Lily Chen
The Martial Artist

Investigator

Chosen. Warden.

Mystic
  • 3
  • 2
  • 4
  • 3
Health: 7. Sanity: 7.

You begin the game with each Discipline in your deck in play, Unbroken side faceup.

effect: +2. After this test ends, flip a Broken Discipline you control to its Unbroken side.

"I have been preparing to confront this evil my entire life. My focus must be absolute."
Magali Villeneuve
Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion #10.

Lily Chen - Back

Investigator

Deck Size: 30.

Deckbuilding Options: Mystic cards () level 0, Guardian cards () level 1-5, Neutral cards level 0-5, up to 5 other Guardian cards () level 0.

Deckbuilding Requirements (do not count toward deck size): 1 Burden of Destiny for each Discipline asset (see below), 1 random basic weakness.

Deckbuilding Restrictions: No Firearm assets.

Additional Requirements: At deck creation, choose a Discipline asset to add to your deck. It is considered part of your Deckbuilding Requirements. For every 15 experience you've earned in total, you may choose and add a different Discipline asset to your deck.

Chen Li speaks rarely. When she does, her words are measured and wise. After a lifetime of disciplined training, every gesture is graceful, uncluttered by hesitation. The monks who raised her said that she was born for a special purpose, to face a great evil. Now, they believe that evil is at hand, and she is the only one who can stop it.
Lily Chen
Lily Chen

FAQs

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Reviews

Hey everyone,

Now that the whole Edge of the Earth has leaked, how about having a new look at our new friend Lily Chen?

Please leave your suggestions for her in the comment section! What are your leads to build her deck?

That being said, it seems like there are 3 different Paths to take:

The Path, the Path and the Path.


1) The full Build:

A] How to get her to match the best ?

• Starting with the Discipline gives you 5 immediatly, which is the same as the best guardians.

Lily Chen has access to only 5 lvl 0 cards and no Firearm. That leaves us with little choice. Enchanted Blade is not only the best lvl 0 weapon, it also doesn't burn her slots. It can be upgraded in Enchanted Blade (3) for a bit of draw and heal (which are both useful, or so it seems based on the amount of healing cards). The other choice is potentially Survival Knife...

• To have good use of her weapons, she needs to improve her base : For this, the basis would be to use Grete Wagner (0) in addition with Beat Cop (2) once you purchased a weapon. You can finally add a Ace of Swords to go to 8 to be able to use most weapons available to her with a great chance of success.

B] How does Lily Chen compete with other ?

Drum rolls: Her Discipline!

• With this build, you only need 1 Stat: . Therefore you can use all the other Disciplines for their built-in capacities.

The Discipline for example provides exceptional card draw.

The Discipline gives a good burst. Note that you need to trigger Fight on different cards to use the 3 attacks, so one could be from Enchanted Blade, another from Machete and the last from Spectral Razor for example, but you cannot simply spam the Cyclopean Hammer.

The Discipline keeps you alive which is always appreciated.

C] What 5 lvl 0 should I choose?

In this build, it seems like a solid choice would be to have Prepared for the Worst, boring but necessary as even with XP, it's hard to find a better tutor, and the only solid option is Enchanted Blade. Hallowed Mirror is important to heal the damages of Grete Wagner and Beat Cop to get more uses out of them. Finally, Vicious Blow is always a good pick if Grete is too expensive.

D] Overall build:

It seems like in this build the Cyclopean Hammer is the best weapon, the chances of dealing 3 damage are important, even if you do not take the Discipline as you hit with 11 on each attack once fully set up. When choosing a support Discipline, I would advise to go first for the Discipline for the consistency, and the Discipline in the end of the campaign for the burst needed against great old ones or Discipline if you have a lot of traumas.


The Path:

A] Why should you take any in my deck?

There are multiple reasons why a focussed Lily Chen should still think of improving her later in the campaign:

• For solo/flex, a decent with Sixth Sense / Clairvoyance still makes you a good clue-support. Having some Arcane slots filled also make you strong in early campaign with your Dragon Pole.

• For better use of your Enchant Weapon and improving the chances to succeed by 3 on your Cyclopean Hammer, which deals 3 damage in one hit.

• For a better encounter prot as well as an increased generation of tokens if you decide to splash and you purchase the Holy Rosary (2).

B] Cards to consider to improve your

As a second priority, after the purchase of a reliable source of damage, as mentioned earlier, you can look at improving your with cards that have a double use:

• Bandolier (2) that could also allow you to bring other weapons such as your trusted Dragon Pole or an Enchanted Blade (3) for draw and heal, even a Book of Psalms...

