Event

Insight. Upgrade.

Cost: 2. XP: 1.

Seeker

Attach to a Tool or Science asset you control. Limit 1 per asset.

After attached asset exhausts, exhaust Fine Tuning: Ready attached asset.

"I assure you there's nothing to fear!"
Billy Norrby
The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion #54.
Fine Tuning

FAQs

No faqs yet for this card.

Reviews

As of the Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion, there are 26 Tool or Science assets that exhaust.

Strange Solution, Cleaning Kit, Cryptographic Cipher, Fingerprint Kit, Matchbox, and by extension Quickdraw Holster all have uses that are spent when exhausted and need help to be replenished. Readying these assets doesn't increase the value of the asset, only increases the tempo of the asset. Spending two resources and an action to slightly increase the tempo of an item is somewhat counterproductive, so these are not great choices.

Ice Pick (3) and Lockpicks (0) are cards that you expect to discard fairly quickly, so taking the time to attach this certainly isn't worth it.

Dr. Charles West III, Dream-Enhancing Serum, Pocket Telescope, and Mechanic's Wrench are all cards where the exhaust effect isn't the main reason you bring the card, so readying the asset probably isn't worth the cost of Fine Tuning.

Darrell's Kodak and Grappling Hook are not going to be reliably useful multiple times in a round. It might be worth considering for certain parties or builds, but isn't an obvious pick.

So this leaves us just 11 cards to examine.

Great Choices:

Chemistry Set is one of the better cards to ready. If you're taking the time to build around it, Chemistry Set is a very efficient way to investigate, yielding a bit of extra economy and the occasional spare clue. Most seekers are hoping to investigate twice a turn, and for those who are typically testing book v shroud, doubling down on Chemistry Set will likely be an efficient use of their time. Just be wary of losing both cards to a fail by two if you can't adjust the result.

Of course, if you're bringing Chemistry Set, you should also be bringing Steady-Handed. Refreshing both together is very logical, allowing you to adjust both checks to an even number, and avoid throwing the set out to a bad pull. As of right now, there's not much else for Steady-Handed to adjust, so this is certainly a lower priority.

Lockpicks (1) is one of the best uses for this card. Yes, it discards when the uses are spent, but it's not unreasonable to expect that you'll get 10 or more refreshes. A rogue clex-leaning-cluever can legitimately make this their main engine for when there aren't any enemies. Mariner's Compass and its upgrade are similar for survivors.

Empirical Hypothesis is going to be one of the strongest targets for Fine Tuning. If you haven't put any experience in, this will likely be a second card most turns. You do need to initiate two tests to get the full value, but most seekers are investigating 2-3 times a turn, so it should pay off more often than not. The value goes up if you sink in some experience; with Peer Review, you're all but guaranteed that one of your allies will find the second oversuccess, and more likely to convert the charges into value.

Finally, Pocket Multi Tool is a great choice. With just a bit of XP, this is two resources, 1 XP, and an action for a free unexpected courage once per turn. With Spring-Loaded, it turns into a free Lucky once per turn.

Situational choices:

Lab Coat isn't likely to be worth tuning up, since it's incredibly unlikely that you fail two tests in one round by exactly one. The most notable exception to this is if you're frequently testing at just below a critical value in the chaos bag (frequently testing at +2 when the bag is majority -3, for instance). If that's the case, then you can adjust on a per-scenario basis, although it's going to depend so heavily on the shroud values that you probably shouldn't make this your main game plan. It can also be cute if you're frequently testing against a shroud of 1 for guaranteed success; see The Skeleton Key.

Survival Technique is probably tough to use multiple times per round to great effect. There are probably cool combos that you can attach and pull back multiple times per round, but they're too complex to analyze in this little review box.

Backup choices:

Microscope can be ok, although if you're building around Microscope you certainly want to upgrade them as soon as possible. You can attach this to your Microscope in the interim, but shouldn't invest the XP in this card unless you have another asset to fine tune once you can get the good Microscope.

Ice Pick (1) is a small skill boost once per round. Doubling this is decent, but similar to Microscope, you are probably taking this on the way to upgrading this, which means you need a backup target for your Fine Tuning once your deck hits its stride.

SamForest · 2
You say there's not much more for steady handed to adjust, but it goes perfectly well in any "succeed by" package not just the seeker ones that want you to succeed by an exact amount. Fine tuning could be useful in those builds as it turns it into essentially +1 skill value. — Spamamdorf · 4
Empirical Hypothesis, when tuned, is MONSTROUSLY efficient. — MrGoldbee · 1444
Spamadorf, I'm not convinced on spending the XP just for the oversucceed. I think it's more efficient to simply pump up with more passive boosts when you just want to succeed by at least a certain number. Steady Handed only really becomes worth it if you care about being precise (or if you're Kate and the science tag matters). — SamForest · 2
MrGoldbee, I agree completely. Empirical Hypothesis is absolutely bonkers when tuned and is easily the strongest target for this card in a vacuum. That card is already a bit overtuned and doubling it means once you've found it, you basically don't need any more draw. — SamForest · 2
You could look at it as a cheaper knight of swords that also sometimes heals horror if that helps. Yeah passive boosts are generally better but those usually take slots. — Spamamdorf · 4
I will say that in some scenarios, having E.Cache (3), Fingerprint Kit and this card makes it much, much faster and totally worth it (multiplayer obvs) — Krysmopompas · 358