Verrat. Schwäche

Patzer.

Neutral

Enthüllung - Lege eine -Probe (3) ab. Diese Probe bekommt +1 Schwierigkeit für jede von dir kontrollierte Vorteilskarte mit einem Hinweis darauf. Für jeden Punkt, um den die Probe misslingt, musst du entweder 1 Horror nehmen oder 1 deiner Hinweise auf deinem Ort platzieren.

"Ich habe gerade einen gewaltigen Fehler begangen."
Drazenka Kimpel
Das Fest von Hemlock Vale (Ermittler-Erweiterung) #8.
Misslungenes Experiment

FAQs

No faqs yet for this card.

Reviews

The year is 2077, Arkham Horror is now exclusively playable on expert mode and you're faced with a (7) test threatening to take all your clues or deal up to 7 horror. You are 5 below naturally and have a single Eureka in hand to commit. Your friend commits guts, there's 10 blessed tokens in the bag. Success is within reach as you continue to stack the odds further in your favor. You draw an autofail and go insane.

This is a brutal weakness. With Kate's measly 2, you're already 1 below on this card's base difficulty, and every single use of Kate's ability makes this test worse. Unlike Harvey, you don't even get the benefit of having a threshold of 2 or 3 clues, every single clue on an asset is a risk until you draw this card. It's not unsolvable, but the threat is real and this card can delete Kate from the game if you aren't prepared for it.

With Kate's introduction in Hemlock, we also saw the addition of science cards like Chemistry Set, and extra tools through Dr. Charles West III and Tinker. You're likely going to have a lot of assets out that can have a clue placed on them, and assuming you don't want to forego your investigator's ability, there's a few things that can mitigate this weakness:

  1. Logical Reasoning or its elder sibling Logicaler Reasoning. There aren't very many seeker cards that even mention horror, so there isn't much competition here. Kate has off-class access to First Aid and Delay the Inevitable, but neither is an ideal solution. Moment of Respite is also worth a look.

  2. Stock up on will commits through Guts, Inquiring Mind, and Unexpected Courage. The drawback here is that each will commit you add will lower your deck's overall efficiency. A hand full of will commits before or after this card is drawn are mostly just going to take up space.

  3. "Fool me once..." is an insight, so Kate has access to it. If drawn early you can use this to trap your weakness and mitigate its effect on future cycles. That said, its value depends heavily on how often you cycle and the first test will happen no matter what.

  4. There are 11 Seeker allies with 2 or more sanity to let pay the price of your hubris, and Eldritch Sophist has 3 sanity soak if you're absolutely determined to go that route.

Having said all that, I like this weakness. Kate has the potential for an absurd science toolkit, and this weakness makes it possible to have it all blow up in your face.

TL;DR - Run Carolyn Fern with Kate and turn bad science into good money.

Edit: There's a ruling on Surprising Find that makes this more manageable. "Next test" on Flux Stabilizer counts for the current test, so you can boost will in response to drawing your weakness; however, it will change the test difficulty - so each clue represents +1 will overall. Just don't draw the autofail if you're pumping clues to pass.

SorryLaurie · 594
Or just drop some clues and take some card of the scarlet key set, which introduced the clue dropping archetype. With reseach notes and press pass dropping up 3 clues is a minor problem. If you get out two notes it gets even better — Tharzax · 1
Research notes only triggers when you drop clues from a player card ability which this treachery is not. But you can also use analysis to drop the clues mid test which helps you actually pass the test, and triggers your research notes. — NarkasisBroon · 10
Good job on the analysis, and speaking of the devil, Analysis is a good way to work this out! You don't like the token you see? Put down a clue, decreasing the difficulty of the test, and try another time, up until you have dropped them all or you have a satisfying result. Another one to consider, on top of Quick Study and the clue dropping package mentioned up there, is Mr Rook which allows you to pull the weakness at will early in the scenario, so you can move on quickly. — Valentin1331 · 69029
Does this work? I believe the difficulty of the test is fixed after the test begins, dropping clues after the fact using Analysis or Quick Study would not affect it. — jemwong · 95
For expert only seekers, the only matter thing is how quick you can draw your weakness and FMO, Existential Riddle or The Eye of Truth. Then you can smash your campaign with your non-weakness deck... — OnThinIce · 25
Edited to include some recent rules notes. You can use Flux Stabilizer during this test to boost your will, and the test difficulty is considered dynamic, so it can change during the test — SorryLaurie · 594

I've suffered this in Normal mode during TSK campaign. This thing can deal you 5 horror easily if you aren't prepared.

