Asset

Talent. Trick. Illicit.

Cost: 3. XP: 2.

Rogue

Limit 1 per investigator.

While attacking, parleying, or attempting to evade an exhausted enemy, you get +2 skill value.

After you evade an enemy, exhaust Dirty Fighting: Take a fight action against that enemy. Ignore the aloof keyword for this attack.

Lin Hsiang
The Scarlet Keys Investigator Expansion #73.
Dirty Fighting

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: Some card abilities allow you to evade an enemy that is not at your location (eg. Decoy, Pendant of the Queen). How does Dirty Fighting interact with such card abilities? Because in RR: "An investigator may fight any enemy at his or her location". Does this mean I can't trigger Dirty Fighting's reaction triggered abilities? A: When you take a fight action, you must make an attack against an enemy at your location (unless you have a weapon or other card effect that explicitly states otherwise). Evading an enemy that is not at your location means it’s not a valid target for Dirty Fighting.
Last updated

Reviews

This card is imho the hidden COTE (Card Of The Expansion xD). There are some other REALLY great cards I love even more, but they are talked about consistently. Meanwhile, this one is extremely overlooked and people don't even try it before they say it sucks. Well, it doesn't. It's good, and I mean REALLY good. It flat out opens a new playstyle for a consistent fighter-evader and excluding some Customizable cards, it may be the most game-changing (or better; game-expanding) card in this expansion.

I've tried it a few times so I'm by no means a master of using this, but it's basically the only card you need for a completely new (viable) playstyle, while completing it with anything that does consistent damage like two handed rifles, knives, akimbo guns... You could've done that before Scarlet Keys with some cards like .25 Automatic, and while it's completely viable (especially the .25 Auto. (2) is incredible), it's still just a limited tactic you can use once, maybe a few times per game with recursion, but this is a talent that sticks and works every time all the time and it's basically just flat +2 AND 1 bonus action per turn. AND you can still use something like .25 Auto for better effect. And yes, the "fight action" keyword is NOT "basic fight action," but ANY "fight action," so you can use weapons and stuff to supplement it. And it's 2 xp, so investigators who dip into Rogue can also take it and use it effectively.

I think that this effect is not niche at all, but EXTREMELY adaptable, since you can use that +2 for ANY attribute; Fight, Brain, Foot - shooting, smacking, arrowing or spellcasting the enemy; as long as you're fighting in one way or another, you get better numbers. I might be overselling it a bit here, time will tell, but as said, I've tried it a few times and so far it's been incredible. If it's the evade & attack playstyle you want, it just became a legit and competitive fighter playstyle. And this card is the main component for mere 4 xp for two copies (Kymani gets 5 xp before the game even starts!).

This card single-handedly makes investigators like Rita, Skids or Wini into competent fighters (Yeeey Skids, it's finally your time to shine! And while not useless before, Rita's also a much better fighter now.), or basically any investigators that can evade and use a competent damage dealing card - like Kymani, Finn, Dexter, Sefina...

Another thing is that this card in the two latest expansions just became highly searchable and readily available with awesome cards like Black Market (it's Illicit), Friends In Low Places, Underworld Market, or even better - Finn’s Smuggled Goods (again, Illicit).

And that’s just the basic effect. There's also parleying, which is fantastic the few times you need it - it always gets on my nerves when I miss a necessary Parley. Also, it's completely stackable and basically anything that gives you more numbers combines with this like .25 Auto or Lonnie, and these two are also simple to use and play. There're also combos with Stealth (3) for a free fight action without the boost, Blur(s) are both great with their action extension, it also does well in an Ornate Bow fighter because of naturally high Foot and many more... And it's not even very expensive, takes one action to play that it even gives you back instantly, while as a Talent it doesn't take any slots and it's quite "resistant" to the Mythos deck. This +2 also combines well with "Succeed by number" playstyle, so you can go for "Succeed by number fighter" now, which was niche before. There're many more things it does and if nothing else, when playing it in Kymani, it's a flat +2 Foot and +1 action every turn.

I really like this card and while I wasn't a fan of a focused evade deck before, the fighter-evader is an interesting prospect to me and I love how this makes some subpar investigators much better, and also opens up some interesting new decks.

EDIT: Some corrections.

Wolf · 79
I don't think, this card was considered nieche by many, but I like your review and agree, it's a very good card. It can make evade focused gators better in fighting and kind of refund the evade action on an enemy, you want to kill. It gets even better in RtTFA, where I used it in Rita vs, the Harbinger for basic fight actions. You don't want to hurt the harbinger for additional damage, but that was a way to deal an additional resource per round on a free action with a skill boost. — Susumu · 363
fyi Monterey can't take this; he's too civilized to be a dirty fighter — Nenananas · 251
Wooooops! Yeah, I just saw green on Monterey and added green to green to get more green (: Wouldn't work, yes sir! — Wolf · 79

This is very nice for every 3 Roguish Investigators out there (Finn, Winifred, Skids, Rita and maybe Jenny) ! It could also be very good for Kymani to deal with Elite enemies...

