Hoods

Another Enemy signature Weakness. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: Enemy Weaknesses tend to be on the weak side, but this one is tailored to mess with Rita, since it gets an attack whether an Evade attempt succeeds or fails. There are weapons that do +1 damage (Like Fire Axe or the .18 Derringer), but that's still 2 actions to clear. The Ornate Bow is a very good choice, giving Rita a 7 vs 3 Fight for 3 damage, but Rita could really use her hands for clue tech and other things. Brute Force is another choice if you can boost her combat a bit to get a 2 up result. Like all enemies, of course, there is no reason another investigator can take them off her hands if that's not too much tempo loss for the team.

The discard condition: Kill them or get a friend to take a hit and Banish them to the far side of a large map or maybe get Handcuffs on them, but killing is the best choice.

Taking it all into account, this is an average signature Weakness, a bit more trouble than some of the other Enemy Weaknesses.

I completely disagree that this is average. This is one of the harshest enemy weaknesses since Rita only has 3 combat and not a ton of great combat options. She takes a hit whether she successfully or unsuccessfully evades it, so even that isn’t a great route to kill it. And it targets health as well as sanity, and Rita only has 5 sanity. Yes, you can one shot it with a Bow or OHR or Chainsaw, but in all cases you’re devoting Rita’s hands to fighting, which isn’t terrible for her at all but still limits her. — StyxTBeuford · 13050
Is the shtick that every weakness is a below average signature weakness? What is this, Lake Woebegone? — DjMiniboss · 44
If @LivefromBenefitSt considers Dark Memory average, then surely Hoods must be average as well! Meanwhile, Smite the Wicked is rated as above average. Hmm... — suika · 9506
@DjMiniboss The average weakness is a below-average weakness. — Hylianpuffball · 29
It makes sense for most weaknesses to be below average, if the median weakness is below average. But Hoods requires 6xp/8xp and two hand slots to deal with on a character who would otherwise be perfectly content with doing nothing but evading as enemy management. And if you're using the bow, you're effectively using two actions to attempt a test to clear this weakness. Not to mention that passing even an Ornate Bow shot is still anything but guaranteed on Hard/Expert, and a Chainsaw will miss on average on Hard/Expert without commits or Live and Learn. Of course a Guardian can effectively take care of it for you if they're at your location; but if they're not the action cost for them is even higher (Move, Fight, Move back), even disregarding the ammo spent and the chance of failing the test and hitting Rita for 3 damage. — suika · 9506
I think I see the argument for an average rating, however, the best solutions require XP cards which is the same knock against Abandoned and Alone except that one's rating is much more extreme. What gives? — LaRoix · 1646
You shoot one arrow at this and go on with your day. — Cpt_nice · 82
Unsolved Case

A relatively simple but damaging signature . Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: The sharp needle in Joe's Insight haystack, this is going to cost you an action, 2 resources, and maybe a clue. Note that you can play it even if you don't have a clue, which makes it considerably less damaging. Joe needs to keep 2 resources on hand until this gets drawn, and it could cause an AoO if he is engaged when it comes up, but, despite the nasty effect if it fires, this is not a terrible threat. There is no particular mitigation, beyond making sure you have those resources or a quick way to get them. If Joe has somehow managed to translate the Cryptic Grimoire, he can play this fast. That Tome would generally help Joe, even if it's not hugely feasible for him to translate it without a cooperative Rogue or a lucky draw of the Dread Curse Weakness during deck building. Farsight could also help, but it's got a high opportunity cost for Joe. Other than that, there aren't a lot of card interactions. You can't even troll your party by playing Eidetic Memory, since Unsolved Case is removed from the game.

The discard condition: Another "one and done" Weakness, and one that removes itself from the game after playing, so it won't recur, even if Joe decks himself.

Summing up the facts, this is a way below average signature Weakness, in competition to be the easiest in the game.

The clue must be placed on a location with the highest shroud which has the potential to be VERY bad, but I more or less agree with you on this one. Most high shroud locations are at the heart of where the resolution is anyways. — LaRoix · 1646
Are we sure you can play it without a clue? I thought there was a rule against playing cards that wouldn't affect the game state. Does the fact that it tells you to remove it from the game provide a loop hole? — OrionJA · 1
Precisely. It affects the game state by removing itself from the game. See Preston Fairmont's weakness, which is also an event and has only the effect when played of removing itself from the game. If removing itself from the game wasn't sufficient to change the game state, that card could never be played. — Yenreb · 15
Youare still paying 2 resources, which counts, I think. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1085
No, the cost to pay for abilities and cards does not factor when you must determine if those change the game state or not. — Killbray · 12468
Sure Gamble

A very good defensive card. With this in hand, even Winifred and Finn can pass Rotting Remains and Frozen in Fear and worse, for when "You handle this one!" isn't enough or in solo. It also pulls double duty as upgraded Daring Maneuver, allowing you to under-commit to tests you need to oversuceed by, particularly in Hard and Expert where it's impractical to cover the -6 -7 -8 otherwise.

Strong consideration for when the campaign feature nasty / treacheries that you need to pass. On my TCU solo Winifred run, this was one of the first upgrades to mitigate Bedeviled and Realm of Torment.

suika · 9506
Eye of the Djinn

It's worth noting this is pretty good in the hands of Sefina Rousseau and Dexter Drake, particularly when running any of the hybrid Mystic events out of The Dream Eaters cycle: Spectral Razor, Ethereal Form, and Read the Signs.

These events test the base // of the associated Fight, Evade, and Investigate actions, adding your Will on top of them. With the Eye modifying that base, this lets Sefina and Drake test at 9 and 10, respectively, when using these events.

Both also have access to some methods for adding to the chaos bag (ex. Faustian Bargain) and a strong temptation to run Leo as an ally for bonus actions, making occasional the trigger appealing to them.

Teag · 56
In this vein, it’s also good with Ursula Downs. Seekers have good effects that add curse tokens. — Whiles · 1
Obscuring Fog

Just wanted to take a moment to appreciate how rarely this card screws you over. So often it spawns on a location that's already out of clues, or had none to begin with, or even already had a copy of fog on it, so does absolutely nothing. The only problem with that is that it stays out of the deck so it's not around to provide you with any more dead draws in the mythos phase, Its worst case scenarios are blocking a high shroud victory point location, and even then it's about worth a perception or flashlight charge. Adds +2 difficulty to something the seeker is already doing, and doesn't even block you from picking a clue.

I suppose it's a lot worse in higher difficulty levels, and it does block the strategy of flashlighting a location down to 0 shroud. But even in those scenarios, you have all the methods for picking up testless clues that you can just save for when this gets attached to a location.

Overall, I just can't think of any treachery that's shown up in a nail-biting mythos phase where certain cards will just force a loss, that gives as great a sigh of relief when it shows up instead of those. Though perhaps that's just because it's in so many levels.

SSW · 217
Eh, it's not much of a roadblock for a dedicated clue-getter (unless you draw it an an already high-shroud location), but I've had plenty of scenarios where a non-clue focused investigator suddenly finds a VP location outside their grasp or other frustrating nonsense. It's notlikely to tank a scenario, but it can cause some tempo damage. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1085
Great draw for Roland. If you can First watch this and a monster onto yourself, you're in business. — SGPrometheus · 847
Although Roland's ability won't discard the fog, since he isn't investigating, so it doesn't solve the problem for multiple clues. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1085
heh heh I hadn't noticed it specifically but you're right- almost any time I pull this from the encounter deck, I'm relieved. — HanoverFist · 755