2024 Arkham Horror Investigator Power Rankings

[@LittleBlueJug]

You don't want to cover Transfiguration Lola now, but she's coming for a B rank next year

[@WayOfHaQodesh]

She don't need some horrendous mystic transfiguration to be A tier for me. Loved Lola Hayes since I first played her as my first full campaign in Arkham, paired with a cheese man, in 2p EOTE campaign. Sooo much role-playing fun, so much fun deck building. Only Suzi can compete with her deck building, but she ain't a real gator. Fun but not the same I find. Would love to see more cards like Savant that help flat stats, or cards that would use 2 or 3 stats combined. This is huge design storage that can lift the 3333, 2222, 1111 type characters.

[@DrDifra]

@@WayOfHaQodesh cards that use more stat combined would not help the 3-3-3-3 more than normal investigators (see lockpicks) While the 1111 and the 2222 do not need any help . It's the doomed 3333 who are hopeless

[@HatterLelouch]

It's very satisfying to see the investigator discussion series come to its natural conclusion what a marathon 😮

[@emergency.jergens]

Agreed, it was incredibly fun. Always looking forward to these!

[@DrDifra]

I'll comment as I go, I've been binging tier lists this Christmas and it's so interesting that people will have MOST investigators juggling between one and two tiers based on personal preference or their definition of power. And then, you have completely wild hot take that still get reasoned pretty well. Travis from pbg had sefina in A tier eventually going to B for normalization reasons, while you have her as your third worse character in the game. That's why it's fun to watch multiples!

[@hannahvickery4683]

Same for me! I think the game has so many investigators (and combinations thereof) and so many builds, and it takes so much time/dedication to do just one playthrough, and each campaign will interact with the characters differently, everyone sees different sides of the elephants. Rita is another one that is wildly different in different tier lists - she seems really good, but my fiancee played her in TCU (the set she came in) and it really punishes fail-to-succeed investigating in ways that other campaigns don't - since we play 2-player, there were some turns where enemies didn't need to be dealt with that made it feel like she couldn't really contribute as much without dedicating a lot of resources. In a different campign or player count, I'm sure it would've been totally different. Just one example.

[@escherant]

It's a happy weekend when I get to listen to coherently incoherent discussion for two hours!

[@rupert7565]

Nearly 3 hours? That's some impressive -action- runtime compression. And I did enjoy all of it.

[@WayOfHaQodesh]

This was really enjoyable. Thank you for all your time and interesting thoughts in putting this together. Was so happy when Leo got lifted up our of C tier hahaha...

[@emergency.jergens]

In my group we played a campaign with Mary on our team. What we found effective against her weakness was focusing our strategies on cards that seal blesses for value. A little lame because she feels a little powercrept by Kohaku who just has her ability but with better flexibility and signature, but I think it might be worth exploring if you ever want to try her in a bless team.

[@DrDifra]

What is weird about Stella is that she keeps getting stronger, but only in her late game. I played her and I don't own scarlet keys but she still destroyed campaigns while being immune to dieing. Now she destroys them much harder, but oh boi she takes a while to get going. On a side note, and I know you don't value this much, most of your C and D investigators feel a lot better when played in 4 players. They can capitalize on their strength without having to push so much on their average. I run a Carolyn in 4 players EoTE and both she and Dexter had 4 mental trauma by scenario 3, that is a tons of cheeky shenanigans you can do if you are pretty much only healing and killing a couple of bosses with sinergy cards. I played her like a Carlson pretty much, and it was fun and I think felt pretty safe.

[@martintomov7576]

The game is much, much easier at higher player count.

[@DrDifra]

@@martintomov7576 this was debunked, the floor is much easier but the variance can break scenarios in 4 players. There's some combination of 8 mythos cards that is almost unbeatable with the setup you get by turn 3 in some scenarios. That simply can't happen in 2p. On Average tho, you are right.

[@martintomov7576]

@@DrDifra I think if people know what to expect, you can mitigate the danger. Sure, there is probably some combination of cards that can be more powerful in higher numbers, but that feels niche. I have played 3-player max, not 4-player though so there might be some truth, though I would say 3-player felt much easier than 2.

