This card seems incredible at first glance. And it really is.

+2 damage is a dominant effect in this game, and cards that offer repeatable +2 damage are almost always outstanding. (Springfield M1903 is why I had to say "almost".) Compared to the other +2 damage weapons in the game, Acidic Ichor is way cheaper and more convenient. Think of Lightning Gun; Acidic Ichor is cheaper by 1 XP, 5 resources, and 2 hand slots. That's amazing. It's kind of bizarre that the faction that's the best at finding clues would get a combat card as sweet as this, but that's how it is.

Yes, you need to identify the solution. But that basically boils down to spending a couple actions and passing an Intellect (4) test. Even on high levels, that's not much hassle.

As icing on the cake, Emergency Cache III is a quite efficient (albeit XP-intensive) way to reload this card.

So what's the catch?

Well, on lower levels, I would say there really isn't one. On Easy, Acidic Ichor will basically perform like a much cheaper Lightning Gun. That's every bit as good as it sounds.

On higher levels, though, and particularly on Expert, Acidic Ichor is no Lightning Gun. This is because attacking at base 6 is nowhere near enough. If you try to hit a 4-fight enemy without boosting (and most good targets for this card will have high fight), your odds of hitting are going to be substantially under 50%. You need to be able to boost your shots by a good +3 or +4 to make this card rewarding. Since Seeker decks tend not to be naturally loaded with Combat icons, that's not always easy.

Of course, you do have some options for getting that Combat up. You could run Overpower, Inquiring Mind, Unexpected Courage, maybe even Scientific Theory. Minh (easily the best Seeker at running Acidic Ichor) can take Lucky!, which helps an awful lot. Daisy might be able to get Encyclopedia to work out in certain situations. Maybe your allies have the spare cards to boost you. You have options. But it's difficult enough to hit with Acidic Ichor that the card is no longer a slam dunk.

I think Acidic Ichor becomes more of a build-around card on Expert. It's not something you can just throw into any Seeker deck and get good results. If you're in a multiplayer group and your allies are doing a good job handling monsters, devoting a lot of deck space and XP to Acidic Ichor may not be worth it. It can absolutely do great work on Expert if you put the effort in, but you do have to put the effort in.

I believed this was a great card. I made the huge mistake to use it instead of Unexpected Courage

Location with clues are indeed plenty during the game, but what is the purpose of the Seeker class ? Empty them. And when it's empty, this card is a dead weight in your hand. You'll have to pay attention not to end your turn on an empty location, which requires too much planning and is often counter productive

Unexpected Courage will be enough in 80% of times, while half the time, Inquiring Mind will be completely useless, often at the wrost moment (Encounter deck draw)

Maybe in addition to 2 copies of Unexpected Courage, but even then, I'm not convinced.

The more I play Guardian, the more I find myself turning to Lightning Gun as the best upgrade path for multiplayer Guardians. It is so good against the Expert chaos bag that if I don't build for it, I end up wishing I did. The +5 bonus means that with only modest further boosting you can crack the -8 token on every shot. The +2 damage means that you have to spend fewer fight actions to kill things, which means fewer pulls from the chaos bag and more actions left over to do whatever you need to do.

Of course, Lightning Gun very much demands to be built around. You must have ways to reload it in your deck--Extra Ammunition and Custom Ammunition are your best in-faction options here, and both are worth it. I think Venturer is fine, and I might run one or two. But my first choice would be to play the ammo events and use my ally slot elsewhere.

I recommend supplementing Lightning Gun with extra-damage effects--Beat Cop II and Vicious Blow are the most important. These save you ammo, skill tests, and actions by letting you kill 4-health (sometimes even 5-health) enemies in one action. Beat Cop II will also spare you from having to use Lightning Gun on something dinky like an Acolyte or Whippoorwill.

Beyond that, Prepared for the Worst to tutor Lightning Gun is very helpful, as is Stick to the Plan so you can start every game with that and other support cards available.

You were probably running Emergency Cache in most of your Guardian builds anyway, but it's as necessary here as anywhere else.

One support item I generally omit is Bandolier. I don't think there's a huge advantage to having the third hand slot, and Bandolier + Lightning Gun + another hand item is needlessly expensive. That said, you do always want additional assets in play to go with Lightning Gun. Otherwise you'll risk losing your Lightning Gun to stuff like Crypt Chill and Pushed into the Beyond, and that would just be disastrous. Just use assets that don't take up hand slots.

