Absolution is high-variance. In a clean Standard bag (9 numeric / 7 symbols), playing it at X=0 usually nets you about one or two Bless tokens — but there’s always the chance you just pull three normal symbols and get nothing. You can pay resources to reveal more tokens and improve the odds, but the costs ramp up quickly.

The real use case is when you already have a decent number of Bless tokens in the bag (say 5–7) and you’re looking for healing. That way you’re less likely to whiff, and you won’t waste value by running into the Bless cap.

The problem is reliability: to be around 80% sure of healing three or more horror with five Blesses in the bag, you’d need to dump about 11 resources into this card. That’s absurd.

If you want steady Bless generation, Keep Faith is the better tool — 2 resources for a guaranteed four Bless tokens, no fuss, no gamble, no action (!). Absolution is only worth it if you’ve got a pile of spare cash and need the healing right now.

If you’re running a big-money Bless Rogue who can casually throw double digits of resources into a single play, Absolution can turn into a flashy full-heal + max Bless refill. Niche, but stylish. Possible combo with Hallow?

As a new player and play through each campaign from the beginning without T list, I would say before Fingerprint Kit is accessible, Dr. Milan just boost the price-performance ratio of one investigating action for a seeker. Just compare Deduction and Vicious Blow, it shows that 1 clue has the same value of 1 damage. But comparing Seekers and Guardians, while they are both doing their duties (seeking and guarding), what can a seeker (Rex away!) get while a Guardian has dealt 2 damage and earned 1 card with 2 actions and nothing else paid (.45 Automatic in play) ? Only 2 clues and nothing! And what if seekers have Milan in play like .45? For 2 actions, seekers can get 2 clues + 2 resources, which is finally equals to 2 damage + 1 card. Dr. Milan in the early campaigns is not that broken.

Edit: Simply thinking, are you willing to change Beat Cop's trigger ability into 'Attack. After you successfully attack: Gain 1 resource.'. It's definitely better than Beat Cop (0), but considering its upgrade and all the weapons, the answer may be yes, but never will be absolutely yes.

I received a rules forum response confirming that the final sentence (letting you move the targeted enemy) happens regardless of whether you succeed or fail the evade test:

--

Hello [Voltgloss],

Thank you for your interest in Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

The final sentence of Bum’s Rush is not dependent on the previous sentence; regardless of if you succeed the test, you can move a non-Elite enemy with the effect.

Feel free to reach out to us if any more questions arise!

Sincerely,

Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist

George Barnaby: Upkeep Phase
Hint: I want to go into the upkeep phase with the same number of cards in hand and in the boat.

According to the April 2025 rule, the maximum number of cards in George Barnaby’s boat is 5. If I have X cards in hand and X cards in the boat at the end of the investigator phase, then during the upkeep phase I draw 1 card and go 1 over my hand size limit. I then discard one card down to X. I trigger my ability and place that discarded card into the boat (not into the discard pile) and draw another card. At the end, I have X+1 cards, as would normally happen, but I also have one extra card in the boat, ready to be committed.

Big problem: If I do this and the second card I draw during the upkeep phase (the one from the reaction) is Cast Adrift, since checking hand size is a process that is still resolving, I discard my entire boat, and my hand size limit becomes 0, causing me to discard my entire hand in the Upkeep phase.

Small problem If the first card I draw during upkeep is Cast Adrift, while checking handsize and discarding to 0, I can still use my ability and keep one card in the boat and one in my hand.

There's enormous flexibility here. For example, you could tuck one of these on the same location as the clue-ver and immediately pop in when an enemy shows up to menace them. I think the best value here is if all of the options could potentially be useful.

That said, Easy Mark is more generically beneficial if you are looking for a Myriad Trick to put on Bewitching and trigger a few deck-thinning searches.