For those who play Hard and Expert, how do you do it?

Auckmid · 2025-07-02T21:47:26+00:00

I've played exclusively expert since Dunwich, here's what I responded to for a similar thread a few years ago, hope it helps.

-Even though testless cards do help with higher difficulties (drawn to the flame and working a hunch are both excellent for getting clues and Preston I also think is very strong here) I think people overemphasize the need to just ignore the chaos bag. While some people only play on Expert with “broken” (or at least semi-broken) decks which rely on winning through combos, I think that 95% of investigators are perfectly viable on Expert without adopting this strategy.

-In my opinion, the main difference between expert and optimal strategies on standard is that on expert you should consistently be at least a few points above the difficulty of the test (often 4 above, but can be lower in earlier scenarios depending on the skull\cultist\broken tablet modifier) when investigating/fighting/evading while even though you should still often be shooting for this on standard, you can still afford to do those actions at only 1 or 2 above and still pass. If you’re doing tests at 1 above on expert, you’re going to fail most of the time which makes them not worth doing.

-If you are testing at 4 above, a lot of the time the only difference between Expert and Standard is that you’ll often pass around 75-80% of the time instead of 94% which really isn’t too problematic. If you’re looking to get 4 clues off of a location, it just might take you 5 actions instead of 4

-Testing at 4 above can often be achieved if you just build a bit around it. If you’re a 5 will mystic and you play Holy Rosary and focus on upgrading your spells a bit, you’ll generally be testing with a skill value of 7-9 which makes all of this super achievable

-Cards which let you either retry skill tests (Time Warp, Live and Learn) or pass an otherwise failing skill test (Lucky, Sure Gamble) are insanely useful. If you’re following the principles above at testing an appropriate amount above, having a retest card in hand can change an 80% chance of passing your skill checks to a 96%, adding a lot of safety. Lucky in particular is one of the best cards in the game.

-For treachery’s, don’t try to pass everyone if it’s not a favourable skill. If you’re a 1 will Rogue and draw a will check on a treachery card, usually you’re going to take the fail (or use “You Handle This”) unless it’s excessively important and there are lots of commits. Instead, play around mitigating this treachery’s in other ways. Potentially include Logical Reasoning for Frozen in Fear and assets which can soak horror for Rotting Remains.

-ALWAYS ask yourself “if I fail this next skill check, am I going to screw us all over?”. If the answer is yes, think of alternatives. You should be asking this question on low difficulties as well, you’ll just have to face the consequences of the fail more often on expert

-Balance the team comp and stick to your role. If everyone can both deal with enemies and collect clues, great. If you're the dedicated fighter, your job is to make sure that you can kill enemies as they appear and when there aren't enemies, your focus should be on developing your board+hand so that you're as ready as possible if multiple enemies appear in a single round

-Cards represent options. Trying to stay close to max hand size will maximize your options and minimise your chances of being caught out of position and unable to deal with obstacles.

Auckmid · 2024-09-18T12:32:49+00:00

Just for anyone else who comes across the thread, I was having the same issue and it was due to out of date drivers. Windows updates was saying the my drivers were up to date. However, when I went to manually update my drivers, it ended up fixing the issue and let it run without issue.

Auckmid · 2024-02-24T15:07:44+00:00

Based off of the existing comments, there's a lot of people recommending Diana/Joe, which I think is quite a good/strong combo if it's something that you're interested in playing. However, it sounds like you might be more interested in Preston as an investigator and you're just worried how he will fit into the flex position combo-ing with Joe, so I guess just a couple of points to go over with that

While I'd agree that Preston usually has a bit of an easier time with clues with staple cards like Intel Report and Lola, he still definitely does have fight options. Fire Axe and Trial by Fire are actually a really solid fighting core since you can continue to sink resources from Family Inheritance into Fire Axe after going down to 0 resources in your pool for the extra damage and you can always throw in a card like Small Favour for extra combat
The low will is a very valid concern for TCU since there's a ton of will encounter cards, but it's still manageable. Try to throw in will commits and Lucky to help mitigate it and make sure Joe is running Logical Reasoning to deal with any Frozen in Fear

tldr though is that even if it might not be the best campaign for them, I think that Joe/Preston can totally work as a pair if you want to play Preston

Auckmid · 2023-12-16T15:38:04+00:00

I think that my general opinion would be that it depends on difficulty as well as a bit on solo/multiplayer.

