Empty Vessel
Abandoned by the Gods

Asset. Accessory

Item. Relic. Blessed.

Cost: 1. XP: 4.

Guardian

Limit 1 per deck. Uses (0 charges).

After you defeat an enemy: Place 1 charge on Empty Vessel.

If there are at least 3 charges on Empty Vessel: Search your bonded cards for Wish Eater and swap it with Empty Vessel, moving all charges from Empty Vessel to Wish Eater.

Robert Laskey
Where the Gods Dwell #276.
Empty Vessel

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: Can the card Empty Vessel be used in a Vincent Lee deck? A: Yes, Vincent Lee can run Empty Vessel in his deck. For the purposes of deckbuilding requirements, bonded cards can be considered as part of the game text of the card to which they are bonded. Bonded cards cannot be treated as part of the text box of the card to which they are bonded. (August 2023)
Last updated

Reviews

This one seems to be a very interesting card for Guardians since defeating enemies is basically what they do, but this card has a catch to it. Of current guardians, all but Carolyn Fern are able to take this card. A pity for Carolyn Fern, since it is the bonded card, not this card that heals horror.

For Leo, Mark and Roland this card has to compete with the always powerful Police Badge and the potential Police Badge/Well Prepared combo with one additional icon compared to this card. It also has to compete with the strong Hallowed Mirror. While also healing, the Hallowed Mirror does not cancel an icon from the chaos bag but does not need charges and does not cost any xp, so I think I would prefer the Hallowed Mirror over this card because of this. With Zoey Samaras, this card competes with one of the strongest investigator-specific cards in the game which is of course Zoey's Cross with an obvious outcome.

Of non guardian investigators Ursula is able to take this card currently (Father Mateo can take blessed only up to level 3), but she is very bad at defeating enemies with her 1 so she is not the obvious investigator to charge this card.

There is just one investigator I think of, when looking at this card, and this is (it might be a big suprise so tension is rising): Akachi Onyele - she can take "uses: charges" cards up to level 4. She does not really require the Holy Rosary because of her powerful stat and she definitly is able to kill monsters and she really like cancellation of special symbols for her spells and she starts this card with 1 charge and also can charge it with tokens. Akachi Onyele is a very potent monster slayer for a non Guardian so it might be worth a shot.

As a conclusion the most obvious investigator for this lv. 4 guardian card might be: A Mystic.

thakaris · 193
Guardians have some of the least useful elder signs and also have access to trusted, pushing this card into major feasibility territory. The only issue is the effective additional 3xp cost for Charisma — Difrakt · 1267
Aaaaand whoops wrong card review — Difrakt · 1267
It might be great for Akachi, but I don't think we can overestimate the value of a guaranteed attack (or three) against bosses for Roland, Mark, Leo, and Tommy. Healing 3 horror in a round (while dealing damage) is also probably enough to let you soak another attack from the boss, which might be worth 3 actions over the badge's two. All that said, it does feel like a very late upgrade card, after you've gotten your weapons up to god-killing mode. — SGPrometheus · 745
Also I just realized the fast action isn't forced; if you know a boss is coming later in a scenario, you can wait to swap this out until after the boss pops up. Also, i thought wish-eater canceled the auto-fail, which it doesn't, but I still think this is better than the badge because of the auto-heal. — SGPrometheus · 745
Just played a TCU campaign as Akachi, and after i got this every scenario basically turned around once it flipped. One health/sanity left with shriveling (5) out? Let's just cancel those pesky tokens that would kill us. Using rite of seeking? Continue taking actions despite bad draws. Additionally, if bad tokens account for most of the -3 or less modifiers in the bag, you increase your odds of success significantly with this out. The hardest part was taking enough damage before flipping it to really feel like i was wringing maximum value out of it. Can't wait to try with an actual guardian. — SGPrometheus · 745
Quick comment about this review. Current rules ruling on March 17th means Carolyn CAN take this card since the bonded cards do heal. Just in case someone reads this review and @ thakaris hasn't updated the review to reflect that. — techoatmeal · 14
@techoatmeal: as per current ruling (August 2023), Caroline can't take it neither can Vincent (see FAQ above) — thakaris · 193