I would skip "Eat lead!" most of the time--the guaranteed hit is nice, but spending extra ammo and 2 XP isn't. Maybe if someone is packing Double or Nothing this becomes better, but it's probably still a low priority.

Make no mistake, this is a very greedy card. Most of your resources and much of your deck space will have to be devoted to it. It will take up a ton of XP, in a faction that is entirely devoid of XP acceleration. Attractive XP options like Stand Together will have to be significantly delayed, if you ever get to them at all.

But the upside is that a properly supported Lightning Gun will be outstanding at your primary task of blowing up enemies. You will do that far more efficiently and reliably than you otherwise could. Plus, when it comes time for a boss fight, you'll be ready.

I tried this card on a Jenny Barnes deck in SOLO Play on STANDARD difficulty. My idea was to stack his boosts with St. Huberts Key to get +2 willpower and intellect. Playing him though almost got me killed on the first scenarios of the Carcosa campaign. At first sight he may look playable, fun or even good, but believe me, he is BAD (considering the current card pool). Let me explain:

-He costs too much resources to play, wich makes it even more difficult to gather the 10 resources you need for his static boosts. This also means he is to expensive to effectively serve as a meat shield.

-He is waaaay to slow, specially on the early scenarios. Remember that you don't have Hot Streak from the start, so collecting the 14 resources you need to play him and get the boost will take forever, even if you are playing Jenny Barnes with Lone Wolf. Consider that you normally also have to expend resources playing other assets or boosting your skills with Hard Knocks or other talents.

-His trigger ability "Gain two resources" is not that bad on multi player, but in Solo play it's not very useful. Consider that on average you will be loosing one action per turn fighting enemies or resolving treacheries. If you then constantly use 1 action to gather 2 resources from Dario you will only have 1 action left to advance the game, meaning you will loose to the Agenda.

-There are too many better allies than him (Leo de Luca, Lola Santiago, Dr. Milan, Beat Cop, etc.) and there are many other easier ways to boost your intellect and willpower. The willpower stat is by the way not very important for rougues anyways (except for Sefina maybe) and you are better of boosting it with Talents like High Roller or Moxie.

-Even when I managed to stack this guy with St. Huberts Key, what he provides wasn't worth the enormous effort. By the time you have it all set up you would already have drawn Leo de Luca anyways, wich is a thousand times better. If you are going Jenny Barnes clue gatherer play Dr. Milan instead.

-With his wicked smile he tempts you not to use the 10 resources you have put on him for the static boosts. Soon enough you will find yourself not playing important cards or not overcommitting to important skill tests, just to keep him happy (charged with 10 resources). I warn you, the over commitment to this guy could mean your demise.

In conclusion/Summery: His smile fair as spring, as to put him in your deck he draws you. His tongue sharp and silvery, as to invest 14 resources on him he implores you. Your stats he boosts, as he swears to adore you. Though dues need be repaid, and the overcommitment will ruin you. His slow set up will snare you in bonds, as the Agenda advances glowing’, a fire. To gore and torment you, till the stars expire. XD

I think this card is a bomb. I think this immediately becomes one of the highest-priority Seeker XP cards. You'll still want to pick up Higher Education first, of course (which will conveniently help with identifying the Ancient Stone.) But I wouldn't wait too much longer to get this going. This card is going to make you win much more reliably.

Test-free damage is golden in this game. There's a reason why Agnes Baker is almost always ranked as a high-tier investigator, why Zoey's Cross is one of the best special investigator cards, and why Beat Cop II is one of the best uses of 2 XP. The primary source of challenge in this game comes from enemies, and being able to kill them or finish them off without any skill tests makes the game way, way easier.

So I expect this card to be superb. In addition to being test-free, the damage is quite efficient! Depending on circumstances, you may not have to spend an action at all. If you do have to spend an action to get a needed point of damage, you get a draw out of it.

Obviously, you can combine this with Cryptic Research, Search for the Truth, Analytical Mind, and the like, all of which are just absurdly powerful plays. But don't forget the simpler skill cards like Perception, Overpower, Eureka!, etc.

The synergy for Daisy with Old Book of Lore is going to be incredible, too, although the hand slot consideration makes this tricky for her. Still, that's going to be extremely powerful when it works.

I think the number of secrets you need to make this a good card is actually quite low. Even at four secrets, I think this card would absolutely be worth it. You should be able to get a lot more than that--I see no reason why you shouldn't get seven secrets on this thing--which makes this just amazing, in my opinion.

Finally, remember that reaction triggers are optional. So if you find yourself in a situation where you're drawing a card but the point of damage won't make a difference, you don't have to waste a secret.