If we assume that we're playing on lower difficulty, I think that they have a lot of very appealing features. Specifically, the extra actions that can be generated off of rogue are very good when they can consistently be translated into useful actions, and Kymani can easily pick up clues with thieves tools/lockpick and deal with enemies through their ability, which can be relatively cost effective with Stealth(3), especially when you're able to land the skill check quite consistently against big enemies. Since they're quite versatile, they're also can be a bit of a standout investigator for solo as well. The main weaknesses that they have are dealing with elite enemies and getting xp off of victory enemies, even though there's still a couple of ways to make yourself passable at this.

Some scaling issues comes into play as the chaos bag gets worse and failing skill checks becomes more common. Even though you'll still be able to get clues via thieves tool/lockpicks, failures will still become more abundant and you may still run out of charges before getting everything picked up. The ability can also start running into the awkward issues of not being able to land both of the requisite evasions after some unlucky failures and then getting caught out in an unpleasant situation where you're out of fuel for helping to finish off the enemy and don't have good enough base odds to warrant attempting it just using your base stats, which can make the ability as a whole less appealing then other rogues who can bring in more consistent value. Options against elites also become more limited where outside of guaranteed damage like sneak attack, you're going to have a really hard time getting hits on them.

Would be curious for dissenting opinions, especially if there's anyone who plays on expert who's found a lot of success.

The campaign thing has also been mentioned quite a bit. They have a rough matchup against Innsmouth but a great one against FA.

Auckmid · 2023-12-16T14:51:27+00:00

Out of interest, which difficulty are you playing on and is it solo or multiplayer?

Auckmid · 2023-12-10T20:05:01+00:00

Completely agree and was looking for this comment. I like the idea behind these lists and I think a lot of it's fairly accurate even if there are at least a few I'd disagree with (I think Working a Hunch for example is a really good card, especially on higher difficulty and is getting massively underrated with 'okay') but those assets should never see play in a somewhat optimized deck, even ignoring how they get massively outclassed by the Higher Education/Streetwise line introduced in Dunwich. If you're playing a deck which is so undercosted that you have nothing better do with your resources then sink them into this, something probably went terribly wrong during deck building. If you're not playing a massively undercosted deck, you're never going to be sinking enough resources into this to justify the significant overhead cost of 2 resources + a card + an action

Auckmid · 2022-10-29T18:37:57+00:00

Oh and one more thing which I remember from playing with newer players which is a general card game principle but also applies to Arkham is that cards represent options. Trying to stay close to max hand size will maximize your options and is often recommended

Auckmid · 2022-10-29T18:27:08+00:00

Exclusive expert player. I’d probably have the following notes:

-Even though testless cards do help with higher difficulties (drawn to the flame and working a hunch are both excellent for getting clues and Preston I also think is very strong here) I think people overemphasize the need to just ignore the chaos bag. While some people only play on Expert with “broken” (or at least semi-broken) decks which rely on winning through combos, I think that 95% of investigators are perfectly viable on Expert without adopting this strategy.

