Kymani Jones

Honestly an underwhelming investigator. Their ability will almost never see use, their card pool isn't all that great and their signature asset is pretty bad. All of the positive comments about kymani have them using cards that other rogues can also use and usually better.

About the ability: It requires two actions and an overcommit, often by 3 or more, to clean an enemy from the board. So let's take the standard scenario of trying to use their ability to discard a standard 3/3/3 enemy. Most bruiser characters can clear an enemy like this in reliably one action whereas some will require two.

Kymani cannot under any circumstances do it in less than 2, and if they fail at any point they have to reset their attempt. The chance of failure? In our 3/3/3 example, you have to test at a 6 to succeed (anything less is a failure and you've lost two actions trying this). You'll need to score a -1, which will require commits or stat boosts on your part, and this will become dramatically harder on higher difficulties. Now you've spent a lot of actions, cards and resources to dispense something other gators can handle reliably in 1-2 checks. I would go as far to say you should basically never use their ability as kymani is probably better off going after clues.

Trish and Finn are better cluers, Tony is a far better fighter (not even sure you could buld kymani combat oriented), and winnifred is better at being a "Jack of all trades".

Kymani ultimately doesn't add any new playstyles to the game, and all the styles they do use are utilized better by other rogues.

Overall: Probably a D tier rogue. Better than Preston but outclassed by everyone else.

drjones87 · 188
I agree that their card pool is hardly any better than any other rogue, but I see a few interesting things: the 3 Willpower is already great. Then their ability can be easily leveraged with Blur/Breaking and Entering for the first evade and then Stealth (3) for Kymani's ability, making it 0 actions to deal with an enemy. And you can easily consider a big one since with the 2 base intel, Dirty Fighting and Stealth, you're already testing at 11. Add 2 Opportunists, a trench coat, Moxie (3)... you get the idea. Altogether, building them as a cluever and having a built in way to not only evade but really empty the board is to me a huge advantage to Kymani over any other 5 Agi Rogue. — Valentin1331 · 66864
I just got done playing Kymani through TCU and I was happy with their power level. They have an ability to lean into that no other investigator has (the ability to discard enemies from play) which came in quite handy. I agree their card access isn't great, but that's what the 5 bonus xp is for. I don't think Kymani is overpowered by any means, but I think 'outclassed by everyone else' is a definite undersell. — Pseudo Nymh · 54
"Cannot under any circumstances clear an enemy in less than 2 actions", sure maybe if you ignore like half the card pool. It's a pretty bad ability if you're just vanilla evading twice, but you should be building a deck so that you don't have to do that. Plus, a two-step defeat having to 'reset the attempt' is actually better than failing fight actions, because the fight doesn't turn off the enemy for a turn. — SSW · 209
Other rogues can’t get rid of vengeance, exploding witches, or non-elite nuisance enemies that you don’t want to kill (like hotel guests or lodge members). — MrGoldbee · 1443
I love when people share their reviews on cards that they seemingly don‘t understand in the slightest :D so many sentences are just utterly not true. Stealth(3) alone helps immensely in the test difficulty, the 2 action cost and it’s a card that definitely no other rogue can use better — niklas1meyer · 1
and what nobody here has mention yet is honestly the most useful tool they get access to (in my opinion): Riot Whistle. so with that plus Stealth 3, you are now taking out the 3/3/3 in one 'real' action even if they are engaged to another investigator or aloof, and you only need to draw a -3 or better on the second shot (before commits or boosts). — Death by Chocolate · 1428
I kinda like Kymani, but there are more elite monsters in this game than vindictive reptiles and exploding witches combined. Kymanis investigator ability isn't something you can rely on to deal with every threat and it's not quite good enough without card support either. You'll need to allocate some deck space to make sure it works most of the time without eating too many actions, which again leaves less room for stuff needed to kill elites or find clues. That's Kymanis problem, and it's easiest solved by playing with a three or four player group with more specialized investigators. There's no shame in being a jack-of-all-trades kind of investigator. — olahren · 3360
I ran Kymani through Edge of the Earth on expert difficulty, and they were far from D-tier. In fact, they took out more enemies than our dedicated fighter. You'll need a dedicated fighter to take down elites, but Kymani is extremely strong when dealing with non-elites. Sure, you'll need some cards to make it work: Gene B gives great boosts to the stats you need the most, stealth(3) to make the tests fast, and you're set to go. — andreasskovse · 13
Let's imagine a dedicated fighter taking on that 3/3/3 enemy from your example: — andreasskovse · 13
(Sorry, messing up and posting early): A dedicated fighter without any cards would need 3 tests, all of them at 5 vs 3, to defeat said enemy. Kymani without any cards would need two, 5 vs 3, 7 vs 6. So far, no clear winner. But let's add just a single card: The fighter gets a weapon, and now fights at 7-8 vs 5, dealing 3 damage. That's a nice weapon, proparbly costing a lot, possibly using ammo. Kymani picks Gene B, tests 6 vs 3, then 9 vs 6. Two tests, yes, but you've got Gene, more usefull than a mere weapon. And it only gets better if you add more cards. The fighters gets two cards down, proparbly a weapon and a nice ally. Kymani gets Gene B and stealth (3), and now Kymani removes an enemy in just 1 action (allthough 2 tests, but with a fair chance for succes), just as the fighter. And discarding is more often than not better than defeating. True, you won't get the xp if it's a victory-enemy, but a lot of them aren't. And there's lot of enemies that do bad stuff to you when defeated or attacked, and Kymani just laughs at these. — andreasskovse · 13
If you discard an Enemy with vengeance using kymany ability , is it added to the victory display or is it discarded?? — Shuruikan · 7
Enemies that are discarded from play are not added to the victory display, so Kymani's ability is an excellent tool for removing non-elite enemies with vengeance. — Telosa · 53
Bestow Resolve

