Richards Investigations

The rare Investigation orientated guardian, this is a build intended for a two player game at standard difficulty, likely paired with another midfield or combat orientated character.

Wilson's kit is shockingly good at straight investigation, especially compared to most guardians. His greatest weakness with the 0 XP build is that his 3 stats across the board can slow him down and make it a bit difficult to hit those 4 shroud or 4 fight creatures reliably until he fully comes online. This weakness should fade as the campaign progresses, but careless play can put him in a rough situation.

Economy wise, he runs fast and cheap. His core ability to knock 1 off the cost of tools means almost all of his assets do less to break the bank than normal, and his events lean heavily toward 0 and 1 cost cards. "I'll take that!" functions exceptionally well here because of its 'successfully investigates' clause. The combination of that and his inherent ability means we can cut our normal Emergency Cache in exchange for Stand Together and help our allies a bit. Card -draw- is a bit of a problem, so we'll want to make sure the upgraded stand together isn't too far down our XP list, and shouldn't remove Overpower or Perception until we secure extra draw.

For Combat, he'll work, but unlike most guardians, this isn't his strong suit. You'll likely be forced to use the second ability on the Sledgehammer, as his base fight just isn't enough to use the one action attack unless you've got cards to burn. Still, Grete Wagnera, Jury-Rig, and the double action of sledgehammer will keep him in the fight. Those who end up doing more of the fighting will probably either go for the upgraded Sledgehammer (which plays absolutely wickedly with Ad Hoc ) or the Chainsaw, which can also use the supplies off Cleaning Kit. Those whose allies can handle rounding up the monsters should probably consider a solid Fire Extinguisher instead to save on hand space while still providing reliable protection.

The real meat here is investigations. Wilson's special abilities allow him to get some pretty significant numbers for a guardian, and the ability to use Cleaning Kit to earn extra Fingerprint Kit users, and to use Pushed to the Limit to recycle one back into your deck, should not be underestimated. Lantern is essentially a +2 to investigation, as it both lowers the shroud and triggers Wilson's ability. We'll quickly be able to supplement this with Reliable for one of the cheapest and most effective investigation engines in the game. Don't be too greedy with your fingerprint kit uses, though. The bonuses are good, but his lower stats do still slow him down. It's often better to use lantern to chip away at high shroud locations, and save the fingerprints for rapidly clearing off the smaller locations. Matchbox and Pocket Multi Tool help give us some aid in this, with the latter sticking with us and slowly becoming a powerhouse card.

Rounding it off, Tinker and Tool Belt help us field the big rig we want. Depending on what our final weapon turns out to be, we may be able to replace toolbelt down the road, but tinker is likely to be a main stay, keeping our hands from overflowing. If possible (and it isn't always), try to hit Sledgehammer with a tinker early on. This allows the tool belt to more cleanly swap cards, keeping the sledgehammer out of the way until its needed.