Moonstone

The passive bonuses on Moon Stone are good. But how to play it?

There are two main ways:

  1. Specific card effects. The best are those printed on investigator cards that you start the game with: Wendy Adams, "Ashcan" Pete and Patrice Hathaway. The best non-investigator way to discard at will (there aren’t many) is Scroll of Prophecies.

  2. Discarding cards due to maximum hand size. Anyone can do this, but it could be difficult if your hand tends to run low. So other than the investigators listed above, Moon Stone would probably only be used by investigators that really want the willpower and agility bonus and have no better or more reliable accessory options.

jmmeye3 · 628
It's a relic so you can grab it with Elli. The best non-investigator way to discard it at will is probably Cornered, which fortunately is in-faction. — Yenreb · 15
True! I should have said “best level 0 non-investigator” for scroll of Prophecies. — jmmeye3 · 628
Cornered is also pretty good. However i don't think the card is good outside specific combos (bow) and mystics cause the stats don't help win the game, just make the player harder to kill and just slows you down. — Django · 5094
I believe you could also play this off of the discard from Blood Rite. Take extra card draw so that you a) are more likely to draw Occult Lexicon or b) can discard it to hand size as a backup. Might be worth considering in TFA at least — Zinjanthropus · 229
And I think Backpack is, too, a ways to 'cheat' this into play. — Lateralis · 7
Backpack is very clever. I wonder if there'll be a ruling on that. You could also use The Council's Coffer to play it, though there are probably better ways to use that card most of the time. — Zinjanthropus · 229
You could also get it into play with Amnesia. I think you could play it with "You Owe Me One!" because it wouldn't be from "your hand." Would take some group coordination though that might be better expended on a different card. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Dr. Elli Horowitz can get the Moonstone into play without much ado. — dlikos · 159
I don't think backüack works cause Moonstone says it must be discarded from your hand but backpack only says the cards are considered in your hand for the purpose of playing them. So the moment backpack is discarded, moonstone is not in your hand (and not considered to be there either). — Django · 5094
If you overwrite the backpack with another card taking up a body slot, then you discard Moonstone, allowing it to be played. — clydelucy · 6
Oh derp that doesn't work, Moonstone must be discarded from your hand. — clydelucy · 6
Pelt Shipment can help discard. — littlisk · 1
I think backpack would work because the card says "cannot play from hand" and backpack says "Cards attached to Backpack may be played as if they were in your hand", Moonstone only cares about if it is in your hand, so being attached to backpack would do the trick — Wasindear · 1
Tetsuo Mori

Absolutely great.

Survival is a problem even for beefy characters, Tetsuo is a 2 - in - 1 combo that tanks a couple hits and then hands you a gun with which you can now avenge him.

An ally card with 2 and 2 life is worth 1 resource already (see: allies) and Tetsuo backs that up with a slightly better form of Prepared for the Worst as well. At 3 resources he's a tiny bit hard to fit sometimes but you'll never regret taking the space and time to get him into a deck and onto the table.

Absolutely check him out if you're going for a big gun build.

Tsuruki23 · 2551
There's nothing slightly better about his Prepared for the Worst effect! His one can affect other investigators and can check the discard pile to return spent items, which is huge. Good review though. — The_Wall · 286
He's not like prepared for the worst in your starting hand cause he needs to die first and then you need to play the weapon with an enemy in your threat area. But he's great for searching your next gun, in case your current one runs empty. — Django · 5094
Gregory Gry

He's as good as he seems, but forget not the risks involved.

faction characters have typically struggled for good ally options that dont lead to bankruptcy, Leo De Luca is nice but he's inconvenient in many decks, Lola Hayes and Delilah O'Rourke are 3 XP and drain your resources pretty much immediately. The other in-faction people are rather... disappointing.

Enter: Gregory Gry.

  • Sanity tank. Check.
  • Resource generator. Check.
  • Manageable price. Check.
  • Throwaway. Check.

Yeah this dude is definitely something you should try out, especially in a "succeed-by" archetype. Just a little pointer though. Dont go crazy with the 3-resource gambles, do it piecemeal with 1 or 2 resources unless you have a pressing need to fund a big gun or something.

IS he better than Leo? Leo is probably better overall, but you can fit Greg into way more deck archetypes or even both characters together, once you've got all the money off-of Greg you'll be glad to take some more damage on him, unlike other characters that you'dd usually cling to like Ashcan to his dog.

Tsuruki23 · 2551
Greg + Lola are a good team. Tony approved! — StyxTBeuford · 13028
I would use him with any status boost card and success "more than 2" cards — AquaDrehz · 197
He gets easier to trigger the bigger your investigator's main stat, making his ability more reliable. — Django · 5094
Am I correct in reading that the “by at least that amount” clause means if I “bet” 3 resources on a skill check and succeed by 2, that I would get nothing? Or would I get 2, and lose the third resource? I’m just curious if it’s an all or nothing kind of bargain. — LaRoix · 1645
@Django: Also, don't forget Lockpicks. Shouldn't be too hard to win by two when you're testing at 7-10. — Zinjanthropus · 229
@LaRoix When I read the card literally, I understand it to be an "all-or-nothing" approach, making it a bit of a gamble to bet 3 resources. — snacc · 995
I'm really liking this guy in Winifred, with Delilah and Charisma. 1. Helps fund Delilah, 2. Helps turn on Money Talks earlier for willpower tests, 3. can tank deck-cycling horror to avoid the tempo hit that is losing Delilah (Losing Leo is probably even worse). Have only had Charisma for 1 scenario, however, and only just adapted Greg back in, so we'll see how it goes. — Zinjanthropus · 229
.35 Winchester

Let's do the maths again.

