Empower Self

At the time of writing — Empower Self is fresh off the press — these cards are generating much discussion, here and elsewhere, positive and negative. Rightly so, they are interesting cards.

Two points to get everyone on the same page: (1) The Myriad keyword means that we may purchase all three for two experience points, but we don't have to: we can choose the one or the two we want the most. (2) The ability (+2 to a skill) is separate from the constant ability (ignore a substitution), can be used independently of it, and much of these cards' value comes from that option.

Cost

Let's be precise about the cost of getting all three into play: three cards, three actions, nine resources, and an arcane slot. To merely call that costly is to gloss over just how expensive the triple is — we need to ask ourselves: what else could we accomplish with three other cards, three actions, nine resources, and our arcane slot? Needing to search for these cards (with Lucid Dreaming for instance) adds to their effective cost. Uncage the Soul helps, but it doesn't make the issue go away: Uncage is one of several economy cards we can choose to include at the expense of other useful cards, and Mystics often already use Uncage with no shortage of targets.

Obviously, if we only plan on getting two copies or one copy into play, the cost is more manageable.

Other Skill Boosters

Empower Self, as a level two, once-per-turn skill booster, is worth comparing to the Carcosa cycle of talents: Well Prepared, Quick Study, Cornered, High Roller, and most significantly, Recall the Future.

Let's compare one copy of Empower Self to one Recall the future. Empower provides a bigger effective skill boost (that is, has a larger effect on our odds of success) to one test a round than Recall, but Recall is a resource cheaper and is slotless. Recall can also be used for any skill and often doesn't exhaust — we can pose the question: "Throughout an entire round, which asset is more likely to turn a failure into a success?" and Empower's only advantage seems to vanish.

Let's now compare two or three copies of Empower Self to two copies of Recall the Future. Triggering both Recalls provides an effective skill boost that is close to, and in some cases identical to, a true +2. Recall is still more flexible and Empower can never be used for .

While two copies of Recall costs four experience to Empower's two, I think the difference is stark enough make the comparison worthwhile: for the sake of skill boosting, I would rather have two Recalls in play than all three Empowers. This is without even considering that the former only costs us two actions, two cards, four resources.

Empower Self is only worth taking if we can also get value out of its other ability.

Ignoring Willpower Substitutions

There are three issues to overcome to make this effect useful:

(1) Much of the value of spells is in their substitution to begin with — Rite of Seeking compares very unfavorably to Fingerprint Kit as does Shrivelling to the .32 Colt. Sixth Sense, substitution aside, provides a marginal benefit which would be hard to justify. This issue is worse with higher level spells as the + they grant is worthless if we aren't using .

(2) Using for investigation spells or for combat spells is a build-around type of effect, but we are only allowed one copy of the relevant Empower Self. If we, for example, build a deck that focuses on boosting at the expense of but include Rite and Sixth Sense, then those cards are not useful until we find our single copy of Empower Self: Acuity — and if we have a deck that boosts both skills then we don't need Acuity at all.

One perk of the effect is that it allows us to use cards like Deduction or Vicious Blow with spells, but similarly, those skills need to be useful without Empower Self to be worth including in the deck.

(3) Empower wants to be used with spells, but competes with spells for arcane slots. Being able to use for Rite and for Shrivelling isn't much help if we can only have one of those spells out. Sign Magick addresses this issue but has its own cost.

The strongest spell events that use don't substitute it, they add it: Read the Signs, Spectral Razor, and Ethereal Form; though Storm of Spirits and Blinding Light do have their uses.

Who might want it?

Marie Lambeau comes to mind because she has a compelling reason to use spells besides — her additional action. A thrifty Marie might take Magnifying Glasses for her hands and take Sixth Sense to capitalize on her ability. Sixth Sense is then useful without Acuity but gets better with it. And while Marie is spending two experience on Acuity, she can pick up Alacrity for free as a kind of mostly-superior Trench Coat.

Diana Stanley is another interesting case — she likes using because she can get it up to 5 or 6, but she can't necessarily depend on it so Empower Self could be helpful. Synergy with Well Prepared bares mentioning because each Empower has double icons of its corresponding skill. Diana has the option of using her ability on Empower if she's done with one of them — but only after it actually ignores a substitution.

