Arcane Research

Arcane Research

Does anyone know if say - Daisy could take this card and purchase the 3XP version of Shrivelling? Her deckbuilding requirements say Seeker cards level 0-5 and Mystic Cards level 0-2. Arcane research lowers the XP cost of the first spell card you purchase by 1. Does this lower the "level" of the card or just the XP "cost" of the card? These these things different?

Eccegb · 1
Level and XP cost are two distinct things (which is why, say, Wendy can take Skeleton Key), so AR doesn't affect which cards an investigator can get. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
During a campaign, players build a deck before playing the first scenario.will be suffer 1 mental trauma？ — ddk1982 · 1
You get the mental traume immediately as you add the card to your deck. Since this happens before the start of the first game, when you begin the first game you will start with 2 horror — Samirash · 1

Terrible Secret

Terrible Secret

Doesn’t Deny existence only work on encounter cards and enemy attacks? I could be completely misunderstanding part of the interaction or encounter keyword- I’m still learning a lot of the technical side of the game

Skothu · 3
Yes, as Deny Existence states you can only play it on encounter cards. However weakness cards with encounter cardtypes, such as 'Treachery' and 'Enemy' are considered to be encounter cards. You can find it in the glossary under section: 'Weakness'. — Csys · 1
Thanks! I assumed the post was right, finding out why helps a ton with deck building, very much appreciated! — Skothu · 3
To clarify further, weakness cards with encounter cardtypes are considered to be encounter cards AFTER they are drawn. While being drawn, they aren’t encounter cards yet. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
So you can actually use "Deny Existence" to cancel all the Horror caused by "Terrible Secret"???? — Alogon · 1144
@Alogon No, but you can use it to IGNORE all the horror caused by it. This is an important distinction because Terrible Secrets is immune to cancel effects, so many cards, such as Delay the Inevitable, can’t be used to stop it. Really, FFG should add an FAQ entry clarifying the rules for ‘ignore’ effects because ‘cancel’ is covered in the rules reference and there has been very little to actually distinguish the difference between them besides this one card. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
I’m going to assume that there will be errata for this card to also prevent its effects from being ignored (Deny Existence). This weakness is a non-factor with Deny Existence and you almost hope to draw it eventually if you have Deny Existence (5) and Horror on you. — carlsonjd11 · 521

Take Heart

Take Heart

If i fail a test with Take Heart or Rabbit's Foot by 2 or less and draw Oops!, "Look what I found!" or Live and Learn through them, can i immediately play them without taking another test? This happened during our last games a few times, just making sure i didn't play it wrong.

Django · 5155
I'd say no to most of these. I think Rabbit's Foot, Oops! and LWIF all trigger during ST.6, but Take Heart, being a skill card, triggers during ST.7. Live and Learn is an exception because it explicitly triggers after a test ends (i.e., at the end of ST.8), so you can play that off if you just drew it with Take Heart. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Rabbits foot would work with all of these. Take heart only works with live and learn.If you drew Look What I found — Olimarrex · 4
Whoops pressed enter too early. If you drew Look What I found with rabbits foot you're still in the same window of step 6 and can play it. — Olimarrex · 4

Drawing Thin

Drawing Thin

If i use this on Rotting Remains and draw , do i take 5 horror (or 7 if used both of them)? This would increase cards searched with Rabbit's Foot 3, if i fail?

And would increase the amount of charges if i succeed on the higher difficulty on Ancient Stone?

Django · 5155
Playing Drawing Thin on Rotting Remains seems like a terrible idea. If you auto-fail, you'd be taking 5 horror - drawing a 0 when the difficulty is 5 means you fail by 5. By the same token, It would increase the charges on Ancient Stone, which directly references the difficulty of the test. — cb42 · 38
Except of you plan to deny the existence (5) of rotten remains - then it is a very good idea! — trazoM · 9
Or if you're a (mostly) sane Agnes and there's an enemy around. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Unfortunately, you can't use Drawing Thin on Rotting Remains or almost any other treachery card with a Revelation effect. Drawing Thin can only trigger off of skill tests you initiate - things like investigate, fight, or evade actions. — Tynian · 1
Actually, Tynian, that is quite incorrect. The card text of ‘when you initiate a skill test’ is not in contrast with an ‘unwilling’ skill test from an encounter card but in contrast to ‘another investigator’ initiating a skill test. If you go back through the rules, you will see that ‘initiate’ is used to mean ‘resolving some effect in full’, whether it’s an elder sign ability, or action, or a ‘when’ clause of rules text, etc. There is no required notion of player agency when it comes to ‘initiating’. Heck, technically, you aren’t any more responsible for initiating any of skill tests you mentioned because you choose the action and the game rules of said action trigger the skill test. So, yes. You can use Drawing Thin, or any other ability that triggers when you initiate a skill test such have as Money Talks, on a skill test during a Revalation effect. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
tHaT iS qUiTe incOrReCt — DeckLicker · 1

Shrewd Analysis

Shrewd Analysis

What I haven't seen written is that this is still a good card for strange solution. Four experience points for two random upgrades will save four experience points. Even if acidic ichor is not drawn, it is only two additional experience points to switch them out. It still saves two experience points overall.

The same will happen with both archaic glyphs and ancient stone.

filovirus · 2
Strange solutions and the like actually specify they can only be included by upgrading from the "unidentified/untranslated" versions, meaning to swap out upgraded versions, you would need to buy a level 0 version and then upgrade it again, for 5 xp total each, not 1. — zrayak · 87
zrayak is right, and furthermore the discount for upgrading cards wouldn’t be relevant even without that clause because “When purchasing a higher level version of a card with the same title, the investigator may choose to "upgrade" that card by paying only the difference in experience (to a minimum of 1) between the two cards and removing the lower level version of the card from his or her deck.” The rules do not allow for ‘upgrading’ to a card of the same level. Previously this wasn’t very relevant due to these cards’ clauses, but it is relavent now for the level 3 upgraded dual-class cards. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Can you add Shrewed Analysis and use it immediately in the same upgrade? Say I identified the Strange Solution in the last scenario, can I add SA before the next scenario and immediately use it to add 2 Identified Solutions? — Vortilion · 1
I don't know with any official capacity, but I would presume that yes you can. Same as Adaptability. — VanyelAshke · 181
Start first scenario with 2x Strange Solution (Unidentified) and earn at least 9 XP. Take Shrewd Analysis and get two random level 4 Solutions. Then take Adaptable and swap for your two unidentified solutions, and upgrade into two more Level 4 Solutions. :) — Runic · 1
Why would you "add" Shrewd Analysis? You can just start with it in your level 0 deck. — gustafusus · 1
@Runic I don't think that works, as you can only own 2 copies of a card "by title" and the title of each of these varians are simply "Strange Solution" — Axoloth · 16