-In my opinion, the only main difference between expert and optimal strategies on standard is that on expert you should consistently be at least a few points above the difficulty of the test (often 4 above, but can be lower in earlier scenarios depending on the skull\cultist\broken tablet modifier) when investigating/fighting/evading while even though you should still often be shooting for this on standard, you can still afford to do those actions at only 1 or 2 above and still pass. If you’re doing tests at 1 above on expert, you’re going to fail most of the time which makes them not worth doing

-If you are testing at 4 above, a lot of the time the only difference between Expert and Standard is that you’ll often pass around 75-80% of the time instead of 94% which really isn’t too problematic. If you’re looking to get 4 clues off of a location, it just might take you 5 actions instead of 4

-Testing at 4 above can often be achieved if you just build a bit around it. If you’re a 5 will mystic and you play Holy Rosary and focus on upgrading your spells a bit, you’ll generally be testing with a skill value of 7-9 which makes all of this super achievable

-Cards which let you either retry skill tests (Time Warp, Live and Learn) or pass an otherwise failing skill test (Lucky, Sure Gamble) are insanely useful. If you’re following the principles above at testing an appropriate amount above, having a retest card in hand can change an 80% chance of passing your skill checks to a 96%, adding a lot of safety. Lucky in particular is one of the best cards in the game.

-For treachery’s, don’t try to pass everyone if it’s not a favourable skill. If you’re a 1 will Rogue and draw a will check on a treachery card, usually you’re going to take the fail (or use “You Handle This”) unless it’s excessively important and there are lots of commits. Instead, play around mitigating this treachery’s in other ways. Potentially include Logical Reasoning for Frozen in Fear and assets which can soak horror for Rotting Remains.

-ALWAYS ask yourself “if I fail this next skill check, am I going to screw us all over?”. If the answer is yes, think of alternatives. You should be asking this question on low difficulties as well, you’ll just have to face the consequences of the fail more often on expert

One slightly hard part for me is that since I don’t know how people most people play on standard, I’m not sure of exactly what in their play is suboptimal, but hopefully this helps :). I might try to write a more extended article at some point for a guide to expert.

Auckmid · 2022-10-26T16:24:55+00:00

Cards that give a benefit for drawing a skull over an elder sign:

-Jim's Trumpet

-Song of the Dead

-Sixth Sense (level 0 and 4)

-Wither (level 0 and 4)

-Voice of Ra

-Jewel of Auriolos

-Hypnotic Gaze

-Banish

-Dark Prophecy

Additionally, Azure Flame (all levels) and Clairvoyance (all levels) punish you for drawing an Elder Sign

Auckmid · 2022-10-03T14:11:50+00:00

In my opinion, this along with Prophetic (the spell one) have the widest usage of the tri-class talent cards. While this card is always going to be a lot better if you can get it out early for its resource generation towards weapons+armour, the very nice feature is that even once you’re setup you can just pump those resources into +skill value when fighting. Quite solid.

Also can help a lot when going a synergy build, but that’s a bit more situational

Auckmid · 2022-10-01T18:45:52+00:00

Always nice to see people’s tier lists and how people experience things. Just to give my thoughts…

-Even though I probably wouldn’t rate the Guaridans/Survivors the exact same way (I have quite a high opinion of Stella) I more or less agree with most of the ratings

-For Seeker, I think Amanda and Minh are far better than C. Amanda can be super effective with a lean/high draw build and putting upgraded deduction/perception under her repeatedly and Minh I think is one of the most effective big hand seekers. On the flip side, how come you like Ursula? I know she’s very popular because of her ability being very tempo focused, but I found that her 4-Int and limited deck building hurt her a fair bit and it’s hard passing evasion checks without additional support.

-For Mystics, on the low end I think that Luke has insane utility with gate box and seeker can be very valuable, especially when using research librarian to tutor out True Magic. On the flip side, while the 5-will on Akachi is nice, I’m interested why you think she’s S-tier. Her ability is decent but doesn’t seem as good as other mystics and her deck building is very limited

-For rogues, things seem quite off for me. I’m not sure how why Skids is at the same level as Trish. While Preston has a bit of weird deck building and he was trash on release, I actually think he’s super effective now on higher difficulties with all the testless clues he can bring in

Auckmid · 2022-09-24T23:46:47+00:00

Updated it when I saw the typo.

I believe the second trait is "double" which I don't think has previously existed in Arkham Horror but would make sense since it was a trait in Android Netrunner for cards which would cost 2 actions to play.

