Lockpicks

Lockpicks

For new players, you might think lockpicks (1) is a super amazing upgrade for lockpicks. But actually, level zero lockpicks are a lousy downgrade.

The reason why is because of how the game is structured. Losing assets is terrible. And the law of eventuality says that you’re gonna miss a skill test.

So for three bucks and two actions (one to put out, one to play), you have a chance of losing your lockpicks! You have to be at a +4 vs the skill test to reliably not lose'em. And they're once a turn.

This card solves a problem that doesn’t really exist: needing to get to a +8 to pass a single investigate test in scenario one of a campaign. (Yes, these exhaust after one use, even in the best of cases.) For the same cost, you can get a flashlight, which will give you a +2 and a huge chance of automatic success on shroud one or two locations. You can try it three times, and more if you can reload charges!

Maybe this is to teach new players that leveling up their gear can be very, very useful. So if you’re a new player, please learn that.

MrGoldbee · 1497
"You have to be at a +4 vs the skill test to reliably not lose'em" Well, as it turns out, you will be. Locations with more than 4 shroud are rare, and honestly, risking lockpicks to investigate such a location is worth it? Obviously, don't take lockpicks if you're not one of the many 4 int / 4 agi rogues (or Winifred, who is 3/5), but for those even Lockpicks (0) is much better than flashlight — Thatwasademo · 58
Also, exhausting doesn't mean you only get to use it once, and it's bizarre that you seem to be implying that? Passing one investigate test a turn against a difficult location generally nets you more clues over the course of the scenario than passing three tests in a row against an easy location. — Thatwasademo · 58
I dont understand why you implied this can only be used once a scenario. The point of Lockpicks is to overcome a high shroud location consistently- round after round. Lockpicks basically wont break on anything but autofail if you’re using it correctly, and the cost hurts much less when you happen to be the class whose specialty is resource generation. You absolutely should take Lockpicks 0 if taking it gets your test value up to 7 at least, and especially if you combine it with Lucky Cit Case or any number of fantastic Rogue skills like Quick Thinking. It’s a brilliant card. Definitely worth upgrading though. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
I think Mr. MrGoldbee's reasoning is: Let's sy you are an investigator with a combined Int and Agl of 8, at a shroud 4 location. You pay 3 resources for lockpicks (0). Now, if you get a -2 or better token pull, you get a clue and keep the lockpicks. If you get at -3/4, you get a clue and lose the lockpicks. If you get -5 or lower, you don't get a clue and you lose the lockpicks. So you could reasonably pay 3 resources, draw the auto fail, and listen to the sad violin music. This is not an unreasonable thing to consider, but, if you are playing Rouge, it's a calculation you're going to be making a lot, so eventually you get used to it. Obviously, upgrading to the level one version should be a priority, but, if this gets you a few clues you wouldn't otherwise get, it was well worth spending the three resources. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1091
Edited for clarity. — MrGoldbee · 1497
This seems like it would be really useful for Rita Young if you also take Adaptable. — khoshekh · 8
This gets really tricky on higher difficulties. Obviously the autofail is always a concern but if you need to worry about the -6 and -8, too, that's pretty tough to make work. — CaiusDrewart · 3200

Winifred Habbamock

Winifred Habbamock

You won’t get Winifred by accident, because she’s sold in her own individual pack. So why would you like her and what should you watch out for?

First, WH is a triumph of theming. Each of the individually sold investigators expand their color, and green is about risk. Some characters, like Nathaniel Cho, are campfires. A few things to get you started, and you can keep it burning all night. Every animal you punch with your boxing gloves will get you more cards to punch more people.

Winnie is an industrial coal boiler. For every two cards you give her, she’ll usually give you back one. Opportunist, most of the time, will cover for you, but if you don’t draw it or you lose it, you’re out of luck. Manual dexterity changes the ratio, and so do other cards like the lucky cigarette case, but most of the time you’re going to need a runway.

There’s another downside: one willpower. You will get screwed over by the encounter deck unless you and your teammates have mitigation. First watch, ward of protection 2, the usual players will need to be in full force to keep you from going insane.

