As a 4 resource-cost, 4 ammo firearm, the .25 Automatic immediately invites comparisons to its classic big brother in Guardian, the .45 Automatic, and this is a comparison that doesn't do the .25 any obvious favours. In exchange for a single additional point of accuracy on each shot over the .45, the .25 is fast, and green, and... loses both its accuracy and its damage altogether unless the target is exhausted... something that usually takes both an action and a successful test to achieve, and not even the same attribute of test that you need to successfully hit with this gun. This gun in fact does nothing at all unless the target is exhausted!

A fast, do-nothing weapon in Rogue immediately evokes the spectre of level 0 Switchblade, a card with a less than stellar track record for most of the game's history. .25 Automatic then goes on to fail to flatter itself in this comparison, too... at least Switchblade's fast ability meant that it could, potentially, help you in a situation where you could land the over-successful fight check while threatened by an enemy; .25 Automatic's fast ability is useless in this regard, since .25 Automatic will never help you fight unless you successfully evade the enemy first, and if you successfully evade the enemy then (barring weird edge cases where you're engaged with multiple enemies at once) you're at your liberty to play a non-fast weapon without fear of retaliation. Switchblade's other benefit over .25 Automatic was that it provided cheap protection against asset hate, which the Automatic doesn't really do, since 4 resources is a bit too much to pay for good Crypt Chill fodder. You might want level 0 Switchblade in Tony Morgan; you probably don't want this.

So, is .25 Automatic just a bad card that can't compete? I'd argue that it's not. I think it actually serves a niche that has existed in rogue since the game began: it's the gun that can get evasion-capable 3-Fight rogues to the place where they can shoot testing at 5, for 2 damage, without breaking the bank and while leaving them a hand free. Even the upgraded Derringer doesn't quite meet this threshold, since you're really only shooting at 4 in terms of hitting for 2 damage.

Why is testing at 5 with your investigator plus weapon so much better than testing at 4? It's hard to quantify, but from Roland with a .45, to Jenny with her Twin .45s, to Mark with his .32 Colt or Tony Morgan finally making that Switchblade sing, it seems to be something of a golden breakpoint that delineates when a basic weapon and investigator pairing starts to feel good. If you're "Skids" O'Toole, Finn Edwards, Jenny Barnes or Wini Habbamock, then the .25 gets you there, and you should have the evasion chops to make it work. "Skids" will appreciate the fact that it's compatible with his strong parallel card back, and for Finn it looks a lot like extra copies of his Trusty .38, albeit less cost efficient and with a more restrictive use condition.

It's in those two investigators that I feel the .25 Automatic is at its best, since they're likely to appreciate it being fast purely for the sake of saving an action and maintaining strong play speed, and are able to add in the extra evade action to set up their shots without losing undue time. They're also the types who could want to keep a hand free for lockpicks or other investigation assets. The requirement of evading first helps delineate "Skids" gunplay from the hip firing of more dedicated combat characters, and is somewhat reminiscent of machete's "drawback" of getting a guardian to sometimes spend an engage action before attacking - it encourages good practice. Evading enemies is more work, but when an enemy has retaliate or might swing at you for big damage if you miss a shot then needing to evade it beforehand can stop you from getting greedy, and it feeds into a playstyle that could feature cards such as Sneak Attack. It's a silver lining to a fairly demanding play restriction.

In conclusion, don't be put off this weapon by the shadow of its big brother. If you're willing and able to work the evades, this card can be the basic, scenario one weapon you've always needed to leverage a moderately good fight score into a reliable source of two damage hits, and it won't even slow you down during set up.

In search of a good home for your Fearless Flatfoot? Then give some consideration to everyone's favourite Heroic Hobo, "Ashcan" Pete.

The key element that makes this pairing good is Duke's combined Move and Investigate ability. When Pete uses his best friend to sniff out some info, he triggers the action at his current location, provokes attacks of opportunity at that location, then moves, and investigates his new location without provoking opportunity attacks. This is a fairly decent method of triggering Alice's ability safely in multiplayer; There are definitely going to be times when you and your team mates are split up, one of them has drawn a monster and there are clues at their location (the cluever was in the middle of investigating, the fighter was exploring, etc.), and they want you to come help them out. Alice and Duke's teamwork lets you do that: the move action you'd have had to spend getting there anyway becomes a combined move and investigate with a free testless damage if the investigation lands. As an extra bonus, if the enemy is engaged with your friend then you can deal this 1 point of damage without any risk to them, since it's both testless and not triggered by fighting. If all that's needed is 1 damage (perhaps to help your fighter reach a higher total when he takes his own turn, or to finish a battle that he started) then considerations like whether or not to spend an action engaging the enemy first are left entirely to the wayside; not bad.