does this asset mean that I can commit more than 1 card to other investigator's test? Like I normally commit one card and then use this asset's ability to commit 1 more, or I used the asset ability to commit one and then I can't commit one more...?

BoomEzreal · 8
Yes, it had been confirmed for "Daredevil" and "Practice Makes Perfect", that there is no hard limit for other investigators committing cards, just for committing during ST.2. These events can be played in the fast window right before or after ST.2, instead of during ST.2, so you can commit cards with them in addition to other investigator's tests. — Susumu · 361
Chuck Fergus

This card seems really good for Leo Anderson. If you get this on turn one you can make ever vigilant fast which seems like a really great combo. Not to mention all the other tactics in guardian like One-Two Punch, Marksmanship, and Prepared for the Worst just to name a few.

tactis · 17
Ace of Rods

This is the perfect card for Amina Zidane. With her ability that 3 resource cost turns to 0, and the downside of her ability (adding doom to the asset) is entirely negated when you remove this. 0 cost, 0 action, 0 downside, +2 to all skills for this turn. This is especially good if you're playing Spectral Razor or Read the Signs, where it gives you a +4 to the skill test since you're buffing both skills.

But you still have to pay the action to play it, so you net loose a card for a +2 on a skill test (or at best a +4, say with "Cyclopian Hammer"), if you want to pay and use the card instantly. You have to gain something from delaying an action to another turn for the card to be of some use, and I don't see, when Amina is the investigator, who wants to do such a thing with her deck. — Susumu · 361
Spending a card for a +2 on a skill test: you can do this with "Unexpected Courage" at 1 XP less. — Susumu · 361
Why would you use it on a turn where you're only doing 1 skill test. You might as well say it doesn't work because you could spend all your actions in a turn moving and is thus a card spent doing nothing. — sirtommygunn · 7
Oh, it seems, one of us is reading this card wrong. I think it's you, but you make me unsure. "During which" referes to the "additional action", NOT "this turn", imo. — Susumu · 361
I don't see the point of this card ever having been printed if it only referred to the bonus action. I hadn't considered reading it like that but the way its written there's no way to be sure. I'll stick with the interpreation that makes this card have a purpose. — sirtommygunn · 7
Like other's had said: the effect is strong, if you get it into your opening hand and can play it free of resources AND without an action. Sefina has the best odds for that. But for Survivors, who had the weakest tarot before the Return-box it was also a bearable risk, because they can avoid it being a dead card with Cornered or (in case of Wendy and Duke) their gator ability. They might also setup a "Will to Survive" combo with this card, likewise rogues a "Payday" combo. It's not a terrible card, but on the lower end of usability. — Susumu · 361
If you are playing as a monster hunter being able to delay actions to later turns is value enough, the trick is you have to play this either at the start or end of an agenda to avoid the doom triggering an advance. — Zerogrim · 290
Kicking the Hornet's Nest

Somehow the child of On the Hunt and Scene of the Crime ended up in the Rogue cardpool.

On the Hunt the encounter deck, then get a clue and a few bucks if you hit something non-Elite. You would still have to deal with the enemy you drew in whatever way you see fit so this essentially gives you 1 testless clue and usually 1-3 resources for a card and around two actions. The best case scenario is of course drawing an enemy you can one-shot in one or fewer actions, making this card a worthy competitor to Scene of the Crime (2 resources + 1 card + 1 action for 1-2 testless clues) as long as you can find a suitable enemy.