Spritz · 69
I still think Daisy is the natural home for this. Acuity buffs her primary stat and allows her to use Rite of Seeking as a pseudo Fingerprint Kit, which in turn frees up a hand slot for another tome. I actually published a rough deck along these lines yesterday. Even managed to find a use for Book of Shadows, which can be used for free by Daisy to keep her Rite of Seeking permanently stocked up with charges and grant action compression on every turn. Alacrity and Stamina are less useful but do offer some handy enemy management options that would otherwise require some pretty expensive and highly situational cards in the deck, so you can make a case for them. It also combos nicely with Essence of the Dream. With these assets in play Daisy can handle just about anything, at least for a while, and can pulverise any shroud level in the game. She also doesn't have the same opportunity cost with the arcane slots. It's a natural fit. Still may not be the optimal Daisy build of course, but I'm looking forward to try it out. — Sassenach · 180
That's fair — Daisy has excellent deck searching tools to find the Rite of Seeking/Acuity combo, and with 5 intellect she can make herself useful until then. — Spritz · 69
The other thing I'm thinking is that might be a signal that we're going to see Lily Chen in the next cycle. This is all highly speculative of course, but it seems likely that she would be some kind of Guardian with Mystic off class, and since the character is a martial artist there may be some kind of weapons restriction (no firearms for example). Something like this (a ritual that empowers her body and mind from within) seems like it would be a great thematic fit for this hypothetical investigator. — Sassenach · 180
Time has passed and Lily Chen has now been revealed. And she can buy Mystic cards level 0 only. A bit sad, really; Empower Self: Stamina would have a decent great way for her to fill an arcane slot for the Dragon Pole. But that was not to be. — olahren · 3567
A Glimmer of Hope

There are a few good synergies here to bring up. First, Minh and any version of Grisly Totem.

With Minh, each one of these can be +2 Wild, therefore making it roughly equivalent to 3 Unexpected Courages, which you can pull back from discard at will. That's honestly pretty great, and at its best, is pretty close to a never ending stream of Unexpected Courage.

With Grisly Totem, you'll get the exact same effect. If you have the Seeker Grisly Totem, you could even be drawing a card each time as well.

With Minh AND Grisly Totem, you can stack those effects. That means you'll be able to get +3 Wild icons, 3 times, on a card you can pull back to your hand from discard for 1r.

Of course, to maximize these interactions, you want to commit one and only Glimmer per round, as these abilities have per round limits.

Keep in mind that pulling back 3 Glimmers at once is a burst of 3 cards in your hand. This can empower other effects which note how many cards are in your hand, such as Curiosity, Higher Education, and so on.

Outside of Minh and Grisly Totem, the other great use of Glimmer is as discard fodder for something like Wendy, Pete, or Cornered. You can happily chuck these cards into your discard pile whenever and draw them all back when you need to. Of course, other cards are discard fodder (Winging It, et al.), however those cards can't bounce back into your hand nor do they have icons in case you need commitments. Due to its easy recursion and flexibility of use, Glimmer is the most reliable discard fodder currently in the game.

Soloclue · 2615
I think Patrice is going to love this card too. — Schielman · 38
I'm not so sure this is a great Patrice card tbh. The issue for her is the action it requires to retrieve them. Other investigators can afford to take this action when they have a spare moment and then hold the cards in hand. For Patrice she can only do it when she knows she has a test to take that same turn, and this then reduces her to only two remaining actions. It also cuts down on the number of actions she can feasibly use it for. If it's a key fight or evade check she's likely to be engaged with an enemy and will need to take an AoO. Oddly, this means that the card is less flexible in Patrice than it would be in another deck. — Sassenach · 180
Patrice's Elder Sign is also relatively common because she tests often, and her Elder Sign encourages you to shuffle your deck back together sans 1 card (usually Watcher). Glimmer is actually very unlikely to fire at 2 or 3 copies in the discard in a Patrice deck. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
This is my favorite survivor card. — dlikos · 166
Don’t forget with Minh it also has the bonus of being 3 cards to contribute to a skill test to help with getting through her signature weakness (where you can’t contribute 1 or 2 cards to a test when she has the king in yellow out) so having three minor cards that all cooperate with any other test is very helpful at clearing the king — Phoenixbadger · 199
Dream Diary