But the rest is upside. Winnifred is one of the best evaders in the game, and unlike Rita or Stella, she can get massively rewarded for it. Pickpocketing is a way of life. Sneak By gives you money while doing what you were going to do anyway. Delilah damages your enemies or Cat Burglars let you strand non-hunters. Nimble will move you around the map, bringing your safeguarded guardians along with you. And once it’s running, your draw engine is one of the best in the game. No other rogue can mill their deck as fast, getting extra actions with quick thinking or dropping a “Watch this” for big cash.

You’re also incredibly flexible. “Anything you can do“ gives you viability in everything, even willpower tests, and with unexpected courage, it’s a success on anything but the autofail and a free card. Scenario cards that test books, fists and/or feet are much less of a challenge for you.

Just avoid failing! Unlike a survivor, you don’t get second chances at skill tests. Your engine can sputter out with a few bad pulls. When that happens, don’t be afraid to take a few actions to draw cards, knowing that when you’re on top again, you’ll have bonus everything.

The aviatrix has natural synergy with mystics who can help her predict the future. Jacqueline with premonition, scrying mirrors, or triple token pulls is great foil. So is Anyone who can fill the bag with bless tokens, turning even hard pulls into succeed by two opportunities.

MrGoldbee · 1497
Compared to her other low will counterparts- Finn and Preston namely- she’s actually pretty resilient, as committing double to a will test, especially with her signature, makes them very passable. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Preston can pay to win tho. — MrGoldbee · 1497
Only if you're doing rich man Preston. Poorston Fairmont doesn't usually have more than a single resource during the Mythos phase, as Family Inheritance refills at the beginning of your turn, not the round. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Winifred fails will tests less often than you'd think, it's true. Rich Preston, on the other hand, I'd say is even more resilient -- he's not any worse at will than any other stats, and once you get past the rough initial setup drawing a will test treachery often just means you exhaust Well Connected and don't even pay any resources. — Thatwasademo · 58
Playing her through "Forgotten Age" blind run right now. We paid a visit to the Rougarou. I draw "Ripples on the Surface" fist and second mythos phase. Game over for me. Currently (after "Heart of the Elders 1") I'm at 3 body and 4 mental trauma. (I curse myself for playing "Leatherjacket" last game, otherwise it would be vice versa and I would start next game with 4 remaining of both, rather than 5 and 3.) "Cheat Death" is now my most priority upgrade, probably 2 of. I don't get these low-brain Rogues. I never had similar issues with Mystics and foot tests. — Susumu · 383
TFA is not the place to run a low will investigator at low counts- TFA has a lot of impactful will tests, and if you ever want to explore with an investigator, it should be done when you know they have a good chance of passing a potential will test. TCU gets a lot of flack for its will tests, but TFA is worse imo. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
I think, Winifred's vulnerability is caused as well by her being restricted to ONLY green cards (and neutrals). I played recently Preston, who worked much better, although I played him Dark Horse. But Peter Sylvestre shaves off a lot of fear from these treacheries. And later parallel Skids, who is just a Lucky! bastard. Preston I played in "Web of Dreams", but Skids was also TFA. — Susumu · 383
1- Isn't a problem, if you are taking this you have a gun centric deck. 2 - is just wrong, it gives a lot of investigator +2-4 on their attack, it's especially good with long guns where you often only need one hit to kill the opponent (hence why it’s called Sharpshooter) 3 - What ? None of the cards you cited fit the archetype this one does. Don't listen to this guy, play the card it works quite well, and it's been tabooed to cost 2 XP, it was OK but expensive at 3, at 2 its quite good. — DakonBlackblade · 13
Is there a way to delete a comment, I posted the above comment by accident on the wrong card page. — DakonBlackblade · 13

Sharpshooter

Sharpshooter

By and large an iffy asset. It has a number of problems that make it inferior to some routinely good cards, even some straight up mediocre cards are better at doing the things this one is supposed to.

This card is...

1) Unwieldy! This is an asset that specifically targets a playercard type. Without a Firearm this thing is blank. It doesnt have Icons that lessen the impact of having a useless copy of this in your hand. When the time comes to actually use this thing it's an action and 2 resources to play, on top of the XP. Guns are already cost and generally XP intensive so these are steep costs indeed.

