On the Hunt

Event

Tactic.

Cost: 0. XP: 3.

Guardian

Fast. Play when you would draw an encounter card during the mythos phase.

Instead, search the encounter deck for an enemy, spawn it engaged with you (instead of its normal spawn location), attach On the Hunt to it, and shuffle the encounter deck.

When you defeat attached enemy: Gain 3 resources.

Derk Venneman
Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion #28.
On the Hunt

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: If I use First Watch to deal encounter cards to investigators, are those dealt cards considered to be in the encounter deck for the purposes of other card effects, such as On the Hunt? A: Cards dealt to investigators by First Watch are no longer in the encounter deck, nor are they yet in play or in the encounter discard pile. That said, all cards dealt via First Watch must be drawn and/or dealt with before moving on to the next phase, so using On the Hunt in this manner would not avoid it. - FAQ, v.2.0, August 2022
Last updated

Reviews

Oohhh mama.

On the Hunt is a funky niche that does a bit of good when you want to avoid treacheries like the plague and when dispatching enemies actually helps you get work done, yes, we're talking about Roland Banks here. It's a super-duper niche and the worst part? It can miss!

Well. here we are for round 2! Ding ding!

1) 100% hit rate, so long as you know your mythos deck a bit. You can get that XP enemy you really wanna kill, or some easy chump to trigger benefits from.

2) It's free, and it generates money.

3) It does -most- of what it already did, just better.

4) "Wait. Most, not all? What changed?" When On the Hunt misses, it says you gotta draw a card to replace it, note that this XP variant does not include that text!

So. depending on how you navigate it, This card can get you money, get you beneficial triggers, give you a break on treacheries that hurt you, nail enemies with annoying spawns, dig out bonus XP at an opportune time, or straight up cancel an encounter draw..

This card is WEIRD, but it's got a lot of beneficial vectors going for it, if you hit enough of them then this card goes from a little iffy, to straight up amazing.

Tsuruki23 · 2519

I wrote on Reddit that this card is a new staple and ZeroGrim asked why. Many reasons are mentioned here already, but let me summarise:

  1. You get resources just when you need them (and cards if you have Glory), to buy Extra Ammunition, or replace an empty Gun, or finance a Team Effort or a Teleport (taking the spawned enemy with you, before Blasting them all). If it was 2xp without the resource gain, it'd be still worth it, but getting 3 resources for your favourite task? Shut up and take my XP!

  2. You avoid spending 2-3 turns yawning between 2 enemies because you're too good. Make your own little side story while your Seeker is doing the job. Especially true in 1-2 players.

  3. You do not draw a Frozen in Fear this turn or any other annoying Treachery Card.

  4. You can fish a Victory Point enemy when you decided to, and not when you already have 3 other enemies on you, or on the opposite helps you trigger "Let God sort them out...". You can also fish a Vengeance enemy if you like a challenge.

  5. Lets you choose a 5 shroud location before you trigger Grete Wagner, Scene of the Crime and Evidence!.

  6. Attaches to Stick to the Plan: Turn 1: Find your weapon with Prepared for the Worst, Play it with Ever Vigilant. Turn 2, during the first Mythos you play On the Hunt, kill a small enemy to replenish your resource pool and play Beat Cop (2). Congrats, you're fully set up.

  7. Ignores the Spawn requirement saving you potentially 2-3 move actions with these annoying Acolyte, Priest of Dagon and their friends.

  8. It makes you sound cool when you pretend to follow a Chicken that went a wee bit over the limit with steroids. Pretend at least that you're also helping, even if we all know that your is the one doing all the work.

On the Downside, because of course every drug comes with a hangover, the Icons are a bit useless (but tbh, who would commit such a good card??), and the 3xp makes it unavailable to William Yorick and a 2nd priority after your weapon upgrade.

Valentin1331 · 67205
Also it lets you spawn anouong enemies on you (cultists and master of the order as an example) — LordWolfen · 1
Something real quick, in point 6. you mention 2 events that I assume are your Stick to the Plan targets. STTP exhausts. You wouldn't be able to play Prepared for the Worst + Ever Vigilant in Turn 1 if both are on STTP. — synkout · 1
What about this card + Ambush? If the enemy spawned with this card is defeated by Ambush, I gain 3 resources? Thanks. — yuna1979 · 1

As the other review mentioned, but I'd like to highlight this card goes from 1 cost to 0 cost + gain 3 resources. One of the cardinal rules of Arkham is that you put cards in your deck to play them and you need money for that, so don't cut your econ. This can replace cards like Emergency Cache without diluting the number of econ cards in your deck (as long as you can kill whatever you find). It's also tactic so it can go under Stick to the Plan the same way Emergency Cache can as an early game econ option (grab an easy enemy) with the flexibility of being able to hunt down a strong victory point enemy to keep them off your seekers.

Therebrae · 29
Can I search the deck for ANY enemy, or does it have to be the first enemy I find? — rainman1646 · 2
@rainman1646 The former; it will let you search through the encounter deck for any enemy. "Search [a deck] for [a card type]" means you can pick any eligible card out of the searched cards. For reference, in contrast, certain cards have text that instruct you to "discard cards until you draw a [card type], and then shuffle the deck afterward." — Cyke · 1

This card is an absolute beast. Especially on Zoey because that's suddenly a guarantee (like if you are making Fighter guardian, you WILL kill enemy) 4 resources thanks to her ability. No resources spent, no actions spent, and you avoid some mean treachery. It only costs a card slot.

My Zoey first goes 2x On The Hunt + 2x Emergency Cache and once I upgrade On The Hunt to (3), both Emergency Chance can be swapped for some other good cards since you are covered when it comes to resources.

It's also Tactic so if you are playing Stick to The Plan build it can be attached at start. Hell, if you are making some really resource heavy Guardian deck, 2x On The Hunt (3), 2x Emergency Cache and you can start with OTH(3) and EC in your STTP, having easy 6-7 (if Zoey) resource access.

10/10 card. Guardians don't have that many amazing 10/10 cards but this one takes my personal vote as one of them.

Benny89 · 4
It's 3 exp, you can have a lot for 3 exp. That's the problem with this card. Definitely not among initial purchases I'd say. — bugiel_marek · 21
Zoey usually has much higher priorities than upgrading this to the 3 experience version because she's often swimming in resources from her innate ability. — An_Undecayed_Whately · 1184
... Roland Bank, on the other hand, loves this 3-experience version since it avoids treacheries that otherwise snag him while at the same time summons an enemy that he can defeat for a testless clue. And unlike Zoey, he really needs the cash! — An_Undecayed_Whately · 1184

Automatically engaging is an amazingly powerful effect when combined with the full choice of all enemies in the encounter deck. Whippoorwills are fairly benign, but become downright pathetic when they're face to face with the main fighter.

I'm pretty sure this works even against concealed since player cards can override game rules, so you replace the concealed spawn instructions with them being engaged with you.

Gws · 69