This card is rediculous strong. My friend tested for the first time in his Leo deck in our Guardian of the Abyss first scenario and he managed to soak all the damage from monsters and treacheries. With the Wish Eater token cancel, he could pull all the attacks successfully, even when the abyss level became 5 or 6. We played with the Forgotter Age punishing chaos bag (we are at the last scenario in this campaign) and we won really hard. This card is essential to all tankie characters and IMO is a game changer. Also, with the swarming mechanic in Dream Eater, Empty Vessel becomes more strong, even one of the greatest cards for Guardias who have low sanity.

Sotosprotos · 86
I have played it in 1-2 scenarios in Dreameaters so far but I am just starting to grasp just how good this card is after preparing a Standalone Mark deck. You might have to wait until you draw a nasty token but you get actionless healing for 1R and an action to play. As a bonus you can cancel the consequences of the worst tokens (except the obvious one). It requires a bit of work to find in your deck but most Guardians won't have a problem filling the charges up on this card. People can debate whether or not they want to upgrade from Hallowed Mirror or take the Police Badge instead but this card is AMAZING. And in Dreameaters with the Swarm mechanic it is even stronger. — The Lynx · 952

Manicly good and a natural supplement/upgrade to Hallowed Mirror. Requires some build-around.

Getting the charges is a bit of work, but is'nt a terrible challenge for a focused combatant character (like characters usually are). Once the charges are ready the ability to negate very bad tokens makes the character better at literally everything! In one go you can resist a treachery and heal pain, prevent a missed attack and heal, safely pull up a clue and -heal-!

When the Empty Vessel is charged and you swap for Wish Eater it opens a big window of power where attacks get more accurate, tests and treacheries get easier to beat and your pain literally flies away. The benefits make the commitment worth it.

A little groundwork and item teck is required to make it easier to find the Empty Vessel early enough to get the charges, a friendly with a No Stone Unturned, a Tetsuo Mori. Generally the cards you need to make a Empty Vessel shine are good anyway.

Once the Empty Vessel is on the table and charged you need to carefully consider when to swap it. Some scenarios have enough enemies running around that you can get it transformed twice, other times you would save up 3 or 4 charges to do the one and only swap of the scenario. Do note that the swap trigger is Fast and not locked into your turn, so you can rest easy with 3+ charges until right when you need the help.

Finally: Akachi Onyele can use it and it, works, gooood for her. She really needs Relic Hunter to make it work but oh BOY, a combat specialized Akachi Onyele with Wish Eater can bulldoze through fights.

Tsuruki23 · 2472
This card is hard to sell. The only noteworthy effect is the token cancellation, and I only see that being relevant in rare occasions. If there is a treachery that is very bad for you and/or if there is a very nasty token maybe this would help...but in that case you would have to somehow draw this early, kill 3 enemies, then during the window this is charged you have to draw the very bad treachery and/or the bad chaos token. Even in a search deck/comp this is bad, since there are better search targets than this...like your main weapon or any other good combo cards. Situational, hard to draw (limit 1 copy), mediocre effect, costly (4xp)... — Alogon · 1045
Backpack could help you find this and your weapon — Django · 4855
I think you're underestimating the value of the healing. I had this in Akachi and would find myself hoping for the nasty tokens, so I could cancel them for healing. Coupled with cancelling the token = it wasn't drawn= no nasty side effects from spells (like 2 horror from Shriveling V?) and that's some real value — Yenreb · 15
I agree, the combo with "Shrivelling" (5) is great in Akachi. It's almost a "Deny Existence" (5) on a stick, that works with spell side effects rather than encounter cards. I recommend "Decorated Skull" (3) (and of course "Relic Hunter") on her to make finding the vessel more likely. — Susumu · 330