Hey Duke, don't feel so bad

You take that Ashcan and make him better

Remember resetting you isn’t that hard,

It just costs a card , to make you better

.

Hey Duke, don’t be afraid,

Your so much bigger than an Irish Setter,

The minute you see the bad men start to grin,

Sink your teeth in , and they`ll regret-ya

.

You have space to take some pain

And two spare brain,

Protecting Ashcan’s poor fragile shoulders

Youve given him a second pool

Which is so cool

You’re making his world a little bolder

Na-na-na, na, na

Na-na-na, na

.

Hey Duke, don’t let Pete down

He needs clues found, so go and get ‘em (he’ll pet you out and pet you in)

Remember you get a move that is part, (hey Duke)

Of the start, of your clue getta

.

Pete pets you out and pets you in

Hey Duke, begin

You need no one else perform with

And don't you he`s shaggy too

Hey Dukey-doo

He`s all that you need to make you bolder

Na-na-na, na, na

Na-na-na, na, yeah

.

Hey Duke, its not that bad,

Pete`s got no cash-man but you know better

Remember to go look inside of those bins

Those old shoes within, taste so much better!

Better better Better better Better, ah!

.

Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom-Nom-Nom Nom (yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

Nom-Nom-Nom Nom, hey Duke

Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom-Nom-Nom Nom

Nom-Nom-Nom Nom, hey Duke

Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom-Nom-Nom Nom

Nom-Nom-Nom Nom, hey Duke

Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom-Nom-Nom Nom

Nom-Nom-Nom Nom, hey Duke (Duke Duke, Dukey Dukey Dukey Dukey, ow wow!)

Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom-Nom-Nom Nom (my, my, my)

Nom-Nom-Nom Nom, hey Duke (Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke)

Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom-Nom-Nom Nom (yeah, yeah, yeah)

Nom Nom-Nom-Nom Nom, hey Duke (yeah, you know you can make it, Duke, Duke, you're not gonna break it)

Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom-Nom-Nom Nom (don't feel so bad, you, take a rad song and make it better)

…

..

.

(Edit: Fixes and adjustments)

No Ashcan review after several years? Why? What? Lets fix that!!

----TL;DR. "Ashcan" Pete is perhaps the fastest solo investigator, he can obtain clues in bulk right from round 1 and defend himself from smaller threats, also resistant to the mythos phase, he tends to choke on tough enemies that don't go down after 4 damage.----

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"Ashcan" Pete and Duke are the romantic duo of Arkham Horror the card game, together they make up an exceptional character who can start every scenario strong. "Ashcan" is flexible, since he's able to kill dangerous things and get clues right from round 1.

First, check out his stats:

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4 is a great great number, it means that you can circumvent a lot of painful and problematic effects such as discards, lost actions and horror, it even means that via Ashcan's out-of-faction splash slots he can tech spell assets to cover his bases when Duke is tired.

The relative safety afforded by this strong stat gives you leeway to play fast and risky without having to slot dedicated horror tanks like Cherished Keepsake or Peter Sylvestre. It gives you freedom to pursue Accessories like Grisly Totem or Rabbit's Foot and allies like Madame Labranche or Stray Cat.

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An of 2 can be problematic, some scenarios might force these tests on you for scenario purposes, for clue purposes though Dog got ya covered buddy, an of 4 is outright great. Grab powerful events like Lucky!, Trial by Fire or Will to Survive to sneak successes through those scenario tests. Ashcan's nonreliance on XP items also makes early Stroke of Luck a fine choice.

You can support Duke's investigating with Newspaper, which is pretty good on Pete, and bonuses via skill cards and Grisly Totem, I wouldn't hesitate to say that Guiding Spirit is all but printed for "Ashcan" Pete. With Duke as an initial shield you're guaranteed to keep the Guiding Spirit in play for a long time, the trick is not to start allocating horror on Duke until the spirits show up.

You can also build a combo with Scavenging, Rabbit's Foot and Newspaper, add Grisly Totem to profit even more! Newspaper with Duke is outrageously good in two to three player.

Note that I left out "Look what I found!", this card is rarely required for Pete in standard unless you're playing duo specifically. It's still great in harder modes regardless of squad size.

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The measly 2 is a nonissue, it's rarely a scenario specific test and you fight with Duke anyway. Duke needs help to get you through combat, again skills are a good choice and Grisly Totem empowers all of that.. Scrapper is helpful down the line but it's not a high priority because there really is no reason at all to run economy in Pete decks, the natural trickle fuels most of his spending, leaving very little leftover for talent use.

