Enchant Weapon

Does someone know if it is possible to combine this card with "Guts" during a test ? (committing Guts right after exhausting)

Same goes for "Fearless" or even "Say Your Prayers", would be an interesting combo.

Ealandur · 2
There's a reason why this section is called "Reviews", and that reason is that this is not the place for rules questions. Go to BGG or Reddit for those. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
You can also try the Mythos Busters discord or the League of Extraordinary Investigators. Both have a fairly active community that can answer questions. — LaRoix · 1643
But for your question: no, because the test is still a strength test and you only add your willpower. And you are only allowed to to add symbols which match the test. Same for all other cards witch add a second attribute like lockpicks etc — Tharzax · 1
You could not commit a card without Wild/Combat icons to an attack made with an enchanted weapon, because the test is still a Combat test and you can only commit Combat and Wild icons to a Combat test. However, you could use Arcane Studies or a similar card. There's no rule preventing you from boosting your Willpower in the middle of a Combat test, it just that it's usually not very constructive. — Staffan · 3
Fortuitous Discovery

I largely agree with the previous reviews, however there is one good combo for fortuitous discovery that no one has mentioned... Short Supply

I feel like the biggest complaint about fortuitous discovery is that the first one you draw does nothing. With short supply, it is likely that 1 copy of fortuitous discovery will start in your discard pile and every time you draw one of the other copies, you are getting a valuable card that both increases the number of clues discovered and makes the test easier.

This combo is in no way an auto-include for a clue gathering survivor but it is at least good enough to consider in decks that want short supply.

I did some quick math and I think there is an 85% chance that at least one fortuitous discovery will be in your discard pile if you have short supply (assuming a 33 card deck)

david6680 · 63
+1 to this. Also nobody mentions "Cornered", either, which lets you discard the early Fort Discos into Unexpected Courages. — MrWeasely · 42
Predator or Prey

Of the two level 0 Dilemmas that have been displayed so far, I believe this to be the stronger one. The basic use is obvious - if you have enemies in play, decide how you want to manipulate the scenario to handle them. There are a few major chunks to break down, and some interesting factors to consider for each of these.

  • If there are no enemies in play, draw 1 card.
    • On its own, this can be valuable. It means that your card draw will not be 'wasted' by this, and it can be thought of as either giving you a free draw or a free 'play' of its actions whenever it pops out.
    • In Survivor decks, even this case is okay - after all, it's putting the equivalent of a fast event in your discard pile in your discard.
  • Each unengaged enemy moves once towards the nearest investigator.
    • This often can be a 'do little' option. If most of the enemies around are already engaged or at locations with investigators they will just sit there.
    • Remember that when making a choice, you must choose one that will change the game state if possible. As such, if everybody is already at a location with an enemy, you must choose to have everybody move away instead.
    • If you draw this during upkeep, it means you will have already dodged the window for an attack, so there is less harm in drawing enemies closer.
    • If you draw this during the investigator phase, but you have already evaded an enemy, it's still fine - while the enemy is moved, it does not ready or attack, so it will not be any inconvenience.
    • This does not specify non-elite enemies, so in unusual cases, it can be used to move a large creature out of its normal resting place.
    • The main time this is a poor decision is if you were trying to keep away from a Hunter. (But if that's the case, the second option will more likely serve better.)
  • Each investigator disengages from each enemy engaged with them and moves once away from the nearest enemy.
    • A free disengage/movement is very valuable if you weren't planning on fighting, and can be especially helpful if a group is trying to deal with multiple enemies at the same time. This is especially valuable since it is a combination of non-action, automatic evades and movement.
    • Investigators only move away from the nearest enemy. This means that if you have two enemies in adjacent locations, you can disengage from your enemy to hop on to another enemy. This is more useful for monster fighters when they are swamped - they can look for better targets.
    • This option also allows for mass movement in cases where you have a non-hunter enemy stewing somewhere. In those cases, it gives everybody a free movement - and since you often no longer want to be at the location where you've left an enemy, that will often be in the appropriate direction.
    • The main time this is a poor decision is if you have a scenario where some investigators want to fight and others want to flee. From my tests, even these cases weren't a major problem. People who needed to evade gained more than what the fighters lose. The fighters can 'catch up' by only spending a single action - and it also means they will tend towards automatically engaging the target or being in the proper position to tank hits, rather than needing to make additional considerations for engage actions or dangerous attacks.

On its own, this card can be a little inconsistent, but can save plenty of trouble by giving the entire group a bit of movement or manipulation. I've found that even in situations where it's 'wasteful', those are situations that are often safe enough that the waste is not dangerous. But when it's useful, it's very useful, potentially giving an entire team safety and mass movement. Combined with Survivor recursion tricks, and this also adds the ability to manipulate enemies or protect allies with Resourceful or even Scrounge for Supplies. On its own, it's a reasonable card. With the tricks Survivors can pull, this can be a solid pick.

(Note that this works under the thought that Revelation abilities on these cards work the same way as on weaknesses - if they do not, survivor recursion tricks may not work in the same way, so figuring that out would be an entirely separate set of considerations.)

