Hawk-Eye Folding Camera

I need some clarification for the text "Limit once per game at each location".

The clarification is very significant, because Darrell Simmons gives HEFC a new relevance.

The rules say:

"Max X per " imposes a maximum across all copies of a card (by title) for all players. Generally, this phrase imposes a maximum number of times that copies of that card can be played during the designated time period. If a maximum includes the word "committed" (For example, "Max 1 committed per skill test"), it imposes a maximum number of copies of that card that can be committed to skill tests during the designated period. If a maximum appears as part of an ability, it imposes a maximum number of times that ability can be initiated from all copies (by title) of cards bearing that ability (including itself), during the designated period. If the effects of a card or ability with a limit or maximum are canceled, it is still counted against the limit/maximum, because the ability has been initiated." [arkhamdb.com](https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Limits_and_Maximums) How do I have to understand this? Question A: If there are two copies of HEFC in play and the last clue ist discovered at a location where the players controlling these assets are. Is an evidence placed on each copy or only on one copy? Because the rules say "If a maximum appears as part of an ability, it imposes a maximum number of times that ability can be initiated from all copies (by title) of cards bearing that ability (including itself), during the designated period." I would read this as "It needs 6 individual locations cleared to stack up two copies." Question B: If I have 1 copy of HEFC in play and get an evidence at a location. Then I play a second copy of HEFC. Can I - if a clue is placed on that location again - get another evidence for the second copy of HEFC? I would read this as "No." Question C: If I have to discard my copy of HEFC from play and get it back to play (e.g. by Scavenging). Does the limitation of this copy reset? I would read this as "No." Therefore the total number of evidence that HEFCs can provide to a group is limited to the number of locations in a game. What if a location leaves play and later enters again, like e.g. locations in "Before the Black Throne"? Are they treated as new locations?
Hawk-Eye Folding Camera isn't "Max once per game at each location", it's "Limit once per game at each location". That means that each camera individually can only get one evidence from each location, but different cameras, including the same camera if it's left and re-entered play, can get evidence from the same location. — Thatwasademo · 58
That said, (and this would hold even if it was "max once per game at each location"), "each location" counts any location that leaves and re-enters play as a new location. — Thatwasademo · 58
(To track *the same* card as it leaves and re-enters play, they'd use Max instead of Limit; to track *different* cards as they leave and re-enter play, they'd need something like "at each location (by name)") — Thatwasademo · 58
er, having just realized that wording is slightly wrong, by "the same"/"different" above I mean the card the ability is written on or other cards, not, like, a card leaving play and a different card entering play — Thatwasademo · 58
To give another simple example. What this "limit once per game at each location" text limits is the ability to pick up the last clue from a location, then drop a clue from another clue dropping card - such as Analysys (https://arkhamdb.com/card/09049) - then pick up the clues again to add more evidence from that location. You can't get more evidence because you are limited to one evidence per location. — techoatmeal · 15
Does each camera track locations cleared just for itself? If I clear a location and put evidence on one camera then put down the other camera, drop a clue and clear it again, does the second camera get the evidence? I would argue it does (it's kind of a nightmare to track, maybe different coloured tokens to put on locations for each camera?) — Gandalph · 34
Scavenging

With the recent release of Stella Clark Investigator Pack, Edge of the Earth and now The Scarlet Keys, Scavenging requires an updated review as an incredibly strong and possibly broken card.

With Stella Clark expansion and the release of .18 Derringer and Old Keyring, Survivors now have access to a pair of the strongest level 0 item cards in the game that allow you do the two most essential functions with efficiency and reliability: clueving and fighting. Having these items as targets for infinite recursions means your clueving and fighting will always have a skill test advantage (and extra damage with the gun).

With Edge of the Earth, Survivors not only get access to Short Supply, they also get access to Schoffner's Catalologue, which makes recursion set-up quicker and more affordable. The EotE investigator Bob Jenkins also counteracts the immense resource cost recursion typically incurs.

