Technology decides wars. In Arkham's scope, technology decides which cards are being played and which stay in the binder. There are circumstances in which the old-fashioned Lantern beats the Flashlight. Every character that can include Lantern without spending xp should have a look at the following passages, all other character classes can adhere to the neutral Flashlight.

Let me start to evaluate Lantern's worth on the background of it's main use, as a clue finder tool. Reducing shroud can either have a very powerful effect or a mediocre effect - depending of the final shroud value.

Reducing a location's shroud to zero is the ultimate chance for success, because any result will match the test difficulty of zero. Only the auto-fail token lets the test fail (1 out of 16). Currently (with Path to Carcosa just released) there are 23 shroud-1 locations across all campaigns, 6 of which do not have any clues on them. 17 of 147 locations can be reduced to shroud-0 with the Lantern. As a result, it can not be recommended for the powerful effect.

The mediocre effect kicks in if the shroud is still 1 or more after applying the modificator. Investigating at that location gives you a bonus of 1 on the skill test, comparable with having a +1 Intellect boost on your investigation attempt. While on Hard/Expert mode failure is unforgiving, this marginal bonus is absolutely neglectable, it can make all the difference in Easy/Normal gameplay. Even better, Lantern does have unlimited uses! So, if you play a Survivor in Easy/Normal mode, add Lantern to your deck!

The Lantern also serves as a throw-away combat tool. For one action you can once inflict 1 damage to one target at your location. Not overly powerful, but a decent weapon against Whippoorwills: Lantern absolves you from spending one additional action and executing the skill test.

Pros

• Unlimited uses to boost investigation tests by 1.
• With the lantern, shroud-3 locations can be conveniently cleared with the help of Look what I found! or Lucky!
• Decent install cost.
• Has an alternate one-time usage as weapon, either as coffin nail for bigger foes or against nerve-janglers: list
• Combo with any skill commitment card.
• Works best on Easy/Normal mode.

Cons

• Almost never sparks the really powerful effect that Flashlight can ignite.
• Can not be combined with Flashlight, because both require an action.

Recommendations

• In Extracurricular Activity there are two shroud-1 locations, spoiler and spoiler.

Official ruling on Hiding Spot from Matthew Newman regarding enemies spawning on investigator at Hiding Spot location.

If a non-Elite enemy would spawn at a location that has Hiding Spot attached to it, the enemy gains aloof as they are going through the process of spawning, and thus the rules for “aloof” kick in ("When an aloof enemy spawns, it spawns unengaged,” RR page 4). As a result, the enemy will spawn unengaged.

Though a more recent card brought into the card pool at the time of writing this, I am going to see this as a future staple for any Mystic investigator or any investigator being able to use cards from the Mystic class (Sefina Rousseau being the primary candidate for now).

This will be best for any Ritual or Spell card that is costed 3 resources or slightly higher, which means that putting out your Rite of Seeking or Shriveling will be less of a burden on your resource pool. The other great thing going for Uncage the Soul is that it does not cost a resource to play it. However, you want to get this card in the early game in order to gain its benefit towards putting out your spell cards. This is slightly balanced by the ability to pitch it for two Willpower points towards a test or anything needed at the moment that may occur.

Sefina Rousseau, a humble painter with a penchant for the illicit.

If you are familiar with Android:Netrunner, her ability is very similar to a few IDs from that game. She is a very interesting investigator, who might just be held back right now by a few limiting factors.

Lets start with her strengths.

1.) You draw 13 cards for an opening hand - You draw effectively 1/3rd of your deck. If you run two copies of a card in your deck that you really want to see, you have around a 56% chance of finding one of those cards. This gives you a great degree of consistency.

2.) Tuck away up to 5 events - You get to hide up to five of your best cards away under your investigator for later. This keeps them safe from amnesia or treacheries, or random discards, but not your characters unique treachery. When you absolutely need just one card to pull off a combo, Sefina just needs a single action to fetch one of those cards.

3.) The Painted World (and tucking events away) - The painted world is part bonkers skill card (its basically a manual dex/guts) OR a copy of an event you want, when you need it. This leads to the potential for some very powerful, potential combinations, which you can assemble early and possibly execute several times a scenario thanks to this card.

4.) Defensive Stat Line - With a 4 Will and 4 Evasion, she is very adept at staying away from some of the more difficult, tests a scenario will throw at you.

5.) Access to Rogue and Mystic Cards - Rogues have some mighty events, such as sleight of hand and backstab. Mystics have a few great events, like drawn to the flame and ward of protection. Sefina can potentially play any of these of these cards 5 times, before shuffling her deck.

Now for her weaknesses.

1.) Low Fight/Intellect - While both of these issues can be resolved with the cards available in her pool, it drives home the fact that she will likely need to either have some way of improving one of these stats, or side stepping requirements entirely.

2.) Lack of available, quality events or synergies in her card pool - Due to the cross class with mystic, she is more or less forced to decide to be a spell caster, who will not have access to some of the premier rogue cards, or a sub par rogue with a small splash of mystic cards.

3.) You don't want emergency cash/uncage the soul to be under your investigator - Spending two actions to get the card and its effect harms these cards play ability. If you can avoid it, don't put these under your character.

4.) Evasion is ho-hum - To make matters worse, the evasion element of the game is really, half baked right now and more or less requires access to the survivor card pool in order to fully leverage it. This issue will eventually become a non issue as the rogue and mystic classes gain more cards. But for now it is a sizable problem for Sefina.

A few notable combos:

Blinding Light + Sneak Attack - Three/Four damage for four resources. Just be sure that you don't try to uncage the soul because you are going to get hit first.

Sleight of Hand + Derringer/Flashlight/Liquid Courage/Typewriter(XP) - Pop that bad boy out, use it three times and then tuck it back away, where you can pop it out again later or use those icons for a future test (unfortunately there aren't many good targets right now...).

Double or Nothing + Alchemical Transmutation + (Daring Maneuver) - Probably just a "cute" interaction for now, but you do gain 6 resources for two actions (playing the card and using it). This basically makes it a risky two card hot streak, with the potential for "insurance".

We will have to wait and see what lies in store for our friendly painter. But I expect great things.

One of my favorite Investigators, if a bit of a sleeper compared to other Mystic investigators.

While Jim Culver has the basics of a good Mystic Investigator, he does not have the longevity of his spells like Akachi or the Sheer Willpower and low health enemy removal as Agnes. Nor does he have the potential of controlling Doom and using it to his benefit like Marie Lambeau. However, how he plays is something more subtle, with the ability to use the Skull token at a constant "0" value in most scenarios. This ability it still pretty powerful for balancing the Chaos Bag in your favor. (Note though you will still have to deal with the effects of what the skull token brings for scenario and even on player cards).

Being a Dunwich investigator as well, he has access up to five out-of-class level 0 cards. This means you have a bit of flexibility of building out Jim how you see fit. This makes him very good in terms of playing him as a strong solo investigator but also an investigator that can slot in well in multiplayer as a support character. And one other benefit is that he has one more health compared to Agnes and Akachi, which does make him more survivable.

A downside to the jazz player is his low agility and having one less willpower compared to Agnes and Akachi. However this is made up with Mystics having ways to buff their already amazing willpower and spells that cover their stats. And while his Intellect and Fight is at three, he is still going to struggle with hardier enemies and high shroud locations without the spells.

If you are looking for an investigator who is provides an interesting challenge to deckbuilding but has a large degree of both reliability and versatility, Jim Culver is your main man.