You'd think that sometimes the Serpent trait would work in your favor, but no. This is the card that demonstrates that Evil Overlord Rule 34 (no, not THAT rule 34) applies to Arkham investigators too. ("I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.")

Disclaimer: Pre-Scarlet Keys release review.

Changelog:

• 18/12/22: Added the Old Shotgun that enters play with 2 ammo while Salvaged!
• 13/02/22: Added the cash engine with .45 Thompson and other expensive assets.

A lot of Recursion tech is 0xp: Resourceful, Scrounge for Supplies, Scavenging. The exceptions are Shrine of the Moirai (3), Scavenging (2) and True Survivor (3).

So what justifies the 2xp?

1. The action compression: instead of adding a card to your hand the way Scrounge for Supplies or Scavenging operate, you get to play it immediately. This is 1 immediate action for 2xp.
2. You can target literally any Item, when Resourceful limits you to and Scrounge for Supplies to lvl 0 cards.
3. You get the flexibility to trash an Item that you will not want to play anymore in case you are not planning on reusing it, and get some resources for it.

It would be impossible to name all of the items that would work with this, but interesting examples are for instance:

• Items that do something when played: the Lupara (though you do not avoid the AoO) or the Backpack that discards itself when empty or if it doesn't hit anything.
• Expensive Items that you can remove from the game to pay for another copy, like the .45 Thompson or a Lightning Gun.
• The Old Shotgun enters play with 2 ammo while played through an event.

An interesting combo is with Act of Desperation; you throw away an item and either replay it with the money that you got back or get the resource cost another time!
Bothered about the only 3 uses of the Chainsaw? Well, you are now served. Throw it with Act of Desperation and play it again right after. Add a Emergency Cache (3), and you have enough supplies to cut a whole forest (of Ancient One's tentacles, which is much more climate-friendly).

Another interesting combo is, especially with .45 Thompson, to hope that Short Supply will throw it away for you (or you can also commit it easily), and you can use Salvage on it for a massive income. There are, unfortunately, very few cards that are items and that expensive, especially in , the Timeworn Brand being the other possibility. Still, there are much better ways to spend 5xp.

Now the real question, though: will it see play? I would say yes, especially in Short Supply Decks. Unless you can use Scavenging (2) reliably, like our new friend Darrell Simmons...

Disclaimer: Pre-Scarlet Keys release review.

This card is quite niche as it requires you to:

• Want to overcommit (play in Hard/Expert or wanting to oversucceed)
• Commit other cards to the same test

Who would be interested in using this card?

• Anyone that would purchase the Shotgun and to a lesser extent Cyclopean Hammer and Brand of Cthugha (1)/Brand of Cthugha (4).
• "Skids" O'Toole or Leo Anderson if you take some "succeed by" tech
• Silas Marsh and especially the Harpoon Recurring Deck that commits tons of cards to every test.
• Silas Marsh, William Yorick or Tommy Muldoon that would like to secure a Brute Force test.
• Edit 23/04/23: Carolyn Fern and Joe Diamond using Ancient Stone to bomb the test and guarantee 7+ Secrets.

Quite a balanced lvl 0 card that is not the flashiest but that will see play in some specific Decks.

I honestly cannot understand why this investigator gets 5 bonus XP.

Their ability is very strong, you often can remove hard-to-kill enemies very easily. It'd said that using 2 actions and 2 tests to remove an enemy is 'inefficient', but removing 3+ health enemies usually takes 2+ actions anyway even with cards/ammo/resources/etc. When their ability costs nothing, I cannot agree that it's inefficient. With Stealth (3), it doesn't even cost 2 actions; only one action suffices.

Yes, their deckbuilding is not that great. But Ursula Downs or Winifred Habbamock exists and they do not get that bonus XP, and I do not believe they have much better front ability than Kymani. I think Kymani would feel a lot 'fair' if they did not get that 5 XP, as I think they feel a bit overpowered as currently is.

I wonder why devs needed to give Kymani +5 starting xp.

• Their statline is one of the best among rogues. Compared to Winifred, they lose 1 Intellect&Combat and gain 2 Willpower. I think it's an amazing deal. While playing Wini, you can't depend on your intellect or combat without specializing on them anyway, and you may want to use your Agility instead on them with cards like Backstab/Pilfer/Lockpicks/Ornate Bow etc. However each point in Willpower actually matters, because it is the primary defensive statline (along with Agility), everyone's going to test it from time to time. Having two more Willpower could mean 1 or 2 fewer cards lost from hand against certain treacheries for instance, even if you don't outright pass them.

• Their deckbuilding option is a bit limited. But with each expansion, this means less and less. And again making a direct comparison against Winifred, Kymani beats her on this matter too!

• Their ability is also amazing. Yes, it's not action efficient (usually 2 successful tests to discard an enemy, and your second test needs to succeed by X), but it's totally free otherwise. No resource/xp/deck slot cost attached, means that you can specialize more on clue getting and become a... master-of-all? If you are afraid of losing victory points because this ability discards enemies instead of defeating them: 1) Most enemies with Victory X are elites anyway; 2) Just don't use this ability on them. Comparing Kymani's ability to Wini's not as easy as comparing their stats and deckbuilding. I'll just say that Wini also has an amazing ability, probably more powerful but also a bit worse from another perspective because it forces her to include a lot of skills in her deck.

TL;DR: Kymani could be the best "blank slate" to pull off whatever Rogue shenanigans you want to, if you don't need a specific off-class access. Also please give Wini 5xp too :)