Sophie Harrigan’s Guide to Playing the Soldier - NLS 3 exp

Your goals for the early game are to get Flashlight and/or Machete equipped and aggressively using Sophie to work on advancing the act deck.

In the mid game you should continue attempting the advance the act deck aggressively, focus on staying below four damage and three horror, and support your allies by moving around the map a dealing with enemies.

The Home Front converts damage taken to damage dealt, which is an awesome card for Mark. Emergency Aid gives us two more swings of Sophie, and First Aid gives us three or can be used on horror.

Horror is the real scary part about playing Mark. Yes, Sophie kicks in at five damage and turns to a weakness, but staying above the line is easy, and if crossed you and your allies have a chance to bring it back. But at five horror damage he dies. True Grit can’t soak it (which makes Brother Xavier (1) a fantastic upgrade), and Beat Cop and Guard Dog are defeated if they tank any horror. That’s why we’re running First Aid and "If it bleeds...".

Note: I no longer advise running "If it bleeds...", preferring Smoking Pipe which allows you to trigger card draw, reliably move horror off of Mark Harrigan and onto his assets, and can be used to detonate Brother Xavier once he enters play. A huge thanks to user CecilAlucardX for this suggestion!

Upgrade Paths Prioritize Beat Cop (2), followed by Charisma (3), Brother Xavier (1), Stand Together (3), Taunt (2), and Vicious Blow (2) is a good path.

Mark needs allies to soak damage for him and Charisma (3) is important. Beat Cop (2) is a stellar upgrade which synergies with Mark. Brother Xavier (1) is also incredible and helps soak horror. "I've had worse…" (4) competes with Moment of Respite (3) for the slot "If it bleeds..." occupies and can also act to mitigate horror from your weakness, enemies, or even Sophie or Painkillers.

In multiplayer, Stand Together (3) replaces Emergency Cache, and no one will ever complain about being the recipient (until they draw their weakness!).

Police Badge (2) is phenomenal, and when paired with Ever Vigilant the expensive assets become easy to get into play. The permanent Keen Eye (3) is always great to have if you have extra experience laying around, but Sophie will generally take on the role.