However, there's a lot more to this match-up than just the Duke trigger that enables it!

First off, Alice gives a static +1 Book, and Pete jams on static intellect boosts, since they work with Duke's nose. If you were considering Dr Milan Christopher for this reason, then Alice Luxley could be a fun alternative.

Second off, Pete has a minor niche as "that guy who can soak damage that tries to go to specific non-investigator cards first", and while Alice can only take 1damage and 1 horror safely and that's nothing to write home about for a four-cost asset, it still plays into that niche. Want to keep your Plucky around for longer, or keep that Helpless Passenger alive? Alice aids in that goal.

Thirdly, since Alice exhausts to use her ability, Pete has the option to use his own power to ready her for a second bite at the cherry. Adding "investigate; deal 1 damage to an enemy at your location" to the options that Duke already gives him for value from his card discard ability is solid and broadens an already broad toolkit. Pete can certainly provide the tech to pull off multiple successful investigates in a turn, such as part of a Will to Survive turn.

Fourthly, if you need to make Alice's damage more reliable, red cards have got you covered. You can help yourself succeed with the likes of Lucky!, or discover clues even if you fail your check with the likes of Look What I Found!

Fifth, Pete's status as a Dunwhich investigator means that he can not only take 2x Alice, but any other three level 0 cards he might want, some or all of which can be strong tech for Alice from any sources Pete prefers. Scene of the Crime is probably the stand-out option here; Alice normally is of use to Pete as an offensive option, but Scene of the Crime is perfect for letting him use her on the defence. Since Pete can typically only fight with Duke at most twice in a turn anyway, giving up his first action to pull two clues and deal a testless damage is unlikely to bother him/ be unattractive compared to getting a third fight action in, and it reinforces his strengths as a hybrid.

Sixth, the unusual match up of cop and homeless man provides added benefits to some potential red jank that could be a lot of fun to play. If you can secure yourself a means of over-succeeding an evasion test then Belly of the Beast becomes a power move with Alice on the field - evade an enemy, discover a clue, and deal 1 damage to the enemy you just evaded! Hybrid perfection. Or, again assuming you can pull of an evade (perhaps you took that Plucky after all?) then you can Bait and Switch an enemy on to a location with clues from a location with none, setting yourself up to Duke on in there and bring the hammer down.

So, if it's synergy you want, and perhaps something slightly off the wall, then Alice, Pete and Duke are ready to protect and serve.

This set of cards are in the running for "Most Annoying Treacheries in the Game." Sure there are cards that will kill you faster (e.g. Rotting Remains), wreck your entire scenario if you have low , (e.g. Frozen in Fear), kill off your allies (e.g. Centuries of Secrets), but these damn Laws always cause me to exclaim "Not this bullshit again!" which my play partner immediately understands, then we both realize that I have violated the Hidden rules, and it's all bad.

More seriously, there are three possible scenarios for each:

• You have a card that matches the requirements in hand, and you don't mind losing it, lose a card and an action
• You have a card that matches the requirements in hand, and you do mind losing it, lose a valuable card and an action
• You don't have a card that matches the requirements in hand, so you have to dig for one, lose a card and at least 2 actions

Meanwhile, you are constantly checking the unreasonable rules to remind yourself what you can't do, which just adds insult to injury. So, not the objectively worst thing the Encounter Deck can throw at you but a very unwelcome guest nevertheless.

Let’s say you have Farsight. Use that to play a free event every round. You choose this. Free team action! I’ve taken a few minutes to give you guidance, but now you can take an effective action and take this old classic out of the binder.

Clarification from FFG regarding activating encounter cards from other players:

Question: An encounter card attached to a player card is not considered to be in your threat area, but can it still be activated by another player? I.e. is an encounter card attached to a player card considered to be "a scenario card that is in play at the same location as the investigator"? (Rules Reference "Activate Action" p. 4)

Answer: Yes! It may not be in your threat area, but it is still a treachery at the same location, and therefore may be triggered by any investigator at that location.