Quick question on this. It's apparently been confirmed by Matt that there's a limit of one Essence of the Dream in your bonded cards. There doesn't seem to be a limit on the number of Dream Diaries you can have in play though. Does this mean that you can theoretically hold two of them at the same time and double trigger the boost ? I'd assume that you can't have two versions of this one in play and commit for an effective +6 every time you're at a 4 shroud location, but you could for example have the Explorer and the Child version in play simultaneously and then contrive to be at a high shroud location while you have 8 cards in hand to achieve the same effect ? I don't see any obvious reason why not. It's probably not worthwhile, but with the right build this could theoretically turn into a test-passing monster. Minh could theoretically commit a +7 boost to any test anywhere on the map every turn.

Sassenach · 180
Im pretty sure you can indeed have 2 of the same or two different dream diaries and get a ?????? Essence of the dream by meeting 1 or two conditions. Personally I have been playing as mandy since these cards have been released, and I definitely prefer 1 dream diary 1 occult lexicon as my hand slots. But I did consider two different or matching dream diaries — NarkasisBroon · 11
I'm considering this one and the untranslated version so that I have a method to do two tests a turn at with the buff. — BlankedyBlank · 23
According to FAQ entry (see Rules page for Bonded) you only get one Essence max regardless which is quite surprising and should definitely be linked on these pages — Timlagor · 6
I doubt it's worth upgrading more than one Dream Diary given you probably have searching tech but it might well be worth including a base copy too. Maybe on Expert that +7 is worth it but I doubt it. — Timlagor · 6
Little bit niche, but you can increase the shroud value from 3 to 4 with the fast ability of Cryptographic Cipher to make your Essence of a Dream more powerful (and maybe get more resources out of Crack the Case if you clear the location). — Miroque · 25
Do I get Essence of the Dream added to my hand on my first turn, when I play Dream Diary with geared up? — Scythe · 1
Seeking Answers

I doubt one thing... Can you investigate un your location and get a clue from a conected but non-discovered location? I mean, from a location that you never get in before.

I don't fully understand how It works. Thank you for the answers...

No, because until you reveal that location it doesn't have any clues in play. — Sassenach · 180
@Sassenach Not necessarily. For example, scenario 2 of The Circle Undone has clues on unrevealed locations. But I agree that if there aren’t physically clue on the location yet, you can’t discover them with this card. Part of revealing a location is placing clues on it, so they aren’t generally there yet before it’s revealed. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Does this test the shroud at your current location instead of at the clues location (in the connected areas) — matt_pigram · 1
@matt_pigram yes, you this test the shroud of your location — alexalansmith14 · 696
Empower Self

These cards are absolutely 100% crazy nutso bonkers good. I thought they would be ‘ok’ after all they’re quite expensive and limited to a once-per-turn boon but I was deeply wrong in that analysis. Play Sefina and investigate once per turn as if you were a 4 intellect Seeker. Punch an enemy or a locked door at 4 despite being a weak butt. Evade that 20 health monstrosity despite being some slow loser like Jim.

They’re slow and expensive, an issue which is only slightly salved by Uncage the Soul and finding the ones you want can be difficult unless you invest in Lucid Dreaming so I could see this being an issue on ‘sprint’ scenarios like Essex but they’re still far too good to pass up. In my opinion they slot best into Sefina right now as they complement her dawdling, defensive stat line nicely, she can make better use of the Alacrity boon than most, and she can more readily pay for them.

