Great video. One common mistake/rule that I have seen a lot of player forget to do is that another investigator CAN help you get rid of the weaknesses. Like your partner paying for the 2 actions that are required to get rid one (he has to be in the same space though). A lot of people struggle to remove a weakness when it could easily be done by their partner.
My group does draw 3 ban 1 for the person to your left then the other person randomly adds one of the two to thier deck. It both adds a layer of not actually knowing what is coming from your own deck till it hits you while also being way to avoid unfun hard counters (usually). We also first distribute any weakness from the campaign were playing to increase the likelihood we see them. This also allows roughly filtering as we go through campaigns
3:00 1st, yes, totally agree. Beside it would have been more interesting (as basic weakness adds an additional little puzzle you need solve while you are deckbuilding), it sometimes can totally ruin your fun. I build a deck to max something out and then I get weakness which requires me to play in another way or add something that ruins your synergies. Yes, someone can find it fun as well, but as a person who likes to craft an idea and test it after, basic weakness current ruling often makes my current experiments impure. 2nd, my gaming group also come up with this home rule. We only take 5, not 3, discard one and take random one out of 4 left. We tried with 3 initially, but... I am not good at odds calculating, but for some reason with only 3 we always ended up with really easy ones, so we've changed it to 5 and now we still sometimes get bad ones. Not those that ruin your game completely, though.
Lately I've been doing "draw three, pick the middle difficulty one" for basic weaknesses. It avoids the "this card invalidates my deck" and "this card does nothing" situations.
As an generalization, permanent weaknesses are the least bad, followed by enemies, followed by double action discard, followed by on reveal (there's other types too of course). Generally the ones I'm most scared of are the ones that escalate to just killing you, but I think that fear is largely irrational.
I like the one that can escalate to killing you. Like Doomed. Makes you build your deck in ineffective ways to try and delay the inevitable - like taking Versatile to dilute your deck, taking out card draw etc. Can lead to great, memorable, stressful campaigns. Generally though I just roll with whatever I get given after deck construction and anything too punishing I try to build around using Xp.
Narcolepsy is the rare weakness where you’re actually better off drawing last if you’re trying to play around it. Drawing first action and hitting that has gotta suck real bad. Definitely want to see it in action some time
53:05 I'm a rogue, were is my (damage) healing. Painkilers or thermos are your options. Technically cheat death(5) exits, but waiting to be defeated doesn't seem ideal and call for backup(2) exits, but that needs a survivor card in play.
Yeah, exactly you can look at Painkillers or other options to solve it. But I'd rather not have to upgrade into healing as Rogue and rather start building with a weakness in mind, especially if there are more focused basic weaknesses like this one.
@@PlayingBoardGames I just find it wild that not a single rogue class card can let the investigator heal themselves, again aside from the 5 xp card that requires you to be defeated first. In other words it's not even possible to "upgrade" into it (in pure rogue), only to spend xp on lvl 0 neutral cards.
Core (8): 4:10 Amnesia ... nasty. Deadly for Big Hand decks. 7:20 Paranoia ... ok. Big Money decks need to build around it. 8:49 Haunted ... ok. Good for Fail Survivor, bad for other Survivor decks. 11:24 Psychosis & Hypochondria ... ok. Can be played around. 14:30 Mob Enforcer ... easy. 15:57 Silver Twilight Acolyte ... nasty. Managable but NEEDS to be played around. 18:07 Stubborn Detective ... ok for most decks, but deadly to some. Weirdly beneficial to Lola (but can still screw the rest of your team). Dunwich (3): 20:49 Indebted ... easy. Zero RNG. 23:03 Internal Injury & Chronophobia ... worse versions of Psychosis and Hypochondria. Manageable but NEEDS to be dealt with. Carcosa (3): 24:38 Overzealous ... RNG. Can be nasty, or have zero effect. 28:06 Drawing the Sign ... easy for most decks that can play around it, nasty for Big Hand decks. 29:33 The Thing That Follows ... easy. Forgotten Age (2): 30:57 Dark Pact (campaign only) ... ok. Can be played around. 