Amanda Sharpe
The Student

Investigator

Miskatonic. Scholar.

Seeker
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
Health: 7. Sanity: 7.

Forced - At the start of the investigation phase: Draw 1 card. Discard the card beneath Amanda Sharpe. Choose a card from your hand and place it beneath her.

Forced - At the start of a skill test you are performing: Commit the card beneath Amanda Sharpe, if able. Do not discard it when the test ends.

effect: +0. For this test, you may double the number of skill icons on the card beneath Amanda Sharpe.

Cristi Balanescu
The Innsmouth Conspiracy #2.

Amanda Sharpe - Back

Investigator

Deck Size: 30.

Deckbuilding Options: Seeker cards () level 0-5, Neutral cards level 0-5, Practiced skills level 0-3.

Deckbuilding Requirements (do not count toward deck size): Obscure Studies, Whispers from the Deep, 1 random basic weakness.

Amanda Sharpe was on track to become one of Miskatonic University's most accomplished graduates. However, ever since she saw a strange painting of an enormous creature's emergence from the depths of the ocean, her classwork has suffered. Her dreams are overwhelmed by images of a vast submerged city and whispers in a language she does not understand. She remains dedicated to her studies, but her goal is no longer to graduate at the top of her class; rather, she seeks to discover the meaning behind the occult secrets concealed between the lines of reality.
Amanda Sharpe
Amanda Sharpe
Search for cards usable by this investigator

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 January 2022): Erratum: This card’s symbol should be "Forced -" instead. - FAQ, v.1.8, October 2020

  • Q: What happens if the card beneath Amanda Sharpe would enter a different play area while it is committed to a skill test? A: It still enters that play area – it only remains beneath Amanda if it would otherwise be discarded (such as at the end of the skill test). - FAQ, v.1.8, October 2020

  • Q: If I use Grisly Totem after committing the card beneath Amanda Sharpe, how long does its bonus icon stay for? A: The bonus icon granted by Grisly Totem does not specify a duration, so this effect should remain until the committed card leaves play. The real question is: when does the committed card enter or leave play? Generally speaking, cards placed beneath other cards (such as the card beneath Amanda Sharpe) are out of play. Cards committed to tests never really "enter play," but while they are committed to a test, their icons are added to the investigator’s relevant skill and their text is active. So, while the card beneath Amanda is committed to a test, its icons and text should be alterable by game effects (as if you had committed it from your hand), just like any other in-play card. But as soon as that test ends, it returns to its out-of-play state, and any lasting effects would drop. TL;DR: The bonus icon granted by Grisly Totem would only apply for the test during which Grisly Totem is used, after which the card returns to its out-of-play state, and the bonus icon would drop. - FAQ, v.1.8, October 2020

  • Q: Can Defensive Stance, Survey the Area, Occult Theory, or Dauntless Spirit be committed to tests from beneath Amanda Sharpe? A: No. A card can only be committed to a skill test if it possesses 1 or more skill icons matching the skill being tested. As these cards only possess skill icons while they are in your hand or already committed to a test, they cannot be committed to a test from anywhere else (such as beneath Amanda Sharpe, or directly from your deck using another card effect). - FAQ, v.2.0, August 2022

  • Q: We got a ruling on Unrelenting underneath Amanda Sharpe: "We are ruling that the card beneath Amanda cannot be committed to a skill test before the type of skill test is determined in Step 1, so it would have to be committed during Step 2, simultaneously with any other cards committed to the test." In my community, this sparked a lot of confusion, because Amanda's ability clearly states that the card underneath her is committed "At the start of a skill test". So should this ruling be considered errata that overrides the text on Amanda's card? If so, will she be explicitly errata'd in an upcoming FAQ? A: Yes, treat this as an erratum to Amanda, where she commits the card beneath her during the same step she commits other cards to a skill test. And yes, this should be in a future FAQ, though we may not be able to add it to our next FAQ. (Rules Form, January 2024)

Last updated

Reviews

Django‘s review explains many many ways to play Amanda, but doesn’t answer why.

Amanda is the seeker equivalent of Calvin or Preston, with low stats that are accounted for with a special ability. And while Prestons makes a lot of sense (he’s a lazy guy who makes up for it with money), and Calvin’s is a bit more tenuous (looking at rotting remains gives him additional willpower?), Amanda’s is amazing.

