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.

Will this work with Gloria? IF find once she has teamed up with Alyssa she sails through the scenario until made to take a strength/foot test. Then she is stuck. It does limit her control for enemies she has to fight to Spectral Razor, Ethereal Form, or sword can without sign magik to hold her spells. But that is often enough.

The first investigator I thought of when I saw this card was Father Mateo, as he'll start the first scenario of a campaign with "Blessed" fully turned on --- 8 XP gives him:

1X Ancient Covenant

2X Priest of Two Faiths (Great with Calling in Favors! Even if you don't hit another ally you pull the Priest back to your hand, avoiding the token and you'll get to play him again later. If you hit another Priest he'll come in for free!)

2X Favor of the Sun (Your combo piece with Ancient Covenant)

Either 1X Holy Rosary (2) (probably preferred because it adds tokens to the bag) or 2X Radiant Smite (POWEFUL, but it pulls tokens out.)

You can use Book of Psalms (which adds more tokens) or Fearless (which I prefer because I like skills) to deal with the mental trauma you take to purchase this card.

A new fight spell, but also one that is much more flexible than Shrivelling. Shrivelling costs 3, and does a total of 8 damage, and has a horror downside to picking the wrong token. For 1 XP, Brand of Cthugha costs a bit less, gives a skill boost (necessary for avoiding the 'succeed by 0 clause'), but only does 6 damage. But you get to spend those charges as you need them, and none at all if you fail. Mystic spells that do 2 damage have always been in an awkward spot dealing with 3 HP enemies -- how do you do that last point of damage? Guardians with 2 damage guns generally have dealt with this issue with taking a basic fight action, maybe boosted with Overpower. Mystics can use Wither or Sword Cane, or worse, spend another charge of Shrivelling and waste the extra damage. Here you just need this one card, and only spend one charge. Granted, you will run out of charges quickly, but there are more and more ways to add charges these days or pickup Spells from the discard pile once you've pushed it out.

For Diana Stanley, this card's flexibility comes right in the "you MAY use" clause -- use your combat skill at the beginning of the game. You'll be fighting at 4 right out of the gate. Once you've cancelled a few more cards, switch to using your Willpower instead, without needing to switch Spells.

The "lose 1 action" penalty is a real bummer, though. If you're engaged with an enemy, you have to fight it right away, unlike waiting until your last action with Rite of Seeking. If you have another weapon or fighting spell in play, use that first to do one damage and finish the enemy off with this; if you don't, you'll need to get lucky. This is even more the case with the upgraded version, which has a penalty of losing TWO actions. Another good idea is to pack a few events or assets that deal testless damage, like Beat Cop, or powerful fighting spells, and use this card to do the last point or two of damage.

The lower level version has had some more attention since it was revealed earlier, and at level 2, has a lot more people able to take it, including any subclass Rogue, Akachi and Ursula. At 5, even Finn misses out on it, poor guy.

At 10 exp for one copy, it's hard to say what would be worth that. Even the Key of Ys doesn't really feel worth it at 10. But The clock does have one big advantage over the key; it can be upgraded from a 4xp card. So really, it isn't so much a question of "is it worth 10xp to buy?", but "is it worth 6xp to upgrade?", to which I think the answer is yes, if you can find the time, or afford it.

Compared to the level 2 version, it's the same cost, adds an icon, and all the numbers on the effects go up by one. +4 instead of +3, move 3 times instead of 2, and take 2 extra actions instead of 1. None of those are bad at all, but certainly wouldn't be worth 6xp, let alone 10. The big, hugely important change, though, is the timing point of removing charges. Instead of choosing to take or place, then checking, you get the option to take the charges, then always place. This means it ramps up to every effect one turn faster after the first cycle, and gives you an effect the turn you take its resources. These are pretty huge changes.

The Red Clock (2), if used for each climbing effect is essentially: Turn 1, get a +3, Turn 2, move up to twice, Turn 3, get an extra action, Turn 4, gain three resources. In comparison, this version is: Turn 1, get a +4, Turn 2, move up to three times, Turn 3, get two extra actions, Turn 4, gain three resources and get a +4, and continues so on. So if you use both in the simplest possible way, this version will give you a lot of extra value over longer games by simply getting the turn 3 and 4 benefits together. Is that alone worth the 6xp upgrade? Well, maybe. Generally would depend on how early you can get it into play, since you aren't actually getting much value on the first cycle, other than increased numbers.

However, the timing point changing offers a more versatile way of using the Red Clock. Instead of ramping it up, you could simply take the resource every time, giving you a guaranteed resource every turn, and +4 to the first test you make every turn. That's a very solid effect by itself. Or, you can intend to do that, and then on turns where you aren't likely to make important tests but need to move, take the move. Then after that, you can check whether you need resources and a test bonus, or extra actions. The point is, it's a lot of versatility, and you can pretty much always use one of the abilities.

Of course, there's also the argument that the real exp cost is neither 10 nor 6, but 13 (or 9), since Relic Hunter is a very important consideration for the class with such great accessory slots, some of which you'd want to try and get the Red Clock as early as possible anyway. But then we can say it actually costs 19, since you want two Cigarette Cases alongside the Relic Hunter, and that's a whole Rabbit Hole I don't want to go down. (Speaking of which, it doesn't even save exp since you pay 5 then 5 instead of 4 then 6. How sad.)