Leo De Luca
The Louisiana Lion

Asset. Ally

Ally. Criminal.

Cost: 5. XP: 1.

Rogue
Health: 2. Sanity: 2.

You may take an additional action during your turn.

"I was born in Mississippi. Louisiana just sounded better."
Paco Rico Torres
Core Set #54.
Leo De Luca

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)

  • If you take an action that qualifies as either of your additional actions, e.g. from Leo De Luca and Quick Thinking, you may choose which additional action you are actually using.

  • On the 'additional action': When spending actions during your turn, the first action you spend each turn takes up the 'additional' designation. If Leo De Luca is discarded mid-turn, you do not lose 1 action from your total pool of actions for the turn. If you then play a second copy of the card, you gain a further additional action.

-- example: "Skids" O'Toole has Leo De Luca in play and is engaged with a Ghoul Minion. First action, Skids attacks the ghoul (this is the additional action from Leo). Second action, Skids moves location, provoking an attack of opportunity from the ghoul. The investigator places the damage on Leo from the ghoul's attack. Third action, Skids moves again, provoking another attack of opportunity from the ghoul, which kills Leo. Fourth action, Skids plays a second copy of Leo, provoking an attack of opportunity from the ghoul, which the investigator takes on Skids. Fifth action (the 'second' additional action from the second Leo), Skids attacks the ghoul and kills it. [No idea why you'd do it this way but hey it's an example.]

Last updated

Reviews

This is one of the least impactful upgrades in the game, but still deserves a review. Although I often get Leo De Luca, I rarely get this upgrade. The general “rate of exchange” in this game is that 1 XP makes a card one cheaper, and this card follows that rule. However, I tend not to like it for two reasons:

  1. There are usually tons of far more meaningful things to spend your XP on, cards you can only get by spending XP and upgrades that do really important things that change how your character works. Spending XP just to make cards cheaper is relatively boring and lower priority, and I would only do that once I'm done buying the really important cards that improve my deck in more substantial ways.
  2. I would normally have two copies of Leo in my deck and would thus need to spend 2 XP you upgrade both of them, but if you draw both copies during the game you will only be able to play one of them so you will save at most one money, not 2. And he is so expensive that if you draw him late, you might not play him at all and might not save any money. If I'm going to spend XP to make cards cheaper, I would rather do it on a card I am almost always going to play when I draw.

However, I should mention a couple reasons why you would play this card:

  1. Sometimes, late in a campaign, you reach a point where you have purchased call the new cards you really want, and all the remaining level 0 cards you have are key parts of your deck and it is quite painful to get rid of them to buy a new card. In this case you want to start upgrading your existing cards, and the number of upgrades available in the game is often quite limited, so even if this option isn't that amazing at least it has the virtue that it is available and makes your deck unconditionally better.
  2. Leo De Luca is so unusually expensive that most of the time I end up needing to spend actions to gain money just in order to play him, or in order to play both him and whatever else I need. And spending actions to gain money is not, in a general sense, what you want to be doing in the game. This seems to be the primary intent behind the card, that in practice it doesn't merely save you money, but in fact saves you an action, which is more valuable.

I think that if either of these two advantages are appealing to you, you would be even better off buying Another Day, Another Dollar instead - assuming your character is permitted to take that card.

ChristopherA · 110
More fun with Chance Encounter tho. — MrGoldbee · 1451
I like the upgrade stacked with Leo Anderson's discount ability for allies - 4 resources means you still have 1 resource spare if De Luca (1) is in your starting hand. Not huge, but it feels a lot better than going down to 0. — Prinny_wizzard · 251
"I want to add Leo to my deck after level 1, o he comes with a discount, nice!" Seen here, a world where adaptable doesn't exist, or you know, you just bought charisma and whats 2 more XP? — Zerogrim · 292
I feel like you've overlooked the key value in this upgrade. It is not about saving you a resource. It's about saving you an action because if you draw him turn 1, you can play him with your 5 resources. And if you don't, it is far easier to hover around the 5 resource mark than it is 6. — LaRoix · 1643
Yeah, the point of it going down to 5 is you’re able to play it straight away without taking a resource action. You can of course splurge more and get Another Day Another Dollar for a similar effect. — StyxTBeuford · 12987
It does typically save an action rather than merely a resource, but that's still weak for 1 XP. — CaiusDrewart · 3126
If you want the effect reliably, you need to upgrade both copies for 2 XP to save 1 resource. Because you likely never play both copies of Leo in one game. So for 1 XP more, you can save 2 resources with ADAD on your round 1 Leo play. I would say, unless for off-class rogue, who are restricted to up to level 2, this is a better deal. — Susumu · 366
To rebut the 2xp crowd: you could always upgrade only one of them. That's the one you're more likely to actually play, since sometimes you draw them both and you would obviously play the cheaper one. — MrWeasely · 42