32:42 Doomed (campaign only) ... deadly for some decks, nasty for others. Circle Undone (2): 36:10 The 13th Vision ... ok. Worse than Haunted, but still can be dealt with. 37:27 The Tower XVI ... ok. Dream-Eaters (4): 39:34 Self-Centered (multiplayer only) ... easy. 40:25 Kleptomania (multiplayer only) ... nasty. Difficult counterplay. 42:22 Narcolepsy (multiplayer only) ... nasty at 2 players, ok-ish at 3 or 4. 44:35 Your Worst Nightmare (multiplayer only) ... easy. Can be a bit of an issue if there is only one damage dealer and they happen to get it. Innsmouth (3): 46:19 Accursed Follower ... easy. Beneficial to Curse decks. 47:05 Dread Curse ... easy. Beneficial to Curse decks. 47:58 Day of Reckoning ... easy. Edge (4): 50:57 Arm Injury, Leg Injury, Panic & Stupor ... nasty if impactful for the investigator's role and not mitigated (ie healing available), easy otherwise. Leg injury probably the worst of the lot. Return to Dunwich (1): 55:55 Through the Gates ... very RNG. For decks centered around one or a few key cards, can be deadly, but often can be very easy. Return to Carcosa (3): 58:46 Unspeakable Oath (Bloodthirst/Curiosity/Cowardice) (campaign mode only) ... class dependent. Can be ok to easy. Return to Forgotten Age (2): 1:03:06 Dendromorphosis ... nasty, although there are some ways to play around it. 1:06:10 Offer you cannot refuse (campaign only) ... ok Return to Circle Undone (2): 1:09:43 Damned ... RNG, on average ok-ish to nasty. No counterplay. 1:12:19 The Devil - XV ... ok. More deck-dependent than The Tower. Scarlet (): 1:15:07 Lurker in the Dark (guardian only) ... easy, except specific decks. 1:16:42 Quantum Paradox (seeker only) ... ok. 1:18:16 Pay Your Due (rogue only) ... ok. 1:21:50 Ectoplasmic Horror (mystic only) ... RNG but mostly easy, except specific decks. 1:24:37 Underprepared (survivor only) ... ok. Basically no counterplay. Investigator starter decks: 1:26:41 Self-Destructive (Nathaniel) ... easy. 1:27:18 Obsessive (Harvey) ... ok, but needs to be handled immediately. 1:28:54 Reckless (Winifred) ... easy. 1:30:08 Nihilism (Jacqueline) ... easy. Low chance to do anything significant, but hits hard when it does, should be gotten rid of fast. 1:31:32 Atychiphobia (Stella) ... easy. Similar to Nihilism, should be gotten rid of fast. Hemlock (4): 1:32:35 (all of them) ... ok (based on theory-crafting, not having experienced them)
I'd be interested to know, given your experience with the game, what would be the most fun run-through of the various campaigns such they formed a single overarching story - obviously fresh investigators are used along the way but the conceit might be they are all working for a single organisation trying to defeat the mythos.
Another amazing video! Question though: I noticed in some campaigns and standalone scenarios you can get cards to add to your deck. Like Monstrous Transformation from Curse of the Rougarou. Do you guys have a video ranking them? Deck ideas for them? I think that would be pretty cool :D
For me sometimes i just cheat & pick a basic weakness😂. Reason : 1. If i want easy game 2. I want naratively character build. Ex : Preston with Paranoia or Leo with Leg Injury
My hottest Arkham take: Drawing a card last action isn’t as bad as the community thinks it is. 25% of the time you should not be drawing last action and the trick is to know if you’re in one of those situations. The other three quarters of the time it’s okay to draw, you’ll be able to handle your signature or basic weakness. True solo has taught me to avoid limiting myself.
I think drawing last is only bad if you have a weakness that'll put you behind. Otherwise, drawing last isn't a bad choice. HOWEVER, with that said, while I do draw last a lot. It still feels bad to me, because I'd rather be advancing the game and drawing cards at the same time. So that is why I still think players should build their decks so they need to take draw actions as little as possible.
@@halforange1 There usually always is more nuance to most things in Arkham. Don't draw last is a good basic rule of thumb for learning, like how Ward the Ancient Evil is also good starting logic for mythos deck threat assessment.
Great video. One common mistake/rule that I have seen a lot of player forget to do is that another investigator CAN help you get rid of the weaknesses.
Like your partner paying for the 2 actions that are required to get rid one (he has to be in the same space though). A lot of people struggle to remove a weakness when it could easily be done by their partner.
I like Eric
I also like Eric.
Would have been thematic if you had talked about amnesia again at the end.
