A deep dive into the survivor class: they have been beaten down, they are down and out, and they won’t give up.
Alright, the list just keeps growing longer as I keep going, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop. So far, I have done:
- An overview of all Arkham Horror LCG classes
- The Guardian class
- The Seeker class
- The Rogue Class
- The Mystic Class
And the next class on my list is the Survivor class! Survivors are the most interesting class to me because they don’t associate with a stat. There are four stat lines and 5 classes. We already assigned a stat to all the other classes (guardian – combat, seeker – intellect, rogue – agility, mystic – willpower), so where does that leave survivor?
There are 12 survivor characters ranging from sailors to drifters and the like. I also couldn’t really find an overarching category for the types of investigators in the survivor class. They come from all walks of life.
I have found quite a few card categories. They have tools to overcome being poor. The survivor class can succeed by failing. And they have quite a few tools to… well… survive. There is also a tactic of scrounging in the “trash” – discard for items to have repeated use.
There are also many cards that don’t neatly fit into categories but remind you of the survivor class once you see them. It has the vibe of “I found this around the house, but I can use it.”
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I Can Use THis
Weapons
I think some of the survivor class weapons really show off their character. All the weapons are something that can be used as weapons but that was not their primary purpose. Like yes, a meat cleaver is meant for hacking away at something, but I feel like, typically, it’s already dead. The others, more so tools or jimmy’s prized baseball bat.
Resources
Not only are weapons scrounged but also resources and cards. I love the concept behind “wrong place, right time”. It’s converting a bad resource into something positive. Although there is a negative effect. But it’s all about optimizing items and situations in my opinion. And I can easily see survivors relying on coupons.
There are also a variety of tools that maybe don’t make the most sense to bring to a fight but end up being useful. The “Track Shoes” is one of my favorites although they look a bit more like cleats that track shoes. Or maybe someone drove nails through the base… I think “jury-rig” also supports that theory since it implies that the baseball bat was made better through nails. [This is an incorrect assumption; I just didn’t know what track shoes looked like in the 1920s]
I Will Survive
Blessings
While Mystics are playing with curses, the survivor class leans more towards blessing. There is access to both, of course, but I think they lean more bless tokens. I have noticed that it leans a lot into faith and there is a hint of faith among most survivors between their backgrounds and items. It takes a lot to keep faith.
Protection
Unsurprising, the survivor class has quite a few different ways of dealing with damage and horror. “Pete Sylvestre” being a staple of the class since he automatically heals at the end of each turn. There is also a leveled-up counterpart for damage as well. This can decrease the stress of taking damage and / or horror.
There are also opportunities to heal and or use items to take damage instead of your investigator. There is even a “no” card which can help prevent a larger amount of damage and horror.
Not all cards handle dealing with damage in the same way. While the above cards are more direct with it, there are some that will approach it in a different way. There are items and events to cancel damage, manipulate token, and evade their surroundings. Survivors are really a mixture of everything. I think they really personify “jack of all trades, master of none”.
I’m Outta HEre
Sometimes running away can be easier than dealing with the issue. There are multiple tools that they have to evade and some even attach movement to propel the investigator away from the danger.
One thing I find fascinating is how many multi-enemy evades that survivors have access too. I wonder if the designers expected these survivors to get into situations where they have a lot of enemies on them. Or maybe it was to entice that into happening?
Let’s Make this Easier
One of the other tactics I’ve seen in the survivor class is reducing the difficulty of a test. I am not sure about the timing, but I know that the final test results cannot be negative (it bounces back to 0 but any modifiers would still interact with the negative value. i.e., a plus 2 on a -1 result would end with a 1, it wouldn’t go to 0 then up to 2). But tying is still succeeding.
So, a 0 to 0 test is still a pass. It makes them one of the safest types of tests in the game as you are only at the mercy of the auto-fail. Survivors further are incentivized into testing at 0 by having special effects if the difficult was 0. These bonuses are a great way to incentives a player to create a certain style that will also be effective without them.
Failing Forward
Failing forward is one of the core components of the survivor class. Since survivors don’t have a stat that they can lean on, they end up being jack of all trades and master of none. This often leads to testing at value or without much cushion which can lead to failure. So why not find success in that?
Backup Plans
There are a few reactions and several events that will trigger on failure. All the events are fast because they interrupt the action. Most of the events will trigger on skill tests that fail by 2 or less. This can result in finding clues, redirecting damage to different monsters, or putting them back into the encounter deck entirely.
While a lot of these events have a positive effect, it is often a different effect or adjacent to the one intended. The fail for clues does just give clues. That one is probably the most straight forward when you correlate the intent to the outcome. Failing on attacked results in damage… on a different enemy… This is fun but difficult to execute. You must have the exact right conditions. Failing to evade a monster puts it back into the deck. The situation is handled but it will come out again later (probably).
Yes, I am actively Trying to Fail…
There are also cards that can set a player up to fail purposefully. “Take Heart” must be committed before the test but only activates on failure. This means you are expecting to fail when you play it. There are also cards like “Drawing Thin” which can increase the difficult to help guarantee failure. (**” Drawing Thin” was adjusted by the taboo list to cost exp instead of being a level 0 card**).
Some cards are more versatile and help redo the action. The 0.18 Derringer gets the ammo spent on the action back when the shot misses. “Live and learn” is a straightforward, try again but with a bonus of two (2) to the skill value being tested.
Since most effects activate on a limited failure value, there are also some events, skills, and assets that help adjust the modifier. The assets are the most impactful as they can be used multiple times instead of the single time use events and skills would have.
From the Grave
Playing Discarded Cards
Another major mechanic for the survivor class is playing discarded cards. There are some items that must be in the discard pile to be played. The main benefactor of this effect are events. There is one to improvise attacks, defense, evade, and investigate. I love the idea of using whatever you could find in the situation. It feels very “survivor”.
The most interesting part of these events is their discard after being played. If they were played from hand, then they can be discarded as normal. But when they played from the discard, they go back into the player’s deck. This creates an interesting cycle of cards. Especially because they start to show up increasingly as the deck gets thinner.
Fishing for Treasure
While playing directly from the discard pile allows for some flexibility, there are also ways to gain card back from the grave. In some cases, the card will return to hand so it can be played again. Scrounging is important. Other times, the card is used just for the round before going back to the discard.
So What If I’m Poor?
One of the major aspects of any character is managing resources. But the survivor class isn’t one to have money. Which makes sense when you think about it. And there are cards that will lean into this. “Dark Horse” is a standard type of deck especially since the upgraded version is permanently on your board. With dark horse, being poor just makes you stronger.
And that pairs well with tools such as the “mariner’s compass” or the “fire axe”. They both get bonuses (extra damage or additional clues) when you are out of resources. To help with this, they also take fast actions to help spend money faster. The no resource approach is very fluid as your stats are constantly changing. Gain a dollar; lose one stat level: start a fight with a fire axe; spend a dollar, gain one stat level and the plus 2 bonus. All of that can happen within one testing frame.
Getting bonuses for having nothing is not limited to money. There are also opportunities when you are out of cards, clues, or even stats. I love how “Rise to the Occasion” can tempt player to perform as test they might not otherwise. Getting a big bonus to push your base over the test limit is very satisfying.
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