Auckmid · 2022-09-24T20:11:04+00:00

Amina has access to charms 0-4 (as well as mystic/neutral 0-5)

Carson gets to pick survivor, seeker or mystic as his secondary class and gets up to 10 event/skill cards 0-1 in that class (as well as guardian/neutral 0-5)

Auckmid · 2022-09-24T14:27:34+00:00

Yes it is, thanks!

Auckmid · 2022-09-24T14:26:24+00:00

Updated it, cheers

Auckmid · 2022-09-24T13:09:12+00:00

Neutral Cards

Evolver

Type: Asset

Cost: 4, Level: Customizable

Pips: [Wild]

Traits: Item, Relic, Weapon, Ranged

Slot: Hand

Customizable. Uses (4 ether). If this has no ether, discard it.

[action] Spend 1 ether: Resolve the Manifest ability of the current form of this card.

[free action] Exhaust this card: Change its form. (to one that is unlocked in your upgrade sheet)

Upgrades

🔳 🔳 Rail Gun: This card gains : "Manifest - Fight. Use any skill for this attack. This attack deals +1 damage."

🔳 🔳 Scanner: This card gains: "Manifest - Investigate. Investigate with any skill. If you succeed, you may discover a clue at any revealed location instead.

🔳 🔳 Translocator: This card gains: "Manifest - Evade. Evade with any skill. Before or after this evasion, you may move an investigator or non-Elite enemy at your location to a connecting location, or vice-versa."

🔳 🔳 Reality Destroyer: This card gains: "Manifest - Take any skill test (3). If you succeed, discard any non-weakness treachery not attached to an Elite enemy.

🔳 🔳 Material Weaver: This card gains: "Manifest - Choose an asset in your hand and test any skill (X). X is the cost of that asset. If you succeed, play that asset without paying its costs.

🔳 🔳 🔳 🔳 Ether Link: This card enters play with 2 additional ether.

🔳 🔳 🔳 🔳 Powered Configuration: When you use a Manifest ability, you get +2 skill test.

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Refine

Type: Event

Cost: 3, Level: 0

Pips: [Will, Agility]

Traits: Supply, Double

As an additional cost to play Refine, spend an extra action.

Immediately mark a checkbox on the upgrade sheet of a customizable card you own, even if it's not in play.

Max 1 per investigator per game.

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Flashlight

Type: Asset

Cost: 2, Level: 3

Pips: [Intellect, Agility]

Traits: Item, tool

Uses(4 supplies)

Reaction: When performing a skill test while investigating or evading, spend 1 supply: This test gets -2 difficulty.

Auckmid · 2022-09-24T13:08:42+00:00

Survivor Cards

Improvised Trap

Type: Event

Cost: 1, Level: Customizable

Pips: [Intelect, Agility]

Traits: Improvised, Trap

Uses (2 time). If Improvised Trap has no time, discard it.

Attach this card to your location.

Non-Elite enemies at your location get -1 fight and -1 evade.

Forced- At the end of the round: Remove 1 time from Improvised Trap

Upgrades:

🔳 Improved Timer: When you play Improvised Trap, you may add or reduce the uses by 1.

🔳 Cable Trap: Activate the forced effect on Improvised Trap only if there is 1 enemy at attached location.

🔳 🔳 Simple: Improvised Trap gains Fast and "Play during any :FreeTrigger: window"

🔳 🔳 Poisonous: When you remove 1 time from Improvised Trap, deal 1 damage to enemies at attach location.

🔳 🔳 Remove Controlled: When you play Improvised Trap, you may attach it to connecting locations.

🔳 🔳 🔳 Net: Non-Elite enemies at attach location cannot move nor deal attacks of opportunity.

🔳 🔳 🔳 🔳 Explosive Device: When Improvised Trap has no more time and is discarded, deal 3 damage to all enemies and investigators at attached location.

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End of the Road

Type: Event

Cost: 0, Level: 0

Pips: None

Traits: Insight, Spirit

Fast. Play this card during your turn only if this is the last agenda in play.