Difrakt · 1325
Investigating at 4 seems ok if she's taking Flashlight, fighting at 4 for one damage seems bad. For evasion you're better off using Suggestion I would think, and for investigation you could just use Sixth Sense and get the same boost (or better with Rosary) for 3 actions instead of one. I'm still nowhere close to convinced, I think especially for Sefina who can reliably play/copy the events she needs as the circumstances change something like this seems not at all good for her. Sef in particular has so much demand for her arcane slots now- Haste, Suggestion, Double Double, other Mystic spells- and these are all one ofs in your deck that cost 3 to find and only work once a turn, like a really bad Encyclopedia. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
3 to play* — StyxTBeuford · 13049
I think Daisy probably makes best use of these. Each of them is useful to her. The Int booster lets her boost up to 7 without any further modifiers, which is nice. The Fight booster is marginal but does give her a rat killing option in extremis and the Evade booster gives her a reliable enemy management option for non-rats. She also doesn't really need the arcane slot for a whole lot else. Maybe Guiding Stones and that's about it. Daisy also has access to all the Seeker card draw and search options that would allow her to find them quickly. It is still 3 deck slots though. — Sassenach · 180
Styx you’re missing that the five fight comes *before* weapons or additional boosts. With an upgraded .41 you are then fighting at 7 — Difrakt · 1325
*four — Difrakt · 1325
I'm not missing that fact necessarily, but who would want to take a weapon and this? Empower Self plus Enchanted Blade is already both Arcane slots. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Specifically in regards to Sef I don't like it because she's bad with most Rogue weapons except Thompson (which is too much of an investment (Thompsona and Empower Self is 9 resources and dependent on a single one of card to make Thompson good) even with a once a turn +2 boost. Like I'm not taking Derringer in Sef just because I can sometimes, if I draw well, hit for 6 combat instead of 4. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Agh, I severely messed that comment up, but you get what I'm trying to say. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Jim has access to any level-0 weapon, Diana has guns, Sefina has Rogue guns and the ability to succeed-by-two them, even Akachi could build into Timeworn Brand if so desired. Enchanted Blade is not the only weapon in town — Difrakt · 1325
Sef again I wouldn't take this because relying on a one of to make Rogue guns passable seems like a bad idea, and her arcane slots are super in demand. Jim and Diana are the best use cases, I agree, but Diana is so good with spells because her Will climbs to 5/6 so easily. Jim doesn't need his slots as much so I think that could be interesting. I still wouldn't take Brand with either of them though. Akachi I think is the worst place for this because she wants to maximize Spell Charges, and this is eating a spot that something with charges could take. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
I've played Sefina almost a dozen times now and her slots are not nearly in that much demand. She really doesn't need them to investigate, evade, defend against the encounter deck, and now not even to fight. Rogue guns are also much better than 'passable' due to their secondary benefits, and that's before you start adding in succeed-by-2 synergies. — Difrakt · 1325
For someone with 2 fight I don't see how you can reliably use the succeed by synergies. I'm not sure I follow what secondary benefits Sef gets from other Rogue guns. My Sef builds rely on her arcane slots very heavily, and Haste now with Ornate Bow they're going to do so even more.. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
because with this card she *starts* at 4 and is hitting 7 with a weapon and no commits. That is WHY this set of cards is so powerful. — Difrakt · 1325
sorry I keep quoting +3 incorrectly. She hits 6 with the .41 derringer* — Difrakt · 1325
At 6, but she needs to succeed as if she had 4 to get 2 damage, and it’s only once a turn. Versus Ornate Bow for an easy 3 damage? — StyxTBeuford · 13049
I really must be missing something about this card by how you all are talking about it. Empower says that when using a card that substitutes willpower instead of (pick whatever) use the non-willpower stat. If you're using a gun, it doesn't substitute willpower, so how are you getting the +2 bonus? — jdk5143 · 98
@jdk5143 Look at Empower’s free trigger ability. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Styx we've gone way too far down the rabbit hole on Sefina specifically here. Ornate bow has numerous downsides you are glazing right over, surely Empower Self has downsides as well but a detailed comparison is not appropriate (nor easily formatted) here. — Difrakt · 1325
I don't disagree, it is awkward to do this through the db. That said I think the glaring downsides of this card, especially for Sef, needed to be stated as your post recommended them for Sef above all others without really delving into why. To me, these are a far cry from "too good to pass up". — StyxTBeuford · 13049
This with Sefina lets her use Blinding Light + Hatchet Man to evade and deal 2-3 damage at the same time. My dream is upgraded Blinding Light + Hatchet Man x2 commited for a 4 damage evade action. — ArkhamArkhanist · 10
Along with the previous post, I can see Sef use it with Binding monster to help keeping the enemy at bay. But still, Empowered self Alacrity is *1 in the deck... — Conalias · 1