There is a lot to this card because it gives you so many interesting options to work with.

• The asset you discard influences the power of the attack.
• The asset may be discarded from hand or play.
• It can be any hand item, including empty guns and flashlights.
• It may yield resources.
• It's a tactic.

Being a and tactic card, aimed at focused characters this card currently benefits mostly William Yorick, Silas Marsh and interestingly, Mark Harrigan.

First off, discarding stuff is usually negative, so it's a good idea to try and find ways to make the discard work with us instead of against us, use it on assets that you've finished using like an empty Flashlight or ammoless gun to recurse the cost, .45 Automatic is a good early target and later there's Old Hunting Rifle or Lightning Gun or whatever weapons Mark Harrigan went with. The discard mechanic has Yoricks name written all over it since he can discard the asset, then use the gained cash to replay it immediately, one trick is discarding a jammed rifle and replaying it immediately.

If that was the only thing this card did, why does it even allow discarding from hand? The option is there, so when do you use it? You might for example be in a circumstance where a shot from a gun would be wasted (like to kill a Ghoul Minion with a Shotgun blast). A Baseball Bat might break on the first hit and you need a +1 damage attack to finish the foe. It also means that you can get some use out of backup items that you don't need to get into play, like a Machete that you wont play because you already got the other one (also this bypasses the engagement requirement).

When all else fails to be useful you still sit on a nice boost.

That all sounds real good right? Well. Now have fun affording it a deckslot ;)

Great card.

A ".45 Automatic for investigation and an interesting way to "nerf" the strongest in the game.

For 4 resources and 4 actions you pick up 6 clues with a +1 bonus. Use it alongside Magnifying glass or instead of it, the compressed number of tests lends extra usefulness to Perception and Unexpected Courage and other cards with intellect icons, also large bonuses like from Fieldwork become that much more impressive. An Ursula Downs with Fieldwork and Fingerprint Kit can blast locations at 7 for double clues, 8 with Milan in play, high difficulty investigate locations aren't too common so a Eureka! would stop the gap just as well as the good doctor would.

Rex Murphy has been the strongest for a while, but giving accessible multi-clue to everyone in the class all of a sudden frees up a lot of space for fresh blood in the spotlight. Ursula Downs can trigger it on her ability, Daisy's long setups are mitigated by the added clue speed. Finn Edwards and Carolyn Fern can also make use of it. Resupply with Venturer or Emergency Cache, yeah, there's a lot of options there.

To say the least, this card is going to shift the way characters are built. Or not. Less investigations means less money from Dr. Milan Christopher. There's an anti-synergy here. I figure there will be new and divergent build paths.

Edit: A little more experience playing with it.

Fingerprint Kit is not a catch-all good clue-getter card. it is very expensive for what it does. The specific deck-tech this thing is for is to speed up a character who is doing little else, and has cash to spare. Ursula Downs or Daisy Walker, Norman Withers, characters whose actions are predominantly used to beat the clue part of a scenario. If you've ever seen these types of characters at work you've probably seen them sporting piles of 10+ resources doing nothing at the end of a scenario, this card is for them.

For a character whose role is multifaceted, such as Roland Banks or Joe Diamond, fingerprint kit falls off the radar, it's just too expensive a card for characters who need to be paying for weapons and Physical Training usage as well. For these guys there's cards like Pathfinder or Magnifying Glass, cards that are cheap enough to play in between guns or will be generating action value whether you're killing enemies or getting clues.

QUESTION: How does Flamethrower interact with Custom Ammunition's damage bonus when engaged with multiple enemies?

Here's my situation: Leo Anderson is engaged with a non-monster enemy with fight 3 and a monster enemy with fight 2. He has a Flamethrower with Custom Ammunition attached. Leo succeeds on his fight action and now wants to distribute damage. From my reading, when I distribute a point of damage to the monster enemy, an additional point of damage is dealt as well (Non-monster 3 pts, Monster 1pt + bonus 1pt). Correct?

Which naturally leads to other questions: If I am engaged with two enemies both of which have the monster trait, do I add +1 damage to each monster enemy (3 and 3)? Or do I get 1pt of bonus damage added to the base 4 only to distribute across monster enemies? If one enemy has the monster trait and one enemy does not, do I not get the bonus damage at all, simply because a non-monster enemy will be receiving damage? Does it matter if the enemy with the highest fight is the one with the monster trait?