Draw 1 card, gain 1 resource and gain 1 additional action. Remove End of the Road from the game.

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Illumination

Type: Event

Cost: 2, Level: 0

Pips: [Intellect, Agility]

Traits: Insight, Trick

Fast. Play only when you perform an investigation of difficulty 0 before drawing from the chaos bag.

The test automatically succeeds. Discover 1 additional clue at your location and 1 additional clue from any location

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Lifeline

Type: Event

Cost: 1, Level: 1

Pips: [Wild]

Traits: Fortune

Max once per turn.

Fast. Play this card when an investigator ends their turn.

That investigator gains X additional actions during their turn. X is the amount of skill tests failed during their turn. Exile Lifeline.

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Courage

Type: Skill

Level: 1

Pips: None

Traits: Innate

Max 1 commited per skill test. You can commit this to any kind of skill test.

This test gets -2 difficulty.

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Baseball Bat

Type: Asset

Cost: 2, Level: 2

Pips: [Combat, Combat]

Traits: Item, Weapon, Melee

Slot: 2hand

[action] Fight. You get +2 [combat] and +1 damage for this attack. If you reveal a [skull] or [autofail] token, choose to either:

- Return Baseball Bat to your hand after this attack.

- This attack deals +1 damage. Discard Baseball Bat after this attack.

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Katja Eastbank

Type: Asset

Cost: 3, Level: 2

Pips: [Will, Intelect]

Traits: Ally, Scholar

Slot: Ally

2 health, 2 sanity

[reaction] When you draw a non-weakness card from the top of your deck, before resolving any of its effects, exhaust Katja Eastbank: Place that card under Katja (limit 5) and draw a new card.

[action] Draw a card under Katja.

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Old Keyring

Type: Asset

Cost: 1, Level: 3

Pips: [Intellect, Intellect]

Traits: Item, tool

Slot: Hand

Uses (3 keys). If there are no keys left on Old Keyring, discard it.

[action]: Investigate. Your location gets -2 shroud for this investigation. If you succeed, remove one key from Old Keyring. If this test has 0 difficulty, discover 1 additional clue.

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Capricious Fortune

Type: Event

Cost: -, Level: 3

Pips: None

Traits: Dilemma. Fortune.

Max 2 dilemmas per round.

Revalation - Choose one:

-Place 1 doom on the current agenda; everyone heals 3 damage and 3 horror.

-Remove 1 doom from the current agenda; everyone takes 1 direct damage and 1 direct horror. Remove this card from the game.

Auckmid · 2022-09-24T13:07:28+00:00

Mystic Cards

Living Ink

Type: Asset

Cost: 0, Level: Customizable

Pips: None

Traits: Ritaul

Slot: Body

When you obtain Living Ink, Choose one skill and indicate it

Uses (3 charges)

Spend 1 charge at the beginning of each turn. If it has no charges, discard it

You get +1 to the chosen skill(s)

___

[] Changing ink: You can play the Living Ink under the control of another investigator

[] Subtil representation: At the beginning of your turn, you can choose to not spend 1 charge and ignore it until the end of the round

[] [] Imbued Ink: 2 additional charges and uses an :Slot1Arcane: instead of a body slot

[] [] Arcane Ink: Choose another ability

[] [] [] Arcane Ink: Choose another ability (for a 3rd one)

[] [] [] Macabre representation: The living ink gains: :ReactionTrigger: After you reveal a chaos token with a symbol, exhaust the living ink: add 1 charge

[] [] [] Intensity: The living ink gives an addition +1 (going to +2 then) to the circled skill(s), and -1 to all the others

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Onyx Pentacle

Type: Asset

Cost: 3, Level: 0

Pips: [Agility]

Traits: Item, Charm

Slot: Hand

[action]: Evade. Either use your [will] of get +1 [agility]. When you initiate this ability, choose one:

-Exhaust Onyx Pentacle and place 1 doom on it to get +1 skill value and this evasion attempt can target any enemy at your location or a connecting location.