Pete is also one of the characters that makes great use of the Fire Axe and Dark Horse combo. He can cover Dog with axe chops and by staying poor he buffs Duke's investigation attempts. If you go this route keep your events cheap and assets lean. Will to Survive is an interestingly consistent crowning jewel to this build, it can be used to dump your resources enough to get into dark horse range and murder/investigate the crap out of whatever you encounter.

That said, Duke and Fire Axes arent deadly enough to beat multiplayer bosses, Pete is'nt particularly impressive fighting at 5 with Old Hunting Rifle, meaning that outside solo Ashcan is significantly stronger at clues than combat.

Vicious Blow is not a terrible 1 or 2-off, it can help you survive tricky fights, especially in Forgotten age where 3 health foes are common.

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3 isn't bad, it gives you a small gateway through which you might escape from threats you cannot kill, this stat isn't worth much mention and "Ashcan" Pete isn't particularly inclined to use Track Shoes, Peter Sylvestre or Ornate Bow. He does enjoy a flexible cardpool so if you do decide to try this route out, you will find that it works "okay".

.

"Ashcan" Pete has some pretty useful abilities, you might even consider his effective statline to be 4 - 4 - 4 - 3. Which becomes an impressive 5 - 5 - 5 - 4 with Dark Horse, this statline is then well supported by judicious use of skill cards and tricks like Lucky!, simple classics like Guts, Overpower and Perception work wonders for this guy and even when you don't like whichever skill you're holding you can just chuck it at Dog to refresh him.

Access to good talents to boost Ashcans skills is limited to start, but Plucky and Scrapper combine to cover every base, Plucky wont blow up immediately thanks to Duke, make sure to bring Emergency Cache to fund these cards. Without the XP talents to spend cash on, dont waste deckslots on Emergency Cache.

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"Ashcan" Pete's abilities are: Duke, plain and simple. The main ability is to be used on Duke, the refreshes Duke. That said you can do sneaky things with that , for example:

• If Madame Labranche draws you a card, you can chuck it at ther to cycle it and dig for something better. You can do something similar to use a copy of Drawing Thin twice on a test.
• this Curse of the Rougarou spoiler, nuff said.
• Use On Your Own on two events in one round.
• Grisly Totem. Pretty good with the upgraded version.
• Funky out of faction choices, David Renfield, a crazy build with Lone Wolf(or David), Well Connected, Drawing Thin and Take Heart. There's also Mr. "Rook".

The isn't always good, but sometimes it can grease your gameplay to godlike speed, picking up 3+ clues and moving 3 locations in a blizzard of action efficiency.

"Ashcan" Pete has less printed health and horror then most folks do, but it's made up for by Duke. netting you a more then average 8 / 8 damage and horror capacity.

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Duke is one of the greatest strengths in the game, only one other asset is as equally capable of netting you kills and clues, Agency Backup, and that thing costs 7 resources and 5 XP! Of course "Ashcan" Pete revolves around this card like the earth around the sun, feeding it cards and keeping it safe from pain. Certain campaigns do kick you in the shins a bit, its imperative that you tech in solutions to the problems that might arise when that happens.

• A few scenarios will bump off an asset (Crypt Chill for example), mulligan for something that can cover Duke.
• Circle undone sometimes directly damages allies, don't assign optional damage to Duke and bring cards like Inspiring Presence to heal him. Perhaps tech A Chance Encounter in this campaign.
• A scenario in Dunwick can... yeah.... If this happens, cry. Mulligan for allies in this particular scenario.

Because of Dukes free move, Ashcan is among the fastest clue gatherers in the game (his ability to start working right from round 1 with, often, no setup, might actually make him the fastest), building him in this direction in a team is a good idea. Note that while he is fast, he might have a little trouble with high volume, high shroud, locations, I.E he's still not necessarily a better cluehunter then the average , he's just harder to pin down.

This is also true for as mentioned far above. In general when the going gets tough, "Ashcan" Pete may crumble and stop being able to survive or contribute. It's rare for things to get sufficiently tough in solo, but a multiplayer "Ashcan" Pete generally needs his friends, who he's been dragging through the first half of any given scenario, to now take over and pull him through the latter half. In short, Ashcans unique niche is to carry a team through the early part of a scenario so that his teammates, who have now had peace and quiet to deploy all their assets, can power through the remainder.

