Strange Solution
Acidic Ichor

Asset

Item. Science.

Cost: 1. XP: 4.

Seeker

Researched. Uses (3 supplies).

Spend 1 supply: Fight. Attack with a base skill of 6. This attack deals +2 damage.

Tiziano Baracchi
Where Doom Awaits #263.

Latest Taboo

This card's fight ability now reads "+1 damage" instead of "+2 damage."

Strange Solution

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • NB: ArkhamDB now incorporates errata from the Arkham Horror FAQ in its card text, so the ArkhamDB text and the card image above differ, as the ArkhamDB text has been edited to contain this erratum (updated August 2022): Erratum: The purchase restriction on this card should be replaced with the keyword: "Researched." - FAQ, v.2.0, August 2022
Last updated

Reviews

With the Acidic Ichor variant (see above) of the Strange Solution, seekers gain an awesome weapon. Strength is a problem for all the current seekers, and having your base increased to 6 is great - and combined with +2 damage, it becomes awesome. On top of that, it's cheap, and it doesn't take a hand slot.

In a recent campaign I equipped Rex with 2 of these as early as I could - they do need a lot of XP - and he was a better fighter than Jenny through much of the rest of the campaign.

Advantages:

  • Gives seekers good combat
  • Deals 3 damage!
  • Cheap
  • Leaves hands free

Disadvantages:

  • You have to identify the solution, to start with. That relies on the right card coming out, your playing it, and passing the test.
  • They're expensive XP-wise - though if compared with The Red-Gloved Man they feel about right.
  • They're hard to discard once used - and so hard to Scavenge
  • It can be difficult to use all that damage effectively. For example, a 4 damage enemy would require 2 uses - which wastes a third of the damage they can do. Ideally, get someone else to do the additional damage.

To be honest, I think that combat beats evasion (kill it and it goes away) and healing (kill it and it won't hurt you) , so I can't see why you'd use either of the other Strange Solutions.

AndyB · 936
WHY do some cards discard themself when out of supplies and others don’t? I really want this card to be scavengeable, and I don’t get the inconsistency. Is it a way to nerf strong cards? Or was there just not enough space on this card for another line of text? — Runic · 1
@Runic Also so items can be used to recharge assets — shenaniganz11 · 40

This card seems incredible at first glance. And it really is.

+2 damage is a dominant effect in this game, and cards that offer repeatable +2 damage are almost always outstanding. (Springfield M1903 is why I had to say "almost".) Compared to the other +2 damage weapons in the game, Acidic Ichor is way cheaper and more convenient. Think of Lightning Gun; Acidic Ichor is cheaper by 1 XP, 5 resources, and 2 hand slots. That's amazing. It's kind of bizarre that the faction that's the best at finding clues would get a combat card as sweet as this, but that's how it is.

Yes, you need to identify the solution. But that basically boils down to spending a couple actions and passing an Intellect (4) test. Even on high levels, that's not much hassle.

As icing on the cake, Emergency Cache III is a quite efficient (albeit XP-intensive) way to reload this card.

So what's the catch?

Well, on lower levels, I would say there really isn't one. On Easy, Acidic Ichor will basically perform like a much cheaper Lightning Gun. That's every bit as good as it sounds.

On higher levels, though, and particularly on Expert, Acidic Ichor is no Lightning Gun. This is because attacking at base 6 is nowhere near enough. If you try to hit a 4-fight enemy without boosting (and most good targets for this card will have high fight), your odds of hitting are going to be substantially under 50%. You need to be able to boost your shots by a good +3 or +4 to make this card rewarding. Since Seeker decks tend not to be naturally loaded with Combat icons, that's not always easy.

Of course, you do have some options for getting that Combat up. You could run Overpower, Inquiring Mind, Unexpected Courage, maybe even Scientific Theory. Minh (easily the best Seeker at running Acidic Ichor) can take Lucky!, which helps an awful lot. Daisy might be able to get Encyclopedia to work out in certain situations. Maybe your allies have the spare cards to boost you. You have options. But it's difficult enough to hit with Acidic Ichor that the card is no longer a slam dunk.

I think Acidic Ichor becomes more of a build-around card on Expert. It's not something you can just throw into any Seeker deck and get good results. If you're in a multiplayer group and your allies are doing a good job handling monsters, devoting a lot of deck space and XP to Acidic Ichor may not be worth it. It can absolutely do great work on Expert if you put the effort in, but you do have to put the effort in.

