I can’t believe there’s still not a great review for this great investigator! So, shall we start?

Her stats add up to 13 when the average between investigators is 12, so we’re good from the get go. Let’s now take a close up to them:

5 she’s a powerhouse even in her own class! The class that makes every single test a willpower test and is so easy to level it up via some of the staple cards like Holy Rosary, David Renfield, St. Hubert's Key or Fearless.

2 for other classes this may be a hinder but can use Sixth Sense, Rite of Seeking, Drawn to the Flame, Read the Signs or the new Clairvoyance so getting clues without using your book is not a problem. And even if you don’t get those spells, an Arcane Insight is an enhanced Flashlight (and using them together can assure you find clues even on a 4-shroud location). However, this does let you susceptible to parley or treacheries that test raw Intellect, but some Fine Clothes or skill icons can save you if needed.

3 makes you more comfortable fighting against 1 fight enemies (a.k.a. Swarm of Rats) without spending those beautiful charges from your Shrivelling or even if you still hadn’t got your fighting spells. This can be leveraged by using a simple Knife, a powerful Spirit Athame or my personal favorite Enchanted Blade, which puts you on 4 or 5 combat and lets you deal 1-2 damage, which scales even greater with any of the upgraded blades. Even if you need to test your strength for a scenario card, an Overpower will do the work.

3 is not that bad, since it is sometimes tested by some treacheries or is needed for some enemies. And yes, you guessed it, a Manual Dexterity can put you in a great place to pass a test when needed or you don't have your evasion spell cards like Blinding Light, Suggestion or Mists of R'lyeh.

So far so good, eh? And we haven’t even spoken about her ability which is bonkers good! Get an additional charge for the assets you anyway want as a Mystic? This means you get more uses for your money than any of your fellows. A 5 charges Shrivelling can take down a boss without needing any other combat support, and this is the same for all the options Akachi has for fighting, investigating and evading (listed above). Besides, some other powerful cards can take advantage of this too: keep more time in play your Seal of the Seventh Sign, commit Torrent of Power without too much worry or cheat on the game with Grotesque Statue. It may not sound very impressive at first, but it’s nuts compared to other , and oh this gets even better with her signature.

Spirit-Speaker is both your recharging tool as well as a resource engine if needed. We all know Mystics needs their spells to succeed in a scenario, but when once your Shrivelling runs out of charges and a boss is coming to you, you’ll be in a hurry to find your other copy. However, once Spirit speaker is in play, Akachi only needs one of her spells and a way to tutor for them (Arcane Initiate or Word of Command) and your good to go. Imagine being able to bounce back and forth your Grotesque Statue before it runs out of charges, or needing only one combat spell and never worry about finding the other one. Of course you need to pay for those assets again, but between Emergency Cache, Alchemical Transmutation, Uncage the Soul, David Renfield, Sacrifice or Spirit-Speaker itself you have plenty options to get those precious resources.

Even her weakness is not that bad. Angered Spirits does take away some of your charges, but anyway you have plenty of them and can play back if needed (once Spirit-Speaker is out, of course), and the exhaustation doesn’t prevent you from using your spells (except for Suggestion) nor it takes away any of your actions. Did I mention this stays in your threat area so once it’s out you don’t have to worry about drawing it again?

To sum up, Akachi is one of the most powerful investigators, very flexible (can be a generalist an specialist and even a support) both in solo and in multiplayer. And would even recommend her to a new player because of how straight her ability is and the limited cardpool; so go ahead and try her, you won't be disappointed.

This card raises a question with regards to base skill vs skill value. As other people have pointed out, this card will synergize with Dark Horse but not Duke since Duke effects your base skill, but Dark Horse simply grants you a bonus. Given that Dark Horse shores up all the skill icons (, , , and ) it is safe to assume that any other asset that grants a passive icon boost such as Peter Sylvestre or Moonstone would also apply here.

I bring these up because if I am playing Calvin Wright or Patrice Hathaway with their measly 0 or 2 in the majority of their stats, it isn't all that uncommon to find 4 value targets to pitch Rise to the Occasion, putting you at +1, then whatever additional bonuses you gain from your assets or additional committed cards. Coincidentally, running upgraded Peter, Moonstone, Dark Horse, +1 from Dig Deep, puts me at a 9 vs 5 when dealing with Watcher from Another Dimension, and all I had to do was pitch this and spend a resource. What I'm saying is, RTTO gives you one up or at least evens the odds of a particularly difficult test, and then it's up to you to do the rest of the legwork. If the test is important, then you'll be glad to have this card along.

The philosophy of the card isn't to make you succeed though; it's designed to give you a fighting chance at a skill test you ordinarily would have no business attempting. You might wonder why you'd attempt to do something you aren't good at to begin with, but I'd argue that comes up far more often than you might think, especially in solo, and especially if you have specific goals you want to achieve.

