Alice Luxley
Fearless Flatfoot

Asset. Ally

Ally. Detective. Police.

Cost: 4.

Guardian
Health: 2. Sanity: 2.

You get +1 .

After you discover a clue, exhaust Alice Luxley: Deal 1 damage to an enemy at your location.

"Please leave this to the professionals. If I find you poking around again, I will bring you in."
Andreia Ugrai
The Wages of Sin #151.
Alice Luxley

FAQs

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Reviews

In search of a good home for your Fearless Flatfoot? Then give some consideration to everyone's favourite Heroic Hobo, "Ashcan" Pete.

The key element that makes this pairing good is Duke's combined Move and Investigate ability. When Pete uses his best friend to sniff out some info, he triggers the action at his current location, provokes attacks of opportunity at that location, then moves, and investigates his new location without provoking opportunity attacks. This is a fairly decent method of triggering Alice's ability safely in multiplayer; There are definitely going to be times when you and your team mates are split up, one of them has drawn a monster and there are clues at their location (the cluever was in the middle of investigating, the fighter was exploring, etc.), and they want you to come help them out. Alice and Duke's teamwork lets you do that: the move action you'd have had to spend getting there anyway becomes a combined move and investigate with a free testless damage if the investigation lands. As an extra bonus, if the enemy is engaged with your friend then you can deal this 1 point of damage without any risk to them, since it's both testless and not triggered by fighting. If all that's needed is 1 damage (perhaps to help your fighter reach a higher total when he takes his own turn, or to finish a battle that he started) then considerations like whether or not to spend an action engaging the enemy first are left entirely to the wayside; not bad.

However, there's a lot more to this match-up than just the Duke trigger that enables it!

First off, Alice gives a static +1 Book, and Pete jams on static intellect boosts, since they work with Duke's nose. If you were considering Dr Milan Christopher for this reason, then Alice Luxley could be a fun alternative.

Second off, Pete has a minor niche as "that guy who can soak damage that tries to go to specific non-investigator cards first", and while Alice can only take 1damage and 1 horror safely and that's nothing to write home about for a four-cost asset, it still plays into that niche. Want to keep your Plucky around for longer, or keep that Helpless Passenger alive? Alice aids in that goal.

Thirdly, since Alice exhausts to use her ability, Pete has the option to use his own power to ready her for a second bite at the cherry. Adding "investigate; deal 1 damage to an enemy at your location" to the options that Duke already gives him for value from his card discard ability is solid and broadens an already broad toolkit. Pete can certainly provide the tech to pull off multiple successful investigates in a turn, such as part of a Will to Survive turn.

Fourthly, if you need to make Alice's damage more reliable, red cards have got you covered. You can help yourself succeed with the likes of Lucky!, or discover clues even if you fail your check with the likes of Look What I Found!

Fifth, Pete's status as a Dunwhich investigator means that he can not only take 2x Alice, but any other three level 0 cards he might want, some or all of which can be strong tech for Alice from any sources Pete prefers. Scene of the Crime is probably the stand-out option here; Alice normally is of use to Pete as an offensive option, but Scene of the Crime is perfect for letting him use her on the defence. Since Pete can typically only fight with Duke at most twice in a turn anyway, giving up his first action to pull two clues and deal a testless damage is unlikely to bother him/ be unattractive compared to getting a third fight action in, and it reinforces his strengths as a hybrid.

Sixth, the unusual match up of cop and homeless man provides added benefits to some potential red jank that could be a lot of fun to play. If you can secure yourself a means of over-succeeding an evasion test then Belly of the Beast becomes a power move with Alice on the field - evade an enemy, discover a clue, and deal 1 damage to the enemy you just evaded! Hybrid perfection. Or, again assuming you can pull of an evade (perhaps you took that Plucky after all?) then you can Bait and Switch an enemy on to a location with clues from a location with none, setting yourself up to Duke on in there and bring the hammer down.

So, if it's synergy you want, and perhaps something slightly off the wall, then Alice, Pete and Duke are ready to protect and serve.