Emphasis on that last part, of course. This shares a problem with 0XP On the Hunt in that it can miss. It hurts less in that this card is 0-cost but also more in that it's now a wasted action. You'd probably want to consider Crystallizer of Dreams to ensure that you at least get a or icon out of this thing. Alternatively, it is also possible to only hit an exceptionally tough enemy in your search and waste your actions dealing with it. Access to testless and/or actionless damage or extra fight actions are welcome additions, and try not to play this when, for example, you know a certain Carcosa enemy that tests your intellect is in the deck. In other words, what's stopping this card from being a better Scene of the Crime is its inherent uncertainty - perhaps that's why it has found itself in the Rogue faction.

Investigators I can see taking this:

  • Trish Scarborough - a decent pick for 0XP that will probably get upgraded into something else. Play it first and decide whether you want the extra clue or the auto-evade after you see the enemy.
  • Tony Morgan - Tony loves fighting, and he has no lack of actions to kill whatever he kicked out of the encounter deck. Getting some clues in the meantime is just icing on the cake.
  • Leo Anderson - At least in my experience, Leo is often starving for deck space because he has to slot in quite a few allies to put his own and Mitch Brown's abilities to good use, not to mention support cards for said allies and the big guns if you're playing them. Having a card that both finds clues and gives him money to fund his Assets really helps with his versatility, and his Beat Cops and Guard Dogs are more than happy to deal with the enemy.
  • Zoey Samaras and Mark Harrigan - Both are powerful enemy handlers with poor , so testless clues are appreciated. They may not need that resource boost that much (even less so in the case of Zoey) depending on how you build their decks though.
  • Parallel Roland Banks - Play it fast with Red Tape and get another card from Seek the Truth. As far as I know playing it fast does not count as your first action, so you can also punch the enemy in the face or grab 2 more clues from under its nose, though this combo costs you your entire Red Tape quota for the round. Parallel Roland likes fast and testless clues and this card delivers - some of the time at least.

At first this card looked quite janky to me, but on closer inspection it seems to fit in quite a lot of decks. Certainly not an auto-include by any means, but at the very least primary enemy handlers with access to Rogue cards will want to give this a look.

koaexe · 29
I would rather compare it to "Drawn to the Flame" than "First Watch". It draws an additional encounter card to whatever you would normally draw in the mythos phase. For one clue and some cash, compared to 2 guaranteed clues from DttF. — Susumu · 361
Yeah Drawn to the Flame is also a fair comparison. Just off the top of my head I think three investigators (Sefina, Dexter and Rogue Gloria) can choose between Hornet's Nest or Flame, and I think they'd all gravitate towards the latter. Mystics can ward treacheries and have high WP so limiting themselves to drawing enemies for a clue isn' — koaexe · 29
(hit enter accidentally, sorry) isn't ideal. Gloria can also stack the encounter deck in her favor. Hence my opinion that Hornet's Nest ultimately serves a different niche as a similar card but for enemy handlers. — koaexe · 29
Oh Jim, Parallel Back Roland and Jenny can also pick between the two. Jim is a Mystic so basically the same situation as Sefina and Dexter, while Roland is pretty flexible so he might even consider taking both for a while - DttF seems to win out in the long run though. I have no experience with Jenny deckbuilding so I'm not sure if she'd want to take Hornet, let alone use her splash slots for Flame. — koaexe · 29
In theory I like this card for digging out VP enemies in solo, or digging out an enemy to Pickpocket. Finn, for example, can easily float one enemy pretty safely. Trish can combo with Existential Riddle to get bonus clues for the rest of the game (some enemies are better targets for this than others. Looking at you Hunting Nightgaunts). IDK, though. I haven't really tested it to any real extent, yet. Oh yeah, don't forget that Mark can take it. Probably a good choice for him, at least at lower player counts. — Zinjanthropus · 227
theorycrafting this with On The Hunt and handcuffs for the first couple scenarios to manage pulling off a "Let God Sort them Out" exp gain. Would the experienced version OTH and this be enough economy to make a mythos hunter build viable? — techoatmeal · 15
I like Zinjanthropus' Finn idea. Not only can Finn float an enemy fairly safely, but in the right circumstances he can largely negate all the opportunity cost presented by putting an enemy out in doing so. If there's no other foes, then he wasn't going to use his free Evade anyway, and if he's got Pickpocketing(2) out, he actually comes out ahead for having them there. He can even choose the chonkiest Conglomeration he can find since if you're evading, what do you care about HP? (Also all of this logic is very short-sighted for how it could bite him later, which is totally on-theme for a bootlegger.) — HanoverFist · 711
Does this work with barricade(3)? Since staying engaged is no restriction on this card, I think this card is a testless clue and ressources while spawning something nearby. — Scythe · 1
It doesn't synergize because of the "Then". The "spawn the enemy engaged with you" part has to be resolved in full before you get the "1 clue and resources" effect. — koaexe · 29
Are we forgetting the character who’s in the actual card? Kymani loves this card. — Mandelmassiv · 25