For me the best use is in an "Ashcan" Pete deck:

• 1) you start the game at 3 remaining sanity and thus can commit the Desperate skill without using your precious off-class slots for Arcane Research or St. Hubert's Key,
• 2) you start the campaign with 3 XP that can be used to upgrade one copy of Peter Sylvestre or 2 copies of Yaotl to have a 2nd use of your Desperate skills.

It's a strong enabler with permanents.

You just start with 1x Charisma. Leo Anderson loves that. Every Seeker loves not having to choose between Dr. Milan Christopher and non*-allies like Research Librarian.

You just start with 1x Relic Hunter. Wendy Adams loves that.

You just start with 1x Ancestral Knowledge. Minh Thi Phan and Amanda Sharpe love that.

You just start with 1x Another Day, Another Dollar. Money-builds might love that.

You just start with 1x Blood Pact. Marie Lambeau loves that.

You just start with 1x Higher Education. Rex Murphy and many other Seekers with a Dr. Milan Christopher love that.

You just start with 1x Keen Eye. Cops and other guardians with money might love that.

You just start with 1x Streetwise. Rogues with money might love that.

You just start with 1x Studious. Everybody who likes to mulligan hard for special cards might like that. Big handers as well.

You just start with 1x Versatile. Everybody who needs additional cards likes that. E.g. Tommy Muldoon with a Joey "The Rat" Vigil or Harvey Walters who wants a True Grit, a Leather Coat and/or a Deny Existence to counter his Thrice-Damned Curiosity.

Everybody who wants a covenant (Sacred Covenant, Blasphemous Covenant, False Covenant, Paradoxical Covenant or Ancient Covenant). Starting with a Ancient Covenant and some bless token engine in scenario #1 is a stong enabler.

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Calvin yet! This card allows you to start with trauma, giving him an instant stat boost. You can also tailor the trauma to how you're playing him.

The experience can be used on staples like Five of Pentacles and Spirit of Humanity. You can also be a bit fancier and buy cards like the new Prophetic, making Dark Horse decks run smoother by using Prophetic to pay for your Spirit events.

MJ Newman has screwed us again!

The uninitiated may think that this is the opening for Rogues or Rogue-secondaries to get more value out of Charon's Obol, but little do they know that this is actually a buff to Ursula Downs!

How could they do this to us? Seekers buffed yet again?!?!?!??!!?!?!

This card creates even more possibilities: In the Thick of It + Versatile +

Geared Up

Underworld Support

Short Supply

Forced Learning

Down the Rabbit Hole

This is the only chance to get these cards for every investigator because of “purchase at deck creation” text

The first investigator I thought of when I saw this card was Father Mateo, as he'll start the first scenario of a campaign with "Blessed" fully turned on --- 8 XP gives him:

1X Ancient Covenant

2X Priest of Two Faiths (Great with Calling in Favors! Even if you don't hit another ally you pull the Priest back to your hand, avoiding the token and you'll get to play him again later. If you hit another Priest he'll come in for free!)

2X Favor of the Sun (Your combo piece with Ancient Covenant)

Either 1X Holy Rosary (2) (probably preferred because it adds tokens to the bag) or 2X Radiant Smite (POWEFUL, but it pulls tokens out.)

You can use Book of Psalms (which adds more tokens) or Fearless (which I prefer because I like skills) to deal with the mental trauma you take to purchase this card.

This just opened up the game!

Holy moly!

Mystics can now start with Blood Pact! Agnes Baker, Akachi Onyele, Dexter Drake.

From now on every investigator that can and would take Charon's Obol, should take this card! It's a dangerous endeavour but it's fun and totally worth it in my eyes. And more importantly:

1. Sefina Rousseau starts with Suggestion
2. Tony Morgan starts with Marksmanship (To more easily deal with his weakness)
3. "Skids" O'Toole starts with Lockpicks
4. "Skids" O'Toole starts with Cat Burglar
5. Wendy Adams starts with Try and Try Again.

Great fit without Charon's Obol:

1. 40 card Mandy Thompson starts with Segment of Onyx, Easy Mark and Surprising Find!.
2. Patrice Hathaway starts with Mind's Eye and Miss Doyle (I would use Short Supply as well :))
3. Leo Anderson starts with Charisma
4. Carolyn Fern just doesn't mind the horror :) That helps her getting a faster Stick to the Plan, or start with Ancient Stone to get a faster Ancient Stone (Thanks for the tip, @MrGoldbee)
5. "Ashcan" Pete gets to start with 2 mental trauma. That allows him to use desparate skills right away. And this is the one gator who would now start with 2xInspiring Presence, and Newspaper and Yaotl!

