Bizarre Diagnosis

As of its release, this is probably the most straightforward and effective damage healing in the game, ahead of Earthly Serenity. Basically does what an entire First Aid would do, in one action with no resources, at the cost of temporarily dropping a clue you probably picked up with action compression (Deduction, Fingerprint Kit, Trish) anyway.

Being flexible enough to patch up a Beat Cop, Grete or Bystander is a plus.

Teag · 52
Breach the Door

This is a pretty incredible card. Over 9 campaigns, you start to notice that the game often presents specific configurations of scenario mechanics that can all get bodied by a boot in the door:

  • A scenario climax with one or two key locations, guarded by scary enemies or effects, that can be cleared by emptying out a high-shroud room (sometimes with a narrative shift or bonus for doing so instead of killing the enemies).
  • Optional high-shroud challenge rooms with Victory 1 or Victory 2 attached.
  • Rooms with incredibly high shroud values you can only hope to investigate by either following specific mechanics or making specific sacrifices (horror, card discards, clue expenditures).
  • Needing to spend many clues for a certain effect, with a room that infinitely replenishes clues.
  • Enemies or card effects tied to the shroud value of a room.
  • New, in The Scarlet Keys: performing non- tests against a room's shroud value.

This is up there with First Watch in the vein of 'great Guardian utility cards your Fighter will struggle to squeeze 2-4 of into their deck'. And it's a level 0 event, so even the Tony brand of deck building can run it. You might think you specifically need high base to make it work, but almost any teammate wouldn't mind throwing one of their UCs in to the test. A good Mystic will reserve a Promise just for this; a good Rogue will wonder why Skeleton Key even exists.

Teag · 52
Not used breach yet myself but this was the vibe I got from it, seems really solid, but guardian deck building is getting so tight for me now, Vicious blow is getting cut from my decks these days. — Zerogrim · 293
Do you have to pay the resources you put on Breach the Door yourself? Because it doesn't say that you take the resources from the token pool like on other cards? — Riphios · 1
They are not resources, they are leads. — Therealestize · 72
This definitely articulates why this card is so absurdly good in a way I was struggling with. Scenarios are often defined by specific locations that are a bit of a pain, and breach the door doesn't just feel like your busting into a room, it feels like your actually kicking the scenario in the teeth. — dezzmont · 213
The way it scales in multiplayer is amazing. Your Seeker will go score Victory display locations while everyone else sacrifices an action a turn to clear out the normally shroud 5 scenario vital location. Turns roadblocks into speed bumps. — TenDM · 1
Grappling Hook

Hello, I was wondering ...
Can you play or activate fast card between the actions of grappling hook? .

Arnaudvax · 1
If you have a question about this card, there are good places such as BGG, mythos buster discord, or FFG rule query. — elkeinkrad · 492
As I know, this question is arguable part, and in my opinion, no player window exists between actions. I have a note that if you investigate or evade, the test occurs and the player window exists during that test. — elkeinkrad · 492
Player windows obviously exists between actions taken in the investigation phase. But these are actions taken as a part of resolving an ability. There are no player windows while resolving an action / ability, except as part of a skill tests — Adny · 1
Honed Instinct

Some extra details for □□□ Impulse Control : If you start the game with 2x Honed Instinct at first, when you spend 3 XP to check the boxes, the 3rd copy can come in and replace any card in the deck for free, with the special customizable rule that came with the Investigator Expansion box (see below).

This rule also allow not including any Honed Instinct at first, then spend 3 XP (or more, like one of the □ customization) to swap in all 3x Honed Instinct with the customization into the deck at once. (e.g. If you think 3 cards deck space should be for something better than a base Honed Instinct.)

An investigator may directly purchase one or more copies of a new customizable card with one or more upgrades by spending only the amount of experience points required to purchase those upgrades. (Doing so counts as purchasing a new card, not upgrading an existing card.)

5argon · 10189
Lucky Cigarette Case

How good is this card in a regular build that doesn't include something like Lockpicks?

Let's do some math:

On Standard in The Innsmouth Conspiracy, there are 20 tokens in the bag to start. Let's assume that only +1, 0, and will trigger this (since you're trying to be at +2 for all checks). By my calculation, you have a:

  • 36% chance if you make two tests per turn
  • 48% chance if you make three tests per turn
  • 59% chance if you make four tests per turn

I think assuming two tests is fair since you'll be using actions to Play and Move. You might also get tests during the Mythos Phase but you probably won't be at +2 for those checks. If we assume that the scenario is 15 turns long, you'll net 5.4 cards if you play it on turn 1 but only about 2.7 if you play it mid-game. That's not great. Preposterous Sketches will get you three cards immediately for the same cost and not take up your Accessory slot. Obviously, this card starts to look better if you can take more actions per turn (thanks to something like Leo De Luca) or if you routinely test at above +2.

GeneralXy · 40
It is important to note how fast the tides turn: if your testing even 3 up, your chances come out to 45% if you test twice a turn, 73% if you test 3 times a turn, and 83% if you test 4 times. Likewise, if you test at +4 even once a turn (ex: you are running Streetwise, Well connected, have Picks, or are Winnie), you jump to 65% on that one test assuming your able to turn half of the symbols positive. Finally, Insmouth is an unusually bad campaign for LCC due to its unusually dense collection of symbols, and in almost every other campaign released your looking at something more akin to a 70% chance (!!!) to get a card by testing twice at a mere +2, which would come out to +5 cards mid game and +10 if you were to drop it early. — dezzmont · 213
Err, not 70%, 45%. Still, the math swings more dramatically on going even +3 in those campaigns, or if you take 3 tests as well (on turns you spam 3 actions at +2, your getting a card 58% of the time). It really comes down to 'counting cards' to make LCC work out for you. — dezzmont · 213
It's interesting that you might trigger the Cigarette Case *more* often on Hard. The Pit of Despair's chaos bag asks you to go 3 up on tests in order to have a similar pass-chance as going 2 up on Standard — this is fairly typical. But your chance to trigger Cigarette Case testing thusly is significantly greater: 49% at 2 tests a turn; 64% at 3 tests a turn; and 74% at 4 tests a turn. (Or, to be precise, the probabilities are 24/49, 218/343, and 1776/2401 respectively). — Spritz · 69