4 XP is just a lot to spend on a hand tool that only gets one clue per action. Making tests easy is nice, non-investigate clue sources are nice, clue-from-connecting location is a good perk, and sometimes you care about parley. But currently outside of Alessandra Zorzi I don't see a home for this as a staple, more a tech card for campaigns that frequently punish investigate actions. Maybe in a single cluever deck that runs this with lockpick and thieves kit to find one ASAP.
If you can trigger this consistently, the effect is good: really really good, in fact. And with two excellent traits plus the parley tag there are many ways to discount, tutor, or recur it. But does anyone besides Alessandra want to parley enough to make this worthwhile?
As of Hemlock Vale, Rogues only have 3 assets and 4 events that initiate parley tests, and many are mediocre or require fairly difficult will or intellect tests that many rogues will struggle with. However, #Grift is an acceptable economy card for agility rogues and it can go in an Underworld Market, so you can assure yourself of getting at least one parley event relatively early. Stir the Pot (0) is reasonable damage if you can pass it, and Vamp (3) is a great comfort card if you can spare the XP (though I rarely can). False Surrender looks on paper like an acceptable action compression, but in practice Sleight of Hand outperforms it almost all the time. False Credentials (4) is also powerful but very expensive for a 1-clue-per-action tool and it overlaps functions with Snitch itself a lot. IMO the parley build for Winifred or Kymani with Fine Clothes, False Surrender, Grift, and Vamp is not quite there yet.
This feels a little more promising for characters with some off-class access. Trish can do some disgusting work with Existential Riddle and Snitch, possibly locking down multiple enemies across multiple locations or scarfing 3 clues in one action while escaping from danger. Dexter 100% wants this if he plays Power Word and might consider buying one if he's tutoring out String of Curses anyway. Sefina Rousseau benefits from the same combo, and Parallel Roland can chain this off of any of his Interrogate/Persuasion/Eavesdrop shenanigans too.
The two versions of the Precious Memento are quite a reliable soak components on their own, though I didn't pay them much attention until now. I'm currently going through my first run of Edge of the Earth, playing Daniela Reyes, and as I wanted as much soak as possible, I only realized now that these are not unique (there's no symbol on the card). Plus, the limit restriction only applies to the particular type of memento you're playing : From a future life or From a former life. This means you could potentially get the two versions of the memento in play at the same time, by just getting another accessory slot from whatever source you could afford (hence the very basic yet very powerful Relic hunter.
This is a 11xp investment, but early on in a campaign it can make a big difference if you manage to get that many xp at the end of scenario 1 or 2. Not everyone will want to get them both, often you'd prefer the campus boy or his mirror sister that come cheaper and tend to find more uses in general cases, but in a niche deck that want to take damage to do-whatever-you-wanna-do-that-for, it' a powerful investment, arguably an infinite damage/horror soak that lets you have some other allies or hand slots to close the case.
10/10 would recommend.
Hatchet and pitchfork have additional weirdness that overshadows something new about them: they are weapons you can share with the party.
In mystic and seeker, having a hand weapon is of marginal utility. There are exceptions (like Joe Diamond or Lily), but generally, a spell or attack event makes more sense than a knife. Hatchet changes that, and more effectively in most cases than pitchfork, which is why this is a review of hatchet instead of pitchfork. (Besides, Pitchfork reviews music.) Some Arkham scenarios, especially in the Vale, end with a big monster, or monster swarm. Other ones, especially in duo, have extremely variable monster outputs, which means easy sailing until you’re suddenly buried in more enemies than the fighter can handle. I’ve had good luck with Yorick bringing this out, giving Amanda something to fight with, in the turns when he’s not using a chainsaw.
Hatchet is also an amazing combo piece. People have mentioned Beat Cop(2), as a way to recur in the middle of a fight. Long Shot is a separate instance of damage, so it won’t force the discard. For other uses, Rita’s evade (perhaps through a breaking and entering) could recur hatchet. Blood Rite doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. And if you want to spend the XP, enchant weapon is an optional trigger, so you can deal two or three damage, then use one of the additional damage dealers listed above. The last use is marginal, but you might useful: clearing hand slots. Mystics running scroll of secrets might not want to spend the action, or might not have the card to send it back into the trash. Guns run out of ammo, thieves kits run out of supplies. Hatchet solves it!
What about a double Hatchet Yorick build?
If you kill the enemy you recur it with Yorick's ability.
If first attack doesn't kill it, than you hit it with the other, getting back the first with its own ability and the second with Yorick's ability,
At least i think this works as "if defeat" is before "after defeat".