Alice Luxley is one of those wonderfully thematic cards that exists in the wrong class of investigators for playability. Guardians as a whole want to kill the enemy standing in front of them instead of investigating to get a clue first. In addition to that there aren't many eligible investigators that even care about the +1.

The ideal investigator for Alice would be a strong evader and cluegetter. This combo doesn't exist within the Guardian class and most of the secondary Guardian classes. There are some combos that can trigger Alice's damage without evasion but they are usually not easy to set up or easy to repeat several times in a scenario.

Mark Harrigan - Zoey Samaras - William Yorick - these Guardians don't care about the boost and aren't active cluegetters typically

Tommy Muldoon and Leo Anderson would be boosted to a 4 which is nice but there are better allies for each of them to choose and gathering clues isn't what they are known for.

Carolyn Fern seems like an obvious choice for Alice Luxley and since Alice Luxley is one of the my favorite cards I played this combo in Carcosa with Akachi. The shortcoming of the combo is that it is hard for Carolyn to trigger Alice's damage since that usually requires taking an Attack of Opportunity. Combo'ing Alice Luxley with Guard Dog and/or Brother Xavier works pretty well though. Carolyn Fern can also play Scene of the Crime or Working a Hunch to trigger it. Overall my thoughts on Alice with Carolyn were decent. There were times that I took an AOO just to trigger Alice's damage because I didn't have any other damage options and I was split up from Akachi.

Joe Diamond is another Guardian (essentially a Guardian) that can definitely benefit from Alice Luxley. I paired Joe up with Rita Young in the hopes of her leaving evaded enemies all over the place but this never really materialized. Rita just killed them with the Ornate Bow or Joe finished them off with his weapons. I ended up triggering Alice's ability <5 times in the entire campaign even though she was frequently in play.

Roland Banks is a better combo than Joe for reasons mentioned in another review but the situations where you have multiple enemies at one location and clues remaining are not that common. Possibly in 3-4p but even then you are talking about situational occurences rather than easy to setup ones.

Diana Stanley - I haven't played her yet or even looked at deckbuilding options. She has a 3 and 3 so it might be possible but I think there are likely better allies and themes for the deck.

Rex Murphy - I guess this a possibilty for Rex since he can't even kill rats but taking attacks of opportunity are an inefficient way to kill things. Don't expect me to play this combo just to see if it is worth it.

The two ideal investigators for Alice Luxley are a pair of Rogues that can easily evade enemies and work best with weaponless decks. Jenny Barnes and "Skids" O'Toole

I played Alice Luxley with Jenny and Alice dominated the final two scenarios after dissappointedly only getting played in one other scenario. Bad luck on the card draw but Jenny/Alice was awesome. Jenny could evade easily with Suggestion(1) and easily pick up clues with Lola Santiago, Lockpicks or Intel Report. Alice did around 5 damage in each scenario and the highlights included singlehandedly taking out the Sacrificial Beast in one scenario and getting in 3 damage on the final monster in Carcosa.

Alice Luxley is a tough card to really make work but she remains one of my favorites and I would definitely play her in a Jenny or Skids deck. Possibly in Carolyn. Most Guardians would just as soon kill an enemy outright rather than try to setup a situation where they can do a point of damage.

