.41 Derringer

If you manage to get your skill high enough and play this with Snipe it is essentially a guaranteed 2 damage, as the extra action negates the action lost playing Snipe. Bob Jenkins can throw Jury-Rig on it to reach the high numbers necessary to make this happen.

Failed Experiment

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.

SorryLaurie · 597
Or just drop some clues and take some card of the scarlet key set, which introduced the clue dropping archetype. With reseach notes and press pass dropping up 3 clues is a minor problem. If you get out two notes it gets even better — Tharzax · 1
Research notes only triggers when you drop clues from a player card ability which this treachery is not. But you can also use analysis to drop the clues mid test which helps you actually pass the test, and triggers your research notes. — NarkasisBroon · 10
Good job on the analysis, and speaking of the devil, Analysis is a good way to work this out! You don't like the token you see? Put down a clue, decreasing the difficulty of the test, and try another time, up until you have dropped them all or you have a satisfying result. Another one to consider, on top of Quick Study and the clue dropping package mentioned up there, is Mr Rook which allows you to pull the weakness at will early in the scenario, so you can move on quickly. — Valentin1331 · 71713
Does this work? I believe the difficulty of the test is fixed after the test begins, dropping clues after the fact using Analysis or Quick Study would not affect it. — jemwong · 95
For expert only seekers, the only matter thing is how quick you can draw your weakness and FMO, Existential Riddle or The Eye of Truth. Then you can smash your campaign with your non-weakness deck... — OnThinIce · 26
Edited to include some recent rules notes. You can use Flux Stabilizer during this test to boost your will, and the test difficulty is considered dynamic, so it can change during the test — SorryLaurie · 597
Bianca "Die Katz"

Bianca "Die Katz" is a key card for Alessandra Zorzi.

With Fine Clothes you can get an enemy plus a flexible >5 ressources when you need them and then you have an enemy to Power Word with.

  • Action 1: Play her
  • Action 2 ...: Gain 2 ressouces safe
  • Last Action: Take 5 ressouces and let her go enrage to become Bianca "Die Katz"

Then it gets interesting! Bianca should be immune to most encounter card effects that interact with enemies.

I didn't think about getting her mad and then using Existential Riddle. That's amazing for Fake Credentials (4)! — Valentin1331 · 71713
I think Fine Cloths or Stylish Coat both combo well with Bianca. However since both take body slot they compete with one another. While Fine Cloths allows for using additional action to get 2 resources up to 5 times with nearly auto success (dropping test to 0), Stylish Coat allows you to make more money with bigger risk (you can test 10 times at (1) and get 20 resources). — bugiel_marek · 22
Fine Clothes is the far better option. To test 10 times you'll need to spend 10 actions and over 10 rounds because Bianca exhausts. At that point you're better off taking Lone Wolf or even Dario El-Amin instead. The only downside to Fine Clothes is that it could be a bit problematic when you actively want to fail Bianca's parley test - +1 and the Elder Sign do tend to show up at the most inopportune moments. — koaexe · 29
Cleaning Kit

When I first saw this card, I thought "big gun deck". Up until this point, the level 0 ammo refill has been slim. This lets you have 3 ammo on any weapon you want. Ornate Bow (no more reload!), Lightning gun, Old Shotgun or even regular Shotgun are all good picks for this. The fact that it is an accessory slot makes it even better if you need a good ally (one of the weaknesses of venturer). It's even an item, so it can be found in a backpack. It's an asset, so it can be played alongside your weapon with ever vigilant. As a cherry on top, it can be used as supplies! This means you can use it on your flashlight or Fingerprint Kit. It's a very flexible card that a lot of investigators could use for a variety of reasons, but works best with those high XP, low ammo/supply assets.

maxamaster90 · 11
With the simultaneously released Tinker card, you don't even have to give up other good Accessories to use this- even at L0. Admittedly, L0 Guardian accessories are easily the worst of all 5 classes, but if you have any L0 Rogue, Survivor, or Mystic access, then you probably had plans for that slot. — HanoverFist · 725
What good accesory do seeker and survivor have? — Jota · 7
Sorry, I did want to end the post like that — Jota · 7
Ok, this sounds stupid, but the Burton to add another psragraph sends the message -.- sorry. I wanted to say that seekers dont have any particular good accesory and survivor only the Teddy bear afaik. Gusrdians have the new bless one and the mirror at lvl 0 — Jota · 7
I noticed the Ornate Bow interaction too. Seems a little broken to have this card completely ignore the limitations of the bow. And resupplying with Emergency Cache (3) too. — KakuRainbow · 97
Holy shit you're right. It makes Kinamy even more absurd. Take the bow at lvl 0 and go pew pew, doing more damage than guardian against bosses while you just discard winnies with your ability. — mugu · 216
Hatchet

How would Hatchet interact with Watcher from Another Dimension? If you succeed in your attack, the Watcher gets discarded, but is that considered defeated? If not do you just keep the hatchet as you no longer have something to attach it to? If you fail, it would make sense that the hatchet would be attached to the Watcher, as it is now in play.

Metius · 12
No, you only discard the Watcher, it is not defeated. But you still lose the hatchet, as 'you lose control' of it. You won't be able to attach it so you will simply discard it. — vidinufi · 69