XD
My group does draw 3 ban 1 for the person to your left then the other person randomly adds one of the two to thier deck. It both adds a layer of not actually knowing what is coming from your own deck till it hits you while also being way to avoid unfun hard counters (usually). We also first distribute any weakness from the campaign were playing to increase the likelihood we see them. This also allows roughly filtering as we go through campaigns
3:00
1st, yes, totally agree. Beside it would have been more interesting (as basic weakness adds an additional little puzzle you need solve while you are deckbuilding), it sometimes can totally ruin your fun. I build a deck to max something out and then I get weakness which requires me to play in another way or add something that ruins your synergies. Yes, someone can find it fun as well, but as a person who likes to craft an idea and test it after, basic weakness current ruling often makes my current experiments impure.
2nd, my gaming group also come up with this home rule. We only take 5, not 3, discard one and take random one out of 4 left. We tried with 3 initially, but... I am not good at odds calculating, but for some reason with only 3 we always ended up with really easy ones, so we've changed it to 5 and now we still sometimes get bad ones. Not those that ruin your game completely, though.
Lately I've been doing "draw three, pick the middle difficulty one" for basic weaknesses. It avoids the "this card invalidates my deck" and "this card does nothing" situations.
Suzi might be another great choice for Stubborn Detective. It’s a timing thing, though.
As an generalization, permanent weaknesses are the least bad, followed by enemies, followed by double action discard, followed by on reveal (there's other types too of course). Generally the ones I'm most scared of are the ones that escalate to just killing you, but I think that fear is largely irrational.
I like the one that can escalate to killing you. Like Doomed.
Makes you build your deck in ineffective ways to try and delay the inevitable - like taking Versatile to dilute your deck, taking out card draw etc.
Can lead to great, memorable, stressful campaigns.
Generally though I just roll with whatever I get given after deck construction and anything too punishing I try to build around using Xp.
We need a video of the basic weakness that just destroys each investigator.
Winnie Nimbled into moving far away on the last scenario in Dream Eaters. 1/25 chance to draw Narcolepsy. Scratch that, 1/1 chance to draw Narcolpesy.
Narcolepsy is the rare weakness where you’re actually better off drawing last if you’re trying to play around it. Drawing first action and hitting that has gotta suck real bad. Definitely want to see it in action some time
53:05 I'm a rogue, were is my (damage) healing.
Painkilers or thermos are your options.
Technically cheat death(5) exits, but waiting to be defeated doesn't seem ideal and call for backup(2) exits, but that needs a survivor card in play.
Yeah, exactly you can look at Painkillers or other options to solve it. But I'd rather not have to upgrade into healing as Rogue and rather start building with a weakness in mind, especially if there are more focused basic weaknesses like this one.
@@PlayingBoardGames I just find it wild that not a single rogue class card can let the investigator heal themselves, again aside from the 5 xp card that requires you to be defeated first.
In other words it's not even possible to "upgrade" into it (in pure rogue), only to spend xp on lvl 0 neutral cards.
@@rupert7565 I agree, it is pretty wild. I don't see why damage healing can't be in Rogue's pie, but I guess they don't want it to be.
@@rupert7565
As a rogue you could always get adaptable.
Which is powerful anyway if you know the campaign.
Core (8):
4:10 Amnesia ... nasty. Deadly for Big Hand decks.
7:20 Paranoia ... ok. Big Money decks need to build around it.
8:49 Haunted ... ok. Good for Fail Survivor, bad for other Survivor decks.
11:24 Psychosis & Hypochondria ... ok. Can be played around.
14:30 Mob Enforcer ... easy.
15:57 Silver Twilight Acolyte ... nasty. Managable but NEEDS to be played around.
18:07 Stubborn Detective ... ok for most decks, but deadly to some. Weirdly beneficial to Lola (but can still screw the rest of your team).
Dunwich (3):
20:49 Indebted ... easy. Zero RNG.
23:03 Internal Injury & Chronophobia ... worse versions of Psychosis and Hypochondria. Manageable but NEEDS to be dealt with.
Carcosa (3):
24:38 Overzealous ... RNG. Can be nasty, or have zero effect.
28:06 Drawing the Sign ... easy for most decks that can play around it, nasty for Big Hand decks.
29:33 The Thing That Follows ... easy.
Forgotten Age (2):
30:57 Dark Pact (campaign only) ... ok. Can be played around.
32:42 Doomed (campaign only) ... deadly for some decks, nasty for others.
Circle Undone (2):
36:10 The 13th Vision ... ok. Worse than Haunted, but still can be dealt with.
37:27 The Tower XVI ... ok.
Dream-Eaters (4):
39:34 Self-Centered (multiplayer only) ... easy.
40:25 Kleptomania (multiplayer only) ... nasty. Difficult counterplay.