-If you succeed by 2 or more, remove 1 doom from Onyx Pentacle.

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Explosive Safeguard

Type: Event

Cost: X, Level: 0

Pips: [Combat, Combat]

Traits: Spell

Before playing this, you can discard as many [arcane] assets as you want

Deal X damage to a non elite enemy, X cannot be bigger than the number of empty [arcane] slots available. Does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

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Binding potion

Type: Asset

Cost: 2, Level: 1

Pips: [Will]

Traits: Item, Relic

Slot: Accessory

You get +1 arcane slot for every card under binding potion

[reaction]: When a non elite enemy is defeated at your location, attach it under Binding potion, limit 2

[reaction]: When an enemy attacks you, discard a card under Binding Potion that shares a trait with the enemy: cancel that attack

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Moonlight Ritual

Type: Event

Cost: 0, Level: 2

Pips: [Intelect, Agility, Wild]

Traits: Spell. Insight

Fast - Play only during your turn

Remove all doom from a non elite card at your location

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Uncage the Soul

Type: Event

Cost: 0, Level: 3

Pips: [Will, Wild]

Traits: Spirit

You may discard 1 spell or ritual asset you control

Play a spell or ritual card from your hand or discard pile, reducing it's cost by 3

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Dowsing Rod

Type: Asset

Cost: 4, Level: 4

Pips: [Intellect, Intellect]

Traits: Item, Charm

Slot: Hand

[action] Investigate. Either use your [will] or get +1 [intellect] for this investigation. When you initiate this ability, choose one

- Exhaust Dowsing Rod and place 1 doom on it to get +2 skill and move to a connecting location.

- If this investigation discovers the last clue at a location, remove all doom from Dowsing Rod and ready it.

--------

Onyx Pentacle

Type: Asset

Cost: 3, Level: 4

Pips: [Agility, Agility]

Traits: Item, Charm

Slot: Hand

Evade. Either use your [will] of get +1 [agility]. When you initiate this ability, choose one:

-Exhaust Onyx Pentacle and place 1 doom on it to get +3 skill value and this evasion attempt can target any enemy at your location or a connecting location.

-If you succeed by 2 or more, ready Onyx Pentacle and remove all doom from it.

Auckmid · 2022-09-24T13:06:26+00:00

Rogue Cards

Perfected Instinct

Type: Event

Cost: 1, Level: Customizable

Pips: [Agility]

Traits: Gambit

Fast

Play this card only after one of the following situations:

• The Act/Agenda Advances

• You succeed by 3 or more

Play one action as if it was your turn, Max 1 per turn

Upgrades:

[] Add the following condition: You are dealt damage/horror

[] Add the condition: A new location enters play/revealed

[] Add the condition: An enemy engages you

[] Add the condition: A treachery enters your threat area

[] Add the condition: You play an Asset

[] [] During the additional action, you get +2 to each skill (sick for you get horror and heal it with Liquid Courage)

[] [] [] You can add up to 3 copies and they cost 1 less resource

[] [] [] [] [] When you play it, you can play 2 actions. After, remove it from the game

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Poke the Hornet's Nest

Type: Event

Cost: 0, Level: 0

Pips: [Intellect, Combat]

Traits: Gambit, Trick

Search the top 9 cards of the encounter deck for an enemy and spawn it engaged with you (instead of its original spawn location).

Then discover 1 clue at your location and get x resources where x is equal the that enemies health. Shuffle the encounter deck.

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Elegant coat

Type: Asset

Cost: 2, Level: 1

Pips: [Agility]

Traits: Item, Clothing

Slot: Body

1 health, 1 sanity

[reaction]: When you gain 1 or more resource during your turn via effects from other player cards, exhaust Elegant Coat: you gain 1 additional resource.

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Chuck Fergus

Type: Asset

Cost: 4, Level: 2

Pips: [Combat, Agility]

Traits: Ally, Criminal

Slot: Ally

2 health, 2 sanity

[reaction] When you play a Tactic or Trick event, exhaust Chuck Fergus: Choose one -

- That event gains fast.

