Physical Training, Hyperawareness, Hard Knocks, Arcane Studies, Dig Deep - they all have something in common: all these cards give you temporary boosts to individual skill tests at the cost of resources.

The inclusion of these cards is closely related to your investigator's economy. With the new card, Dark Horse, you may plan to stay poor as a church mouse and cards like this can help you with that. Or, on the contrary, if you are living the dream, and some investigators proverbial float in resources, you can afford to bundle Hard Knocks+Arcane Studies or Physical Training+Hyperawareness to boost all your skills! In short, keep your hands off if you don't have action-free income!

If you are interested in the discussion, i would recommend this thread to you. Jenny Barnes most likely uses Arcane Studies with ease, but splashes in Agnes Baker, Daisy Walker and Rex Murphy builds aren't unusual, too, thanks to the willpower raise.

Pros

• Reliant boosting flexibility. Depending on the difficulty level and the test's danger level, you can boost as much as barely is needed (roughly +2 over your baseline) or sink all your money in it.
• Theoretically unlimited uses.
• The asset stays in play. From the moment you play this, you are forearmed.
• It does not need to be slotted.
• Goes well along with Dark Horse. Also combines perfectly with cards that have an additional effect if you overfulfill: List

Cons

• You have to find it in your deck, it lacks the Permanent trait.
• Resource-hungry asset (install and activation).
• Only helps the investigator who plays it.

Recommendations

• There are several tough obstacles in The Devourer Below: spoiler, spoiler.

Physical Training, Hyperawareness, Hard Knocks, Arcane Studies, Dig Deep - they all have something in common: all these cards give you temporary boosts to individual skill tests at the cost of resources.

The inclusion of these cards is closely related to your investigator's economy. With the new card, Dark Horse, you may plan to stay poor as a church mouse and cards like this can help you with that. Or, on the contrary, if you are living the dream, and some investigators proverbial float in resources, you can afford to bundle Hard Knocks+Arcane Studies or Physical Training+Hyperawareness to boost all your skills! In short, keep your hands off if you don't have action-free income!

If you are interested in the discussion, i would recommend this thread to you. Lore has it that Hard Knocks is mainly used by Jenny Barnes, "Skids" O'Toole should take a closer look at Physical Training (or Dig Deep as an edge case).

Pros

• Reliant boosting flexibility. Depending on the difficulty level and the test's danger level, you can boost as much as barely is needed (roughly +2 over your baseline) or sink all your money in it.
• Theoretically unlimited uses.
• The asset stays in play. From the moment you play this, you are forearmed.
• It does not need to be slotted.
• Goes well along with Dark Horse. Also combines perfectly with cards that have an additional effect if you overfulfill: List, e.g. Switchblade

Cons

• You have to find it in your deck, it lacks the Permanent trait.
• Resource-hungry asset (install and activation).
• Only helps the investigator who plays it.

Recommendations

• Consider this, if you are going for high-noon in The Devourer Below: spoiler.

Physical Training, Hyperawareness, Hard Knocks, Arcane Studies, Dig Deep - they all have something in common: all these cards give you temporary boosts to individual skill tests at the cost of resources.

The inclusion of these cards is closely related to your investigator's economy. In conjunction with Dark Horse, you may plan to stay poor as a church mouse and cards like this can help you with that. Or, on the contrary, if you are living the dream, and some investigators proverbial float in resources, you can afford to bundle Hard Knocks+Arcane Studies or Physical Training+Hyperawareness to boost all your skills! In short, keep your hands off if you don't have action-free income!

If you are interested in the discussion, i would recommend this thread to you. Hyperawareness especially fuels Rex Murphy's ability, while Daisy Walker already has so many other tools to pump her intellect.

Pros

• Reliant boosting flexibility. Depending on the difficulty level and the test's danger level, you can boost as much as barely is needed (roughly +2 over your baseline) or sink all your money in it.
• Theoretically unlimited uses.
• The asset stays in play. From the moment you play this, you are forearmed.
• It does not need to be slotted.
• Goes well along with Dark Horse. Also combines perfectly with cards that have an additional effect if you overfulfill: List, not forgetting Rex Murphy

Cons

• You have to find it in your deck, it lacks the Permanent trait.
• Resource-hungry asset (install and activation).
• Only helps the investigator who plays it.