The Lynx · 967
This is a great review for an underplayed and underappreciated card. Reading your experiences playing with Alice in campaigns is very informative. — Trinity_ · 201
Actually, I have a tried and true pairing that I hope you would be interested in; Alice Luxley with Joe Diamond. Rather than think of evading then clue gathering, think of clue acquisition that's either fast and test-less or does not provoke attacks of opportunity: Working a Hunch, Scene of the Crime, and Interrogation are the cards that provide this effect, and all can go into Joe's hunch deck. Also, guardians also get exactly one evade option; handcuffs, which substitutes agility with combat. Heck, since you mentioned Alice's thematic potential, you can build a police themed deck with her a Joe that's specialised against humanoid enemies that I think you'll love. I'll publish the deck I designed with this concept, I hope you'll like it. — Lucaxiom · 4360
I had Working a Hunch in the deck and the problem with the hunch deck combo is that requires 3 things to occur for it to work. Hunch deck, enemy and a clue. That is why it just didn't work very often. I will probably run Alice again in Joe's deck and now have Scene of the Crime. Interrogate is a tough test for Joe to pass to setup the combo imo unless he has the Fine Clothes. The test will usually be a 4 and he can easily get to a static 5 or maybe 6 if everything is out. Handcuffs is another card that I haven't tried out yet but it would certainly go in my Joe deck. But I still find the combo needed to be too difficult to rely on more than once in a scenario. — The Lynx · 967
I've found her to be decent when several investigators want that Lore boost in the Ally slot, since only one can have Milan. — Yenreb · 15
As a Diana fan, I don't think you will want her as a evader/cluegetter. Like Jenny, when you have a 3 fight/3 evasion character with access to guardian, you will probably will be more efficient as a fighter than a evader. If there is another fighter on group, you can use Diana as a mid/late game spell caster fighter too. Considering you probably want to focus on spells or weapons and will have at least 10 negation cards on deck, there is no space to think about clues plus evasion. — Venti · 1

Now that Scarlet Keys has been released, Alice has greatly increased in utility.

Her biggest shortcoming, aside from cost, is that discovering clues generally provokes attacks from enemies, pigeonholing her as an expensive supplemental damage asset to an evasion/investigation build in the wrong color.

With Keys, however, we have to contend with Concealed cards. Concealed cards normally eat a fight/evade/investigate action to reveal, but Alice effectively doubles your action economy by providing a testless reveal once per round after gaining a clue. Roland, Joe, Rex and Vincent can combine with Research Notes and the new clue-dropping cards to have free reveals on tap.

CombStranger · 264
I'm not sure this is right. The Scarlet Keys rules says Concealed mini-cards can be attacked or evaded "as if they were an enemy at your location", it doesn't say treat them as enemies at your location in any other respect. In fact , it goes out of its way to say "Concealed Minicards are not enemies" so I think it has to be an effect that specifically attacks , evades or investigates. Effects that just deal damage, exhaust enemies or discover clues aren't enough. Alice's damage isn't an attack so I don't think she can be used for reveals. Gosh, this situation is like three rules nightmares in one tho, concealed, distinctions between the names of actions and their effects and "as if" for good measure. I'm not sure I have all that right myself.. — bee123 · 31
@bee123 actually, the Concealed rules specify Dynamite Blast as an example that works, which like Alice deals damage to an enemy at location — Nenananas · 251
I'm still not super convinced ... The rules don't actually specify Dynamite Blast by name , they just allude to its effect in the process of saying you can't reveal multiple cards off the same effect. But that doesn't seem to me to mean Dynamite Blast is an attack now, it means attacks that work like D-Blast , eg MK1 grenades, work as the example shows. . And again, I can't see how you get round the problem that the concealed mini-card isn't an enemy at your location and can't be dealt damage. How do cards that "damage an enemy at your location" deal it damage? — bee123 · 31
Like, my reading is the rules say attack/evade/investigate . There are lots of effects that deal damage without attacking and a few ways to attack without dealing damage. So, at least to me, there seems to be a clear distinction there.. — bee123 · 31
On page 4 it says "An investigator may also use a card effect that automatically evades an enemy, deals damage to an enemy, or discovers a clue at a location in order to instead expose a concealed mini-card." You're right it doesn't mention Dynamite Blast in the rules, I got it confused with this paragraph that's also on page 4: "an effect that deals 3 damage to each enemy at a location does not expose all concealed mini-cards at that location; only one." — Nenananas · 251
Huh, yeah sorry you're right . Shows just painstakingly carefully u have to read the rules sometimes.. — bee123 · 31
Don't be sorry. The Concealed keyword is one of the more complicated mechanics in Arkham. I'm still not convinced if something that discovers 2 clues can reveal one Concealed and find one clue, and my group still hasn't come to an agreement on whether you can use an auto-clue discover to reveal a Concealed if there are no clues to discover. — Nenananas · 251
I love the thematic nature of Detective Luxley tracking down the concealed enemies. — arkhamgrad · 1

Of course for the majority of investigators this will be compared to Dr. Milan Christopher. She doesn't mix well Mark Harrigan and Zoey Samaras, but she works with the others just fine. Roland Banks, Joe Diamond and Leo Anderson have the options of taking either naturally, as does Carolyn Fern, but all the Dunwich investigators might consider this as well if their focus is a mixed bag or a desire for additional boost in their investigations.