Ruduen · 974
So good in Midnight masks! — MrGoldbee · 1443
Just a small addition so that is clear. This choice contains the word must which means you have to choose an option that changes game state. If the first option doesn't move any enemies you have to choose the second — NarkasisBroon · 10
"If there are no enemies in play, draw 1 card." is player card lingu for "this card gains surge". If there are no enemies in play, the effect would be useless, so you draw 1 card instead. There is no survivor recurring synergy in that, though. Drawing the card from the discard pile does not trigger the revelation. — Susumu · 361
Thanks for the reminder, NarkasisZBroon - I'll edit that one in! — Ruduen · 974
Dilemma works with recurrsion card like Resourceful or Scrounge for Suppplies. The rule of Dilemma (revealed with Dilemma cards) states "as with revelation abilities on other cardtypes, these abilites resolve when the card is drawn or **otherwise enters your hand**,". In addition, Card Ability Interpretation point 2.14 states that some abilities such as relevation abilies on weaknesses and **dilemma** cards trigger regardless of whether the card is "drawn" or "added" to your hand. Thus, the relevation ability should be resolved when we add the Dilemma card from the discard pile by Resourceful or Scrounge for Supplies. — elkeinkrad · 484
Yes, on further rules reading, I agree, I got this wrong. I mixed it up with the clarification for the case, that you draw more than 2 dilemmas in a round. Then you have to put the excess into your hand as a dead card. So this made me believe, that there is no way to time the relevation of a dilemma, when it is most apropriate. But there obviously is with recursion. And since this had been a signature for survivors for some time, this is clearly intentionally so. — Susumu · 361
I would like to add that when this card backfires, it backfires spectacularly. My buddy pulled this card during the final agenda of The Vanishing of Elena Harper and we pulled so many fish people onto the location where the four of us were at. It also doesn't play nice when you're trying to avoid drowning and need to advance instead of retreat. I'm eager to see how it plays out in Horror in High Gear. This card can really add some zazz to your play session! — cheddargoblin · 87
Soul Sanctification

This card is probably going to allow 'heal decks' to become a thing.

Right now, there are cards that ask gently to have a 'heal engine.' Cards like Field Agent, Beat Cop (2), Agency Backup, Guard Dog, and Spirit of Humanity allow you to convert healing into positive tempo.

The problem with these cards is that while the combination is positive tempo (You can trade, for example, a card and action from Soothing Melody into 2 clues or 2 damage with the 'pain for gain' guardian allies) you need to hit very exact numbers to actually get those benefits. If you heal 1 damage from beat cop but he doesn't have any lost sanity (or to be honest even if he does a bit) you are paying a card and action for just 1 damage, which isn't great. It is... fiddly.

Soul Sanctification makes focusing on healing allies a lot less fiddly because you now can utilize healing cards to get a fairly good effect whenever you have excessive 'flex-heal' or when you have a heal and nothing to use it on. +2 to a skill test for every point healed often is going to be just a bit less efficient than these little auto pings of damage and clues. You are paying a lot for the ability to just ignore healing the asset (and you need to not heal the asset for 'single target' heals), but luckily it is also good enough to run as its own self contained strategy, which is what I think really seals this as an 'archetype.'

Good heal cards in Arkham tend to heal at least 2 per-action, meaning that Soul Sanctification allows them to become a more flexible activation of Encyclopedia you can bank. And that is a lower end good heal card, you can do MUCH better.

For example, in survivor and mystic, assuming you can hit at least a 6 test value on Earthly Serenity, your looking at 'spend 2 actions, get +12 spread across important tests. If your Daisy, you can utilize medical texts alongside or instead of Dream Diary in order to constantly generate 2 phantom unexpected courage cards every turn which is an extremely competitive use of her free book activation.

Not every deck wants to run this, but it completely changes the value of healing for a lot of characters. Outside of the obvious of Carolyn and Vincent, some other good candidates for this card include Mark, Leo, Daisy, and Skids (especially || front, X back Skids) of all people.

Edit to clarify how strong the impact of this card is, because I nerded out about the conceptual space it opened and burried the lead.

Its easy to think 'its just a skill test bonus' its critical to look at how strong any sort of spammable skill test bonus is in Arkham. Cards like Well Connected and Dream Diary (which Soul Sanctification compares to extremely well) are super valuable because guaranteeing a pass on anything but autofail once per turn tends to be a game winning effect, and more impactful than being able to do something like guarantee an extra clue once per turn, because the main way you lose in Arkham is getting put behind on tempo by negative effects from the scenario. Clue acceleration helps you catch up, but often the best strategy is to just literally never fall behind.

This may be the best card of that genre now. While Well Connected provides massive over-success numbers, it costs you something to fire it twice per turn. While that fits into the decks it wants to be in very well, it limits its generic applicability in some ways. Dream Diary, if you are dreaming the 'correct' dream, is usually an 'auto-sans-tentacles' once per turn for the mere cost of a hand slot, but you can't bank it, meaning that while it applies to the most critical test of your turn, you can't 'burst' with it in the same way you can as well connected.