Physical Training, Hyperawareness, Hard Knocks, Arcane Studies, Dig Deep - they all have something in common: all these cards give you temporary boosts to individual skill tests at the cost of resources.

The inclusion of these cards is closely related to your investigator's economy! With the new card, Dark Horse, you may plan to stay poor as a church mouse and this asset can help you with that. Or, on the contrary, if you are living the dream, and some investigators proverbial float in resources, you can afford to bundle Hard Knocks+Arcane Studies or Physical Training+Hyperawareness to boost all your skills! In short, keep your hands off if you don't have action-free income!

If you are interested in the discussion, i would recommend this thread to you. If "Skids" O'Toole is going to play one of the beforementioned talents, he is going to play Physical Training. With base 4 and a deck packed with icons, he does not really need to buff his agility, wheras his base willpower of 2 (and a deck mostly bereft of icons) does need some help. Physical Training is said to work well with Zoey Samaras, too, while Roland Banks struggles for the money to use it effectively.

Pros

• Reliant boosting flexibility. Depending on the difficulty level and the test's danger level, you can boost as much as barely is needed (roughly +2 over your baseline) or sink all your money in it.
• Theoretically unlimited uses.
• The asset stays in play. From the moment you play this, you are forearmed.
• It does not need to be slotted.
• Goes well along with Dark Horse. Also combines perfectly with cards that have an additional effect if you overfulfill: List, special mention here goes to the Shotgun.

Cons

• You have to find it in your deck, it lacks the Permanent trait.
• Resource-hungry asset (install and activation).
• Only helps the investigator who plays it.

Recommendations

• There are several tough obstacles in The Devourer Below: spoiler, spoiler.

Physical Training, Hyperawareness, Hard Knocks, Arcane Studies, Dig Deep - they all have something in common: all these cards give you temporary boosts to individual skill tests at the cost of resources.

And as a general rule of thumb apply the following statements:

1. You have cheaper and faster ways of adding small temporary boosts to individual skill tests. E.g. by committing cards to skill tests.
2. You have similarly-costed ways of adding small permanent boosts to skill tests. Just naming Police Badge, Peter Sylvestre, Machete here as examples.
3. Adding large temporary boosts to individual skill tests is prohibitively expensive and in an emergency there are other ways. Because there is this -symbol in the chaos bag, you can never bring your odds above 94%. Arguably, you are better off by pitching multiple cards to life-threatening skill tests.

Rule 3. does not apply if you play on hard/expert difficulty, because there are frequently special chaos token rules that, if you failed, could bring very serious hindrances with them.

The inclusion of these cards is closely related to your investigator's economy. With the new card, Dark Horse, you may plan to stay poor as a church mouse and cards like Dig Deep can help you with that. Or, on the contrary, if you are living the dream, and some investigators proverbial float in resources, you can afford to bundle Hard Knocks+Arcane Studies or Physical Training+Hyperawareness to boost all your skills! In short, keep your hands off if you don't have action-free income!

Sadly, Dig Deep does not have a partner to go with, yet. All in all, you should very carefully plan the inclusion of this asset. One possible reason could be a special scenario with many and tests. It really depends on your playstyle and what you want to achieve.

Pros

• Reliant boosting flexibility. Depending on the difficulty level and the test's danger level, you can boost as much as barely is needed (roughly +2 over your baseline) or sink all your money in it.
• Theoretically unlimited uses.
• The asset stays in play. From the moment you play this, you are forearmed.
• It does not need to be slotted.
• Goes well along with Dark Horse and with "Skids" O'Toole.
• Also combines perfectly with cards that have an additional effect if you overfulfill: List

Cons

• You have to find it in your deck, unlike Scrapper and Blood Pact, Dig Deep lacks the Permanent trait.
• Resource-hungry asset (install and activation).
• Only helps the investigator who plays it.

Recommendations

• There are several tough obstacles in The Devourer Below: spoiler, spoiler.