2) Ineffective! In general, swapping for or the enemy -Fight- for -Evade- is a net benefit of +1 or +2. You're getting this benefit because of an innate skill or difficulty difference, so you're paying the costs agove not to get a bonus on top of your good numbers, it's to replace bad numbers with good numbers. I.E, a character that doesnt have this thing in play either has a small enough difference between and that a similar benefit would be accessible via Hard Knocks, Delilah O'Rourke or Well Connected, or the difference is so great that without Sharpshooter in play the Firearm's you aim to use it with are outright unusable (for example if you play Trish or Sefina).

3) Useless! The only benefit of playing this thing is to get a statistical upgrade on attacks, something that a heap of other cards can do already, and do it better at similar or lower XP costs (Delilah O'Rourke, Hard Knocks, Well Connected). Worse still, this thing Exhausts! You only get to buff one attack per round!

I do NOT like this card. For this mechanic to be useful it ought to be a Permament card. Frankly I think I'dd be happy to pay 4 or 5 XP for this card exactly as written. Heck make it a 2xp exceptional permament!

Wishlisting aside, this thing is garbage, if youre looking to spend 3 XP on Sharpshooter, just save the 1 XP and get Hard Knocks.

Tsuruki23 · 2588
Fully agree. I think Sharpshooter is a trap. Dont take it. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
I'd say it's a very situational card. Most Rogues don't have a combat more than 1 point lower than their agility, with Sephina, Winifred, and Trish being the exception (Tony has a 3-point gap, but in the wrong direction). With Sephina, she might want to have a firearm option, but she's somewhat more likely to just pack more spells and leverage that willpower instead. So that leaves Trish and Winifred as the investigators where this would really shine, and both could use some enemy management boosting. If you use both abilities with either of these investigators, you could be looking at a +4 pretty often (since there are a lot of enemies with a 2 point difference between combat and evade). So, is this a must-include? No. Is this a useful tool for a few specific investigators/builds? Yes. I, for one, welcome the opening of new deck styles. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1091
Oh, I do agree that it would be better as a Permanant -- having to dig for this as well as a firearm just makes the whole thing harder to pull off. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1091
The problem is that there’s very little reason to run this even in the evasive investigators. Just take Ornate Bow, or if you’re really committed to having a once a turn boost, use High Roller. You could use both, sure, but at that point you’re investing heavily to make something suboptimal passable. Sharpshooter is just plain bad imho. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
We ran it in a Flex Finn deck and it was solid. Usually it was +3/+4 (sometimes much more) since he was already running Track Shoes and The Boyfriend for extra agility. And didn't have any of the resource conditionality/risk of High Roller (the only real direct comparison). As a Flex, he only needed the boosted shot once per round to help with the Fighter's damage and it paired will with the lower bonus 1h firearms that he wanted to hold alongside a Lockpicks anyways. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
Agreed, should be a perm. — MrGoldbee · 1497
Have you actually played with this card in Winifred? I have, and it turned out to be the MVP of the deck -- the firearms Winifred's starter deck includes work well enough for her that she gets along fine with not finding it (and wouldn't want Ornate Bow -- the "pass by 2/4" effects are that good), but *with* it you end up just steamrolling everything. — Thatwasademo · 58
Oh, and I guess it helps a lot that Winifred can quickly find it if it's not in your opener thanks to her amazingly strong draw engine. — Thatwasademo · 58
Basically, here's the thing: Every asset that exhausts for a free +2 is *really good*, and even with the hoops you have to jump through for this, it's no exception. — Thatwasademo · 58
The alternatives you list aren't always good alternatives -- Delilah occupies your ally slot, Hard Knocks is actually just worse and I don't know why the people on this site love those types of cards so much, Well Connected actually is also good, but has different hoops to jump through that means it goes in different decks. — Thatwasademo · 58
But that’s the problem- you either have a deck that does fine without it, or you have a deck that is filly dependent on it. Wini is the absolute best case scenario for this since her draw means she can find it more quickly, but even there you have major opp cost. Unlike the other available +2 boosters, this one only matters if you’re fighting, and the irony is that it’s best in people who could just as easily evade anyway. This card is nowhere near as versatile as Well Connected, or High Roller, or honestly even Hard Knocks 2. When you draw this card, you could’ve instead slotted something else with much more utility. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Fully — StyxTBeuford · 13052
I disagree that this is a poor card. Rogues start scenarios with a 1 or 2 difference between agility and combat but there are numerous agility boosts available in Rogue but very few combat boosts. This can easily be a +3 or +4 by the end of the scenario when you have to face the boss. And you can't just evade boss usually. There are enemies that have to die (Hunters or VP for example) and this card with a few guns in the deck would be a potent combo. — The Lynx · 999