With TSK, from my play experience, a Charlie Kane recursion deck that relies on allies to bolster skill test and recursion of items to further augment skill test backed by cards that play on economy (Gregory Gry) is incredibly powerful and versatile.

The recent release of investigator cards now makes Scavenging a foundation for recursion deck building and a powerful archetype.

Exploit Weakness

All the fight/evade reduction cards that enable Exploit Weakness (not including Darrell Simmons):

Guardian

  • Bolas (The Scarlet Keys #25)

Seeker

Rogue

Mystic

Survivor

Neutral

-- Other:

Couple things to note:

First, between reducing fight to 0 or evade to 0, there are more tools (in Bolas and Flashlight (3)) for reducing evade than for reducing combat. There is also less opportunity cost in choosing to take Exploit Weakness in an evader's deck over a fighter's deck; fighters will likely already have plenty of tools to remove enemies from the board, and so have less need for Exploit Weakness.

Second, did you forget about Anatomical Diagrams? I sure did, but now you should never forget because it gives the most fight/evade reduction of all the current options. Even Flashlight (3) only compares on the evade side, and that's a level 3 card! What a dark horse candidate.

Third, before you're tempted to put every fight/evade card listed here into one deck, make sure you can actually make good use of them. The Survivor and Neutral cards don't necessitate anything, but Bolas requires you pass a decently hard check, and Anatomical Diagrams demands a high sanity investigator or horror-resilient investigator, or both (Map the Area on the other map is usable by almost every single investigator).

Forth, this list shrinks to only 3 entries if you want to trigger Exploit Weakness on Elite enemies, which is entirely reasonable; effectively test-less 3 damage plus an evade is nothing to scoff at. If that's your goal, only Map the Area, Gumption, and Flashlight (3) will cut it, and at that point you should consider Darrell the only viable investigator to make those cards shine, since they stack with his investigator ability.

Lucaxiom · 4497
You forgot about Quick Learner :p — Kryha30 · 17
Thanks for cataloguing these for easy reference! 1 more for the list, the very suitably named Seeker card "Expose Weakness". — HanoverFist · 743
(feh, hit enter too soon). Notable in that it has the potential to bring literally any enemy's fight down to 0, outdoing even Anatomical Diagrams and usable on Elites, albeit at the risk of an additional test that Diagrams doesn't have to worry about. — HanoverFist · 743
FYI [Improvised Weapon](/card/04033) also works against elite enemies. Also it benefits from being able to be played straight from the discard pile. — An_Undecayed_Whately · 1287
Miss Doyle's Zeal or Hope, when discarded is also an automatic successful test. If a skill test automatically succeeds, the total difficulty of that test is considered 0. — tdctaz · 48
Power Word

This card is a role playing heaven. What more could you ask from the rats when you can make them distract the ghouls, tend your wounds, or even confess where the cheese is..

Anyways, I'll drop a rule related to the Confess option since I had to look it up a bit : "Health" is a number which damage counter goes up to and defeat it, so damaging it partially will not decrease effectiveness of Confess. Also it does not say "printed health", so I think any mythos-modified health can take effect. (Rule : Health and Damage)

5argon · 11108
Can you use any of the commands on itself (like distracting itself to evade)? It does have equal health to itself and is an "any enemy" technically. — brianlights · 13
Yeah I think Betray and Distract should be able to work on itself. — 5argon · 11108
Why not use " "Cower." This enemy exhausts"? — MrGoldbee · 1483
Could work equally for not taking battle damage but exhausted enemy still stay in your threat area right? Distract can be a bit better that you can move away and left it behind. — 5argon · 11108
@MrGoldbee, Maybe you used "Cower" already this round? — olivergrayson · 1
Exhausting doesn't disengage evade does both so if you are moving away so you don't have to keep using power word to exhaust. — White Liger · 3
Runic Axe

This card is doing some good work with Lily Chen. No longer are we stuck with Dragon Pole or Cyclopean Hammer. Lily and Zoey are prime candidates for HUNT and FURY. To start, I recommend getting SCRIPTWEAVER as soon as possible. HUNT and HEIRLOOM next. If you want a lvl5 axe, finish it off with SAGA and GLORY. The cool thing is you have upgrade path options as well; ELDERS for Roland Banks, FURY for Zoey Samaras etc.

