test of planning and shared decision-making.