CaiusDrewart · 3117
Side note, another players venturer can also recharge acidic icor. — Django · 5063
If we ever get seeker investigator with t — Clash77 · 73
Rex can do thys combo, but beside, venturer is not a real great card for him. But if we ever get seeker 5/guardian 2 investigetor :) — Clash77 · 73
Its okay if you were on say flashlights and sleight of hand as an additional support card. — Myriad · 1218
As I said OTHER Investigators can use their venturer on your strange solution. — Django · 5063

""At the FFG design table"" : Well guys, Seekers are the class that we like the best! We win the game by getting clues but sometimes enemies show up and make us waste our precious actions on dealing with them, how can we improve Seekers more? We already decided that in future we will give them highest stat that is needed to win the game by getting clues, best draw, best search, clue manipulation effects with cards like Vantage Point, Gené Beauregard etc., pretty good Willpower so they do not have to worry about threacheries, best movement cards with Shortcut, Pathfinder etc., but we still have to give them something to be even more powerful. How about we give them assets that deal dmg like they are Guardians on cocaine? Let's print some testless dmg cards like Occult Lexicon, Ancient Stone, The Necronomicon. Yes, that will be good!! Also, let's give them this card for start, which will let them fight as Guardians, but also clear clues in the meantime when there are no enemies like we are used to, so our Guardian player can sit at the table and play Pokemon Showdown and not worry about the game at all because we will do it all and i love it when other classes feel useless!!!

Some random worker at FFG : but sir, will that lead to players not having fun as there will strictly be 1 class that is better then all the others? Maybe we will even have to do something with the cards, like invent a tabboo list or something?

""FFG guy"" : Fire that man!!

