Indebted

Standard cost of a weakness is 3 actions :

  • One action since you don't draw a card in compensation
  • Two actions to get rid of the weakness Depending on how much you draw, you draw a weakness between half of the time and 5 times over 6. Lets average it to 2/3. So in average, a weakness make you lose 2 actions each game.

This weakness make you lose two actions at the start of the game :

  • No surprise. Determinism is always a good thing, since you can build against.
  • The other players can compensate you inefficiency in the first few turns.
  • You are less likelly to draw a weakness. Drawing a weakness while searching for a solution to a problem is a VERY bad news. You are significantly reducing the probabilities of a bad news.

So except if you planed to "rush" trough the scenario (which is reasonnable when playing alone), this weakness is better than the "standard weakness".

MoiMagnus · 63
I love to play Mark Harrigan and it's not uncommon to cycle twice through my deck. Being indebted assures I won't see any treachery at the worst possible moment, and as Mark I need to control how much horror and damage I can sustain on any given turn. If I could choose, I'd take indebted anyday over almost any other treachery, since Mark doesn't particularly need any expensive card at the beginning thanks to Sophie. And I think I would be equally blessed playing any seeker with access to lots of card draw. — Freeman · 5
.45 Automatic

Is it worth it?

Actually no. There are better weapons than this in the upgrade guardian store.

The only thing that this weapon can fit into a deck is if you focus on an expensive build on multiplayer and you only have a few xp to spare. Otherwise dont spent xp on this one.

Cant say i completely agree. — aramhorror · 704
I meant to add: It's a 2xp card, meaning that skids and yorrick and other guardian-offrole characters can include it. It's also not such a bad pick, if you decide mid-campaign that you need a gun. In that case the xp-cost is just +1, compared to the .32 or the regular .45. The +2 for combat is pretty okay. And the fact that the gun is good versus Melee-Resistant enemies AND enemies with retaliate is just a nice bonus if they happen to cross your path. — aramhorror · 704
I also consider this upgrade fairly meh. It may be OK on Hard/Expert in certain circumstances. It would look better if there were more melee-resistant enemies in the game. Right now there are only a couple. The big problem is that this upgrade didn't solve the major flaw of the .45, viz. 4 bullets are not nearly enough. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
Its not meant to be an upgrade to the .45. Its a card you pick when you start the game with no guns. — aramhorror · 704
It's likely more for the cross-class investigators such as Skids and Yorick. Yes, Skids get's access to the Typewriter, but that's 5 xp away in a faction that is so hungry for XP, the replacement card for Jenny is reduce xp costs of cards. So it's something to use until you can afford the typewriter. — CecilAlucardX · 10
Skids and Yorick already has access to Machete which is better than this card. This weapon only adds the retaliate bonus. Personally i wouldn't spend 4 xp (for 2 copies) while i need them for test of will, devil's luck, sure gamble etc. You have to manage your xp during campaign and this card doesnt belong to the priorities. There are great 1xp cards out there than spending 2xp to this card if you have a spare to spend before last scenario. — Uncle George the Farmer · 49642
Its a firearm and some enemies key off of non-melee traits. I also don't think this item is a x2 purchase unless you are Lola. — Myriad · 1226
Indebted

I'm surprised that the top review of this weakness calls it very mild. I consider it way worse than average. It's probably not the worst weakness in the game (Overzealous exists, and I'm no fan of Amnesia) but it's quite bad.

Now, you might argue that Indebted has two things going for it. First, it only takes away two resources. That doesn't seem too bad. A run-of-the-mill weakness like Haunted or Chronophobia probably takes away two actions (actions being more valuable than resources), and something like Paranoia has the potential to take away a lot more than two resources. Second, you'll obviously never draw Indebted, so it won't cost you a card as other weaknesses do. And if you're Indebted, your odds of drawing any other specific card you want in your deck are ever so slightly higher.

But I still consider this weakness terrible. First: it hits you every single game. There are no reprieves. A good rule of thumb is that a standard scenario lasts about ~12 turns, all things considered. There are 28 or more cards in your deck after your opening hand. That means that as long as you're not spending a ton of actions drawing cards, there is a pretty decent chance you will never draw your basic weakness. Or, if you do draw it, you might draw it so late in the game that it doesn't matter (there are many weaknesses that can simply be shrugged off if drawn late enough). This will never be the case with Indebted, which will always hurt you.