Starting with Duke in play makes "Ashcan" Pete the most consistent character in solo, the reduced health totals also makes the hard fights more doable. That said you still should'nt go around picking fights with Eztli Guardians.

When you're working around Duke's downtime, use it to play the few assets you need and to refresh your hand, you might sometimes wind up chucking half your cards at Duke in a scenario so drawing cards is usually better than resources. Typically however, if Duke is up, find something to use him on! Don't wait around and allow the scenario get ahead of you.

Keep in mind this interaction of mechanics: When you trigger the Duke investigate, if you move to a new location as part of Duke's mechanic any enemies at the new location will not Opportunity attack you. This is because the action cost has already been paid at the old location and the effect is now underway and therefore the window has closed. Please correct me if wrong.

Wracked by Nightmares is a crippling problem, but as weaknesses go, this one is mild. The obvious nightmare is to draw it while you're fighting or a scenario is winding down while you race after clues. Chancy but manageable at just 2 lost actions in most cases. Trivial in multiplayer when a friendly fighter might remove it for you.

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"Ashcan" Pete operates very well without having to play many assets. A heavy sack of skill cards can get him through a map just fine. Pete struggles for cards however, which is why Rabbit's Foot, Madame Labranche and Scavenging can all be good for him, they net him a few extra cards even if it's only to feed Duke.

One you've spent 20 or so XP as Ashcan, you'll probably run aground and struggle to find good stuff to spend XP on. Key of Ys is always a thing, but more interestingly there's Stroke of Luck, Alter Fate and Fortune or Fate. Other characters, even , don't have all that much leftover XP, Deckspace or resources to work with, Ashcan does tend to have leftovers of all of these!

There's a lot of cool out of faction options, it'd be hard to mention all of them, and i've already mentioned a few, here are some more highlights:

• Inspiring Presence is fantastic, a free refresh on Duke as well as a small bonus, it can be the difference between moving 3 times and getting 3 clues, and getting just the 1 clues and 1 move.
• Deduction is great in 2-3 player.
• Fieldwork is nice on Ashcan overall.
• Since he's free from Peter Sylvestre Ashcan can harness some fun allies, I'm impartial to Alice Luxley in multiplayer, there's also Mr. "Rook".

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In summatum, "Ashcan" Pete is a strong character. He's one of the greatest solo characters in the game and a very powerful earlygame powerhouse in team compositions. When hitpoint total go up and clue-counts on difficult locations in multiplayer he'll start to run out of steam, he's therefore best teamed up with powerhouses that can make up for his modest skill values by tackling the hard spots with supercharged skill bursts (such as a with Streetwise or a using a bulked up and some spells to do it). He's also significantly stronger at chasing clues then killing big enemies, therefore teaming up with someone who can tackle and kill or delay bosses is a good idea.

Pete is likely the best generalist in the game, whether in true solo or as a flexible addition to multiplayer. Here’s some key aspects to Pete and his loyal companion Duke:

• Free move actions! Duke must have some bloodhound in him, since he drags you to connecting locations and then does his investigation skill test. This often means blindly moving to an unrevealed location and hoping for a clue. Note the clarifications that you complete the investigation before any enemies engage.

• Duke does an innate 2-damage attack and starts in play. It’s hard to overstate how powerful this fact is. There’s no need to dig for a Machete or Shrivelling asset, just get investigating on turn 1 and don’t look back!

• Great defensive stats! His high and average mean that he does well against the encounter deck. A Test of Will should be a staple, and several Survivor allies boost his further and make this event more reliable.

• Terrible offensive (active) stats! Pete can’t effectively cope with locations and treacheries that test his low or . If you need to lift something heavy you’re in trouble unless you can get some icons to commit.

• Great at the one or two actions from Duke, which use a base skill of 4. Therefore, you should aim to do one or two every turn. You will sometimes be tempted to just play assets or events, but you should really really be aiming to use Duke at least once per turn to avoid wasting precious time.

• Because of the way Duke does most of the investigating and fighting, you really want cards that stack on top of his stats. Ice Pick, Plucky, and Granny Orne are all great ways to boost your that play nice with Duke. In contrast any card with a separate Investigate or Fight action cannot stack, such as Flashlight, Lantern, Winging It, or any weapon.

• Your ability resets Duke for free. So aim to use Duke as one of your first couple actions in case you get lucky, that way you’ll still have an action remaining to use him again.

• No card is a ever a dead card. Every card can always reset Duke, effectively becoming a +2 and a free movement action!

