The hammer contends with the Flamethrower as king of all weapons and firmly relegates the Lightning Gun to obsolescence .

Enchanted*, the hammer is a match for the Flamethrower in raw damage. In addition, it:

• doesn't need to engage, making it easier to beat enemies off allies
• can shove enemies away into irrelevance or as a pseudo evade
• is a Relic which helps with with things like Poltergeist
• benefits massively from Reliable and Enchant Weapon for reaching huge skill values for boss killing
• doesn't need to be reloaded, saving many actions and resources playing Extra Ammunition and the second copy of Flamethrower

The downside is that you do need to oversucceed to do 3 damage per hit, but skills like Daring and Overpower makes oversucceeding very reliable even before you start attaching Reliables and Enchanting it.

I've also found that the actions and resources saved from not needing to reload or replay weapons means that Guardians become more capable in other capacities, be it from healing or becoming able to pick up the odd clue with the excess resources. At higher difficulties the testless damage and +1 from a Beat Cop (2) was usually too much for me to give up, but the incredible reliability and relatively lower cost of the hammer means that it's easy to forgo the cop for other allies.

This is a particularly huge buff for Sister Mary, who struggled to compensate for her 3 in a class that revolves around monster slaying. Now she can swing a hammer along with the best of them.

I'm more lukewarm on this weapon for Mystics. Mystics have so many good hand slot choices and just gained a few more. More importantly, Mystics also lack commits for the hammer to oversucceed at higher difficulties — you can't commit Guts to it — and don't have access to Enchant Weapon or Reliable. Therefore, there's less of an advantage over Shrivelling (5) (especially if you're only occassionally fighting), though it's nice to not have to worry about backlash and spell charges.

Still, there's probably an interesting build with Mind's Eye, allowing mystics to attack at double their , or to otherwise use the newly freed arcane slot for Seal of the Seventh Sign or Close the Circle.

* You could also enchant the Flamethrower, but the enchantment will be discarded if you need to play a new copy to reload it, and it's so overkill that it's impractical

This card is so overpowered, that you basically take it in any mystic or guardian deck and that's it, all-mighty monsters are no longer any threat to a team.

No charges, no ammo, no special mechanics to balance such a power, just a +2 damage weapon with on average +3 to your main skill, meaning that you do not even need to boost your weapon with a Beat Cop or Holy Rosary to make it effective.

Why would now Akachi use any battle magic, if she never runs out of charges with this card and in terms of the damage it is comparable to the latest version of Shrivelling but without any magical drawbacks? Why would you collect 5-10 cards to make a Shotgun work on Leo when you can just take this endless hammer?

Even old granny Gloria Goldberg will easily become your ultimate monster hunter, smashing monsters with this giant hammer in her hands, because any card that increases your willpower strengthens this weapon too.

In other words, this card is so good that it simply makes a lot of other interesting cards and mechanics completely useless.

My friends and I have already played 3 campaigns with this card, and compared to previous playthroughs, this card actually feels like cheating.

I think I'm a little less hot on this card compared to some of the other reviews here, and I'm not seeing this as a new "king of weapons".

Yes, it has the potential to be a 3 damage attack with infinite uses, but I think "succeed by 3" is a bigger deal (especially on higher difficulties) than it seems. On most enemies, your token-modified skill value would have to hit 6+, which will pretty much always require stat boosts, even with the will+fight modifier.

On hard, I think this weapon will do 2 damage more often than one would hope for with a 5 resource, 5 xp weapon, and I think on that difficulty lightning gun, flamethrower, holy spear, and the lv 5 mystic spells still compete with, or even outperform (particularly in consistency) this weapon. On standard or easy, I can definitely see the appeal of picking up a big weapon that always does a minimum of 2 damage and often times 3, but it's still got more variance than comparable choices.

And yes, Reliable goes a long way to get you the consistency you want, but now you're looking at a 2-3 cards, and the other options have their own synergy cards too. None of this is to say that Cyclopean Hammer is bad by any means, I just don't think you should binder your other choices just yet.

So now that this has been Taboo'd, how good is it?

The answer is still very good - what's changed is that the maximum damage per round for a fully invested hammer has dropped to 7 damage (2+2+3) from 9 damage (3+3+3). 7 damage for a full round of attacks is still great. It still interacts with Enchant weapon for the same effect. It still has no ammo issues, it still only costs 10XP for the set.