Second, the cost of two resources may not seem that bad, but in fact they are more significant than they seem, because resources are at their most valuable on turn 1. Almost every investigator needs to play key assets to be effective, and needs to get them out ASAP. Wendy wants Leo De Luca and Fire Axe. Daisy wants Old Book of Lore and Dr. Milan Christopher. Agnes wants Shrivelling and Peter Sylvestre (and probably many other things besides.) Notice how all these investigators want cards that combined cost 6+ resources. Notice also how many of these cards grant lasting benefits and are therefore weaker the later they are played. Being Indebted makes these starts agonizingly slow. Unless you are lucky enough to draw Emergency Cache and the key assets in question, you'll have to choose between spending multiple "take a resource" actions (which slows you down a lot) or not getting your critical assets out for several turns (which also slows you down a lot.) You'll be faced with this every single game. On the first turn, resources are almost as important as actions, and Indebted costs you two. Every time.

You might say "just build your deck with Indebted in mind." Well, first, investigators are just flat-out less effective without their key assets, so avoiding some of your investigator's most powerful cards to play around your weakness is not a great solution. Moreover, by the rulebook you get your weakness after building your deck. So this is not really an option.

There may be some investigators who might not care too much about it, like Dark Horse Pete (though I think even he finds it a little irritating.) But by and large, this is a really harsh weakness.

CaiusDrewart · 3200
I am currently running it with solo Jim and yeah, the starts are more difficult because I need Leo out asap. On the other hand, it never happened that I have been overrun due to bad draw even with Final Rhapsody. IMO this weakness's best advantage is being flat and so you can deal with it when the game conditions are not that hard, and so you can fully focus on the act just after (instead of risking double bad draw and trying to be prepared for it constantly). But as you have mentioned - this weakness is always in effect and so you will never get the relieve of not appearing like the others could have. — XehutL · 48
I've had this weakness in several 2 and 4 player games, but dont see your point. I never had problems compensating because it's easy to plan ahead (adding more ressource cards to deck and mulligan starting hand). I fear most other weaknesses because they can hit you anytime you draw a card and put more pressure on you. If you draw the wrong encounter cards in addition, that's even worse. This card makes it so much easier to stay "in control" of the board. — Django · 5165
This weakness make you lose at most 2 actions at the beginning of the game. Except in very few cases, scenarios have few "quiet turns" at the beginning, so the remaining of the team will be able to compensate. I agree with the other post on this weakness being one of "the best pick" — MoiMagnus · 63
We are currently running a 3 player Dunwich legacy campaign and we have two investigators who have this weakness. As you say it hit's us at every game and put our lives at risk directly because we have two investigators who start with an handicap. — Wirbowsky · 1
Overzealous

On my private list of "Horrible things that Cthulhu did to mankind" there's Black Plague in the number one spot, but then there's this card in close second place.

Encounter cards are like Twinkies: sure it might be thrilling to have one once in a while, but eat too many at once and boy, you know you're in trouble. Having to draw one encounter card per round is the norm. If you are a mystic at heart you have cards like Drawn to the Flame that gives you 2 clues for your trouble, or Delve Too Deep to gain that precious XP. Basic Weaknesses obviously lie in different category than regular player cards, but I want to sketch out the idea of how much enounter cards are worth in terms of gain, so that, by analogy, we can try to understand how much you lose if you draw a bunch of them - which will happen at some point, if you find yourself mildly Overzealous.

All Basic Weaknesses (excluding obvious Indebted) deny you draw of one card and additionally put on you some kind of penalty: some of these penalties are immediate (like Amnesia) other give you time to deal with them, before they start to become the problem (for example Psychosis or Chronophobia). (Additionally, that shows the standard of how much inconvinience average Basic Weakess should provide: aproximately loss of two actions - assuming you don't want to suffer consequences.) Obviously the immediate ones tend to be worse, mainly because you have no control over them, they don't offer you any substantial choices. Overzealous, sadly, belongs to the first group, but the worst part is yet to come.

Now, let's see what happens, when you draw Overzealous during your upkeep:

  • denied card draw;
  • you draw at least two encounter cards, PLUS one more in mythos phase: effectively, you draw at least 3 encounter cards before you can do anything again;
  • your prognosis of the start of your next action phase might be extremely different.

One might say: "Bah, of course it's gonna be different! Tis the Arkham, you fool!" - and on that note I agree, but it's all about the scope. You expect to get hit by something, or to be engaged with one enemy at the start of your next turn... But what about having three enemies on you, or having just one, but being severely damaged due to failed skill checks? Or pulling a bunch of Acolytes and learing that whoops! - agenda is going to advance two rounds earlier...? That's a different beast entirely. Additionally, this card, unlike other Basic Weaknesses, scales with the scenario you're playing, meaning that the harder the scenario is (or the later in the campaign you are), the worse Overzealous gets. Drawing this one card, like no other Basic Weakness, might be the end of the road for you, just by the fact of how little control you have over it and how far it can set you back, compared to other Basic Weaknesses.