In all my calculations, I make the following hypothesis :

  • Chaos bag of Night of the zealot, on standard difficulty
  • gives -1
  • gives -2
  • gives -3
  • gives +2

Comparison with .45 Thomson

On Standard difficulty level, if you aim at +2 (you organize your play so your skill value is 2 above the difficulty), the average damage done by the Winchester is 1.25, against 1.5 for the Thomson. If you aim at +4, it's 1.44 versus 1.88. So Winchester makes roughly -20% damage par attempt for a -33% resource cost. Not that bad

(on Easy difficulty level, Thomson makes roughly the same damage. Still for a -33% cost.)

Comparison with .45 Automatic

The comparison with .45 Automatic has to be different because .45 Automatic has a fewer bonus. Let's make raw comparisons, with no strategy in mind.

On standard difficulty level, if the difficulty of the test if 2 above the base skill value of the investigator, Winchester delivers 0.75 damage per attempt on average, while .45 Automatic delivers 0.25. That's +200% for Winchester.

Ok, difficult tests like this one are uncommon. But Winchester is still +113% when the difficulty is 1 above, +11% when equal, -8% when 1 lower and -18% when 2 lower.

(on easy difficulty level, the numbers becomes : +200%, +92%, +18%, -4% and -10%)

Thomson takes two hands but has 1 ammo more.

Conclusion

The first question is : can you afford two hands to fight ? If the answer is yes, Winchester is interesting versus Thomson if you struggle for resources. It is also interesting versus Automatic if you are a good fighter and have a team mate who can take care of the critters, or if you are a mediocre fighter who wants to shine on the battleflied from time to time (Skid ? Jim ? Diana ?)

If the answer is no. Well, you can't take Winchester.

Okami · 41
Things are going to get much dicier on Hard or Expert, though. On Expert there might be one "0" token and zero "+1" tokens! Also, it's not just average damage that matters, but reliability. Although it's certainly not always true, generally speaking, I would prefer a gun that reliably hits for 2 damage than a gun that might hit for 1 or for 3, because it's just much easier to plan out an effective turn with the former weapon. — CaiusDrewart · 3170
On Hard or Expert it would probably require a lot of chaos bag manipulation to make this card worthwhile. But on Easy or Standard it looks kinda fun. Requiring two hands does hurt. — Yenreb · 15
Get some Jim/Diana token manipulation, on Standard that should be perfect for 5 fight. Lovely! — StyxTBeuford · 13028
@CaiusDrewart : "Also, it's not just average damage that matters, but reliability". This point is perfectly valid for comparison with Thomson. But if the difficulty equal you base skill value, .45 Automatic gives 2 damage for 9 tokens, and 0 for the other 7 ones. In this scenario, Winchester gives 3 damages for 4 tokens, 1 damage for 8 more, and 0 damage for only 4 tokens. Which one is more reliable ? (on standard) — Okami · 41
This thing is horrible, as the chance of dealing more than 1 damage is too low. Take Overpower instead. — Django · 5094
I think this card might one of those cards designed for a future investigator that has the ability to manipulate tokens on weapons. We'll see when the next Deluxe gets announced, I guess. :) — iceysnowman · 164
It would be interesting if this card turns out to mark the beginning of an archetype in which Guardians are looking for "good" draws from the bag. No other class does that, so this could be a new design space for the Guardians. Though it wouldn't scale with difficulty level very well. — CaiusDrewart · 3170
Don't forgert that "Eat Lead!" is effectively Guardian chaos bag manipulation. Team up your Guardian with a Mystic who can Seal tokens and have Premonitions and Dark Prophecies, and you'll own the chaos back. Also, Jim loves this card, and I can't wait to play it with him. — ArkhamArkhanist · 10
Safeguard

So this one could well be my new favorite -card, the wording is a bit out of the ordinary though. For some reason this card's -ability does not have the triggering condition beginning with the word "when" or "after" - quite confusing. So my guess is that the "as" is identical to "when" and per RAW for the "when" condition during the resolution of -abilities it will read: "[...] with the word "when..." may be used after the specified triggering condition initiates, but before its impact upon the game state resolves." - i mean, isn't this amazing, your average amazingly fast or someone like Rita Young now drags her along with her and when they encounter an enemy on the way the will move in AFTER the triggering action initiates but BEFORE the impact on the game state resolves, or in a nutshell this card basically says: "You can now drag you favorite with you over half the board and let her engage the enemies for you so you can take care of your business in peace." - As an additional bonus the 's movements are not actions, so if the is already engaged with an enemy, the drags this enemy along without AOs being triggered. Think about the possibilities this opens up, you can free locations of enemies if you need, or push mobs together, if you are a and want to Storm of Spirits. This is a new dimension of play for your .

thakaris · 198
I read "as" as being simultaneous, whereas "when" interrupts (and "after" is clearly subsequent). If it's simultaneous you'd get to choose which of them any monsters would engage (assuming no "Prey" keyword), which is probably better. (With Prey it may be worse though.) — Yenreb · 15
Pretty much an auto-include for any investigator that can take this. There’s really no reason to refuse free movement. This card is severely underpriced. Even if you could only move one location at a time it would be worth it. — c-hung · 12
they made a level 0 version fo this card that moves you after your teammate moves and I still think its close to auto-include status. — Zerogrim · 294