Indebted

A friend pointed out to me that the easiest way of maintaining ignorance of your own weakness without seeing the card is to simply show it to your team mate and ask them if its a permanent then just not let on what it is. Ofc this wont help solo players, but mplain's approach would at indeed work there.

StartWithTheName · 71657
Alternatively, you can shuffle the basic weakness cards without looking at them, and pass one out to each player without looking at the card. Leave this card face-up so the player who gets it knows that they have Indebted. — Darthcaboose · 285
My group has all the weaknesses sleeved in opaque sleeves, except for permanent cards which get clear sleeves. That way we can quickly shuffle, cut, and deal basic weaknesses and you immediately know if you got a permanent one. — Death by Chocolate · 1488
Fire Axe

I personally think this is one of the most thematically satisfying and versatile weapons in the current card pool.

High accuracy:

The paying 1 to boost 2 is an incredibly good rate of return compared to the likes of Hard Knocks or Physical Training (the only other pay to boost options in the game just now). In low characters such as Wendy it makes occasional combat quite viable even if you dont want to go all in for the + damage. A maximum of +6 should be enough to land a blow of some sorts on most enemies irrespective of which investigator your playing. In a combat focused character it may enable harder difficulties, or devastating late game combos with Double or Nothing and Vicious Blow. Note that Zoey's passive bonus resource upon engagement can be spent immediately on the axe if needed. She can also choose not to take it if you dont want to go above 3 resources to keep that + damage option open.

Draw consistency:

By combining a damage card and pay to boost ability, Fire Axe sets up much quicker and much cheaper than decks aiming to use Hard Knocks or Physical Training with a weapon (likely Machete) to maintain both high and bonus damage. The tempo boost from this is not to be understated here. In the case of Machete and Hard Knocks, you need to find 2 cards, pay 2 actions and 5 resources compared to 1 card, 1 resource and 1 action with the axe

Maintaining damage:

To compensate for these fairly hefty advantages, Fire Axe requires a little working around if you want to reliably be able to use that +damage abiliy. Firstly it is important to be aware of your cash flow. Be careful not to play your Emergency Cache or similar until you actually need to spend it. in cheap enough decks you might not even need to bring a cashe at all.

Second or subsequent swings with bonuses to both accuracy and damage can be obtained through committing cards for icons on your second attack, in particular Overpower, Unexpected Courage, or the in faction Oops!. Alternatively, as pilgrim highlights, Forbidden Knowledge lets you take another resource between swings giving you a second attack at +2 and +1 damage.

Comparisons with competitors:

Natural comparisons are with Machete and Baseball Bat. Others are of course available, but im conscious of how long this review has already become.

Machete is arguably the closest comparison for a weapon you could potentially plan to reuse indefinitely. The consistent + 1 damage is only dependent on the enemy being engaged with you and being the only enemy engaged with you (not hard to achieve by any standard) and it attackes with a passive +1. This may not be enough alone in low characters, but it probably is in combat heavy characters at least for regular encounter deck opponents. In exchange it is more expensive, a different faction and arguably needs support cards to hit boss type enemies (rather than resources as the axe does). That said, by the time a boss has materialised you would expect to have seen your combo pieces.

Baseball Bat offers a consistent + damage, and effectively saves you 1 resource per attack where you needed to boost, but will eventually break and similar to Machete needs support to go higher on bonuses should the need arise. Arguably its biggest achilles heel though is the two hand slots requirement, which can be very restrictive in non-arcane focused investigators, particularly by hampering the option to use key investigation cards like Magnifying Glass or Flashlight. Or indeed carrying a back up weapon.

Comparisons aside it is worth remembering that if you do plan on using weapons, you may well want 4 or 5 cards in the deck to be likely to draw one early. Certainly 2x Machete and 2x Fire Axe together isnt a bad call for a melee build. Late game you will probably have the one you need for your boss fights and early game frankly they are similar enough to be substitutes while you get rolling.

StartWithTheName · 71657
Its worth noting that Fire axe does work on non-fighter's. Say for example a Wendy or Rex that is supposed to be chasing the clues. If the game throws a wrench in your plans and puts an easy foe in your way you can deal with it with the Axe and continue. Sometiems you just gotta unlock a location and repeatedly evading a 1 or 2 HP foe might not be an option. — Tsuruki23 · 2568
I find it very curious that this doesn't require two-hand slots. The flavor-mechanic relationship is on point except for that one detail. Have you ever seen or heard of someone using a Fire Axe one-handed? No, to really be effective, you have to use two-hands, which make me wonder what the designer(s') rationale was... — ArkhamArkhanist · 10
On Wings of Darkness

This would be easier to understand if the card didn't have a period and new sentence after the instruction to take damage and horror. You could read this as move to Rivertown whatever the outcome of the skill test.

corbs · 10
Traditionally for FFG games, 'then' requires something else to happen first. Also note that it does not say 'Rivertown' for reasons also. — Amoon · 2
'Then' has a clearly defined meaning in the rules: https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Then — sacrelicious2 · 44
Which is funny since it means that if you cancel any of damage/horror, you won't get taxied to Rivertow — stephwhatever · 1
"I've got a plan!"

Potentially a very powerful card in the right hands. Rex Murphy with Dr. Milan Christopher and Magnifying Glass can attack with a strength of 6 and potential damage of 4 - and for 3 resources this is well worth it.

JoolzG · 2
Note that Magnifying Glass only provides its intellect bonus while investigating. Regardless, "I've Got a Plan!" is still a powerful card that fills a gap in Seeker decks. — Herumen · 1741
Agreed. Unless I have this in hand or Mind Over Matter I usually don't feel comfortable going out on my own, but these two cards can put you at ease and would suggest running at least one of them if not both for the Seekers at the current time of this post; that can always change with new released cards of course. — Bronze · 187
Magnifying glass won’t help you much, because you only get the bonus while you are investigating. — Timster76 · 7
.41 Derringer

I know that the .45 Automatic is probably more popular, where it can be taken, but I've found that the .41 Derringer is a nice alternative for the less fighty investigators. That +2 can count more for weaker investigators more that the reliable additional damage of the .45 Automatic.

The other competition for weaker investigators is the Fire Axe. It's cheaper to play, reusable, and it can reliably do extra damage (if you can afford to spend all your resources) - but if you factor in the cost of increasing your combat, it actually becomes more expensive for x3 +2 attacks. Although I see a lot of decks sporting Fire axes, for support investigators, I think that the case for it over the .41 Derringer isn't as clear cut as it might appear.

And Baseball Bat, while lovely, does take up both hands, and I find reliably breaks at the most inopportune moments.

To be honest, I came across this while using the .41 as a filler weapon for Jenny Barnes, while waiting for her Jenny's Twin .45s to come out. Clearly, they are better, but the .41 wasn't bad.

AndyB · 955
This card is ok — Li Ling Chen · 2