Poor Shotgun. Never did it shine.

Dunwich was released, bringing with it Lightning Gun, a king who reigned for two years. While the shotgun might do 10 damage in 2 shots, this was still an unsure bet, netting all 5 damage was a struggle compared to the nonchalant unaided ease a Lightning Gun did 3. Securing hits was just that much better.

M1918 BAR made its appearance in the latter half of Forgotten age, challenging the king and pissing all over Shotgun as a weapon that could with tremendous reliability do the damage shotgun was supposed to be the best at: lots of damage in just 1 or 2 shots.

And now finally, Flamethrower has taken the seat of the king, outpacing all three guns with hilarious efficiency at the measly cost of not being able to wear a Bandolier.

.......................................................................................

So, where does my dour opinion of Shotgun come from?

Here: The hypothetical target is a 4-fight 4-hp foe, you're a Roland Banks, the classic , and you're toting an Overpower. With the card committed and a shot from the gun, you shoot with +9 to hit, against the 4 fight foe you're at an advantage of +5. Now, you might draw something like a -2, skulls and cultists often have this penalty and the standard deck often has 2 of these, so a very common number, the net result is that you beat the target by 3, meaning that the thing you just shot with half your ammo from a 4xp card and a skill is still alive, the token was far from terrible and still the monster is alive and kicking. Add a Beat Cop to that equation and you're back at square 1 if you drew a -3 or a special token that at the moment has a larger penalty (as is usually the case with harder, latter half of campaign, scenarios).

I'm no fan of power creep or OP weapons like the Flamethrower, but the Shotgun just doesn't perform as advertised, it never has.

This has got to be one of the strongest investigators in the game. I'll tell you why.

TL:DR. Joe gets things done, his 2 main stats contribute directly to solving the 2 major challenges that ArkhamLcg tends to put in your way: Clues and enemies. The low is a challenge to navigate sometimes, but the speed at which he deals with a scenario tends to make up for that.

..................................................................................................................

Joe's abilities are fairly straightforward despite the dramatic change in deckbuilding they represent.

You benefit from a secondary deck that you "draw" from every round in addition to your main deck, cards in the secondary deck, or hunch deck, get a hefty discount but have the disadvantage of unpredictability, since the card might disappear and not reappear in a timely fashion. The hunch deck is a fantastic place to put a variety of support mechanics that extend your survivability or give you healthy amounts card draw, free clues or even free movement. As this deck gets thinner, the more likely you are to find each mechanic, which is why in my opinion -Fast- cards are even better then usual when put in the hunch deck, because they are more easily playable at any given moment. Keep in mind that while this mechanic can be unpredictable, it is still an additional card option to play every single round, you effectively get to draw all your support cards for free without dudding the draws that might net you a key weapon or friend.

Because the hunch deck is not set in stone, it isn't a terrible idea to have 12 insights in your deck so that you may swap them around a bit.

..................................................................................................................

So, ability broken down. Lets look at the stats, these are the secret behind Joe's great strength.

• 2 serves to do not much at all. Even with cards in your potential cardpool like Physical Training, Take the Initiative and obviously, Guts, you're bound to take horror at a higher rate and to suffer the effects of many treacheries, this is why Logical Reasoning is a great card to bring. Thankfully you wont generally be relying on willpower to do stuff so this stat is not going to slow you down TOO much, just worry about not dying! Lucky for Joe, he's also got access to a lineup of cheap and horror-tanky allies and Dr. Milan Christopher which makes cards like Charisma and Calling in Favors extra juicy for him. In solo where you need to do all the things by yourself Higher Education makes it a bit easier to tacke scenario specific tests, this is still not a particularly high-priority upgrade.

• 4 makes Joe able to grab clues from just about anywhere with a little support from his faction. Intellect is one of the key stats in advancing the scenario and having a good score here means that this character can advance a scenario relatively fast.

• 4 is the other stat that has perennially contributed to scenario completion. If a scenario isn't completed by gathering clues, chances are that it's beaten by killing something, not to mention the importance of being able to deal with threats, which is apt to do. The weapon selection is not quite the best, but note that there is access to Strange Solution and .45 Automatic, put these two together along with Vicious Blow and your ability to deal with enemies goes through the roof!

• 2. The real dump stat, once in a blue moon an agility test will be required by something that deals health damage (we don't really care) or an enemy must be evaded. Outside of Forgotten age the odds that we test this stat intentionally is pretty much 0.

