A Beginner's Guide to Expert Leo gameplay (Full combat build

I suggest keeping Enchanted Blade in the deck and stick one copy of Prepared for the Worst under Stick to the Plan on top of that for consistency reasons. With only 2 weapons in the deck, Prepared for the Worst is more likely to whiff so you lose in consistency overall. I also find Custom Ammunition a bit superfluous with Flamethrower (4 damage is already enough in most cases and big bosses usually aren't monster-traited anyway). I also strongly recommend upgrading to Beat Cop 2 much earlier in the campaign, before you even get your core weapon upgrades. The utility it provides just can't be ignored, as it can help a lot with tougher enemies before your core upgrades are in place.

Cheers, @matt88.

The cards I normally attach to Stick to the Plan are Extra Ammunition, Custom Ammunition and for sure a copy of Prepared for the Worst. Only 2 weapons in the deck is indeed a little bit risky; if your 2 copies of Flamethrower are at the bottom 10 cards of the deck and 2+ enemies spawn on the first round and your team mates can't help you, then you could be in trouble (this happens very rarely though). Anyhow, keeping 1 or even 2 copies of Enchanted Blade in the deck could be a wise decision even though they will be dead draws 95% of the games. There is a little Rogue in me (and in Leo Anderson) so I like to push my luck a little and will never run more than 1 emergency weapon besides Flamethrower, "calculated risk is not risk at all" as Leo Anderson or any Rougue would say :D.

If you go for the Flamethrower as your big gun then Custom Ammunition is indeed not essential. I recomend it though because it is an awesome upgrade for just 3 XP. It gives you extra ammo at fast speed (adding even more consistency to Contraband plays) and often also +1 damage. Extra damage is always welcome, even if its not assential. Besides if you are also runing Beat Cop and/or Vicious Blow you could one-shot a 7 HP mini-boss monster (like Beast of Aldebaran or Piper of Azathoth) with 1 single bullet, which automatically makes you a real badass.

Finally in respect of Beat Cop(2), I think his testless damage can help you survive the early scenarios, but after you get the Flamethrower his extra damage becomes kinda irrelevant. I guess you could upgrade him early instead of getting Hot Streak in order not to delay the core big gun upgrades, but in that case I wouldn't recommend running Leo De Luca. I prefer early Hot Streak because it is very useful before and after Flamethrower.

curious as to not using what I think is Leo's best weapon, the BAR. Loading it up with 2xContraband from Stick to the Plan (and even some Extra Ammo beforehand), and you've got minimum 32 bullets to wreak some havoc on the big bosses Leo always seems to encounter. Add Double or Nothing and a couple of Bandoliers with a Blade and you're set.

Hey @Krysmopompas, good question.

I honestly haven't playtested the M1918 BAR whit this build yet but it seems to me that the Flamethrower is all in all the most consistent weapon. So lets make a direct comparison between this two weapons in the context of this build.

What does the M1918 BAR offers that the Flamethrower does not?

• It cost 2 less XP to buy a set. This is good but not decisive by any means.

• It allows you to dispatch low HP minions most efficiently since you can choose exactly how much bullets and damage to deal. This seems great on paper but it really isn't since this is an "infinite" ammo build and expending 1 Flamethrower ammo to kill a single vermin is not a problem at all. Besides the Flamethower allows you to distribute damage, meaning it is more efficient at dealing with swarms than the BAR. On Top of that, if the low HP enemy has 3+ combat and you are just expending 1 or 2 ammo, you are attacking with considerably less , which may lead to a failed attack, a lost ammo and a lost action (this been even more relevant on higher difficulties).

• It has potential more damage and + than the Flamethrower. If you are expending 5 ammo with the BAR you are actually just getting 1 more damage and 1 more . There is only 1 recurring enemy with more than 4 HP that I can think of (Thing in the Sarcophagus) and this build runs Custom Ammunition anyways meaning that the extra potential tick of damage of the BAR is only relevant against Elites. Considering that sustaining that ammout of damage cost so much ammo for the BAR and that the base 4 damage of the Flamethrower is still very high, I think this advantage of the BAR is almost irrelevant.