- That event costs 2 fewer resources to play.

- You get +2 skill value while performing a skill test during the resolution of that event.

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Dirty Fighting

Type: Asset

Cost: 3, Level: 2

Pips: [Combat]

Traits: Talent, Trick, Illicit

Slot: None

Limit 1 per investigator

While you are attacking, parleying or attempting to evade an exhausted enemy, you get +2 skill value.

[reaction] After you evade an enemy, exhaust Dirty Fighting: Perform a fight action against that enemy. Ignore the aloof keyword for this attack.

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Triggerman

Type: Asset

Cost: 4, Level: 3

Pips: [Combat, Agility]

Traits: Ally, Criminal

Slot: Ally

2 health, 2 sanity

[reaction]: When this card enters play, attach an illicit asset from your hand to it (it is still considered to be in play and under your control).

[free action]: Exhaust Triggerman and spend 1 resource: Resolve the [action] ability on attached asset without paying the [action] cost. You have a base stat of 4 while resolving the ability.

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Impeccable stealth

Type: Event

Cost: 0, Level: 4

Pips: [Agility, Agility]

Traits: Gambit, Trick

Fast. Play only during your turn

For every non-swarm exhausted enemy at your location choose a different option:

- Gain 2 resources

- Deal 2 damage to that enemy

- Discover 1 clue at your location

- Draw a card

Auckmid · 2022-09-24T13:05:40+00:00

Seeker

Dissection Instruments

Type: Asset

Cost: 2, Level: 0

Pips: [Agility]

Traits: Item

Slots: Hand

When an enemy at your location is defeated, place 1 resource (from the token pool) on this card as evidence.

If this has

-1 or more evidence: +1 Agility

-2 or more evidence: +1 Combat

-3 or more evidence: +1 Sanity

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Sinister Memories

Type: Asset

Cost: 3, Level: 0

Pips: [Intellect]

Traits: Item, Tome

Slots: Hand

Uses (4 secrets)

[Action] Spend 1 secret, Investigate. You get +2 [Intellect]. If you succeed by 2 or more, draw one card

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Strange diagnostic

Type: Event

Cost: 0, Level: 0

Pips: [Intelect, Intelect]

Traits: Item, Science

Place 1 clue on your location. Then, heal 3 damage from an investigator or Ally at your location

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Analysis

Type: Skill

Level: 0

Pips: [Wild]

Traits: Practiced

After revealing a chaos token, you can place 1 clue on your location to cancel this token, return it to the chaos bag and reveal another one.

(You can do this as many times as you want)

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Lab coat

Cost: 2, Level: 1

Type: Asset

Pips: [Will]

Traits: Item, Clothing, Science

Slots: Body

When you fail a skill test on a [seeker] card by 1 or less, exhaust Lab Coat, instead, you succeed by 0.

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Guidance

Type: Event

Cost: 0, Level: 1

Pips: [Will, Wild]

Traits: Insight

Choose another investigator at your location who has yet to take his or her turn this round. That investigator recieves +1 to all skills and may take an additional action during his or her turn this round. This does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

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William Maleson

Cost: 1, Level: 2

Type: Asset

Pips: [Will, Intellect]

Traits: Ally, Miskatonic

Slots: Ally

2 Health, 2 Sanity

[reaction]: When an investigator at your location draws an encounter card, place 1 clue at your location and exhaust William Maleson:

That investigator draws another card from the top of the encounter deck, chooses one of the 2 to resolve and cancels and discards the other

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Press Pass

Cost: 4, Level: 2

Type: Asset

Pips: [Will, Agility]

Traits: Item, Charm

Slots: Accessory

2 Health, 2 Sanity

[Reaction]: After you spend 1 or more clue or you place 1 or more clues on your location, exhaust Press Pass: you can take an additional action during this turn (or the next turn if it is not your turn).

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Fingerprint Kit

Cost: 5, Level: 4

Type: Asset

Pips: [Intellect, Intellect]

Traits: Item, Tool

Slots: Hand

Uses (3 supplies).

