The year is 2077, Arkham Horror is now exclusively playable on expert mode and you're faced with a (7) test threatening to take all your clues or deal up to 7 horror. You are 5 below naturally and have a single Eureka in hand to commit. Your friend commits guts, there's 10 blessed tokens in the bag. Success is within reach as you continue to stack the odds further in your favor. You draw an autofail and go insane.

This is a brutal weakness. With Kate's measly 2, you're already 1 below on this card's base difficulty, and every single use of Kate's ability makes this test worse. Unlike Harvey, you don't even get the benefit of having a threshold of 2 or 3 clues, every single clue on an asset is a risk until you draw this card. It's not unsolvable, but the threat is real and this card can delete Kate from the game if you aren't prepared for it.

With Kate's introduction in Hemlock, we also saw the addition of science cards like Chemistry Set, and extra tools through Dr. Charles West III and Tinker. You're likely going to have a lot of assets out that can have a clue placed on them, and assuming you don't want to forego your investigator's ability, there's a few things that can mitigate this weakness:

1. Logical Reasoning or its elder sibling Logicaler Reasoning. There aren't very many seeker cards that even mention horror, so there isn't much competition here. Kate has off-class access to First Aid and Delay the Inevitable, but neither is an ideal solution. Moment of Respite is also worth a look.

2. Stock up on will commits through Guts, Inquiring Mind, and Unexpected Courage. The drawback here is that each will commit you add will lower your deck's overall efficiency. A hand full of will commits before or after this card is drawn are mostly just going to take up space.

3. "Fool me once..." is an insight, so Kate has access to it. If drawn early you can use this to trap your weakness and mitigate its effect on future cycles. That said, its value depends heavily on how often you cycle and the first test will happen no matter what.

4. There are 11 Seeker allies with 2 or more sanity to let pay the price of your hubris, and Eldritch Sophist has 3 sanity soak if you're absolutely determined to go that route.

Having said all that, I like this weakness. Kate has the potential for an absurd science toolkit, and this weakness makes it possible to have it all blow up in your face.

TL;DR - Run Carolyn Fern with Kate and turn bad science into good money.

Edit: There's a ruling on Surprising Find that makes this more manageable. "Next test" on Flux Stabilizer counts for the current test, so you can boost will in response to drawing your weakness; however, it will change the test difficulty - so each clue represents +1 will overall. Just don't draw the autofail if you're pumping clues to pass.

I've suffered this in Normal mode during TSK campaign. This thing can deal you 5 horror easily if you aren't prepared.

How do you prepare to this? This are the thing I used to mitigate the sheer brutality of this card.

• Just run a lot of card draw. The sooner you pull this out your deck, the better. Yes, it can deal you1-3 horror from the get-go, but 1-3 horror is better than 5 in later stages of a scenario. You know, there is a chance you pull Aetheric Current before Failed Experiment to get you out of a fishy situation where you have 5 clues distributed among your cards.

• Horror healing: Steady Hand with the Science card kit is a must. Period. If you pull Failed Experiment, healing 1 each turn will keep you afloat. Logical Reasoning is also good for this, giving you 2 willpower icons if you want to try and pass the Willpower test.

• Horror soak: Allies in Seeker usually run higher horror soak. Medical Student is even a Science ally. Ravenous Myconid: Nurturing Strain will minimize the risk of dying from this to the bare minimum.

• Eureka to fish Aetheric Current / Failed Experiment earlier from your deck. Well Funded and Inquiring Mind to get free 3 wild icons because of the nature of the assets you'll run with Kate.

• Hawk-Eye Folding Camera to get +1 willpower and +1 sanity.

• Put clues in assets. BE CAREFUL ABOUT THIS, BECAUSE AN AUTOFAIL WILL PUNISH YOU HARD. Like I went 7 vs 5 to avoid massive damage and I ate 5 horror because of this. Even then, sometimes it is worth the risk.

You NEED to use Flux Stabilizer to get to the numbers, because Kate has only 4 intellect and 4 agility. Asume this will deal you at least 3 horror in every scenario and prepare for the worst. Let your Guardian (Carolyn, anyone with Girish Kadakia, for example) do something about this.

In harder modes this can be worse, but even then, pulling this weakness earlier is the best option you have to avoid a massive punishment in later stages of a scenario.

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