• A powerful affinity card for Pete is A Glimmer of Hope. Every Pete deck should have 3 copies! It saves draw actions, letting you draw up to 3 cards with one action to fuel your loyal companion. For this reason the card is often called Dog Chow or Scooby Snacks.

• While I haven’t had much success with using Scavenging to cycle items, I heartily recommend Resourceful to re-use your best cards. Same with Scrounge for Supplies. If you do go this route, certainly run Short Supply, which can give you something to dig for on turn 1. It also can give you some foresight about which weaknesses you will and won’t see. And it often jump-starts getting copies of A Glimmer of Hope in the discard pile, making it work sooner than it otherwise would.

• Pro tips for cycling your deck: be sure to have all copies of Glimmer of Hope in your hand before cycling. That way you can continue using them to full effect instead of losing that capability for the rest of the scenario. Similarly, if your weakness is near the very bottom, consider cycling your deck before clearing your weakness. That way it will not hit you on your second time through your deck.

• Other staples for Pete include Lucky! as well as Live and Learn, which convert wasted actions into successful ones by overcoming an unlucky draw from the chaos bag.

• Even with the fortune events, I suggest starting a campaign with Rabbit's Foot, and then replace it once you have acquired some experience and are passing tests reliably. It's just because generalists can’t excel at everything right off the bat. Once failures are less frequent it’s no longer needed, but early on it offers a vital consolation for otherwise-wasted actions.

• Wracked by Nightmares is not a terrible signature weakness per se, but it really really hurts if you happen to draw it and have to deal with an enemy. In my experience the best options are to cling to a Manual Dexterity to flee at times like these. Or even better, use a flex card slot to pack Spectral Razor

• Speaking of flex cards (the five level 0 cards from any faction), there’s lots of great choices. Many decks here hail from years when the card pool was small, so take note that there are better options available now. For example, Vicious Blow might now be replaced by Long Shot. Ward of Protection is less common now that A Test of Will is available. Ice Pick is a great alternative to Magnifying Glass and it can also help in combat.

• A couple cards that remain classics for Pete are the (slotless) Fieldwork and the Duke-approved Inspiring Presence. A card from 2024 that will surely see plenty of use with Pete is Wolf Mask. But lately I’ve tended towards powerful pricey allies like Leo De Luca, which in turn leads me to prefer the income provided by Lone Wolf. YMMV.

• As Pete gains experience, he has lots of amazing allies to pick from. Note that Duke doesn’t use up the ally slot, so you can assemble quite the team on your tableau. I’m a big fan of The Black Cat and Granny Orne, but it’s hard to argue against classics like Peter Sylvestre or Aquinnah

• You can also spend experience on powerful events. Hate the chaos bag? Ignore it for a turn with Will to Survive. Do you tend to run out of time? Just remove doom with Fickle Fortune and/or Fortune or Fate. For a guy down on his luck, Pete can sometimes have a lucky streak…

That's all the play tips and key cards that I can think of. What advice or cards do you find play well for Pete?

TLDR: David Renfield and Well Connected are good level 0 card options

The Dunwich investigators just get more and more complicated to build decks for. As more cards come out, the possibilities for their 5 level 0 cards just keeps increasing. Two fun ones to consider are David Renfield and Well Connected.

Ashcan's ability lets you ready an asset once per turn. Now of course most of us see Duke as the 'real target' for that ability, but it does work for any asset. David Renfield is a very powerful way of piling up money, and even better when you can use him twice a turn to really fine-tune the amount of time before the doom threshold goes over.

Once you've amassed loads of money, you can now use well connected to easily be at +4 to any test, twice a round. Considering Duke gives an effective +2 skill, once you hit 15 resources, then well connected becomes a better option in a lot of cases. This doesn't mean Duke does nothing though, they're still useful for a 2 damage attack or a 'Move-stigate', and they still also give you that +2 skill.

There are many level 0 card options, here's a couple I tried together, enjoyed, and wanted to share :)

Parallel Pete dropped a few days ago. He doesn't seem to be getting a challenge scenario so I might as well vent my thoughts here.

First off, the new signature, Pete's Guitar, grants you unprecendented control over enemies. Exhaust it to force a non-elite enemy at your location or any connection location to move in a direction of your choice. It of course synergizes with the parallel front ability, allowing you to push enemies into Snare Traps, Makeshift Traps and whatnot. It can also indefinitely keep one non-Elite Hunter away (extremely useful in TFA and still much appreciated otherwise) and you get 1 buck or 1 horror heal each round for the trouble. You can pull a nasty monster away to give your cluever valuable time. For pesky Aloof enemies or Acolytes, you can force them to move towards your team's monster killer so that they can spend fewer actions on moving and more on killing. The possibilities are endless. This is a signature so good that it could seriously give Best Doggo a run for his money.