I think "could just as easily evade anyway" isn't really a good counterargument (evaded enemies are still there, which may matter for a lot of different reasons: hunter, having to return to the same location later, boss fights), nor even really true in most cases (the *good* rogue guns give a stat boost, and while there are an asset or two that help with evasion, that kind of defeats the argument). It takes more work to get Well Connected to 10 than this in play for anyone who'd consider both (Preston ain't gonna use a gun, and Jenny has equal stats). High Roller is a decent alternative that the review above absolutely should have mentioned -- it's one less XP, but a bit riskier to run in play (if you fail you're out three resources on top of exhausting the card, as opposed to just exhausting the card), and doesn't have the upside potential this has (plenty of enemies have lower evade than fight). The fact that it only matters when you're fighting ... isn't really a big deal, at least in multiplayer? You don't get many turns where there's no enemies being drawn, and if you do usually the rest of your team is very happy about it so you can live with the loss of value of not getting to exhaust Sharpshooter that turn. — Thatwasademo · 58
Oh, as for the complete dependency vs unnecessary excess issue: The deck I ran Sharpshooter in that gave me my opinions used it with the Beretta M1918, so it made the difference between a skill of 7 before committing cards, wanting to succeed by 4, and a skill of 9 (+ possible reduced difficulty) before committing cards, wanting to succeed by 4. So it wasn't like I'd be missing shots without Sharpshooter in play, but I'd be exhausting my gun or not getting +1 damage, or having to commit more of my ? icons to attacks until I found it and could start using my icons on investigating or scenario card tests. — Thatwasademo · 58
There was also some incidental value thrown in with occasionally getting to use Nimble attacks to save actions moving without leaving an exhausted enemy behind or having to waste those actions reloading a bow, but that's not a particularly strong argument. — Thatwasademo · 58
use Nimble *on* attacks, even — Thatwasademo · 58
And, to actually elaborate on my point above that "Hard Knocks is just worse": An action, a card, and 3 resources spent on Hard Knocks gets you +3 to one test and the ability to throw more of your money away on future tests. An action, a card, and three resources spent on Sharpshooter in Wini gets you at least +2, fairly frequently more, that comes back for free the next round. — Thatwasademo · 58
Sorry, did I say "three" resources? This card costs 2. I had forgotten and assumed it had to be 3 since there had to be *some* upside to Hard Knocks. — Thatwasademo · 58
Hard Knocks can be used multiple times in one round, this cant. Hard Knocks also lets you boost other combat and evasion checks, such as Locked Doors. Those are, in fact, two major upsides to Hard Knocks 2. It’s also one XP cheaper. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
In a practical best case scenario, it's a 1/round +3 bonus to a fight check, assuming you have a Firearm out and static bonuses to Agility. I think that even an unconditional +3 bonus to a fight check 1/round might be overcosted at 3xp, to say nothing of the actual setup required for Sharpshooter to work. — suika · 9522
As if to add insult to injury, we have Hard Knocks 4 now as well which gets the replenished 2 resources/turn. So yeah, in the right deck, Sharpshooter may reliably be a +3 on average, but having the ability to boost agility or combat for any test versus being forced to a once/turn boost on just firearms makes it a much more flexible choice. You maybe have to pay an extra 1 now and then for an equivalent boost, though it should also be addressed- whatever boost Sharpshooter gives you is largely out of your control and not necessarily that important for the bag math (e.g. there may be literally no difference in chance of success between +2 and +3), the point here being that you don't always need to match Sharpshooter's boost to have the same effect. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
1- Isn't a problem, if you are taking this you have a gun centric deck. 2 - is just wrong, it gives a lot of investigator +2-4 on their attack, it's especially good with long guns where you often only need one hit to kill the opponent (hence why it’s called Sharpshooter) 3 - What ? None of the cards you cited fit the archetype this one does. Don't listen to this guy, play the card it works quite well, and it's been tabooed to cost 2 XP, it was OK but expensive at 3, at 2 its quite good. — DakonBlackblade · 13
Don't sleep on the ability to attack an enemy's Evade stat instead of Fight. I checked Core, Dunwich, and Carcosa, and about 40% of enemies have a lower Evade than Fight, with about half of those having a difference of 2 and the rest split between 1 and 3. (Note: I did not account for rarity when counting those numbers, so a one-and-done enemy counts the same as one that shows up over and over). — Staffan · 3

Daring

Daring

When committing Daring to a skill test, you still get the card draw even if you pull it back with Silas Marsh ability. Which means you can use Daring once per turn for free while also drawing a card!

