Empirical Hypothesis

□□ Peer Review not only easier fill evidences but also allow sharing ability :

  • 1 evidence → Draw : Others with you can draw in weird timing, such as before a test to find more commits or Fast play card, so it may translates to better Mythos Phase defense. Someone that can discard for benefit or playing big hand may want to quickly grab a card mid fight where normally they had to take AoO. Generically good to share.
  • 2 evidence → □□ Research Grant looked the most interesting to me :
    • No expiration. Other investigator can carry on the discount and play a card later at possibly different location. You just need to meet up briefly to distribute the discount ahead of time.
    • Several offensive event costs 3+ and you hold them waiting to play at the right moment. Banked discount sticks with you ready to be used with the event.
    • Can spend 4 evidences to get -6 discount for the next card. Maybe useful for some high end assets.
    • But the banked discount may discourage players to play a card with no cost / low cost.
  • 3 evidence → □□□ Irrefutable Proof : Almost equal to you activating it by yourself, except the clue go to the other player. Maybe someone needs to drop it, protect against treachery that ask to drop clues, to enter a location, or have some kind of ability that triggers on discovering a clue? This looked niche to me.
5argon · 10189
Good catch. In my case, I usually stack evidences and give cards to another player if necessary. For Irrefutable Proof, giving 1 clue to any investigator seems to be fastinating; however, I wonder whether 1 clue is better than 3 cards or 4.5 resources considering 3xp upgrade. — elkeinkrad · 492
Surgical Kit

For the latter option: you draw 1 card and heal 1 horror, this mean that heal damage effects can heal 1 additional horror and the owner draw 1 card, or just the owner heal 1 horror from him/herself and draw 1 card?

The owner heal 1 horror from him/herself. I think it is supposed to mean that by performing the heal with a professional kit, it also calms the doctor down to be more mentally confident? — 5argon · 10189
This card explictly states *you*, and *you* is the investigator which triggers that ability (in general, the controller of that card, no the owner). You can find the related rule interpretation here(https://arkhamdb.com/rules#You_Your). In this case, the second bullet is profit. — elkeinkrad · 492
Katja Eastbank

Another action-intensive but potentially useful application would be in Patrice when you draw an card that you can't afford to pay for in your current turn that you don't want to discard when the turn ends. With Katja, you can put that card under her, then draw and play when you need it in the future.

robnixilis · 29
That's a good call. I see some additional issues in that the ally slot is quite contested in Patrice, and you still have to have the 3 resources to play Katja. Like you said, you get an ability, that you likely don't want to overuse in a game, due to it's action cost. But if I would want to play say a "Rite of Seeking" (2) in her, which I normally avoid due to it's cost, this could definitely enable such a build. — Susumu · 366
It would also finally make "Uncage the Soul" (0) a useable card in her. (She quietly weeps inside, that she can't take the upgrade.) — Susumu · 366
It is a good enabler, though costly - not only to play Katja (probably with a Charisma or two), but once you have a good card attached to her and enough resources to play it, you still need to spend 2/3 of your turn just to play the card (probably ignoring most of the 5 you just drew in upkeep) - not sure if any single card is worth such effort. Maybe Leo de Lua would be such a card for a versatile and very charismatic Patrice, as in my view, actions are her most valuable assets. — Trady · 167
I think, a Synergy build would also work. Patrice is potentially among the better users of "Strenght in Numbers", and "Close the Circle" could give her the extra actions, she lost to Katja. The main issue is, that it costs an Arcane Slot, which you then likely want for some multicolour-spells like Divination or Brand as well, so you need additional assets to grand you these slots. Looks too asset heavy for a Patrice deck, but Katja could enable that. I would still not comfortably tuck more than 3 or 4 cards under her in any given game, but it can help to keep a few critical cards. — Susumu · 366
Another way to see Katja is just as an enabler of improvised and other discard interaction cards. Replace them with another card and when Katja is full, accidentally get her defeated to have all these cards join the discard in one go. — Valentin1331 · 70648
The Black Cat

Every investigator can try to pet The Cat. Who does not appreciate a 3/3 soak, especially by the end of a tough campaign? But the XP cost is too high for just a soak and some, rather random, help on the road. If only you could mess with the chaos bag enough to take advantage of the upgraded modifiers The Cat brings?

Enter Jacqueline Fine. Even without Olive McBride and Charisma, even without Grotesque Statue she has much bigger chance to draw one of the tokens The Black Cat cares about.

A psychic should run a Sixth Sense, trying to fish symbol tokens (fish for a squid?) - but by the end of the campaign, these happen to be quite ugly and sometimes force you to make unpleasant decisions - The Cat fixes the problem! Even when Shrivelling someone, it's better to take a horror while passing a test rather than wasting a charge, failing a test, being punched back AND taking a horror.

Jacqueline's is something you like to ignore if you can, but if you need to use it, at least it can do something charitable - like healing The Cat!

Furthermore with The Cat by her side (on her shoulder?), Dark Future is much less of a problem, significantly decreasing the risk of Jacqueline's ending in fails with terrible consequences.

Trady · 167
.41 Derringer

A cool "function" of this gun is that when shooting an enemy engaging with other to swiftly free up that investigator and you are boosting for 2 damages, or trying to finish off 1 HP enemy with high accuracy, if the bag hands you high minus or , the +1 became automatically inactive on the friendly-fire damage. A Rogue looking to play to the strength of this gun should just shoot it instead of Engage first like a Guardian with extra damage weapon.

5argon · 10189