The downside is that Pete's weaknesses are also supercharged. Wracked by Nightmares disables both of Pete's signatures so it must be dealt with as soon as possible. The replacement weakness, Hard Times, forces you to choose and discard the same number of cards after you draw any number of cards. Occasionally this may work in your favor by getting the Improvised suite into your discard but I wouldn't rely on it. It is still a crippling weakness, perhaps a bit lower priority than Wracked by Nightmares. God helps you if you draw them back to back though.

Parallel Pete himself actually seems a bit bland when compared to his new toys though. For Parallel front, starting with Pete's Guitar is nice but the ability to recycle attached cards seems situational at best. Duke is still a great first turn asset and the ready asset ability would see a lot more play - you can also dig for Pete's Guitar then double-tap it to practically trivialize enemies until you feel like dealing with them. On the other hand, Parallel front has 7/7 health/sanity instead of 6/5 so he would be a bit bulkier if he could get Duke out early, especially with the horror heal from his Guitar. Parallel front also has 3 Fight instead of 2, but it is not enough for Pete to fight without other boosts. These differences overall do not feel significant enough to detract from the real choice - whether you want to start with the dog or the guitar.
For the back, you aren't losing a lot by going Parallel - as of TSK, there are a grand total of 8 Level 4+ Survivor cards (11 if you count the customizables), none of which seem particularly suited for Pete. The real tradeoff seems to be losing the 5 splash slots for access to Tactics 0-4 (all Improvised cards are anyway) and up to 5 Guardian level 0 cards. This feels kind of baffling - none of the off-class Tactics work particularly well with Pete's parallel front (for example, Ambush only works for enemies spawning so good luck getting it to trigger twice; "Fool me once..." has the encounter card attach to it and not the other way around so no recursion at all), and if you really like Guardian cards that much you could've taken them with your original splash slots anyway.

Overall, Parallel Pete feels like his actual investigator card is overshadowed by his replacement signatures. Quite a shame he doesn't have his own challenge scenario, but as FFG said, it is simply impossible to improve upon Duke, forever the best among all good boys. Also I think Advanced Wracked by Nightmares would give me a stroke so there's that too.

Amazing investigator for beginners and for true solo players like me! I have played Ashcan & Duke in all official campaigns released until 2022, including TFA, TCU and TSK. If you look for a deck that is simple to learn, does not require many upgrades and that gives you tempo, consistency and adaptability to any situation, try this one arkhamdb.com

I need some piloting tips for Ashcan. I played this deck in Return to Dunwich Legacy, on Standard. arkhamdb.com

I stopped playing after the WORST Miskatonic Museum experience I ever had. Duke could barely discover a clue because I kept pulling -3 and -4 tokens. When he managed to succeed, Ashcan needs to discard cards to try investigating again. Duke only gets 1 clue per Investigate.
When the Hunting Horror appeared, Duke's fight of 4 is not good enough.
It takes multiple rounds (6-10) to get Well Connected to give you a minimum +2 bonus, presuming you draw your Investments in your opening hand. After a few rounds, the skills in your hand are used up and you've got nearly no stat boosting effect.

Specifically about Ashcan Pete....
Even on Standard, a 4 investigate and a 4 fight does not good seem enough to get the core tasks of a scenario completed. The first 2 Dunwich scenarios went mostly well, and that's because he mostly drew 0 and -1 tokens. The general consensus in the community seems to be that testing at +2 on Standard is suggested. I disagree; my experience has shown that testing at -3 is significantly better. On Standard, you have one -3, one -4, auto-fail, and usually 1 BS token that is worth -3. That's 22-26% failure rating. Still too high for my liking.

So, is Dark Horse Pete the only way to play this investigator? The decks I tend to play have a commonality: play permanent boosts to get key stat(s) at 6, and then use cards that provide action compression and more boost. Ex: Beat Cop + Ace of Swords + .45 Automatic = fighting at 7-8 test value with +1 damage.

I must be missing something with Ashcan, because the consensus seems to support Tsuruki23's review on this page. He's beloved by many, and I cannot see why after playing a few scenarios with him. Your feedback is appreciated! :)