Are there any good news? There are! In multiplayer it's much easier to deal with the encounter cards with staying effects (mainly enemies), as your friends can always help and taunt them off you. Another good news is that if the first encounter card drawn from the revelation effect already has surge, that card cannot gain additional surge! Hooray...? Bad news is that if the second card drawn from the surge of first card, has surge, you will chain even more encounter cards. So there's that.

This encounter card is probably the worst weakness for true solo decks, as it will thoroughly test your luck stat - which sadly, you can't boost. However, even in group play there will be times, when you'll draw perfect storm from the encouter deck, and in your powerlessness, you will weep: "Cthulhu, deliver us!" But in return, thou shall only hear chaos tokens, shuffling in the bag of tentacle wonder. And you will repent for not believing this review.

I don't understand why this card gives the encounter card surge. I mean if it just gave one encounter card it would still be the worst weakness in the game. — Kamalisk · 335
Uhh no, encounter cards are usually not as bad as personal weaknesses (encounter cards are balanced around a loss of 1 action and personal weaknesses 2 actions) — Difrakt · 1327
I agree that this is usually the worst weakness in the game. It depends a bit on the investigator, and Indebted and Amnesia are also really bad, but this one just has so much potential for disaster. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
It also makes digging through your deck with card draw from cards like Guts, Overpower, etc., extremely dangerous because enemies may have a chance to just simply kill you during the enemy phase if you haven't set up some kind of contingency plan for the worst possible scenario. I imagine I'll be subbing out Overpower for I'll see you in hell, now that I've discovered I have this wonderful card in my deck. — thekinginperiwinkle · 134
On the other hand, if you're a class that can take Ward of Protection or similar, you can use that to cancel any treacheries drawn from this. If you can cancel the first one, you've just negated your basic weakness at the cost of Ward, which I think is a pretty good deal. — SGPrometheus · 855
Whoop, just kidding; surge isn't part of the card's revelation effect; you'd need the level 5 ward to stop this, which is less good. — SGPrometheus · 855
This card is so thematic, but it's the worst. I've literally drawn 6 cards in a row with this card; 1) non-surge with [Overzealous](/card/03040) applied, 2) draws a surge card, 3) another surge card, 4) another surge card, 5) another surge card, 6) it's over, but now I have an enemy to deal with after taking 5 other cards to the face, and then comes my mythos phase encounter draw. Especially if you drew cards that are choose to add doom or eat some horror/damage/discard and you need to take it for the team--I actually died right then and there on turn 2 (had trauma and unluckily got poisoned earlier). — redcrown · 1
This weakness is brutal but there are rare bright spots. 1) If you are treachery resistant drawing into treacherousmight be academic. 2) If you are — Eviltowe · 1
This weakness is brutal but there are rare bright spots which sync into how beautifully thematic it can be. 1) If you are treachery resistant it can wind up being just a loss of a card draw. 2) If you are enemies resistant or desperately want to see enemies like Roland or Zoe it can be useful as it can chain multiple cards to get you one. 3) It can utterly diminish a very powerful and detrimental Mythos card by having it come up in the upkeep phase or the investigator phase as opposed to the Mythos phase. Cards that allow tests at the end of an investigators turn or that go away at the end of a round can be severely weakened or even neutralized by this weakness. 4) There are cornet case scenarios notably in the Dunwich legacy where rapid cycling of the Mythos deck is necessary despite the risk. Jazz Mulligan showing up in Extra Curricular Activities is an example as is getting Locations to appear from the Mythos deck in Lost and Time and Space. I actually won the Dunwich Legacy Campaign because of this card. Thematically being Overzealous is a mixed bag and in my experience the card has helped me once for p every three times it hurt me. Like any weakness the timing of it’s appearance is everything. — Eviltowe · 1
Cryptic Research

This is a really powerful card. Compared to Preposterous Sketches,its 4xp more. So you can easily consider these two cards are upgraded version to another. For 4xps you get: Fast Two cost lower No need to be in a place with clues Can be another one

How can you complain this card? For 4xps, it’s a fair trade.

Especially in Minh Thi Phan,you can effectively draw more icons to help others.

say200426 · 4
You are right that this card is a substantial upgrade over Preposterous Sketches, but it should be kept in mind that Preposterous Sketches is not a great card to begin with. — CaiusDrewart · 3200