My Lola Hayes Guide in 2020

It's been awhile since we've checked in with Lola Hayes.

Since my original write up after my Path to Carcosa run, I've built a Return to Dunwich cluever Lola, a Circle Undone solo Lola, and a fill the gaps style Dreameaters Lola that does whatever the team needs. This is the zero exp build I settled on for the Dreameaters run.

Lola is often compared to Jenny Barnes because they share the same stat line, but I'm not sure that's fair. I have completed the expert solo Dunwich challenge with Jenny and not with Lola. I do give Lola higher points than Jenny because Lola's end campaign potential is much higher than Jenny's. This is because they printed Another Day, Another Dollar which is four turns of Jenny's ability every game while still enjoying the vast toolkit accessible to Lola.

The bad news first:

Lola is tier 2 in Standard mode and in Hard mode. Yes, she has her techniques and mechanics to ignore or overwhelm the chaos bag but they are intermittent enough to be inconsistent. Second, explaining the reason for every card would be utterly exhausting to read and to type, so if you disagree with a particular choice, please just go ahead and make that swap.

The weakness:

My entire philosophy of Lola is weakness mitigation. So, let's talk about the weakness first. Drawing Crisis of Identity and losing, say, a .45 Thompson would be an absolute disaster. Despite the danger of Lola's weakness, sometimes we need to draw cards to have more options and make better plays.

So, Lola needs a safe class to draw cards, whether it be during her turn or during the upkeep phase, Crisis of Identity can be absolutely brutal and means Lola should avoid drawing cards if she actively has something that might be discarded. In this build, Preposterous Sketches is the only Seeker card in the deck. Lola can play this card while she is a Seeker without fear of losing anything important. This also means that Seeker is a safe class to be if Lola needs to simply spend actions to draw cards during the scenario. Every Lola deck needs a safe class to draw cards and because, say Improvisation pays for Preposterous Sketches, I find Seeker to be an excellent safe class to draw cards.

This doesn't mean Lola must be a Seeker to draw cards. She can safely draw cards from any class for which she doesn't have a matching card. Instead, we've simply designated the only class which all dedicated card draw will come from in the future. We will probably avoid spending exp on Seeker cards (outside of permanents) for as long as this is the case. Someone could, in theory, draw both Crisis of Identity during one Preposterous Sketches and while that could be very bad, it also probably means your weaknesses are gone for the rest of the game.

Alyssa Graham is another way to control the weakness. She comes with amazing soak and a great passive bonus. If you are a Mystic, Alyssa Graham can tell you if your next card is Crisis of Identity. Then, you can add a doom or switch classes before drawing that card. Please be aware that one of those two options might need to happen when you use Alyssa Graham. Have a way to kill her if she might cause the Agenda to advance or have a way to swap classes and just draw the thing.

Timing windows:

Take Heart can be committed while you are a Survivor, and then you can switch classes mid skill test to protect any other Survivor cards you might be holding. Please get out your rule books and look for the lightning windows as these kinds of tricks are what playing Lola teaches you. You could also just commit Take Heart to a friend's test.

To my discredit, the following doesn't work and is a bad example. Skip this part or read the correction afterwards. This also applies to an attack. Maybe you want to shoot something with your .45 Thompson and you started your turn as Guardian. You can commit Vicious Blow to the skill test while you are a Guardian, then switch to Rogue using Lola's ability, then commit something like Quick Thinking before pulling the chaos token. Now you can still use the gun for the remainder of the turn since it is also a Rogue card. Lola has a window to switch classes before committing cards and after, but not in between committing them. Therefore she cannot commit two different class skill cards to the same skill test. The same effect could be reached over two fight actions, however.

Three in every stat:

Dark Horse makes those stats into fours. The weapons boost fist even further. The ally boosts book even further. Trial by Fire and Resourceful boost whatever you need. Quick Thinking and Swift Reflexes let her capitalize more on the turns she's popping off. This makes Lola a great filler investigator for a team. She can prioritize what the team needs which makes it easier to discard what they don't need.

The problem with Dark Horse is that Lola wants to be rich. She has Improvisation and Emergency Cache and can buy into Hot Streak and Another Day, Another Dollar. These cards will eventually fund your stat engine, but Dark Horse wins the early campaign stat boost. Lola will almost always get the money that Dark Horse allows her to forego anyways and then spend it on something to reactivate the Dark Horse when necessary. Don't get married to it, Dark Horse is on the chopping block.

Upgrading Lola:

Buy permanent upgrades. Absolutely buy Adaptable and Another Day, Another Dollar. Consider Studious. It helps mulligans a lot. Ask yourself, which classes are you all the time? Then buy those stat boost cards, such as Keen Eye. Those talents and simply being rich are how you will enjoy Lola. These cards also count towards your deck construction requirements.

That's right, if you buy Adaptable, 2 x Another Day, Another Dollar, and Streetwise, then that is 4 rogue cards for minimum deck requirements. You only need 3 more rogue cards in your deck for Lola's 7 card restriction, so you could use Adaptable to cycle out some things you aren't using.

Please keep in mind that, by a strict reading of the rules, Lola is not a Guardian when she would trigger the ability on Stick to the Plan so she cannot fill it with any cards. Some groups house rule this to work.

If ideas aren't forthcoming, there is always the Ace in the Hole and Will to Survive combo. This combo works great with Quick Thinking, too. While this used to be a combo exclusive to Lola, Rita Young can also access it.

End campaign Lola decks look extremely different than beginning ones. Upgrading requires that Lola fill in the gaps of the team and since Adaptable combined with the deck requirements becoming filled by permanents means whole classes can shift in and out. It is truly difficult to give more advice than what I've shared here.

Lola is a fun and adaptable investigator. Her weakness and deck building are challenging. It takes some getting used to her. Upgrading her to fit the needs of your team is an enjoyable experience that I hope many of you take the time to try out for yourselves.