Since its release in 2018, Disney Villainous has sold over 800,000 copies worldwide and has been praised by gamers and Disney fans alike. Each expandalone offers new riffs on clean, asymmetric gameplay and introduces new characters with unique story-based victory conditions and strategies. To win, players must be the first to complete their Disney Villain’s objective. With the addition of Disney Villainous: Perfectly Wretched, players can choose from 15 Villains to mix and match, now including Cruella De Vil, Pete, and Mother Gothel. In this article, we’ll cover each villain’s objective and share tips for achieving victory with each!

Cruella De Vil

The terrible Cruella De Vil: If she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will. As Cruella, you’ll need to add puppies to your realm, then captures them. Cruella’s allies, Horace and Jasper, both capture puppies. When Cruella starts her turn with 99 captured puppies, she wins!

When playing Cruella, you must plan out your moves and deduce where puppies might appear. Puppies are represented by twelve puppy tokens. Each token is linked to a specific location in Cruella’s realm, with an even distribution of puppies across the board. If you see lots of pups appearing in Hell Hall and the Countryside, you’ll know to prepare for upcoming puppy captures in the Milk Farm and Radcliffe House! This will cut down how many turns it’ll take to capture puppies and take home the victory.

Horace and Jasper are Cruella’s only allies and are key to her victory. Cards like You Idiots!, Fireplace Poker, and Telephone will be key to playing them quickly and keeping them in play.

Pete

Pete achieves victory by fulfilling four goals, a mechanic unique to Pete. At the start of each game, four of five goal tokens are randomly selected and placed on the locations in Pete’s realm. Goals may require Pete to gather power, allies, items, or fulfill another requirement at that specific location. When a goal is completed, Pete reveals it and removes the token from his board.

A helpful strategy when playing Pete is to check if two goals can blend together easily; you may be able to complete multiple goals in quick succession by moving allies and item strategically. Think through your options and how you might get closer to completing each goal in during your turns. Remember you can complete goals in any order; spreading out your focus may make you seem less conspicuous to your opponents.

While Pete can look at his goals anytime, some Fate cards like Goofy and Clarabelle Cow allow opponents to reveal them or switch his goals around, forcing you to adapt or abandon your plans. Mickey Mouse prevents Pete from completing goals altogether while in play. Luckily, Pete has plenty of allies and condition cards to help get rid of pesky heroes.

Mother Gothel

Mother Gothel wants to gain Rapunzel’s trust so she can use Rapunzel’s powers for herself. To gain trust in Villainous, Gothel plays cards to keep Rapunzel away from Corona—a location in Gothel’s realm. Rapunzel is always present during the game and is represented by a card-size game tile. She moves one location closer towards Corona at the end of each turn. When Rapunzel is vanquished, she goes back to her lonely Tower. If she does make it to Corona, you lose some of the precious trust you’ve worked so hard to gain.

Playing Mother Gothel is like a game off tug-of-war; as Rapunzel moves toward Corona, you must reel her back into her tower. Consider what actions you have available to ensure you can make the most out of your turns. Since Rapunzel is always present, you will be blocked from actions on her location every turn. Royal Guard cards, relatively inexpensive allies, can be an easy way to guide Rapunzel back to her tower and unblock valuable actions.

All characters in Perfectly Wretched take careful planning to play successfully but are a blast to play. Each character seamlessly blends theme and mechanics, making you truly feel as if you’re a villain attempting to complete nefarious goals. Whether you’re chasing down puppies, battling to complete Pete’s goals, or trying to keep Rapunzel in her Tower, Perfectly Wretched doesn’t disappoint. It’s a perfect expansion for those whose wretched hearts are already taken with the game.

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Sam Smith is a boardgame connoisseur, strategist, and designer currently producing Villainous strategy guide videos! He lives with his wife in the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up. Check out his strategies and other work at Lord of the Board on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube: http://bit.ly/LordoftheBoard