Noisy Mummies – Clank: The Mummy’s Curse App Expansion Review

One of the best things a game expansion can do is to add some cool new stuff to the game, maybe something different but still fun to explore, and then get out of the way.

Don’t change the mechanics greatly.

Maybe the stuff you added brings out an additional mechanic that doesn’t change the base game but is just like dessert topping on top of your cake.

(though really, wouldn’t you rather have frosting than dessert topping?)

That’s what Dire Wolf Digital did with the second Clank expansion, and the second one to come to their app version of the game.

The Mummy’s Curse is the second expansion for this really great game that was revitalized by putting out the app (in my estimation anyway, as I know many people love the boardgame itself).

The expansion was designed by Andy Clautice with artwork by Rayph Beisner, Derek Herring, Levi Parker, Raul Ramos and Nate Storm.

It was published by Dire Wolf Digital in 2018 and the digital version came out in 2026 (just last week!)

As is usual with my digital boardgame reviews (though not always!), this review will encompass both the game itself and the digital implementation.

So I won’t be reviewing the components or anything like that.

Clank is a game that benefits from just adding new choices, new cards, new maps, all that work with a new mechanism or two to keep players familiar with how to play but getting just a little different experience.

Sunken Treasures did that masterfully, but I would almost say that The Mummy’s Curse is even better.

And that’s saying something.

The main new mechanic that The Mummy’s Curse adds is the mummy himself, a wandering dead guy in bandages (too soon?) who moves throughout the pyramid or palace at the whims of a die roll.

When cards that have a Pyramid die on them come into the market, the die is rolled and he will move to that section of the map (or stay if the same location is rolled that he is in).

The map is divided into four coloured sections.

If he appears in a section where a player is, then that player will get a curse (the other main new mechanic).

A curse is -2 points at the end of the game, but there are plenty of ways to get rid of them if you get the right cards.

The Mummy is also an always-available monster to fight, just like the Goblin, though you have to be in the same sector as him to fight him.

You can fight him two ways: two swords gets you 4 gold and curse; three swords lets you remove half of your curses (rounded up!).

He will move after you fight him, so while you can fight him again, you might need to move first.

The expansion also adds some new secrets that are worth points, along with usually moving the Mummy.

It also adds a 10-point monkey idol, which I didn’t realize was considered a monkey idol in my first game (it helps to read the rule book!) and I thought it was an artifact. So I bought a backpack to take a 2nd artifact, took it, then realized I didn’t need the backpack.

What I always love about expansions for deckbuilders, though, are the new cards added that work with the new mechanics.

Purify is a great card to have and worth many points if you can avoid curses (and it removes a curse when you acquire it!)

The Book of the Dead wants you to have curses! Though it only mitigates half of the points they cost you, so I wouldn’t call it a strategy. More something to pick up if you’re getting saddled with curses right and left.

Or it will let you use some other high-risk strategy because it will allow you to take a curse with only a 1-point penalty, so maybe go through corridors that will curse you?

There are also a number of new gems in the deck, which give you a lot point potential, will almost always give you clank, and may give you curses as well.

Good thing there’s also a new card that will reward you even further for getting gems.

(Let’s just hope they don’t make a bad Indiana Jones sequel about thi…oh, too late).

Other cards also benefit from you having gems, so it’s a viable strategy if they all come out for you.

Even some of the new monsters use the new mechanics in perfect ways.

The Scorpion Queen is worth a bunch of gold, but less gold the more curses you have.

I really love the mummy and curse mechanics added into the game with this expansion.

It does add a bunch more randomness to the game, but really, at this point, why are you worried about randomness if you are playing this game?

The curses are cool (well, the mechanic’s cool, but it’s not cool to have them) and it’s great that there are cards added both to mitigate those as well as cash in on them.

Even the artwork is wonderful with its ancient Egyptian feel.

It’s a low-maintenance addition to the game that I fully endorse.

It even adds a new way to remove cards from your deck (granted, only one that I can see, but still).

If I were playing this on the table, I would have no qualms about using these cards and maps with a new player.

But I’m not playing it on the table, so how’s the app implementation of it?

Duh, it’s Dire Wolf. It’s amazing.

Whenever the Mummy die is rolled, the screen quickly centers on it (sometimes too quickly if you’re trying to take a screenshot, but that’s a reviewer problem, not a player problem).

Also, I have no idea when they added this (it may have been long before this expansion), but I’m going to mention it here because I just noticed it while playing the app for this review.

All of the cards in the market have an indication if they’re affecting anything in the game currently, or if they have an acquire effect.

I knew about the “extra cube draw” indicator, but I didn’t know about the “this card has an acquire effect” symbol.

That’s so cool!

It’s probably been there all along and I’m just blind.

One thing that seems to be missing, or at least I can’t find it, is the ability to add cards from another expansion to the game.

The rulebook specifically states that you can mix and match expansion cards as much as you want, though for first time players of this expansion, it’s not recommended to include any Sunken Treasures cards.

I don’t know why you would do that? While the curse mechanic would be fine (some cards give curses and get rid of them, though thematically curses would be suspect in Sunken Treasures), why would you want cards that give you the ability to breathe underwater, or whatever?

Of course, there are just normal cards added in both expansions, cards that don’t reference the new mechanics and just give you boots or swords or skill, but in different ways.

Or a new teleport ability.

I’m guessing that’s what they’re talking about.

There is no option in the app that I could find to mix and match “benign” cards from one expansion to the other.

Which is too bad, but it may have been too hard to program maybe?

The Mummy’s Curse is a really solid expansion for Clank, and it will keep me playing the app for a long time.

It adds some solid variation to the game, giving you new options, new mechanics, and new fun!

(Sorry, Dan, there’s that word again).

If you enjoy Clank, you will definitely enjoy this one.

It’s available currently on iOS, Android, and Steam, and like all Dire Wolf Digital apps (and their expansions), it’s open to cross-platform play!

Also (don’t quote me on this, but I think this is the case), if you buy the expansion on one platform, it’s available to you on all of them.

It’s only the base game that you have to buy individually on each one.

So another win!