With respect to the effect itself, Dr. Milan Christopher will be doing more work per turn given that he is not limited by the number of times that he can trigger in a single phase (although he probably should have been an exhaust just like Alice).

Alice is a secondary consideration in a larger group of investigators however where one of you can take Dr. Milan Christopher and the other can take Alice Luxley. She also has the capability of occasionally doing points of damage and combos well with Scene of the Crime that doesn't trigger attacks of opportunity. A nice, get a clue and swat that Will O' Wisp into a smear.

There are also secondary reasons to take Alice Luxley in addition to her effect of being able to increase offensive power. That one extra health might not seem like much, but the last two campaigns have been introducing treacheries that target allies with damage assigned to them. Alice Luxley can survive one of these being drawn, while Dr. Milan Christopher will be taken out. It's not as minor a thing as it might sound. Often, you will put down those one health allies to lose them halfway through a scenario, while Alice will remain for the entirety if you are lucky.

Bronze · 185
Leo Anderson can’t take Dr. Milan Christopher. — Death by Chocolate · 1447

No one has mentioned the obvious. This is a pure Roland Banks card. Roland is the only character that can trigger her ability in a non-janky way. Roland kills an enemy, then his reaction triggers, which discovers a clue, and then Alice deals a damage to another enemy. Obviously not a great card in solo but 2 enemies are common enough with just two players and you can tip the scales even more in your favor with "Let me handle this!" and On the Hunt. When there are no enemies, Roland's investigate is up to a respectable 4, thanks to Alice.

As other posters mentioned, Skids and Jenny are probably the next best two options.

Wrecko · 98
I suspect she works better for Joe or Rex than she does for Skids and Jenny. Putting her on a your seeker lets her be a reliable free damage most turns while your fighter picks up the enemies. No jank needed. Otherwise, she combos well with Scene of the Crime. — Death by Chocolate · 1447
The problem is as Roland you’ e usually better off boosting your combat and doing bits of damage in such a way that it helps you effectively kill enemies. Beat Cop’s combat boost is so much more relevant as Roland should almost never actually use his Intellect. Better to just use Beat Cop’s damage trigger than tying to get two enemies to show up in a single spot to use Alice’s one damage. She works best with evade -> investigate, so Skids is probably her best home. — StyxTBeuford · 12985
In multiplayer at least, Carolyn also seems like a decent fit? She's gonna be investigating with intellect a fair bit, and she's not hugely interested in fighting-oriented guardian allies? Obviously, Peter's gonna have first claim on Carolyn's ally slot but Alice doesn't seem like a bad back-up/charisma ally...If nothing else, she means the actual fighter of the group doesn't have to worry about things like whippoorwills and acolytes — bee123 · 31
Yeah the best thing Carolyn has going for her is card access, and one of the things that comes with is a fun choice between Milan, Sylvestre, or even potentially something like Guard Dog or Xavier. Alice is for the most part an int boost and a little soak for 4 resources. Not terrible, but there's better places to get that and the ability is significantly less consistent than even taboo Milan's. To investigate while an enemy is around, you either need someone else engaged with it first, evade it, or tank the AoO. That's why Alice is a really hard card to use well outside of high agility investigators. — StyxTBeuford · 12985
I can confirm it's decent Dunwich tech for Whippoorwills for sure, though even then you might be better off just using Beat Cops. — StyxTBeuford · 12985

A nice fit for cluever version Carolyn Fern, who is limited to 15 seeker/mystic 0-1 cards and has lots to choose from there. So Milan Christopher is a tough fit anyway (especially in multiplayer where a dedicated seeker might get him), and really, Alice Luxley is a better match for her. One more damage soak and helps pick away at enemies big or small while she's out getting clues. Early on she might be stapled to another investigator too, so while the other investigator is fighting the enemy, Carolyn can chip in a damage by investigating at the location then healing horror off the investigator afterward. Nice add to the guardian deck.

