Hatchet and pitchfork have additional weirdness that overshadows something new about them: they are weapons you can share with the party.

In mystic and seeker, having a hand weapon is of marginal utility. There are exceptions (like Joe Diamond or Lily), but generally, a spell or attack event makes more sense than a knife. Hatchet changes that, and more effectively in most cases than pitchfork, which is why this is a review of hatchet instead of pitchfork. (Besides, Pitchfork reviews music.) Some Arkham scenarios, especially in the Vale, end with a big monster, or monster swarm. Other ones, especially in duo, have extremely variable monster outputs, which means easy sailing until you’re suddenly buried in more enemies than the fighter can handle. I’ve had good luck with Yorick bringing this out, giving Amanda something to fight with, in the turns when he’s not using a chainsaw.

Hatchet is also an amazing combo piece. People have mentioned Beat Cop(2), as a way to recur in the middle of a fight. Long Shot is a separate instance of damage, so it won’t force the discard. For other uses, Rita’s evade (perhaps through a breaking and entering) could recur hatchet. Blood Rite doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. And if you want to spend the XP, enchant weapon is an optional trigger, so you can deal two or three damage, then use one of the additional damage dealers listed above. The last use is marginal, but you might useful: clearing hand slots. Mystics running scroll of secrets might not want to spend the action, or might not have the card to send it back into the trash. Guns run out of ammo, thieves kits run out of supplies. Hatchet solves it!

Hatchet is one of the weirdest weapons ever printed. The attack is ridiculously good for a re-usable weapon, given the cost, and it has no theoretical maximum uses -- up to once per 3+ health enemy. But, it's only re-usable if you have some other way to kill things, or wait for your team to do so, so by itself it's far less consistent an enemy solution than any normal gun or melee weapon. And while you can use it as a disposable one-shot in a pinch, the extra play action makes it look pretty bad compared to burst damage events. Thus, there are going to be 3 main ways to actually use Hatchet.

**1. To complement another fight asset.

2. Supplemented by non-combat damage sources (or fight events)
3. To soften up enemies for someone else to kill.**

I think the "any investigator may trigger" clause on the hatchet pick-up is mostly there because you don't control it while it is attached, but the ability to hand it off will sometimes be useful. I don't think you run this without one of the above ways to make it work for you, but then you may additionally look for opportunities to pass it on to a worthy companion.

Hatchet as Side-arm

The obvious supplement to weapon that doesn't kill enemies is another weapon, but the value prop is a bit tricky. If you already have an unlimited-use 2-damage weapon, the only thing the Hatchet gives you is an attack bonus on the first shot of each multi-action fight. With an agility of 3, it would be +2 over Machete or Fire Extinguisher, and just +1 over Brand. An occasional +2 isn't terrible for a 2-cost asset but the XP and hand slot requirement stings. If you're pumping your stats it could give an even bigger bonus, but at some point that becomes overkill -- if you can hit at all with your main weapon, you shouldn't care about more than a relative +2-3 on your hatchet throw. And in this role it competes with Jury-Rig, Reliable, and passive stat boosts that could bring up all your weapons.

A more promising idea is to pair this with other limited-use or cost-to-use weapons. Paired with a .18 Derringer it saves bullets, with Meat Cleaver it saves sanity, and with Pitchfork or Ornate Bow it saves actions. You could also pair it with a 1-damage finisher such as Enchanted Blade, Spirit Athame, or Gravedigger's Shovel. Certain characters may be able to pair it with combat spells, too. Perhaps the most exciting use is to pair it with other sporadically-available damage options like Duke.

Hatchet as sole weapon.

If you don't want to carry two weapons, you'll need to combine this with non-weapon damage. Survivor has Long Shot which can add a second hit after a successful attack, Aquinnah for damage reflection, Miss Doyle for automated cat scratches, and skills like Brute Force. Some signatures and character abilities help too.

Hatchet as softener.

The problem with using hatchet to wound and not kill things is that either the enemy engaged you, in which case you still need to evade it or escape somehow if you're not killing it, or the enemy engaged someone else, who hopefully does not need your help to kill it. So this is good only when you have very efficient ways to ditch enemies, or are willing to throw axes at your engaged friend. This seems most appropriate in parties with multiple flex players, especially if you can scrounge a free action evade or a Stealth-like "disengage but don't exhaust" effect to let you get away from an enemy that still needs to die.

Who wants to play hatchet?

Rita -- she attacks at 8 with it and can kill with her evades. With Dirty Fightingshe can even evade, trigger a free attack, and then trigger the evade damage for the kill.

Pete -- Hatchet & Duke cover for each other perfectly. Fetch, boy, fetch! He only starts at a disappointing 5 but Dark Horse etc. help a lot

Silas -- can dual-wield with Sea Change Harpoon for a base 8 to stretch his skill cards further.

Maybe?

Yorick can do work with this and get it back if he fumbles it, but has so many other options. #Kymani gets big numbers but probably has their hands full. Agnes attacks at 6 here if she has Pete Sylvestre, more with Cat Mask or Blood Pact. Stella gets a nice 7 but still loses the axe on a fail.

Who Wants to be given a Hatchet?

Nathaniel -- If he hasn't found his gloves yet or can get down bandolier 0, this gives Nate an 7-skill 2-damage hit to stretch out his fight events. Finn -- attacks at 7, 9 with dirty fighting, probably boosts foot, may be content to wait for someone else to kill the baddies once he has locked them down. Flurry Lily -- has agility, wants multiple attack options. Kate -- 8 with a science boost. Likes tools. Winifred (big oversucceess).

This card is going to be major for pairing with the Fireaxe (which also got an upgraded version this time!). You can dispatch much bigger enemies at ease now - hatchet for the first shot and FA for the second one. Pete can use Duke in a similar fashion.

Agnes, Ashcan, Calvin, Hank, Rita (can evade for the 3rd damage!), Silas, Stella and maybe Willson even are all very good targets for the weapon.

How would Hatchet interact with Watcher from Another Dimension? If you succeed in your attack, the Watcher gets discarded, but is that considered defeated? If not do you just keep the hatchet as you no longer have something to attach it to? If you fail, it would make sense that the hatchet would be attached to the Watcher, as it is now in play.

What about a double Hatchet Yorick build?

If you kill the enemy you recur it with Yorick's ability.

If first attack doesn't kill it, than you hit it with the other, getting back the first with its own ability and the second with Yorick's ability,

At least i think this works as "if defeat" is before "after defeat".

See that triggered free action? THIS is what I'd love to see on a pair of 1XP Handcuffs in the future. Lemme reuse my cuffs... Come on FFG, please let us get reusable handcuffs one day. I don't want to try somehow get recursion or scavenge into my guardian decks. I just wanna be able to cuff more than 2 enemies per draw through of my deck.

This weapon is really efficent in the most of the investigators that can run it. It's so easy to compensate the extra damage and the possibility to pass the weapon to other players is very fun. But i have a stupid question about this weapon : If the attack miss, i lose the control of the Hatchet or not?