For young people, college is a time of unparalleled opportunity. Especially for a woman going to an integrated college in the 1920s, there’s really no archetype to fall back on, how to act, or who to be.

So Amanda gets to choose. If Roland Banks gives her a machine gun, she can lay down brutal attacks. But if she decides to spend her semester in the Orne library, she can equal the card draw of professor Harvey.

Unlike other adaptable characters, like Jenny Barnes, Amanda can be super good at what she needs to be when she needs to be it. No need to be broke to trigger dark horse, no need to flush cash into physical training or hard knocks. So what’s the downside?

Again, it’s like a college. You might run out of options and have to be someone else for a while. That someone else might be an ancient frog person. It could also be hard to prioritize playing assets, compared to using your high skills to just pass checks.

But as a seeker, Amanda is extremely well-positioned to cycle her deck and get her best cards back. She also has better self-preservation through most, able to raise her brawling talents or simply run away.

In solo, Amanda can hoover up clues, then deal with bosses. In multiplayer, she can carry fightier investigators without needing rescuing. And that’s a Major advantage.

MrGoldbee · 1449

Rules clarifications

  • Both of Amanda's abilities are mandatory (see errata), including putting a card below Amanda.
  • Hidden cards: Treat it as if it were in your threat area, so you cannot but it below Amanda.
  • It's possible to put non-hidden weaknesses and encounter cards below her. Examples for valid weaknesses: Doomed, Dark Pact, The Tower • XVI; I don't know if valid encounter cards exist, most are hidden.
  • If you have no other cards than non-hidden weakness or encounter cards in hand, you must choose them.
  • Weaknesses and encounter cards below Amanda can be discarded. Weakness rules only prohibit optionally discarding weaknesses in your hand, but it's not in your hand and discarding is mandatory.
  • If you have no cards in hand, you cannot put one below Amanda. For example you discarded your hand during mythos and Amanda's ability drew a weakness that was put into play.

This character has a very strong ability and combo potential, though her low stats seem to be the balancing factor. Cards with constant bonuses will work well on her, like Milan, Magnifying glass and Death. Or temporary replacement, like the Red gloved man or Strange Solutions (Acidic).

I think the most powerful combo on her will be Quick thinking (gained through Versatile) + Red gloved man, potentially gaining close to infinite actions. Both stay during next mythos phase, so the combo may go off again if you succeed on an encounter card.

Combos

  • Grisly Totem 3 (seeker): +1 first skill test and draw another card each turn
  • Neutral skill cards like perception: draw lots of cards
  • Vicious Blow and Upgrade + Acidic Strange Solution: Deal 12 or 15 damage in 1 turn
  • Daredevil 2: I don't think this is worth to put below her. If you have 2 of 3 aces in your hand, this potentially guarantees the third if you have no other rogue skill cards in the deck.
  • Enraptured: Add 3 charges/ secrets to other cards, see below.
  • Eureka: Only +1 to tests, but better than draw 3 cards
  • Essence of the dream (dream diary): Skill card with 2/ 4 symbols that you can put below her. The timing is a bit off, so you can only use it every other turn.
  • Leadership 2: Only +1 to tests but gain up to 6 ressources
  • Stunning blow: Auto evade 3 times, if your attack succeeds (not very likely without fight boosts)
  • Three Aces: Put one below Amanda and try to find 2 with Practiced makes perfect to get 2 auto successes (also gain6 cards and 6 ressources)

Versatile combos

  • Quick Thinking + Red gloved man: Gain close to infinite actions
  • Take heart: draw 6 cards and 6 ressources if you fail 3 tests
  • Arcane Insight + Archaic Glyphs (Markings of Isis) + Double or Nothing: Investigate shroud 0 and put 2 assets into play each time, ignoring their ressource costs
  • Fearless: Heal 3 sanity
  • Inspiring Presence: Use exhausting allies more often, see below
  • Nimble: Reveal all locations