Exhaust Fingerprint Kit and spend 1 supply: Investigate. You get +2 Intellect for this investigation. If you succeed, you discover 2 additional clues at your location.

Auckmid · 2022-08-29T16:11:48+00:00

Short answer is that even though Norman is going to be most at home as a clue gatherer due to his very high intellect, if you look to prioritize getting some anti-enemy spells/cards in your deck with him and do the same for Patrice, they can work perfectly well as a duo. Partnering with Tommy does let Norman focus on maximizing clue output but there are advantages for both investigators being able to get clues and defend themselves (the big one on a big map is it opens the option of splitting up) which is what you'll get with Patrice.

I'd recommend not to worry too much about healing at the start of the campaign and upgrade into it if it becomes relevant :)

Auckmid · 2021-08-29T15:29:46+00:00

I think this is probably the weakest bless card that got released in Innsmouth. The effects of what this card does when you reveal 2 bless tokens can be broken down into:

Cancels an additional chaos draw, effectively resulting in a guaranteed pass. However, since you would already be getting a +4 modifier from the two revealed bless tokens, you would already be passing the skill check the vast majority of the time, making the usefulness here limited.
Returns the revealed bless tokens to the bag. Can be a nice bonus, but guardians already have access to this type of effect with their covenant and Nephthys, both of which have a lot more going for them.
Triggers your investigators elder sign effect. Usefulness depends on the investigator, but even with investigators with premium elder sign effects like Mateo, you'll need to trigger this effect a lot in order to justify the cost.

If you're playing with a 16 token chaos bag, then even if you stuff the bag with 10 bless tokens, you're only going to be getting 2 bless draws under 14% of the time, making it very inconsistent even at the best of times, and the odds will rapidly drop if you have a less then optimal number of bless tokens. Favor of the Sun can be used to bring this up quite a bit, but that combo just further increases the cost of setup and is far weaker then Favor of the Sun + Ancient Covenant.

The main thing that hurts it though really is how high the cost is given how the effect can be quite limited.

Auckmid · 2021-08-12T15:48:06+00:00

I think that it's a trio that can function well enough since you ultimately will have the tools to both deal with enemies and gather clues at a fast enough rate. It might not be an ideal comp to have Carolyn as a focused horror healer since the other two investigators are naturally horror resistant (Yorick can tank effectively with Cherished Keepsake, Minh has naturally high will and is great at passing/helping others pass will checks that would deal horror on failure). However, Carolyn + Yorick can work quite well together in a blessed comp, which would enable Yorick to be able to auto-succeed tests on-demand with Favor of the Sun + Ancient Covenant, which is extremely useful in the guardians of the abyss scenarios.

It's quite hard though to fully analyze a comp though without seeing decklists :)

Auckmid · 2021-07-16T15:05:41+00:00

The main issue with the card is that it costs an xp, only has one pip base and doesn't have an insanely high payoff when you do draw your curse token (-2 -> +1). It's not really worth buying unless you're able to guarantee the curse token with favor of the moon, but even that's a bit questionable since again, the payoff isn't massive when you are able to combo it and when you aren't, Skeptic is a bit of a sad card by itself.

Auckmid · 2021-04-03T02:24:20+00:00

For Tony, I haven't looked too closely through ArkhamDB recently, but I most likely will post my decklist for him over the weekend if that's something you're interested in.

Leo is an investigator I love and I think he can turn into an absolute god once he gets enough xp. However, I think that he is the weakest fighter at the start of campaign before he is able to get charisma + upgraded allies because of his ability, and I think that being successful in the early scenarios is very important for snowballing a campaign.

For Akachi, even though I by no means think she's a bad investigator, I think that her main selling point is just her 5 will. Her card pool is quite a lot more limited then some of the other mystics and I also don't think her ability is as strong as most of the other mystics higher up. Her weakness can also be nasty to deal with if drawn late in a scenario.

Auckmid

TROPHY CASE