42:22 Narcolepsy (multiplayer only) ... nasty at 2 players, ok-ish at 3 or 4.
44:35 Your Worst Nightmare (multiplayer only) ... easy. Can be a bit of an issue if there is only one damage dealer and they happen to get it.
Innsmouth (3):
46:19 Accursed Follower ... easy. Beneficial to Curse decks.
47:05 Dread Curse ... easy. Beneficial to Curse decks.
47:58 Day of Reckoning ... easy.
Edge (4):
50:57 Arm Injury, Leg Injury, Panic & Stupor ... nasty if impactful for the investigator's role and not mitigated (ie healing available), easy otherwise. Leg injury probably the worst of the lot.
Return to Dunwich (1):
55:55 Through the Gates ... very RNG. For decks centered around one or a few key cards, can be deadly, but often can be very easy.
Return to Carcosa (3):
58:46 Unspeakable Oath (Bloodthirst/Curiosity/Cowardice) (campaign mode only) ... class dependent. Can be ok to easy.
Return to Forgotten Age (2):
1:03:06 Dendromorphosis ... nasty, although there are some ways to play around it.
1:06:10 Offer you cannot refuse (campaign only) ... ok
Return to Circle Undone (2):
1:09:43 Damned ... RNG, on average ok-ish to nasty. No counterplay.
1:12:19 The Devil - XV ... ok. More deck-dependent than The Tower.
Scarlet ():
1:15:07 Lurker in the Dark (guardian only) ... easy, except specific decks.
1:16:42 Quantum Paradox (seeker only) ... ok.
1:18:16 Pay Your Due (rogue only) ... ok.
1:21:50 Ectoplasmic Horror (mystic only) ... RNG but mostly easy, except specific decks.
1:24:37 Underprepared (survivor only) ... ok. Basically no counterplay.
Investigator starter decks:
1:26:41 Self-Destructive (Nathaniel) ... easy.
1:27:18 Obsessive (Harvey) ... ok, but needs to be handled immediately.
1:28:54 Reckless (Winifred) ... easy.
1:30:08 Nihilism (Jacqueline) ... easy. Low chance to do anything significant, but hits hard when it does, should be gotten rid of fast.
1:31:32 Atychiphobia (Stella) ... easy. Similar to Nihilism, should be gotten rid of fast.
Hemlock (4):
1:32:35 (all of them) ... ok (based on theory-crafting, not having experienced them)
I'd be interested to know, given your experience with the game, what would be the most fun run-through of the various campaigns such they formed a single overarching story - obviously fresh investigators are used along the way but the conceit might be they are all working for a single organisation trying to defeat the mythos.
Going into City of Archives with Amnesia. Welp, guess I'm a Yithian. ᄽ¯\_(ὁőὀ)_/¯ᄿ
Another amazing video!
Question though: I noticed in some campaigns and standalone scenarios you can get cards to add to your deck.
Like Monstrous Transformation from Curse of the Rougarou.
Do you guys have a video ranking them? Deck ideas for them? I think that would be pretty cool :D
Great video, thank you
For me sometimes i just cheat & pick a basic weakness😂.
Reason :
1. If i want easy game
2. I want naratively character build. Ex : Preston with Paranoia or Leo with Leg Injury
4 player Dark Pact YoLO play through and see if anyone can make it to the final scenario… 😉
My hottest Arkham take: Drawing a card last action isn’t as bad as the community thinks it is. 25% of the time you should not be drawing last action and the trick is to know if you’re in one of those situations. The other three quarters of the time it’s okay to draw, you’ll be able to handle your signature or basic weakness. True solo has taught me to avoid limiting myself.
I think drawing last is only bad if you have a weakness that'll put you behind. Otherwise, drawing last isn't a bad choice.
HOWEVER, with that said, while I do draw last a lot. It still feels bad to me, because I'd rather be advancing the game and drawing cards at the same time. So that is why I still think players should build their decks so they need to take draw actions as little as possible.
@@PlayingBoardGames Agreed. I think people simply say “don’t draw last action”, but there’s more nuance to it.
@@halforange1 There usually always is more nuance to most things in Arkham. Don't draw last is a good basic rule of thumb for learning, like how Ward the Ancient Evil is also good starting logic for mythos deck threat assessment.
We just draw 2 random and pick one
I was so tempted to stop watching at 0:40 just for the gag. Problem was, I also wanted to watch the video.
Instead I stopped when I accidentally heard about a mechanical gimmick from the finale of Forgotten Age at 21:18.