Blood&gore · 416
this is exactly what happened — otto.muck · 13
Fun fact: the acidic ichor exists before the necronomicon (the newest translation) and the other mentioned cards. Back that time even an acolyte beats the crap out of my Daisy. And in my experience the seeker gets worse with more players because their ability to get several clues at one time is surprisingly limited. Also your weapons tends to be rather expensive and limited, for example one charge of the icor for a swarm of rats or rather useless against a dohle with 5 fight and 4 HP or the gouhlpriest with 15 HP. — Tharzax · 1
I don't think, the Acidic Ichor is really degenerated. Fighting with a base of 5 is not that great, even on Standard, in particular against most enemies, you want to deal 3 damage to. (Sure, there are exceptions, like the Conglomeration.) Testless damage cards are different, though. — Susumu · 361
*a base of 6 — Susumu · 361
I know, right? I just hate how one class gets everything... you're already good at fighting, you shouldn't also get Scene of the Crime and Lesson Learned to get clues without any tests! Why even have other classes if Guardians are going to be the best at everything. /s — Hylianpuffball · 27
Yeah but Guardians are only good at killing monsters and maybe protecting large groups and being a tank, while seekers are good at million other things. Also Working a Hunch is better than Scene of the Crime as it is fast and needs no enemy and also has 2 INT icons, and Lesson Learned is not even close to something like Stirring up Trouble and guess what? Both of these cards don't even see that much play in Seekers as they have even stronger stuff lmao. When 2 cards you mentioned that are to you the perfectly strong cards in Guardian don't even come nearly as strong in their Seeker variant, it sucks. Also i know that Seekers cannot fight as good as guardians, but they can hold their own pretty damn well and even be insanely good fighters, but guardians cannot say the same regarding clues — Blood&gore · 416
I think a Guardian can handle clues like a seeker enemies if he want to invest enough xp. For example take Michael Light, the upgraded Grete, Keen Eye, on the Trail, scene of crime, evidence and so on. A guardian has good option to get some clues besides his usual work. The same way a seeker could handle today some foes on his own while doing his work. And yes if you are playing alone a seeker is a better choice since enemies are rare and finding clues is the way to win the game. But all in all I don't think they are overpowered. (I'd rather like to see another concepts for seekers than the big-hand-typ) — Tharzax · 1
I think, the reviews point, that Seekers are kind of the broken class, is kind of true. They have the best card draw and movement, and excell at the main "win game task". They also have a bunch of real good testless damage. It's just, that Acidic Ichor is not a very good example for that point. I've seen a novice player with Daisy taking it, and missing two out of three supplies with it (on standard), then starting to only using it on Rats and other dinky stuff. You need support for it in your deck: cards to commit with other symbols than book, Scientific Theory, maybe some additional soak to keep ST longer active... That's not a good way to build a Daisy deck. I'm actually planning to build around "Acidic Ichor" with Amanda in the near future. I think, she might be the right investigator for it. With access to cards like upgraded VB and OP, and an ability to use them on each test one round, I think, she might be a great flex investigator with this card. A better flex then a Mystic with RoS and Shrivelling? Probably not. This card might also shine in "Dream Eaters", because of the many weak swarming enemies, you can vitrolize with it. But then: you can use it in just 3 scenarios there, unless you add side quests. This card is so far from an auto include, so much build around, I would never call it broken. — Susumu · 361
Yeah i wrote this comment because i played Amanda in my last campaign that just went insane with this card and V.Blow (2), it was literally doing the job of a Guardian with other spicy stuff on the side — Blood&gore · 416
So you combined a "weapon" with a guardian skill card and you are wondering why you do the job of the guardian? (and just mention that this combo is a total overkill for most enemies.) — Tharzax · 1
Yes, one guardian card in the combo of Strange solution, Ancient stone, Occult lexicon etc.is the problem lmao. Now tell me what Guardian can come on par woth Seekers getting clues with something like Archaic glyph + Deductiion 2? Or Rex + Milan + Higher education? Or anything that Mandy does before tabboo? — Blood&gore · 416
We are now talking about burst-turns of investigators, who can use their access to other card. Roland with keen eye, deduction 2 and an agency-ally? Or Roland with Grete, evidence 1 and an easy enemy if you don't want to use seeker cards. On the other hand tell me a seeker who can fight comfortably against 4 fight/4health enemies in one or more rounds? — Tharzax · 1
That Roland cannot handle clues like a seeker my friend, but only get a clue here and there before he runs into issues woth economy. Harvey can rekt enemies for example, Amanda can fight insanely good, Mandy just dismantles enemies with her pendant of the queen loops and three aces etc., Minh can constantly recur Necronomicon (5) while still scavanging Ice pick (3) or that same Necronomicon and also get clues like crazy. Don't even get me started on Daisy who is super strong now, or even Rex with his 5 splash. Now tell me again, do you seriously consider Guardians as strong as Seekers lmao? They are currently THE weakest class and you are comparing them to the broken one (seekers) — Blood&gore · 416
No, but for finding clues I think most guardians are on the same stage with seekers who fight enemies. Probably seeker seems better because handling an enemie don't happen so often as you need to find clues so the rare costly fighting cards of seeker are enough in most cases. — Tharzax · 1
Are you freebasing? Survivor is the most powerful class by far. Stella Clark is so OP that I can't even play her. — Pinchers · 128
It is kind of the sad truth that new cards are making guardian the weakest in comparison. Cards like the C. Hammer allows mystics to fight just as well as guardians (@+7 or 8). But mystics can also investigate all night long (at 7+) with a single cards like Sixth Sense. Can't say the same for guardians. Seekers are broken in that they do just stupid things (ex. Harvey Walters can spend "one" action and $0 to play Deep Knowledge to draw 4 cards while causally dealing 4 damages to the poor boss (Ancient Stone: KTE). Stupid efficient stuffs like this what guardians can do? As for survivors, they are the true mystics: they just never die and almost always somehow get the job done. — liwl0115 · 41
You forgot that the 4 cards and damage also result in an AoO without a chance to cancel it with a seeker card. (and yes cryptic research helps but that's another 4 xp) — Tharzax · 1
Yeah and it can be avoided simply by another player engaging that enemy. Also if it is massive, then just use Blood-Rite from your lexicon and deal 6 or 7dmg instead without taking an action and without provoking AoO if that worries you. Then shuffle it back into your deck, and do it again soon (with Harvey atleast since you mentioned him). Not broken lol? — Blood&gore · 416
Has everyone forgotten that these so-called "broken" Seeker can only be attained by completing quests early in the campaign, spending XP, and getting lucky random draws if you're using Shrewd Analysis for max potential? After jumping through these hoops, Seekers can offset their terrible fight and agility with some limited testless damage. You can't convince me that Seekers are not the weakest class for fighting enemies. — Pinchers · 128
And the blood rite costs you the equivalent of 6 actions for two damage (one action, three cards and two resources). Also how much secrets are on your stone? In most cases up to seven before you need to recharge or replay it. So in my opinion seekers have some options to fight but this happens in bursts and is rather expensive,so they can handle one or two enemies before getting problems. I don't think they're overpowered but they're stronger in single- than multi-player where usually enemies appear more often. — Tharzax · 1
The threshold for identifying the Stone has been lower duo to In the Thick of It. Now by scenario you can start using the upgraded Stone. As for adding secrets, Ariadne's Twine exist, so as Eldritch Sophist. I mean Guardians' gun also can run out of amm. It's a matter of desk building priority; most seekers want to investigate, not fight. — liwl0115 · 41
"by scenario 2" — liwl0115 · 41
And now compare the damage output with all the costs and the availability with a guardian who is equipped with a Machete. — Tharzax · 1
Bro Tharzax you are comparing the class that is meant to deal with enemies to a class meant to carry you with clues. If seekers don't do burst turns of free smg like those combos then they still investigate like crazy because that is where they are the most broken, but when enemy shows up they have no issues with them too. Guardians are shit with clues and have some ways of clearing clues in multiplsyer games,but a clue here and there is not as good as 15dmg turn for seekers to a boss because they still carry you all the way to that point. Idk what game are you playing if you do not see the problem. Seekers clear all the clues on the map like a vacuum cleaner, especially if you play without tabboo, and what guardians do in scenarios without many enemies? Soak lol?, what does your Guardian do in Miskatonic Museum for example? He waits for an enemy if he did not built to be a bit more flex. They are currently the worst class in the game and if you wanna say that they are on the same page as seekers then i have no fckin idea what are you playing — Blood&gore · 416
And you are comparing the guardians ability to gather clues with the abilities of a class which is designed for it. They are not on the same page as seekers. They are on the other side of the page. Both classes are specialists on their field. If you leaf this field you need to build around to compensate this and usually you off-class options helps. In my opinion there is no worst class. And for your question about the museum: I tend to have decks with some flexibility so for e. g. take a flashlight or a sixth sense with you to help the team. — Tharzax · 1