Guiding Spirit

Guiding Spirit

This is a really great card and obviously the strategy is going to be how to make sure you can protect it so you don't lose the XP investment. Cherished Keepsake is one obvious route as is Charisma plus Peter Sylvestre.

But if you don't want to take Charisma, you could always use another ally or even A Chance Encounter to push Guiding Spirit out just before it is defeated.

kingofyates · 26
Calling in favors comes to mind as a last minute save for this one — Dustgod · 3
Or Charisma plus a second spirit to protect the first. It mostly depends on how much sanity buffer you expect to need, but even if you do lose it, a 1 xp loss isn’t the worst. — Death by Chocolate · 1489

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 · 1145
@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 · 5162
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 · 5162
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