What makes soul sanctification absurd is that for every 2 healing you can generate, you get a better version of essence of the dream that will stack until you use it, and even 1 healing will match it depending on context. This is a huge deal because it means you can do things like run your 'essence of the heal' for mythos defense without reducing your ability to use it to land a clutch attack, or to solve an important scenario test, or do whatever. The only cost is how hard it is to generate healing.

The worst case scenario is usually that it becomes a very good upgrade on encyclopedia to do whatever your doing: wasting 1 action to generate +2 on two different actions. That is still a very good use of a card and some XP, encyclopedia isn't bad (even outside of Daisy) and the flexibility of converting dead actions into future value is huge. Imagine if every action you didn't take let you pass a mythos card test automatically. That would be an action worth taking most turns on characters with middling mythos defense, and even really defensively solid characters would take it often.

But it can get SO much better. If you can find a way to either get more than 2 healing off a card, or to get healing without spending actions, suddenly you will start generating a LOT of offerings for soul sanctification that start pushing you to the 'never fail tests' category of play, which can be silly.

Its sorta like taking the time to generate 20 resources for a well connected deck. Even though generating 20+ resources isn't a normal goal for decks, the promise of never failing a mythos test and generally passing any critical test on your turn on top is so potent it is worth not just doing that, but making significant sacrifices to do that.

When you make that comparison, soul sanctification is clearly 'easier' to get test value from: you get a +4 for generating 2 healing on 1 action, which is going to be easier and often more repeatable for a deck than generating 8 resources over even 2 actions, but its also more 'bursty.' Well connected takes a lot of effort to 'take off' and then basically rockets to the moon, while soul sanctification 'coasts' more: You never are going to be without it when you really need it and you have a WAY stronger level 0 and early scenario deck than well connected decks, but your going to probably 'smear' the actions you sacrifice to soul sanctification over a scenario more.

dezzmont · 209
Thanks for the write-up! — Innsmouth Conspirator · 57
What gimps this card for me is that it only applies to excess heals for investigators, not allies. There are actually less cards in the game that heal investigators specifically rather than allies. I know you mentioned the combo with Daisy. However, I don't think Daisy wants to spend her time building up a stockpile of Unexpected Courage that she can use twice per test. As a Seeker with an investigator ability that synergizes with Tomes, she has a lot more interesting and powerful options than spending time with Earthly Serenity. The build you say is viable, but it doesn't sound optimal and more of a way to utilize a new and fiddly card. — Innsmouth Conspirator · 57
What makes heal decks more viable now is not this card but Vincent Lee the investigator's deckbuild options. Because he can use any cards 0-5 that can heal, he has a wide library of deckbuilding options. Runic Axe becomes monstrous with him, and he can be a very effective fighter even as a primary cluever. Coupled with cards like Shrewd Analysis, and suddenly Vincent has even more access to a whole gamut of cards he otherwise normally wouldn't have. — Innsmouth Conspirator · 57
The fact a card heals allies and investigators and not just investigators in no way makes this card worse. While it is true you must heal the gator to get the benefit, thinking that makes the card worse with soul santification is like saying Faustian Bargain is worse personal economy because you can use it to give cash to others. Having played multiple Soul Sanctification decks (Daisy and Roland specifically) on both normal and hard, I can say quite definitively its 'worth it.' For example, in Daisy, medical texts becomes 2 dream diary charges per-turn, which is USUALLY better than dream diary on its own. The ability to bank the bonuses is absurd too: You can use them to get pretty much immune to the mythos phase in concert with a dream diary (testing at +6 is a HELL of a drug!) while also letting you ensure every critical action you make goes off without a hitch. Gathering a ton of clues or doing a lot of damage is flashy, but 'I literally don't fail tests this game' is a huge effect that is arguably better than either of those, and soul santification allows it. Vincent (and Carolyn) are obvious candidates for it, but do not sleep on the idea of playing a heal deck outside of them, and I think honestly the 'heal Daisy' deck is a stronger heal synergy deck than Vincent's is.. — dezzmont · 209
it says "investigator", not allies — Lobstrocity · 2
The actual reason this is even better in Vincent than in Carolyn is Bonesaw. Just use it on your self and don't care about the trauma. There's your action economy. — AlderSign · 236
Soul Sanctification

Edited because idk what im doing in this forum and i cant delete a review. 200 characters 200 characters 200 characters 200 characters 200 characters 200 characters 200 characters 200 characters 200 characters 200 characters

LunR · 14
Normally you can't trigger an effect if this don't change the gamestate. But put an offering on this card is a game change. So with this card you should be able to heal a healthy investigator. — Tharzax · 1
Here is the review section, not the question section. Anyway, as I know, that's arguable ruling. Could you ask this question into FFG and update into this review? That may be great contribution to this community, I think. You can ask into FFG via https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/contact/rules/ — elkeinkrad · 484
Yes that would still work, that's the big draw for the card. " — Vlishy · 3