What this taboo did do was give Lightning Gun a place in the meta again, as the 3/3/3 damage option.

This still requires a lot less overall deck-investment to make good than M1918 BAR, Lightning Gun, or even Chainsaw and with the nerf is probably at the level of a Contrabanded Chicago Typewriter for raw damage output, but has the benefit over the typewriter of being much easier to succeed with.

Did this taboo go far enough? I think it did, in the sense that it's no longer clearly the best 2-handed weapon available for any investigator that can take it. But I can also see the argument that, even if it's not clearly the best, it's still got by far the highest floor of the big 2-handed weapons, since the exhaust is optional and it'll never run out of ammo.

Probably my most hated card so far. (just started new with eotd and tdl) Seen it before but just had first hand experience with Zoey Samaras an that is a moment of shameful when I upgraded this card (Its just my self judgement tho) here are my opinions.

• it is too good. Hard to not take this hammer when you build logically. Could say this single card kill other builds indirectly.
• personally, multi faction card should be a bit weaker than main faction card.design wise, most are fine but this hammer definitely outlaw.
• it is off designed. Mystic card should have some chance of negativity . Look at the art again and tell me this weapon does not looks evil. Literally untranslateable runes particle falling of it. Yet still such a constantly boring and safe weapon.
• Suggestion : Should be taboo version which add some Mystic style negativity. Maybe something like

"If you reveal (well ,you see the runes on and hammer) you take 2 direct damage and autofail" (yes,damage since it is half card and it grew evily heavier so you hurt yourself in the process)

Finally, a Weapon, I would put into a 's hands. I was never a fan of any version of Enchanted Blade, even for Diana, Akachi or Jim, who have 3 , because trading to fight with instead of is still not a great thing to do for them, and spending an arcane slot for it even more awful. (Of course, there are other tools like Sword Cane or in some decks maybe Spirit Athame for , but I wouldn't see their main use as a fighting weapon.) I think, the Cyclopean Hammer will shine exceptionally in the hands of Diana Stanley, who gets an awesome card for Well Prepared synergies to boot with it, which also makes it easier for her to over-succeed by 3 on the test on this card. A disadvantage, compared to Shrivelling or Azure Flame will be, that have to rely more on or pips. Overpower becomes a consideration for them, possibly also Vicious Blow for Diana. This needs extra deck space, compared to a build, where you only rely on . Also, if I understand the syntax of the card right, you will deal the extra damage from over-succeeding only to non-Elites as well, on par with Spectral Razor. (Another interpretation would be, that on over-succeeding Elites would go flying as well, but that would be really strange and sounds silly to me.)

That's not to say, won't like it. They all come with at least 3 , several of them have 4. Of course, in this class, it has to compete with Flamethrower, with it's unpaired amount of damage. Sister Mary likes her Holy Spear, but she could wield the Hammer as well, and it might even be as good and less clunky. On the plus side, the Hammer improves the value of cards like Brother Xavier, Bandolier (2) or Police Badge, because suddenly get another offensive stat, they can buff with these. A minor consideration, but much more important for than , are enemies like Poltergeist or Wraith, who can be squished with the hammer quite easily. But it's really minor, in particular Poltergeists are only to be seen twice in Carcosa, and the first time in the first scenario, when no can currently have a Cyclopean Hammer.

The card is of course expensive in XP and Resources. In particular for , who get an XP discount from Arcane Research on cards like Shrivelling, which cost (at most) 3 resources. But it has not the spill-over effects, we usually see on cards, and unlimited uses (except on a Conglomeration of Spheres), so I think, the card is not overpriced. Some people like to put Spectral Razor on Dayana Esperence, and that's twice the resources (unless you discount the spells with Robes) for 3 uses of a similar effect. (You don't need to over-succeed, you can engage enemies, but can't bounce off non-Elites.) I'm very much looking forward to the release of this box to try it out!

I've used the hammer to crushing effect in a playthrough of Innsmouth Conspiracy with Zoey Samaras. Hitting at 8 by default is good enough to get 2 damage reliably, but for the real magic to happen you want at least one, ideally two copies of Reliable attached (each copy gives +2 to hit) and maybe 1 or 2 stat boosts from other sources.