I think, "Ancient Power" plus "Scriptweaver" plus "Inscription of Glory" might be a sick combo for Akachi. She normally wouldn't want to fight with combat, but this lets her once per turn fight with a skill of 6 to 10, dealing 2 to 4 damage and using any buff you don't need on the current enemy to heal or draw cards. The downside being of course, that she can use it at most maybe any other turn for one attack, and it's quite expensive for a sidearm XP wise, which likely requires an additional fight spell. It's also not that synergetic with her ability (will enter the game with 5 charges, but then replenish only up to a max of 4), and she likes using her hands for a Sword Cane or Grotesque Statue. — Susumu · 381
On the plus site, this can absolutely replace a "Sword Cane" in a level 0 deck, unless you want to avoid vengeance. In particular for Rats and similar "scenario 1 critters", it looks totally servicable without any ticks on the custom-sheet. It is quite expensive compared to Sword Cane, though. In particular, once she wants to rather replay than first-play her spells with "Uncage the Soul". — Susumu · 381
To be honest, I have to see this in practice, but I'm sceptical, that it is a great card for guardians. I think, "Ancient Power" might be kind of mandatory, for a 10 XP across 2 copies twohanded Guardianweapon, because without it, it is restricted to dealing just 2 damage, which is a hard sell in that context. "Scriptweaver" is probably also too good to pass on, it gives essentially each charge double value. So you can go either for the bland build of maxing with "Saga" or a fun build with up to 3 Inscriptions. (Or 2 with the discounted Poltergeist Slayer.) At which point, it might get tricky to get enough charges for the turns, where you have to fight multiple enemies or bosses. So I guess, you need either another weapon plus Bandolier, or a "Brand of Cthugha" as side weapon or something. — Susumu · 381
What happens with Scriptweaver + Ancient Power? Is that 7xp for 2 weapons that can hit at +7 fist and +3 damage for 1 charge use? — 1337duck · 1
With just the standard inscriptions and Scriptweaver+Ancient Power, for each charge you spend you can invoke both inscriptions, and you can invoke both inscriptions 3 times, so +7 fist and +3 damage would take 3 charges. — Xenas · 7
Ah. I misread the card! The original card says "you may spend any number of charges to imbue the axe with that many *different* inscriptions", while Ancient Power says "You may imbue the *same* inscription up to three times." I misread the original card as "you may only chose one to imbue", and then read Ancient Power as "your chosen inscription may be imbued up to 3 times". So of course, *that* interpretation + Scriptweaver would be busted AF. — 1337duck · 1
^I mean "imbuing an inscription imbues it up to 3 time" - hence 1 charge for 3x imbue. — 1337duck · 1
This is a very nice option for Guardians but requires a backup weapon/spells or events. My go to is Scriptweaver and Ancient Power with Inscriptions for Hunt, Glory and Elders. If you are engaged, or an enemy is around, you can go to a connecting location (or even further), kill it and pick up up to 3 clues. Usually costs all charges but for one action without an AoO thats some nice action compression. Not as strong as the Hammer or the Flamethrower but much more flashy and versatile. — Raketensegler · 1
I feel like it's not a huge problem to have a backup spell like Brand of Cthugha with it. Flamethrower ends up wanting shitloads of support cards, and Hammer gets a godlike accuracy but will struggle a bit with burst without a backup Brand itself. — Lailah · 1
The list of backup spells "like Brand of Cthugha" is just Brand of Cthugha. Available to guardians, doesn't necessarily replace fists with heads, and takes an arcane but no hands is a list of one. Another splurge option is Mk. 1 Grenades. — jaunt · 20