How do you prepare to this? This are the thing I used to mitigate the sheer brutality of this card.

  • Just run a lot of card draw. The sooner you pull this out your deck, the better. Yes, it can deal you1-3 horror from the get-go, but 1-3 horror is better than 5 in later stages of a scenario. You know, there is a chance you pull Aetheric Current before Failed Experiment to get you out of a fishy situation where you have 5 clues distributed among your cards.

  • Horror healing: Steady Hand with the Science card kit is a must. Period. If you pull Failed Experiment, healing 1 each turn will keep you afloat. Logical Reasoning is also good for this, giving you 2 willpower icons if you want to try and pass the Willpower test.

  • Horror soak: Allies in Seeker usually run higher horror soak. Medical Student is even a Science ally. Ravenous Myconid: Nurturing Strain will minimize the risk of dying from this to the bare minimum.

  • Eureka to fish Aetheric Current / Failed Experiment earlier from your deck. Well Funded and Inquiring Mind to get free 3 wild icons because of the nature of the assets you'll run with Kate.

  • Hawk-Eye Folding Camera to get +1 willpower and +1 sanity.

  • Put clues in assets. BE CAREFUL ABOUT THIS, BECAUSE AN AUTOFAIL WILL PUNISH YOU HARD. Like I went 7 vs 5 to avoid massive damage and I ate 5 horror because of this. Even then, sometimes it is worth the risk.

You NEED to use Flux Stabilizer to get to the numbers, because Kate has only 4 intellect and 4 agility. Asume this will deal you at least 3 horror in every scenario and prepare for the worst. Let your Guardian (Carolyn, anyone with Girish Kadakia, for example) do something about this.

In harder modes this can be worse, but even then, pulling this weakness earlier is the best option you have to avoid a massive punishment in later stages of a scenario.

-

rodro · 196
Kate still controls the clues on her assets, so you can put those on her location to avoid some horror; the most horror you are required to take from this card is the base 3 (which is still a lot, but that's also the worst case). — Hylianpuffball · 28
Yes, Analysis and Quick Study should give you the numbers needed. Kate can run Research Notes to it's full potential since it is a Science asset too. It makes playing Kate safer, but the "place clue" archetype doesn't have that many useful Science/Tools cards. I want to try that now. — rodro · 196
I played Kate through an entire campaign and I think I only took more than 2 horror once. Sure, if you draw an autofail it can be rough (all good weaknesses should be from time to time), but you have to choose to let it deal more than 3 horror to you. I ran two Logical Reasoning (and no clue drop tech) and found Failed Experiment to be a manageable weakness most of the time. — Pseudo Nymh · 54
Have your pals lend you good boosts. — MrGoldbee · 1451
We were two players at opposite ends of the map when I suffered that amount of horror, so no luck with that. That would be OK if your pal is a Mystic with 40 brain icons spread among their cards, not a Guardian with BFGs. Even then, not needed at all, Kate can deal with this by herself. — rodro · 196
Nobody has mentioned Versatile to pull in Deny Existence. I feel like it should work but it would be far from a sure bet. — Staticalchemist · 1
Since you have to choose for each clue if you want to drop it or take the horror deny existence don't work for canceling all damage at once. You can only cancel one horror. — Tharzax · 1
The FHV built-in way to deal with this is use the wild icons from Esoteric Method and/or Well-Funded, Kate is unlikely to have real willpower icons. — 5argon · 9935