Krysmopompas · 358
I think remote investigation can work in 1-2 player if you also use stuff to add secrets, like "Truth from Fiction" and "Enraptured". Also remember that "deduction" gets remote clues with "In the Know". On the other hand in 3-4 player, the required clues to win sometimes can be 20 over a scenario so some "open gates" with "shortcuts" (2) and "Pathfinders" (1) are much more effective (these also help the fighters to take out rogue cultists). — Django · 5070
Ignore my last comment, it was for another card (In the know). — Django · 5070
I'll just Deny the Existence of that comment, Django. — CaiusDrewart · 3124
The upcoming Field Agent is goin to make her a great fit for a charismatic Carolyn (and which Carolyn doesn't want more allies?). — Findanniin · 1
Posted too soon: An aditional +1 to Lore will free up her hand slots, and the ability to take horror to autoclue makes Alice auto-damage. And this is something Carolyn could do turn after turn after turn. — Findanniin · 1

At first glance, Alice Luxley invites natural comparisons to Dr. Milan Christopher, but with more careful consideration, it becomes clear that she's a completely different beast altogether.

Ms. Luxley's reaction ability seems quite unremarkable in solo mode, but becomes noticeably stronger on teams - the larger, the beter. The reason is that if you're playing solo and you're at the same location as an enemy, you are most likely engaged with it. Thus you're probably spending your actions fighting (or otherwise dealing with the enemy) rather than looking for clues. As such, Alice's reaction ability is going to trigger a lot less frequently than you'd probably like for that 4-resource installation cost. Now, there are other ways to discover clues that won't trigger an attack of opportunity (Working a Hunch, for example), and sure, it's great to be able to dispatch a Whippoorwill or some other Aloof enemy; but these situations tend to be exceptions, not the rule.

On the other hand, with more players you'll frequently find yourself in situations where an enemy in engaged with another investigator, and this is where Alice's ability really comes in handy.

As other reviewers have mentioned, she's a good fit for Carolyn Fern, but I think she's even better with Roland Banks. With Roland, you can set off a nice chain reaction where you kill an enemy, thereby discovering a clue, and finally using Alice's ability to damage (and hopefully kill) another enemy. Timed correctly, Alice and Roland can do some real crowd control. The nice part about this combo is that since no investigation actions are required, Alice is maybe OK even for solo Roland (but I still think he has better ally options).

I don't know if I'd seriously consider Alice Luxley in a William Yorick deck (with his lower ), but you can see the potential for some fun combos there as well.

bricklebrite · 502
Her ability was rather unimpressive in 2player with carolyn and agnes. In best case i used her abiliy like 2 times in a scenario (but might be tactical error on my side, not planning ahead to leave a clue for next turn or move to a new location) — Django · 5070
The problem with using her in Carolyn is there's not really a solid way for Carolyn to grab clues while dealing with enemies at the same time. You'd ideally want someone who can evade and investigate, or who grabs clues by other means. That's why I'm surprised no one has mentioned Skids yet, as putting Skids at 4 investigate (with Lockpicks access) and being able to Lola/Intel Report clues away and ping Hatched Man'd evaded enemies seems like a great fit for Alice. — StyxTBeuford · 12985
I think she was meant for Joe Diamond. “Let’s play Working a Hunch for free from my hunch deck and also deal 1 damage at the same time” or Scene of the Crime. — Ezhaeu · 49
Skids also now has the benefit of Followed - he can hit the enemy once, Followed to get the clues, and the Alice can do the last damage (hopefully). — Time4Tiddy · 245