Relic Hunter and a Police Badge, a bit out of theme but still good.

• Holy Rosary also for the soak upgraded into Holy Rosary as explained earlier.

• The Discipline. The Horror soak of the rosary + Heal of the Hallowed Mirror and this discipline allow you to take In the Thick of It without being that afraid.

C] What 5 lvl 0 should I choose?

Same as the previous build Prepared for the Worst, boring but necessary. In this build you will be using Dragon Pole alongside Enchanted Blade so no need to burn a slot on your weapons. Another good card in this build is "Let me handle this!". It helps you to protect your cluever by pulling the enemies or to get the tests especially once you have your Holy Rosary (2). The last one can be one Vicious Blow for a little kick, Glory (my preference) or Daring for a bit of card draw.

D] Overall build:

• This build benefits from having potentially a bit of generation, a better use of the Cyclopean Hammer once you buy it, and a decent clue getting when you are waiting for an enemy (let's not lie, it happens quite often in a 's life, especially when you hit that hard at anything that comes your way).

• Enchanted Cyclopean Hammer gives you double boost for an insane hit that is sure to hit 4 damages... Once per turn. This build can provide 10 damages per turn in the best case, 8 damages in the worst case.

• You can bring Arcane Initiate that can tutor your Investigation spells, attack spells as well as Enchant Weapon and replaces it later with Nephthys, for example.

• Example of a Deck using the [Cyclopean Hammer](/card/08093)


The Path:

A] Why should you take an a Path that leans towards ?

It seems like Lily Chen was intended to be built around and by the Game Designers. Look at Butterfly Swords, Sweeping Kick or the Fang of Tyr'thrha.

• This build is, therefore, more adapted to take advantage of these cards. Especially the Butterfly Swords that allow distributing the damages. It never mentions that your second attack with the Butterfly Swords has to be on the same target. If you are dealing with many even-health enemies, you can simply spam attack and not waste single damage, which can be the most action effective in certain situations like swarms or TFA.

• The Butterfly Swords also make you make a lot of tests. This has ups and downs. The upsides are: you have more chances to draw an Elder Sign which make you more likely to have a lot of uses of your Disciplines and Lily Chen's lets you flip your Disciplines. The impact of a bad draw is decreased: Draw an autofail, and you only cancel one of the 2 attacks instead of the whole attack (though it also prevents you from doing the one-off 3 damage attack).

B] Cards to consider to improve your

• Bandolier (2) to get 2 copies down, you can Enchant both Weapons and the beauty of it is that if you exhaust one pair and then the other, that would count as 2 attacks for your Discipline.

• Use your Enchant Weapon boost on your first attack to give it all the chances to land and trigger the second one.

• Keep Galvanize in hand for an extra burst, or your Fight Events like Spectral Razor, Toe to Toe or Sweeping Kick.

• Combat Training (3) gives you the perfect combination of stats for this build.

C] What 5 lvl 0 should I choose?

Same as the build, Prepared for the Worst is boring but necessary. Then, you will want to maximise the use of your Discipline, so you need to get some Fight events, like Toe to Toe, then Vicious Blow to try to kill enemies using the Exhaust in one . Finally Glory is always good to get better access to your card pool.

You can also choose to take the Black Cat to mitigate the impact of Symbol Tokens.

D] Overall build:

• This build is quite good when it comes to Disciplines, it allows to go first for the one, then the and finally the for the built-in capacity. You also want to look at cards that give you a passive boost as you need to consistently land your first attack with the Butterfly Swords (2) to activate the exhaust action. You can take Beat Cop (2) x2 and Charisma, Combat Training (3), Grete Wagner, Ace of Swords, etc...

• This build is, of course, more thematic, so if you are the role play type, this can be an important point.

• The downside is that it seems slightly less effective and offers a slightly decreased Encounter Prot (unless we have a more TFA style campaign).

• Example of a Lily Deck using [Butterfly Swords (2)](/card/08025)


Overall good cards for her:

A] level 0 cards:

• In the beginning, you will likely want to run the Dragon Pole, so you need to fill in your Arcane slots. The best way to do this is to have some cheap assets that are at least a tiny bit useful: Scrying, Alchemical Transmutation or the new Talisman of Protection that is Fast.