This card would be helpful for someone like "Ashcan" Pete because you can only use Duke for Fight Actions, which means you can't use him to break down Locked Doors or to break into the Museum Halls, and don't even think about making a Parley. You also might need just one more hit on enemies with 3 or 5 hit points. Most scenarios do in fact have enemies and shroud values of 4, and sometimes even 5. William Yorick and Rita Young both might like a copy for checks on Treacheries of 5 (combined with Guts, not instead of, is the key. Or like I mentioned, combined with Dark Horse, Peter, etc.) or for tests on high shroud values, especially if playing solo or if there isn't a in the group for whatever reason. Or if you're simply seperated. The rule of thumb is to be 2 up, so in most cases, you'll only need one other card to pitch, but you don't even need to do that if you've got an asset or two giving you passive +1's everywhere.

The trick with this card, I think, is to know which stat you'll intend to use it for when adding it to your deck. If you have 2 , then most likely you'll use it with that. If you have low , then hold onto it for that lethal encounter card. And who knows, you might find yourself facing those rare 6 shroud or combat values, and suddenly you have a shot against something you couldn't have predicted.

Ok, so I have a probably very niche question:

So the card reads "When earning experience during the resolution of a scenario, if you were not defeated during that scenario, you earn 2 additional experience. If you were defeated during that scenario, you are killed."

My question focuses on the last "that". My reading is that if you were defeated but did not earn any experience, you wouldn't die. Because the "that" is referring to a scenario in which you earned experience during the resolution. Is this reading correct?

Oh, you bespectacled, bookish, innocent old man. You harmless, selfless, peace-loving soul! How much you have been made to suffer in your Arkham career! It makes me shiver to think of it. The investigators use you, and then they lose you. They send you into the stacks for that all-important tome that only YOU know how to find. Then they whisk it from your hands and, by way of thank you, kick you, screaming, into the jaws of the next ghoul who wanders by. You serve the investigators, and then the investigators serve you (to the ghoul, that is).

I cannot save you from your fate, you bow-backed bringer of books, you ambler of aisles, you sorter of scrolls and meal of monsters. But I can honor you by providing an updated review of what you add to our decks, all while receiving nothing -- oh, worse than nothing! -- in return.

LikeAssur's review below was right for the moment (three years ago), but since then much has changed, and the humble research librarian has become an increasingly excellent asset. Here are the main changes:

1) We now have quite a few very high-powered tomes. Pnakotic Manuscripts and The Necronomicon occupy the top shelf of the updated tome library. The new Old Book of Lore is also quite good. These tomes cost quite a bit of XP, so it's be a shame for them to molder at the bottom of your deck all scenario. Research Librarian prevents that from happening. Think of it this way. You know that granddaddy of all search cards, No Stone Unturned. It costs a gigantic 5xp. If the best couple cards in your deck happen to be tomes, then in many situations the research librarian is just as good, at 0xp! If you don't have an ally out, he's actually better, crazy as that sounds. In the past he may have only been able to find you, at best, the Encyclopedia. But our man ain't dealing that weak sh*t anymore. Like that kid in Breaking Bad, he's got the REAL stuff now. It ain't always blue, but it IS always magic.

2) There is an easy, SO easy way to offset the Research Librarian's 2 resource cost. Just stick a copy or two of Astounding Revelation in your deck. Since the RL searches your whole deck, Astounding Revelation is guaranteed to trigger every time you play him. I do hesitate to recommend this strategy on humanitarian grounds, though... I really don't know how many mind-blowing revelations this poor guy can take. It just seems mean, every time you send him for a tome, to also demolish all his safe assumptions and confront him with the terrifying magnitude of the mythos.

3) The Research Librarian can now be recycled. If you have him in your deck, also consider a copy or two of Calling in Favors. This card lets you pull the librarian back to your hand, and go fishing in your deck for a stronger ally, offsetting the cost of the new ally by two. Thus, the RL not only lends you sweet books for free that you, because you're a crappy friend, never return; he'll also introduce you to his cool best friend Dr. Milan, who, because you are a REALLY crappy friend, you'll start hanging out with separately.

There are two takeaways here. 1) The Research Librarian is a giving, lovely person who makes our decks better in so many ways. 2) We do not deserve him! The RL deserves an investigator willing to invest in a committed, long term relationship. I will be that investigator! When I get around to it, I'm going to post my Literary Lives Matter deck to Arkhamdb, which will have the research librarian as the only ally, NO tomes because, seriously, he's an ally, not an errand boy, and two copies of Trusted, so my man knows he's appreciated.

A binder filler, unfortunately. Depending on the scenario, it could be better than an Unexpected Courage or worse, but the reward when it DOES work is not enough to justify it. I'm hard pressed to think of a single deck I would include this in, even a Marie Lambeau Doom deck. There are a few things that could be done to make this card, if not good, at least playable:

• Reduce the threshold to get the bonus, maybe to 2 and 5. It would only be worse than Unexpected Courage if there is 0 or 1 Doom, and becomes better quicker.

• Remove the word "Instead" at the end. In other words, it becomes an Unexpected Courage at 3 Doom, then twice an Unexpected (???? Icons) at 6 doom.

I don't think either of these options makes it a staple, great card. They just push it into being playable in the Doom archetype.