Little Miss Science

Main Strategy

Kate is a pretty flexible gal, with decent and . Her ability of dropping clues combined with the on the backside of Flux Stabilizer, means she will mostly have enough boost to pass the critical skill checks.

The goal then, becomes to ensure that you have:

• enough science and tool assets in play
• and enough clues to put on them
• and a means of getting clues away from your assets

She's like a mini puzzle you play along with the rest of the game..

Assets

All of her assets have these keywords, so it its mostly a matter of getting them out one after the other. First clue goes on Flux Stabilizer, then the rest goes on assets for +2 on any skill.

The most important ones will be Chemistry Set, later paired with Steady-Handed and Fine Tuning.

Or Microscope, paired with Fine Tuning.

And of course Magnifying Glass, a clueveler rarely leaves home without it.

Strange Solution (4), once upgraded is still a science asset while also giving you a means of fighting off the odd enemy, which incidentally also lets you trigger the Microscope.

Grabbing clues

With 4 and Magnifying Glass, she has a good chance of grabbing clues in most situations. For more difficult shroud locations,

For clue acceleration, Chemistry Set, Deduction and True Understanding can be used. Microscope can also grab more clues pr action spent, but requires a bit more setup so it requires you to either stay close to a or or do your own dodging. One can typically get off a few good pickups with it during a scenario though.

Cycling clues

The most reliable way to get clues of under normal circumstances is to pay for advancing the act and other scenario progression. Almost all scenarios have this mechanism and when they do, it is thus available and Kate can spend clues from assets to advance, thus freeing up those assets for more clue dropping.

The other way to cycle clues is to us the Aetheric Current and Aetheric Current, both of which clear your board for another round of clue dropping. However, these cards aren't always that easy to get into your hand. They go into your deck when you find them, so the only way to get to them is to go digging for cards. For this we have:

• Laboratory Assistant - hold this one back until after you've put a current in your deck.
• Preposterous Sketches - which later becomes Cryptic Research, draws you more cards
• Eureka! - look in top 3 for a card

A note on the Microscope. For it to be functional Kate needs to be near where evasion or monster bashing happens. She will do some evading herself, but being primarily a clueveler, most of the monster management will fall to other investigators. As such, Kate will want to stay near those to trigger the Microscope. Because it takes to activate, one wants it to be fully loaded before triggering to get value out of it.

Note that it doesn't have a max resources on it though, only how much is spent. That means that she can build resources in the early game and then pick more clues towards the end.

Secondly, note that it is possible to spend the double action and not spend a resource. While not terribly action-efficient, it may be a life saver to get the skill bonus on a high shroud location.

With her ability to over-succeed by dropping clues, one might consider if Archaic Glyphs isn't a better path for her. It well might be, but the Microscope is both a tool and science asset, and feels more on theme for Kate.

Upgrades

2xp 2x First Aid → 2x Steady-Handed(1)

2xp Flashlight / Mouse Mask → 2x Fine Tuning(1)

Fine Tuning is really helpful for multiple uses of Chemistry Set or for putting multiple charges on Microscope. And Steady-Handed is good for triggering the desired outcome on Chemistry Set and / or Dr. Charles West III.

Both of these are main drivers in the deck and will be Kate's first upgrades.

4xp Ravenous Myconid → Ravenous Myconid (4) (Sentient Strain)

This upgrade of the Myconid offers encounter protection in addition to being a science asset, so if we've managed to research this and have the XP for it, we take it as soon as possible.

8xp 2x Strange Solution → 2x Strange Solution (4) (Acidic Ichor)

This upgrade, which also needs to be researched, is another great Seeker card. Again, it benefits us that it is a science asset. Like the Myconid, take it when you can.

8xp 2x Preposterous Sketches → 2x Cryptic Research

Preposterous Sketches is not a great card, costing 2 + and action to draw 3 cards, so we want to upgrade to the better option so we're more efficient in digging for cards.

At this point Kate is pretty solid, and one can take minor upgrades to maker her more efficient:

8xp 2x Microscope (0) → 2x Microscope (4)

4xp 2x Deduction(0) → 2x Deduction(2)

2x 2x Magnifying Glass(0) → Magnifying Glass(1)