The Great Work
Divide and Unite

Актив

Pact. Science.

Cost: –.

Містик

Permanent. Limit 1 per deck. Purchase only at deck creation.

You earn 1 additional experience after each scenario of this campaign. If you are defeated, you are usurped by the homunculus (replace each signature card in your deck with a random basic weakness, flip this card, and swap it with your investigator for the remainder of the campaign).

Aleksander Karcz
The Drowned City Investigator Expansion #68.

Lost Homunculus
The Forgotten Child

Investigator

Construct. Scion.

Містик
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
Health: 6. Sanity: 6.

Cannot be chosen as a starting investigator.

You cannot add, remove, or upgrade cards from your deck.

You get +2 skill value while resolving abilities on Spell cards.

Forced - When you are defeated: You are killed.

effect: +0. Draw 1 card.

You always wanted to be human.
Aleksander Karcz
The Drowned City Investigator Expansion #68.
The Great Work
No image

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: If my investigator is usurped by the Homunculus, what happens to the trauma suffered by my original investigator? A: Any physical and mental trauma suffered by an investigator who is usurped by the Homunculus is transferred to the Homunculus. The Homunculus begins each scenario with all trauma suffered by the investigator it has usurped. (The Drowned City Investigator Expansion FAQ, March 2025)
Last updated

Reviews

Pros:

  • Provides 1 additional XP after each scenario (duh).
  • Doesn't kill you outright after being defeated unlike Charon's Obol.
  • Is a Science asset, so can be taken on Kate Winthrop alongside the usual Mystics and investigators with level 0 Mystic access.

Cons:

  • If you're defeated once, you get Homunculus'd - meaning you can't change your deck, you get a load more basic weaknesses, and your statline will make you want to cry.
  • Two strikes and you're out, if you're defeated again you're killed.
  • May encourage cheating: "If I hadn't drawn the I wouldn't have been defeated, so let's ignore it!"

Deckbuilding Tips:

  • Pairs well with Arcane Research and Down the Rabbit Hole - synergising by offering more XP.
  • In the Thick of It is less worth it, as in 3 scenarios you'll have earnt that XP back from the Great Work, and the trauma puts you at risk of Homunculus-ing (I know Arcane Research provides trauma as well, but Arcane Research has a much greater pay-off).
  • For Dexter, Sefina, Charlie and Lola, it pairs well with Charon's Obol - as realistically the Homunculus is annoying enough that death may be preferable!
  • Transfiguration can un-Homunculus you for a scenario. Obviously you need to buy this before you Homunculus as you can't change your deck at that stage. Charlie and Lola are good Transfiguration abusers in particular given their wide card pool. EDIT: As mentioned below, The Red-Gloved Man, Summoned Hound and similar can help with the Homunculus statline - but I'd still advocate for not becoming the Homunculus in the first place!
  • You'll want to consider how many upgrade points there are in your campaign, and so how much bonus XP you'll be earning. I usually use 8 scenarios with 7 upgrade points as my rule of thumb for XP-boosting cards (with some luxury XP upgrades in your back pocket if the campaign goes on longer).

Other points to note:

  • From the discussion in the comments below, the jury's out on how the Homunculus will work with Exile effects. I'd imagine this has been asked of FFG so hopefully there will be an FAQ on this at some point.

I just posted a Dexter deck today using both this and Charon's Obol (on the 1st April no less...). Generally as mentioned above you should think out your upgrade path for a Great Work deck before starting a campaign, as analysis-paralysis is common if you're awash with XP. It's also good to think about your backup plan should your investigator die (Ascetic decks are a good tool for this, I posted an Ascetic Kymani deck in the past month with the goal of replacing killed investigators). That's all there is to say really - watch out for the Homunculus!

HungryColquhoun · 10652
I don't think that's all there is to say; if you get some base skill value override like The Red Gloved Man, Trial by Fire or Eye of the Djinn the skill boost for spells is actually very nice. — AlderSign · 440
Also, being a homu also protects you from gaining scenario weaknesses. — AlderSign · 440
What I am uncertain about is if it lets you abuse exile. (Sorry for spamming, my fingers were faster than my homunculus brain.) — AlderSign · 440
That's a good catch about Exile cards. I think, some, like Fire Extinguisher (1, because Exile is a cost, 3, because you may exile to do the ability) or "Stroke of Luck" should not work, but "Test of Will", Flare, "Unscrupulous Loan", "Guiding Spirit", Guiding Teddy and so on should work. — Susumu · 383
Interesting points AlderSign, I'll add some of these. Still, I think the idea should be avoiding becoming the homunculus - as Red Gloved Man will only save you for a turn or two. — HungryColquhoun · 10652
I feel like this card, just like Obol, would encourage people to _only_ run it in the most broken builds. I.e. not run in fun-jank builds. — 1337duck · 1
Something to also keep in mind is how many signatures your investigator has, since these are replaced by basic weaknesses. As I discovered when Gloria gained 6 weaknesses, she probably shouldn't consider a career in alchemy! — Hydra · 6

I wonder why anyone would not take this card in pure standalone decks. Although the card's effects only refer to campaign mechanics it does not prohibit you from taking it, granting you 6(!!!) extra health and sanity. Yes, the stat dump is suboptimal in some decks, but everything is better than dying, right? And since you are only playing a standalone you are not stuck with this crappy investigator for the rest of the campaign.

I guess I have my answer after reading the last part of the card: "for the remainder of the campaign."

So sadly (or luckily, balance-wise?) no abusing it in standalone games. Also, I only just realized that flipping the card is not a replacement effect for being defeated, so also no bonus health/sanity.

Always fun talking to myself...

AlderSign · 440