• Spectral Razor is also a good spell as you can use it during the 3 attacks of your Discipline. Promise of Power is also always useful even though it doesn't provide a "special effect" on success.

• Ward of Protection is great to keep your Partners alive in EotE.

• Scroll of Secrets is overall good if you are using the Taboo.

• Holy Rosary gives a bonus for Cyclopean Hammer and Rite of Seeking.

• Arcane Initiate helps you finding Rite of Seeking, Spectral Razor and most importantly Enchant Weapon.

B] Overall good level 1-5 cards:

• Safeguard to offer better protection of your cluever, as well as an insane action compression, especially in this campaign where we expect huge maps.

• Hallowed Mirror (3) with their friends Soothing Melody to provide some good healing to your whole group. Especially good if you take the Discipline.

• Fang of Tyr'thrha will most likely find use in enemies with Spawn at the other side of the map and dooms or bad effects. You can also use it as the first attack of the Discipline to make sure to clean a location immediately.

• Enchant Weapon even if you're not going down the Path will most likely still be an amazing investment.

• Well Prepared to take the best out of the of the Cyclopean Hammer or the of the Butterfly Swords.

• Reliable is a great addition to both Cyclopean Hammer and Butterfly Swords as they Add stats.

• The classic Stick to the Plan with Ever Vigilant, Emergency Cache and Prepared for the Worst.

• Overpower (2) and Vicious Blow (2) for more draw and more burst.

• Empty Vessel is always good especially if you take In the Thick of It or a lot of trauma. It shines especially if you take the Butterfly Swords to capitalise on all the token draw.

On the Hunt (3) that is a great way to get less bored and make resources for your setup, or make sure to hunt down the Victory Point enemies when you are fully set up.


Conclusion:

It first seemed that Lily Chen was intended to be a mix of and , which was weird as she also started as a ...

Now that we know all the cards, the most surprising is the lack of cards available that boost her , especially with all the multi-class cards that boost agility, but they are almost all for Monterey Jack...

That makes the build good, thematic but not flashy.

On the other side, a more Sister Mary style build with first and second seems to be really promessing and offers an impressive perspective of damages, especially with the release of the insane Cyclopean Hammer. On the downside it decreases the use of Disciplines.

Finally, the full build seems reliable, offers a lot of options to adapt the style based on the campaign you're running and gives the most out of your Disciplines.


How about you, how would you build your Lily to be the best investigator??

Valentin1331 · 55059
@Valentin1331 - as a note enchanted blade (0) doesn’t take up the limited slot. — crusificton · 3
without having tried it, I think Dragon Pole is a bit of a trap. I would just go with E-Blades, event based damage, and maybe Sled Dogs to start out. XP gives you a lot more options for using combat over will. i could be way off though. the other thing i would mention is bless. her options for generating are a bit limited, but trying to get elder signs with blessings seems good, and holy spear is probably the strongest weapon she can take (well, Cyclopean Hammer also seems amazing) — Zinjanthropus · 223
I'm trying a Lily as cluer build for a Carcosa campaign i'm starting. It seems like a strange build when she's so clearly a fighter, but my idea is that with her combat rating and (hopefully) her Dragon Poles in hand, she's well able to defend herself - so she can concentrate the rest of her deck on investigate using will spells and resource spells. The problem with the build is that she can only level up into Guardian cards so as the campaign goes on she will get gradually more fighty and less investigatey. — majiming · 8
You cannot add two disciplines with the same bonus. "...you may choose and add a different Discipline asset to your deck." DIFFERENT!!! — Jarex_HellCry · 1

People would love a 5 Mystic, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Discipline is the way to go for her at the start.

EotE investigators all have the same deckbuilding tension: you have 5 slots to devote to Level 0 in your second class, but if you upgrade out or otherwise replace them, you don't get to backfill those L0 cards for free. So if you want a Survival Knife later on, it can feel wasteful to put the L0 version in your deck at the start - even if it might be helpful in that first scenario. Same goes for fighting staples like Beat Cop and Vicious Blow. Between working around that, and her refusal to pick up a gun, Lily has a hard time leveraging the 5 out the gate.

4, though, opens up some options. She can get that to 5 or 6 easily between Holy Rosary for soak, and David Renfield for soak and blood money, fueling a powerful suite of Mystic events like Spectral Razor, Read the Signs and Storm of Spirits, many of which end up replicating the effects of L0 Guardian cards, but ... better. More importantly, with 4-6, spells like Azure Flame basically become your guns - except unlike guns, they're just as good at blowing nasties out of the sky as they are putting ghosts to rest. Having that much gives you a resiliency many guardians would envy, and it helps that the associated Discipline offers some built-in healing, while being fairly easy to mend when broken.