Daring sets up a lasting effect on the enemy, and a delayed effect "after this test ends". So if you pull it back to your hand, you still get the card draw. Even when pulled back to the hand, the retaliate and alert still work, so be advised to procede with caution.

EdTheMad · 9
It would also synergize nicely with Silas' "box" signature assests, since both can pull all cards committed back to your hand.... Of course, that gets resource-intensive, and Silas tends to run lean, but.... — LivefromBenefitSt · 1091
Hi friend,I saw your review and I think it's not correct，so I asked the designer,and his answer is as follows : — Ruages · 1
The review is wrong. While delayed effects do persist beyond the resolution of the ability that created them, and continue to affect the game state even if the card that created them leave play, in this instance, the effect “After this test ends, draw 1 card” is not a delayed effect. It’s really just a separate ability—it probably should have been written on a different line in order to denote this. It’s similar to the ability “If this test is successful, draw 1 card” on Manual Dexterity, for example, which is not a delayed effect, but a simple reaction ability that would trigger immediately when its condition is met. A delayed effect would be something like: “After you commit this card: Name a symbol. If that symbol is revealed during this test, draw 1 card.” In this hypothetical, the “draw 1 card” is a delayed effect. — Ruages · 1
Hi Ruages, that's great that you reached out and heard from the designer about this--the answer is surprising and overturns what had been the community consensus about the card. You should consider sending the ruling to ArkhamDB so it can be officially posted. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
Also this is a point outside the rules discussion but MJ (lead designer) uses she/they pronouns (recently came out as trans). Not accusing you of anything but thought you should know — Sycopath · 1
So how does the card interact with Silas if he uses his ability to return the card to his hand? It's not clear to me from reading here. — Auraco · 1
Silas pulls it back before the ability triggers so it doesn't trigger — Vultureneck · 74
Yeah, to clarify, Silas does not get the card draw if he returns it as it isn't considered a lasting effect. However, the text about the enemy gaining alert and retaliate does say "for the duration of this skill test", so that's a lasting effect and Silas can't remove that by taking it back. Goes from being synergistic to quite the opposite with the clarification. — Lasiace · 23

Live and Learn

Live and Learn

If I am reading this correctly, this card has a weird synergy with .18 Derringer, .18 Derringer (2), and Chainsaw. If you attack and fail, you get your ammo/supply back, but, since you don't repay costs on Live and Learn tests, you don't respend the ammo/charge. So the second test costs nothing, and, if successful, deals damage, and, if not, gets you an extra ammo/supply. I am not sure how you generate bullets and gasoline out of thin air by messing around, but you also can't kill birds by getting scared in the real world, either.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1091
Yeah I'm certain this synergy is intentional. Also works with Look what I found/Dumb Luck/Oops and Old Keyring. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
So, I attack with a full Chainsaw and miss. I get the suply back. I use Oops! (2) to hit anyway, then trigger Live and Learn but fail a second time (maybe I trigger Drawing Thin to make this happen). I hit and end up with 4 supply on my Chainsaw.... — LivefromBenefitSt · 1091
Yup, Survivor working as intended. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Yup, see my Chainsaw 'review' for the logical extreme. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
Death by Chocolate: if I could ever get that to work, I would be so happy. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1091
Correction for @StyxTBeuford: This interaction does not work for Old Keyring. .18 Derringer says "if you fail, place 1 ammo on .18 Derringer.", so you get 1 ammo every time you fail. Old Keyring says "if you succeed, remove 1 key from Old Keyring.", so even if you fail multiple times through Live and Learn, you simply don't remove keys from Old Keyring (but not add new ones). — ak45 · 469
Right, I was meaning more its functionally the same (most of the time). You Keyring a location to bring the shroud down to LWIF range (2 or less), you fail, play LWIF, then Live and Learn and try the test again, without losing a key unless that second investigate succeeds. — StyxTBeuford · 13052