This here is why Joe Diamond is so strong. While the and arent great, he simultaneously enjoys an of 4, probably the most important stat for progressing a scenario, and 4, the other most important stat for progressing scenarios. While you'll steadily take damage and horror and bad effects in the mythos phase, you're unstoppable in the investigator phase. And dont forget that the hunch deck is still there giving you free moves, healing and clues.

In short, like the previously released Finn Edwards, you have a disadvantage in your statline, but you have all the tools you need to cover the weakness along with a statline that allows you to brutalize scenarios. Except this time you also pull from the best cardpool for on one hand, the cards, and the best cardpool for on the other, .

..................................................................................................................

Joe's and signature cards aren't worth too much attention.

The recurses your hunch cards, I recommend generally using it on cards like Working a Hunch or Shortcut so that they might be played immediately when you find them again.

Unsolved Case is an incredibly soft weakness. Often its just a couple lost actions and a couple lost resources. At the very worst you'll find yourself with Unsolved Case exposed while you don't have any actions to spend on it or in a circumstance where the dropped clue is going to cost several actions. The upside to these is always "Oh well, it's just 2 xp."

Detective's Colt 1911s Do their job sufficiently. Note the errata for Leo Anderson's unique asset affects this card as well, allowing for playing the tools first, then the guns. An extra gun is never bad and by the time your hunch deck is full of fast card-draw, Joe can slim down his weapon selection to just a couple, especially if you also found the time to gain Strange Solution. Joe's weapon selection can very naturally go from 2x.45 Automatic and 2xMachete to 2x.45 Automatic and 2xExtra Ammunition. You may note that I haven't talked much about Detective's Colt 1911s, that's because they just aren't that interesting, quite often you'll be playing them as the second weapon in a scenario or never at all because the other weapon is Machete or a well stocked .45 Automatic, Magnifying Glass synergies with them because you can get them in and out of play as best suits your slot capacity.

..................................................................................................................

Some 0-xp stars to put in the hunch deck in no particular order:

• Logical Reasoning, reduced to 0 cost, this event is outright fantastic in any given scenario. If the scenario has Frozen in Fear in it try to swap this into your main deck instead so that you might consistently remove the Terror when it shows up. In any other scenario 2 points of horror heal at a happenstance moment is perfectly acceptable, especially if you judiciously supply the deck with fast events that you play immediately, to increase consistency.

• Emergency Aid. Pretty much the same as above with Logical Reasoning. Health heal is ever so slightly less useful to you then horror but as with "Skids" O'Toole health can pose a threat surprisingly often, not to mention the relief you can give to friends.

• Shortcut. Although you're not utilizing the discount with this one, the free move that doesn't dud a card draw and thinning your hunch deck are all useful elements to taking this in the hunch deck rather then main deck.

• Working a Hunch. Easy to hit free clue, making full use of both discount and free action, a must have in the hunch deck even if you just burn it on an easy location.

• Preposterous Sketches. 0-cost draw 3 cards, very good. The presence of powerful card draw in the hunch deck can make weapons and key cards a lot easier to find.

• No Stone Unturned. Mini tutor at 0-cost. Good in a similar way to Sketches above.

Note how healthy, fast and consistent Joe can be via the hunch deck right from the start? And then some XP-hunches really knock it up a notch:

• Cryptic Research, like Preposterous Sketches but fast, absolutely worth a slot in the hunch deck despite not using the discount. Consider cutting unupgraded No Stone Unturned for it.

• No Stone Unturned, same as above except i'dd reccomend just a 1-off replacing one copy of Preposterous Sketches.

..................................................................................................................

All in all, Joe has a terrific cardpool and a strong ability. he can very reliably do the job of monster killer or cluehound as needed by the team, or outright do both at the same time, as he gains XP he can add cards like Physical Training, Well Prepared, Strange Solution is absolutely fantastic for him and works with Beat Cop, Well Prepared, Venturer, Emergency Cache (both of who can also replenish Fingerprint Kit) and Vicious Blow.

The really fun thing is that Joe Diamond has rather flexible deckbuilding, a specioalist who can beat away the things that try to prey on him, a who kills things efficiently then turns around to grab some clues. A switch-hitter who wields the .45 Automatic in one hand and Fingerprint Kit in the other, doing both tasks at once.