Using spells-as-guns lets you run enough "weapons" to lean into the "I'll draw something, probably" school of deckbuilding so you aren't using your L0 Guardian slots on tutors like Tetsuo Mori and Prepared for the Worst like many Guardians do for consistency. This lets you run other L0 cards that don't have higher-level equivalents, like Steadfast, which is good for everything you do, or support cards like First Watch - cards that can keep paying off to the end of the campaign. And once you start entering the L1-5 Guardian territory, you can keep leveraging that with cards like Enchanted Armor and Enchant Weapon.

Also - Delve as deep as you want. You've got stats on the line, and if anyone complains, tell them you're the chosen one.

Teag · 48
Has anyone ever complained about Delving Too Deep though? That's a myth — neescher · 284

I think thematically this character is pretty cool, shes the "chosen one" which is probably why she is an mystic. She is sworn to defend others,or fight evil. that's why she upgrades into a guardian, but is a martial artist, so no guns allow, but that's probably why she likes using her agility, this is odd because agility is the rogues stock n trade, but she is not even close to being one.

I think my favorite part about her are her 4 disciplines, and the weight they carry when playing. You chose one discipline at the start, And as you gain more experience, you become more disciplined, which is a unique Idea, granted this comes with a burden.( her weakness's)

Let's say you started with the strength one. It grants you a constance 1+ Strength. Which is great. She fights at 5 now. And can take down many foes. It gets crazy when you start to add weapons(no firearms), and alies. All guardian (or mystic I guess but usually with Will) love to fight at a 5.

However

There is a temptation. Every discipline has a unique action, which when used causes the discipline to break(filp) and you will have to rediscipline yourself afterwords, (or get lucky with her elder sign) you could just forgo using it, stay regit and maintain your discipline so you never lose that 1+.

But getting a 5+ to a skill test is amazing, that can allow you to fight the toughest of foes or pass those parley checks that you have to pass, but afterwords, you lose your static bonus, and are required to not preform a single skill test for 1 whole round. This is a tall ask, especially since this includes the mythos phase, which loves to force test on you, or enemies. You would be amazed of how many skill test you actually do, untill you are told not to perform them.(I'm not looking at you, testless builds)

Your weakness, burden of destiny, is yet again a really nice thematic weakness that pits you with a decision, you break your discipline, or you force you body and soul to maintain it.(1 damage and 1 horror.) This is worst if if you already have a broken discipline, as it forces you to take that damage and horror."how can I save them when I can't even save myself"

I think this game has many investigators that are very thematic, and with as many cards as there is, you can build anything, for anyone, there is a character for you. I can't wait to see more character this game has to offer.

I like, that not only she can kick ass with her martial and melee fighting arts, but also she can throw Mk 1 Grenades here and there :D Too bad there are no other throwing weapons, like shurikens or daggers, other than Knife, that would maybe serve similar purpose like Wither

Lily is the trickiest of the five edge of the earth investigators to build at level zero. Everyone else can hit a niche and change it, but it’s hard to be a mystic with a 4/2/4/3 or 3/2/5/3 statline.

Utility spells are worth considering. If you build your deck with the end in mind, there are a few purple cards at any top-tier guardian might like: Ward of protection, promise of power, drawn to the flame, and the portals. Word of radiance is great if there is someone going bless heavy. Scroll of secrets isn’t bad, but it means foregoing dragon pole or the ultimate hammer. And enchanted blades are given, a solid weapon that won’t cost you guardian slots.

For guardian, prepared for the worst, sledgehammer, and Grete are fun. There are very few wrong answers but you’re going to want to level up your weapons and prepared for the worst is the way you’re going to find them.

Happy hunting, and Lily gets better with more XP: the more weaknesses you have, the more likely you get a payday from “I’ve had worse.”

MrGoldbee · 1390

Can a Firearm scenario card be added to her deck? I can't find a ruling on whether scenario cards ignore deckbuilding restrictions. Watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon.

Nope You cant Check another side of card "Deckbuilding Restrictions: No firearms assets — Vansolt · 1
The usual term for scenario card is as far as I remember "This card doesn't count for your decksize". Therefore other restrictions like lily's still count. — Tharzax · 1
You don't need watermelons, if you ask questions on BGG forum or reddit. — Susumu · 330