Lightning Gun

Lightning Gun

When this card appeared, it was the first real big gun, with Shotgun being a little bit in a weird spot.

Unfortunately, by now it has been overpassed by a range of other weapons in every aspect:

  • High value: Of course the Cyclopean Hammer which is slightly cheaper, same XP and offers the chance to go higher with Reliable x2 and a potentially unlimited amount of 3-damage hits.

  • Big damage per round: Flamethrower does 4 damage per attack, comes with more Ammo and is cheaper. It has been tabooed to 8xp 6xp now though, yet if you get 1 and refill it with Ammo, you're still in a better spot.

  • 3 damage, 3 times: Brand of Cthugha (4) is significantly cheaper, uses a vastly unused slot for , and offers the flexibility to not spend an ammo for 1hp left. It is a bit the M1918 BAR, with just a little less peak damage but also much cheaper and leaving your hands free. The only advantage of the Lightning Gun is in case you plan on refilling the ammos with Extra Ammunition or Venturer as doing so is useless on the Brand of Cthugha/M1918 BAR.

  • Honorific mention to the Holy Spear that can deal 3 damages also more times if you can generate enough tokens find a way to unseal the tokens on it.

So unfortunately, no matter how cool and thematic this gun is, the +5 makes it a complete overkill that is now obsolete in the vast majority of the cases. This could still find play in Expert mode where shooting at 10+ can still be a strategy but it still requires a lot of build around to maintain a constant flow of ammo.

Valentin1331 · 78512
Compared with the above weapons the lightning gun has much advantages over the other weapon (except the Ammo): you have no succeed by condition for the third point of damage compared with the hammer; you don't need to be engaged with the enemy compared with the flamethrower; it doesn't need as much ammo as the bar; you can use upgrades like custom ammunition which doesn't work on the brand and you don't need bless tokens like the spear. So technically this weapon is the best, but sadly in practice other weapons are good enough to handle your problem without much preparation. — Tharzax · 1
Flamethrower was taboo'd to 6xp (not 8xp). — Death by Chocolate · 1489
with the introduction of black market lightning gun does become a lot more powerful, handing it to non guardians and letting them fight at a minimum of 6 is pretty wild. — Zerogrim · 295
You could do this more reliable with teamwork and even then it's an expensive option for a problem you can usually solve with events — Tharzax · 1
Fighting with a base of 6 is not enough, even on standard, when the enemies you want to take care of have a fight value of 4 or 5, which is often the case on the enemies worthy to hit for 3 damage. 4 can be feasible, if the special tokens don't punish going just 2 above, 5 is never a good idea. Besides that, it's a question, if the group really needs an offclass Lighning Gun wielder, or if these causes goons to do nothing, while the group falls behind on clues. And what would be the advantage of that vs. a Mystic with Shrivelling (5) or the like? — Susumu · 381
In addition to that: if you go this route, you are asking the Guardian to spend 10 XP to basically improve the deck of somebody else. These XP will be missed in the Guardian deck itself to fuction properly in later scenarios. — Susumu · 381
Thanks Death by Chocolate, I corrected. And for all your points, of course there are advantages certain restrictions to the other weapons, the lightning gun being the reference. Is it "the best" though? I personally think that it makes it actually the worst as it could fit anywhere, but with a little bit or work, any other weapon could be better. Reliable for the Hammer, Riot Whistle/Taunt for the Flamethrower, bless for the spear. What I was trying to show here is that if you like this weapon for 1 aspect in particular, then another weapon is probably doing it better. — Valentin1331 · 78512
Lightning Gun has the advantage of not taking the body slot so that you can use it in combination with an other weapon thanks to Bandolier (and so save you ammo), or in combination with Backpack to "store" your Extra ammunition. So I think I would still play Lighting gun (in combination with an other weapon, ideally without ammo) in a 3+ investigator games. — AlexP · 283

Deciphered Reality

Deciphered Reality

Deciphered Reality is a staple card for my 4x Standard playgroup. It performs very well in about 70% of scenarios, and on Standard difficulty it's easy to ensure success for anything but autofail.

In most scenarios, it's not hard to have at least five revealed locations with clues on them, which makes this card worth 5 additional clues for 4 resources; great deal. But it also helps that the extra clues get pulled off other locations, which helps the team finish clearing a troublesome spot while letting the Seeker continue to gather a bunch from their current location.

In the scenarios where it works, it helps either save time and Move actions; or works like Seeking Answers to pickup clues without investigating dangerous locations; or helps advance the Act quickly by getting a burst of clues. In scenarios where it doesn't work... Well, yeah, it's a bad Perception.