• You get to keep your body slot with the BAR and can play Bandolier. In the context of this build this is irrelevant though, since it's a pure combat build we don't need any Flashlights and since we will have so much ammo, there is no need for a sidearm after the Flamethrower is in play.

What are the disadvantages of the M1918 BAR in comparison to the Flamethrower?

• Your Contraband plays are less consistent and the value of other ammo generation cards like Extra Ammunition, Custom Ammunition and Venturer is diminished. Remember that you can not attach 2 identical cards to Stick to the Plan (also no 2 Contrabands can be attached) and that the cost of playing Contraband and the BAR together would be 9 ressources! If you have to kill a 3+ HP enemy with the BAR before you get to play those Contrabands your ability to reach those insane ammo counts is greatly diminished. This problem is allot less severe with the Flamethrower, since your rate of ammo consumption is much lower and therefore you can get away with having less ammo.

• As alredy mention, if you use few ammo with the BAR or if you make use of a sidearm (like Machete) your is considerably lower, leading to increased failed attacks.

For all this reasons I argue that the Flamethrower is the better weapon in the context of this build (full comabt multiplayer).

Im knew to Arkham and am trying a Leo build. Would shotgun work in this build?

Hey @Malek061. Welcome to Arkham DB and be prapered to lose your sanity with this game! :D

Shotgun would work but it has big drawbacks in comparison to other big guns so that you have to buil around this limitations:

• Comming into play with only 2 ammo is a big drawback. This means that good Contraband plays will be more difficult to pull of and you probably won't be able to get as much ammo as with the Flamethrower. To counter this you can run the upgraded version of Contraband(2) and since you probably won't be getting more that 12 ammo on the shotgun you should also consider using Bandolier and a sidearm like (.45 Thompson or Enchanted Blade or even .45 Automatic) to deal with low HP recurring enemies.

• You are at the mercy of the chaos bag when determining how much damage you will deal and only get +3 . This build has you covered though because it runs Reliable, Ace of Swords and Beat Cops to boost . If you don't have acces to any of this cards I would recomend buying Keen Eye early (and keeping Emergency Cache in the deck), upgrading Vicious Blow and keeping more skillcards that boost to somehow compensate.

If I use stick to the plan and get extra ammo, contraband, and prepared for the worst, would that solve the ammo problem? Im thinking about adding cards like high roller, opportunist, and well connected with the ones you named to boost damage. If I can get to around 10 or 11 damage, should that be safe? Also, would adding lucky dice cancel an autofail on the first chaos token?

You can use Stick to the Plan only once per turn. So if you need Prepared for the Worst, you must wait 2 more turns until you can play the other 2 to maximise ammunition. If enemies show up, you'll waste ammo before you can double it.

Additionally, ressources: Prepared for the Worst costs 2 ressources, Shotgun 5, Extra Ammunition 2 and Contraband 3. That's 12 over 3 turns, but you start with 5 and gain only 2 during this time.

Unless I'm mistaken, you can't have more than one Charon's Obol in play or apply the effects of duplicate exceptional items, so why are you slotting two?

Hey, 2 XP means it cost two expercience points to get :D

To clarify further, the Exceptional Keyword (quote from Rules):

Exceptional is a deckbuilding keyword ability.

A card with the exceptional keyword costs twice its printed experience cost to purchase.
A player's investigator deck cannot include more than 1 copy (by title) of any given exceptional card.

My bad! I saw 2X not 2XP :)

Nice deck. I am setting up a Leo build with the [.45 Automatic] (2) (/card/03190) as the main weapon and [.41 Derringer] (2) (/card/03234) and [Enchanted Blade] (0) (/card/05118) as the backup weapons. Enchanted Blade is due to playing Carcosa with those pesky Geists. This setup should put Leo at an 6 plus 1-2 Beat Cop and the Ace of Swords.

I will be adding all some mix of the Extra Ammunition, Custom Ammunition and Contraband(/card/51005) to the mix plus the Venturer to keep everything resupplied.

That deck is illegal. Hot Streak is a rogue level 4 cards and Leo has only access to level 0-2 rogue cards...

Nvm I just saw there was a level 2 Hot Streak All's good!