Once I was able to achieve this, pretty much every enemy in the game became a massive joke, as I was essentially using a lightning gun at 13-14 skill value every swing, dealing 3 damage every time, with unlimited ammo.

This freed my deck completely from having to run economy cards + extra ammo generation, usually the biggest problem for big gun guardian builds. Instead I filled my deck with encounter deck manipulation, ensuring I was always able to draw enemies from investigators around the table.

In short - too strong if you can hit 3 damage reliably.

This card is absolutely bananas on Lily. Out of the box, she fights at 7, but you probably have a Discipline boosting either or , which puts her at 8 (equal to Leo, Mark, Natcho, Akachi). Once you hit 15 xp, you can either put in the other Discipline stat to baseline fight at 9 or get Discipline to get that "Three attacks for one Action" effect. At 30 xp, you have both. This means she has the potential to do 15 damage in a round every other round or so while fighting at base skill of 9.

This item also turns boosts like Holy Rosary (or the upgraded version) and Brother Xavier into combat boosts that also protect you from the Mythos.

I realize Butterfly Swords are more in line with her theme, but the Hammer provides insane value for her, while also being a Relic for when that matters. Even on Hard, she will regularly test 4-6 above "hard" enemies without commits making passing by 3 pretty easy. It's also a decent target for Well Prepared for further flexible boosts.

I'm pretty sure everyone one has tear this thing in apart, and it is quite a formidable weapon by itself, when we add in supports cards, it does become ridiculous. It should be taboo, but I don't think it should be forbidden.

I think double or nothing was forbidden because while it was interesting to use, if you tech your deck right. It can destroy scenarios because the effects are doubled, and hell if you combine that card with the hammer, it would make Leo or Dexter quite deadly, Leo more specifically. Because he has access to reliable(1). But the very nature of double or nothing was to be combo with other cards, obviously because it's a skill card. The hammer is a asset.(a powerful one at that. ) that I think we should try to limit it. We should try to encourage other builds but limiting the uses it has. I got some ideas for that.

1. It gains exceptional.- that's exactly what happen to the key of ys, and it definitely dropped from being an auto include. It will make guardian or mystic really try and build around utilizing and getting this card.
2. It gains an arcane slot.- I don't know why it doesn't already have an arcane slot. This will definitely limit mystic a bit. Guardian have some arcane assets that are of value, but not many.
3. Limit 1 attachment.- this will make you choose what attachments you build for and will also limit how much boost it gets from reliable(1).
4. (Edit)-Exhaust its ability- maybe if we give it a flat boast, like +2 strength for +1 damage,then Exhaust it to add will for +2 damage. A thought.

I think we could taboo reliable(1) to where it only gives +1 period. Which I'm sure that was the intention. But I think we should focus on the hammer. You could also not use it.... but that's just as bad as making it forbidden. I'm not sure.

Hell of a card tho.

Hey Dr. Elli Horowitz, could you hold this for me? My hands are kinda full. Let me just put it on top of my deck first

Aside from the funny Norman Withers combo made easy with Research Librarian; Jim Culver, Gloria Goldberg, Luke Robinson, Marie Lambeau, Zoey Samaras, and Roland Banks are the only investigators who can use both this and Elli without picking up a rather dubious permanent. Some of these investigators are far more likely to be interested in this weapon and ally than others.

Even if they're not struggling for hand slots, considering people run things like Prepared for the Worst, Cyclopean Hammer having access to a similar tutor that cheats the thing directly into play is a pretty serious advantage over other alternatives. It's almost certain there are other relics you might have in your deck you would not mind finding instead.

If you're worried about encounter cards blowing up your hammer, I think you're just a coward. Just don't get hit.

Cyclopean Hammer + Eldritch Inspiration. I came across this combo earlier in the week when I was making a hammer build for Akachi. To my knowledge, I haven't read or heard anywhere about anyone using this combo.

So best case scenario: you swing with the hammer, play Eldritch Inspiration and hit the enemy for 5 damage and move them away 4 spaces lol (Assuming they're alive to be punted across the map)

This is a 1 xp Vicious Blow that deals +2 Damage and moves an enemy 4 spaces. Now admittedly, this is one combo among many. But still, can't wait to give it a try.