Enraptured targets for secrets and charges

  • Pendant of the queen: Auto evade, clue, teleport. Easy to assemble with all your card draw
  • Mr. Rook: Search for more important combo pieces
  • Arcane Insight: Reduce shroud to 0
  • Archaic Glyphs (Markings of Isis): Put assets into play without spending actions and ignore their ressource cost
  • Feed the mind: Draw more cards, but potential horror
  • Ancient Stone: Deal more damage/ heal horror
  • In the Know: Barricade yourself and takes clues from afar
  • Old Book of Lore 3: Play assets cheaper
  • Pnakotic Manuscript: Avoid chaos tokens (auto success)
  • Scroll of Prophecies: Draw more cards; Add Abigail for double the fun and Ancient stone
  • Scroll of Secrets 3: Not very good but may have some combos in the future
  • More with Versatile but I dont think they're worth it, like Shriveling or Rite of Seeking

Inspiring Presence Targets

  • Charles Ross: Make the next item cheaper by additional 3, i don't think this is worth it
  • Mr. Rook: Use his secrets more quickly, but i don't think this is worth it
  • Alice Luxley (Versatile): Deal 3 damage when investigating
  • David Renfield (Versatile): Get lots of ressources, best used when you're about to remove him with a free action (Smoking pipe)
  • Olive McBride (Versatile): Draw more tokens, avoid Autofail. I don't think this is worth it due to Amanda's low stats.
  • Venturer (Versatile): Reload guns, Ornate bow and strange solution more quickly. I don't think this is worth it, moving 1 supply each turn suffices in most cases (E.cache 3 adds more supplies to venturer)
Django · 5070
As a minor point, Markings of Isis only lets you put an asset into play if you succeed by its cost. That means that if you have DoN beneath Amanda, and get the shroud down to 0, but don't commit any cards, and draw a -3 (fairly common) you could only put 2 0 cost assets into play for free, which is only a little better than just making a play action (you do also get a clue, though). You could commit stuff to the test to have a better chance of putting higher cost assets into play. There are also static boosts that make this more effective. — Zinjanthropus · 227
I do really like the Daredevil + Three Aces interaction. That's a cool combo that would be improved by Practice Makes Perfect. Using 2 PMP to try to dig out 2 aces, OTOH is quite risky unless you only have 10 or fewer cards left in your deck, but a much higher ceiling, of course. — Zinjanthropus · 227
What DoN stands for? — Susu · 35
@Susu Double or Nothing — Death by Chocolate · 1447
With the taboo on double or nothing making it costs 3 XP toi car add it with versatile. — Susu · 35
@Susu the taboo on DON just changes the cost, not the level of the card. — mazrim · 1
what if you start investigation phase without any card and you draw a weakness? or an ocult weakness — toriano · 3
I added "rules clarifications" at the top of my review. What do you mean with "occult weakness"? — Django · 5070

Having played Amanda, I can safely say that she is one of the most powerful characters in the game, and one of the strongest Seekers as well.

Let's say there was a gator who's ability was simply "draw an additional card each turn." That would, rightfully, be seen as quite powerful. Let's say there was a gator who's ability was "on each turn, choose a Skill card in your hand. You may play it up to three times this round, at no additional cost." That would also, rightfully be seen as powerful. Silas is great, and this is simply a stronger version of that.

Amanda does both of these, and does them while stationed in the fundamentally strongest class, having access to all of the benefits Seekers have, as well as various powerful Practiced skills such as the new Promise of Power or Three Aces (with experience).

One thing I have noticed when seeing others evaluate Amanda is the belief that she has low stats. She sure doesn't feel like that when she is played. Due to drawing an additional card (or more, if you've got Dream-Enhancing Serum, you will regularly have a card with good, or great, icons to slot underneath you. If your deck is built right, you will often have between four and six to the stats you care about on a given turn, or all of them (Promise of Power is really, really good.)

You can regularly have The Red-Gloved Man, without spending neither resources nor experience, just by playing your gator. You can fight, as Vicious Blow and Overpower are both Practiced skills. You can be pre-Taboo Rex, or better, by putting Deduction or Deduction underneath you.

You can take Amanda Sharpe in a myriad directions, and no matter which direction you take her, you will likely be successful. I'm personally partial to taking the regular Seeker route, abusing such cards as Practice Makes Perfect, Astounding Revelation, and Eureka! in order to draw through a deck incredibly quickly. Putting Eureka! or Perception underneath your investigator means you can fairly easily, comfortably, draw five cards in a single turn, Once you've spent experience, this lets you assemble Pendant of the Queen and Three Aces quite rapidly; without the newest Taboo list, you can quite comfortably play three copies of Three Aces every other turn.