This card feels like it's level 5 just to limit which investigators can take it; it's not a game-breaking must-have, but for my group, it's a powerful and pretty reliable event.

Hylianpuffball · 29
It's very nice in Dim Carcosa.... — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
I would say that in the scenarios where it doesn't work it can be a bad deduction too. Remember that the 'if you succeed' is not a replacement effect! You can still use this to grab two clues for one action from your location. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
That is true, and is good to point out... 4 resources is pretty expensive for only one or two extra clues, but it's not a completely dead card. — Hylianpuffball · 29
A VERY bad Deduction, I would say. Besides Deduction (0) costing no resources or XP, it gives you +1 to the skill value. This likely gives you a malus to the skill value, depending on the location you are on and what others are in play. — Susumu · 381

Reliable

Reliable

This card approaches taboo level for the cyclopean hammer. Being able to have +4 (each copy gives +1 to each stat, i.e. boosts both might and will, since hammer uses both) to your combined stat of will and might is ridiculous and will even have 'unbuffed' guardians testing at a 10+. I pretty much consider this a standard upgrade anytime you're running a hammer build.

drjones87 · 201
Is the problem Reliable, or is the problem the hammer? — Trady · 173
Hammer would still be bonkers without this card and puts a ceiling on any passive buff guardians can get, which is a problem because passive buffs are a huge part of guardian's identity. No way this gets the nerf and not hammer. — dezzmont · 222
Eh... I think people are way too eager to call for tabooing. When you are using half your XP for a campaign and a quarter of your deck to do one thing, it really ought to be spectacular. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
The hammer is the problem - leave good ol' Reliable out of it! — snacc · 1014

"If it bleeds..."

"If it bleeds..."

Not a fan, has too many things going against it.

  1. You need to defeat a Monster enemy only. You won't always find one of those.
  2. You need to defeat the enemy, not another investigator.
  3. You need to have card in hand, and 1 resource at the time (guardian's tend to run low on resources)
  4. The enemy must have horror value, there are some that don't (but fortunately, most Monsters do, maybe 75%)
  5. You only heal 1-2 horror on average. Usually only bosses give 3 and if you're killing a boss you probably don't need the horror heal anymore.

If you can/own the cards, you're probably better off playing Book of Psalms, Hallowed Mirror, or Medical Student
Out of faction, you can try Logical Reasoning, or Fearless

fates · 54
Maybe one plus because I've been trying to fit this card many times, is that it doesn't eat one of your most precious slot, when your example take the Hand, Accessory or Ally slot. To me Inspiring Presence is also a contender, helps with a test, heals 1 horror from your Beat Cop in case of success. — Valentin1331 · 78512
Your beat cop is an ally and no investigator so he doesn't benefit from the healing. But you can heal other investigators. — Tharzax · 1
It does heal horror from all investigators at that location, so it has a high ceiling, but I agree that you're very unlikely to heal 8 horror at once (but you get an Arkham Achievement if you do!) — Hylianpuffball · 29
Tony Morgan as guardian is very happy with this card. — AlderSign · 391

"Not without a fight!"

"Not without a fight!"

Interesting that this card was released 4 years before the investigator on the image, yet still gave indications on her Stats: all but and what she likes: being engaged with a lot of enemies.

I mean thematically, this card is amazing, she looks cool af on the artwork, so does the Mechanic's Wrench, and the card does what turned into: high number of Icons skills (look at the Synergy card for : Strength in Numbers, one of the least broken yet one of the ones I've used the most so far).

Still, compared to the 3-icons Skills, this one is by far the weakest: Inspiring Presence that I add to increasingly more Decks lately and the staples "Watch this!", Eureka! and Resourceful. It doesn't bring anything to the success and takes 2 enemies on you to overshoot Unexpected Courage, which doesn't come that often, and if it does, high numbers are not necessarily what you're craving for.

Now, will I add this card to Daniela Reyes' Deck? Probably not because there's much better to do with her 5 lvl 0 cards and Strength in Numbers is much more likely to give a better boost for 1 pip, but I still love the Artwork and I almost wish it was the one selected for the Mechanic's Wrench.

Valentin1331 · 78512
Are you sure, this is suposed to be Daniela? I mean, sure, she wields a Wrench, but her hair-do looks much more like Rita's. — Susumu · 381
I would also say it's Rita on the picture. Also you need only one enemy to be on the same level as unexpected courage, because you get the printed symbols even without an enemy. — Tharzax · 1
It's been a while, but just to say that this artwork was actually used for the Wrench in AH 3 edition and previewed next to Daniela on FFG's communication at the time. You can see that picture on my Daniela Deck Guide as the header image. — Valentin1331 · 78512