  • Now you fight with a pretty comfortable 5 (maybe 6 or more with Lonnie Ritter and any gun).
  • It comboes very well with Stealth (3) and Kymani's ability to "kill by evading".
  • It comboes very well with .25 Automatic (2) to deal 4 damages in 1 action (and 3 tests). Just Swift Reload afterward !
  • This is a better Sharpshooter but hey, you could also run both so you Fight with super high numbers if you want to oversucceed ! ;)
  • Finally, don't forget the Parley action, sometimes relevant if it's not a test and/or if you bought some Fine Clothes !
captainfire · 231
I don't understand the usefulness of evading an unengaged enemy. Also, to evade an unengaged enemy I would first have to spend an action to engage it. Doesn't seem like a great card to me. — yuna1979 · 1
Good review, but I think this review will be more good if you talk more clearly about Stealth(3). I think what you want to talk is that "use Stealth(3) to evade as fast speed, and then react Dirty Fighting to fight action"; this gives one free fight action (although we cannot get +2 skill value). — elkeinkrad · 485
@ yuna1979: the "evade an exhausted enemy" is there on the card, just for the new Rogue Kymani, who can engage exhausted enemies fast and then re-evade them for discarding them. It's not the only card with very specific extra text. "Lab Coat" has printed "or less" on the card, just in case, you are the bearer of the "13th Vision" RBW. — Susumu · 363
Ignoring the aloof keyword on the free action is nice, otherwise the reaction wouldn’t work on aloof enemies because you’d need to reengage them. — Django · 5070
Does it really combo with .25 Automatic ? Both are reactions to you evading, but can you trigger one (or the other) after the first one, because if you triggered the first one, aren't you in a "after you attack" window rather than a "after you evade" ? — Galdanor · 1
@Galdanor pretty sure when multiple "after" triggers are met you can choose the order in which they resolve, but they all will resolve — dlikos · 151

All those reviews are nice. But you cant use weapon for that fight action. You can just punch. Same as Ursula and her free investigate after move. You cant use it for fingerprint kit or glyphs for example. Shooting wit weapon is not fight action but activate asset and then it will be fight. Sorry guys :)

atilak · 13
Actually, you'll find under the Q&A section of haste that shooting with your 45 automatic or whatever else is considered to be both a fight and activate action, same for flashlight being both active and investigate. — aurchen · 1
Any non-fast event or action triggered ability with an action designator is the type of action indicated by its designator, in addition to being a play or activate action. This is why some other cards specify "basic" actions, which are the normal actions you have access to without the use of cards (technically, a basic action is any action that doesn't involve playing an event or triggering an ability whose text includes an action designator, even if it does otherwise involve playing a card or triggering an action trigger, but so far only Close the Circle can let you take basic play or activate actions). — Thatwasademo · 57
(2022 Taboo also turns both Eon Chart to be "basic" only.) — 5argon · 9631
This is factually wrong — MegaWazzaby · 1
ArkhamDB needs a downvote system — snacc · 980
"Same as Ursula and her free investigate after move." Doh, maybe you should have just checked the fAQ on Ursula's page: Q: Does the ability on Ursula Downs allow me to take an investigate action on an asset or event card? A: Yes. Ursula’s reaction allows you to take any investigate action, including those performed via the activate action or via the play action. - FAQ, v.1.3, May 2018 — Susumu · 363
The comments in here really feels like actual dirty fighting — toastsushi · 74

Decent card for Rogues or other Fighters with access to Green (2).

  • Even low Fight, high Agility investigators can take advantage of it using the Ornate Bow (3).
  • Ideally, you'll want to combine this card with a way to get a free evade action, like Stealth (3), Blur (1 or 4), or one of the Rogue events that Investigates or Fight, then auto-evades and returns to hand.
  • Based on the wording, it might even be possible to use it to Fight something at a far away location, provided you can somehow evade the enemy there (ie using Decoy, Pendant of the Queen, etc). I'm not 100% sure if this really works
Daerthalus · 15
The reaction gives you an action that can only be used to attack the evaded enemy. The fight action you do is still a separate action so it’ll check the range on initialion, as always. So you can’t attack a remote target, unless the weapon/ spell allows you to. — Django · 5070
Thanks for clearing that up. So, it does work, but only with a Springfield M1903 (4), a Telescopic Sight (3), or in conjunction with Marksmanship (1). — Daerthalus · 15
Really good in Rita Young (it's a Trick) who already takes advantage of evading. — DrMChristopher · 467
Why would you think that this reaction would not work on a ranged enemy when we have a ruling from survival knife showing otherwise? — legrac · 115
FAQ settles it. — AlderSign · 236