In short, Amanda good. However good you think she is, she's better, and if you are not careful, she can quickly take over an entire game and overshadow other players. Be careful when you play her.

hatfulofbomb · 819
How can you repeatedly commit Three Aces? Once you play them on one skill test, they go to the discard. Even if you have 1 copy under Amanda, the other 2 copies still go into the discard. Can you please explain? Thank you. — VanyelAshke · 180
I would imagine the idea being that you reduce her deck down to about 15 cards by having 8ish in hand and assets out. From there, you are using something like Eureka to potentially draw 3 on top of her normal 2 at the same time you thin the deck by finding Astounding Revelation three times. Then Three Aces causes you to draw three. You play another Eureka the next turn and flip five more in a turn - that's a total of thirteen cards plus three Astounding Revelations for 16 cards drawn in two rounds. On turn three you are back to a fresh deck and using search cards again to dig out your Three Aces. — Time4Tiddy · 245
You can only target one Astounding Revelation per search. — marduk360 · 1

When I started playing Amanda, I was so intimidated by her Stat line. Also the concept of placing cards underneath her were confusing. I always found myself wonder what cards to put under her, when was the best time to commit said cards, etc etc.

Djangos review teaches you about how to put out some serious combos. But I wanted a clear cut way to determine what kind of cards needed to be put underneath her. After playing 3 campaign, where she was not only the main cluever, but also a decent fighter. I have divided the cards she has into 3 different groups. And doing this help me prioritize what kind of cards you need to put underneath.

  1. Focused cards.- these cards are extremely good at 1 thing, and not good at anything else. An example is perception and perception(2). They provide a decent Intellect boost and good card draw, but nothing else. Deduction enables you to vacuum clues, but nothing else. Overpower and vicious blow allow you to do some serious damage, or have a better fight chance, but nothing else... you get the idea. You put these underneath when you have a particular job that needs done. Maybe you got a encounter card you are trying to rid yourself or friends from(guts), or you need to clue this location down. These cards will help you a lot. The one problem is that if you boost your Intellect with perception. Your other stats are at the whim of the encounter deck, enemies, etc...

  2. Flex Cards- these cards are really well rounded. But don't provide much else for there flexibility. For example, unexpected courage doesn't provide card draw when you succeed. But it allows all of your stats to be at a 4. Inquiring mind brings your stats to a 5, but only if there is clues, and that's also all they do. Promise of power, definitely my favorite, brings your stats to a whooping 6! At the price of adding a curse token everytime it's used. Cards like curiosity, and eureka! give you multiple Stat to use from, and are a bit limited by how many icons you put on it. These cards enable you to not fear most test. But you don't get much out of them beside a passed test. Which is still imo good.

  3. Fodder cards- these cards are placed underneath Amanda not to use their icons, but to save certain cards for different situations. They can be cards that are not very useful atm. Or copies of cards you have in your play area/hand. While these cards don't help you pass test, they allow you action to move or play cards that you need on the field. You don't want to play a perception, or and unexpected courage to waste on just playing cards, or moving.

Now, the next question I wonder was, when do I place underneath the above mentioned cards? This is a very obtuse question.the scary thing about this game is that it is ever changing, it is always evolving. You can make plans to do 1 thing, and the game might make you do another, you can't always predict the future. But that's kind of how you play her. You use your current game knowledge and try to be as flexible as you can be. The interesting thing is she is like a river. She is fluid, always changing, always moving. When I play her. I always build for a big hand, and it never fails. Big hands means she is always prepared.

You might have discard assets, or lose resources or health and santy. But she has got one of the best draws, drawing 2 cards for free each round, and that's not ontop of the other draws she can preform. She will cycle her assets, event and skill cards again, ready to be committed, and played again, and once you figure that recipe, she will shoot to the stars.... as long as she doesn't hear an whisper from the deep... :/

Great review. I love that you call out Fodder cards - that's something I came to realise was v important after a couple of campaigns with her. — acotgreave · 842
It's also important not to let your handcards run out or you'll be ofrced to put important assets under her. — Django · 5070
Hi, I have some confusion about the timing beetween Amanda ability being triged at beginning of the Investigation phase so no player turn yet and Cryptic Writings being during investigator turn, someone told me that they work together but at first sign the timing seems wrongh, do they work together? — lobix · 1