Basically, "Ashcan" Pete got the most out of this permanent!

This is such a great tempo bust to the upper mentioned characters. I think, In the Thick of It has become my favourite card out the newest expansion just by existing!

Thank you, the design team, at FFG.

Give this to Parallel Roland (yes, he of the Directives) and you can start a campaign/standalone on 8xp.... making him 7-5 (I would assume, unless you're leaning into immediate Desperate cards)

I'd be interested to see what the community can build, on 8xp starting...

:)

2 traumata for 3 XP don't look great at first. You can trade 5 XP for healing one trauma in the interlude after "Threads of Fate", albeit I think hardly anybody would do this. But XP even before the first scenario are most powerful. You will have the cards you purchase from them for 8 scenarios (not accounting side stories). However, I see options, how to net gain quite more than that from this card.

Like already mentioned by Pawiu14, Calvin might be interested in the traumatas themselves. I'm not sure about that. I have not played him yet, but by experiences from coplayers in "The Forgotten Age", I've seen it can be a clutch to get him through this campaign, so starting right off the bat with additional ones to what you will get from your weakness, might be rewarding at first, but risky later on. But in a campaign, that doesn't dish out traumata in interludes, this should be a whole different thing. Starting Parallel Roland with 8 XP, like suggested by fiatluxia looks interesting, to start a campaign with Stick to the Plan and Ever Vigilant.

, who want to go Down the Rabbit Hole might consider that for the dualclass Spells Brand of Cthugha, Divination, Blur or Earthly Serenity. Taking three of these cards at deck creation effectively gives 6 XP, avoiding the penalty from DtRB to add them later. Not sure if that's worth it. Arcane Research nets likely more than DtRH for most and 4 traumata is a bit much.

Charisma (or for some Relic Hunter) is another solid pick, offsetting the traumata with additional soak options, keeping your allies or Holy Rosary longer in play on top of the additional value from whatever you play with it.

But the combo, I'm most eager to try out, is sending Nathaniel Cho into the rabbit hole. Thanks to this card, he can take Versatile at deck creation and then the Permanent. This is also true for any other investigator with any other of the new "Limit 1 per deck. Purchase at deck creation."-Permanents, they could not take otherwise. But NaCho in Wonderland seems like the most striking combo out of the bunch. He has a lot of events, he might be interested in upgrading. The same goes to Allies like Beat Cop and (to a lesser degree) Grete Wagner, his Boxing Gloves, Safeguard, possibly Backpack or Bandolier. Not all these cards will be great at level 0. You might take On the Hunt just for the rabbit, so your level 0 deck might be worse than without this setup. But I think, the XP acceleration should be worth it. It should be also OK to pay 4 XP for a Charisma or Keen Eye later in the campaign (in particular, if you want to upgrade Grete), or 7 for Stick to the Plan and 2 for Ever Vigilant. The later could also be purchased at deck creation for 1 XP, since Versatile costs only 2, but I think, a Mano a Mano (1) would be the better pick at that time.

For me: card is good, but not for every character. If you have <4exp cards that you need most, take it (Calvin loves it)

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As mentioned sevaral times, this is a staple for Calvin. I usually spilt the trauma 1 and 1 with him, but realized during my last play that it might be more efficent to split it 2 - 0 as you will never test at zero, it will always be a base 1. So I guess the type of 2 trauma you decide on taking is dependent upon your role when undertaking the BOSS that is Calvin.

This is pretty much an auto-include for a Vincent Lee Runic Axe build. Why? Because you actually want physical trauma on him.

First, Vincent starts out with an insane 9 health, so dropping down to 7 doesn't put him much at risk. Second, you must take Glory on the Axe in order to build it fully out. The heal option on Glory can only be used on Vincent. However, you are almost certainly taking Wolverine, er... Jessica Hyde in a fighter build. And when Wounded Bystander pops up, you MUST assign damage to him first. This means unless it's direct, Vincent just doesn't take much damage. Too many human shields around him! So having 2 physical trauma at the start means at least the Glory heal option has a target. Of course, you can always take the horror heal or card draw option, but this allows him to get On the Mend as well.

Plus having 3 xp at the start of the campaign isn't too shabby either...