[@DrDifra]

@@martintomov7576 you definitely feel the lack of efficiency more. I play in a group with different skill levels and experience and it is much easier to account for newer player in larger groups. In 2 players you gotta get that shit done or you will feel it haha

[@dragonhawk00]

I'm listening to your intro again and I think it would be cool if added in full parallel investigators where the full original is the optimal choice, like Rex or full original when the full parallel is the best like Mateo. Original Mateo maybe isn't different enough but Parallel Rex is like an entirely different investigator. Edit: I think Ravenous Myconid/Farsight is still my favorite recently discovered tech. Having played it in Rex, I can only imagine what you can do with it in Harvey when you are drawing way more cards.

[@shaxberd7211]

Treating the front sides as different characters and the backsides as deckbuilding options for those (two) characters feels like a way to mitigate some of the bloat while still addressing the vast differences between some Investigators and their parallel forms. That said, this method still means twice as much work for all investigators who have parallel versions. Not quite as much work as evaluating all four potential permutations individually, but it’s not nothing either.

[@davidja1336]

Excellent summary and very logically consistent! You asked for us to yell at you about things, but first, credit for your clear explanation of Carson and your proper rating of Mandy (non-taboo she might be 2/3 overall, it’s such a shame). Where do you rate her with 30 cards, fast Rook, and recurring pendant? In terms of criticism, I think your rating for a couple of support heavy characters misses their high floor even if low ceiling. Specifically, Patrice isn’t so good proactively but her ability to handle all weird asks is very valuable. You got hermits house in TCU? She’ll clear it out. Someone has to absorb the hand discard treachery in ice and death? She’ll do it. Nobody has 4 foot to climb the crystalline cavern? She can do it in the next two turns, somehow. These are valuable things she offers in scenarios 1-2. But for me the biggest miss is Rita. She’s not strong by any sense, probably mid/upper C, since she doesn’t scale well. But with easy mark and dirty fighting and a plan of Pete cleaver plus ping damage, and breaking and entering, LWIF, and a couple of pilfers, she covers flex damage and clues. More than a typical flex, you can save her pilfers for hard locations - half an underground river or all of an overgrown ruins, she cracks shroud 5 no problem. And she can usefully evade enemies your not meant to from scenario 1 - poltergeists and lurking deep ones and such - while turning off retaliate on bosses. Lots of accruing small value where it isn’t easy to solve the puzzle. She’s super mythos resilient and while she takes off after she buys bewitching, she’ll never be proactively powerful, but is hugely consistent. Should be in C tier for sure, for the high floor.

[@RatherIncoherent]

@@davidja1336 It sounds like you're largely asking about untaboo Mandy? Maybe not entirely, but close. S tier for sure. Above Rex, beneath Gloria. Not 100% sure where. Patrice is definitely one of the characters where I feel like I'm being too harsh her. I can see her climbing as I play more for sure. I'm looking forward to playing more Rita. I want to agree with you. I just haven't seen the decks work consistently enough and I'm a fiend for consistency. Also, glad you liked the video!

[@thepwn121]

People who don't know about ll Mateo are freaking out right because they just got through A tier and haven't seen him yet

[@thebeanz7838]

Ah! Christmas came late this year. Lemme grab some coffee

[@AurelDuLac]

What card are you refering to as "Bull pop" when talking about winifred habbamock, is it British Bulldog ? Context lead to it but i am unsure

[@RatherIncoherent]

@@AurelDuLac Yep. Meant bulldog, didn't even catch it in editing this time. Sorry for the confusion.

[@MrNephthys17]

Great list. I have a feeling that Transfiguration is going to push Jacqueline into S tier in 2025. Arbiter of Fates can do some silly things in the hands of another investigator.

[@freeman2582]

Oh my god... Infinite Father Mateo reaction??

[@joeyrobson3677]

I am pretty sure the Arbiter of fates does nothing if you’ve transfigured yourself

[@MrNephthys17]

@joeyrobson3677 According to the person who revealed it, you can still use it as another investigator. Since you're both investigators at the same time. They cleared it with the devs.

[@Hakkene]

kohaku can play the exact same way as father mateo by pulling bless with his book (and using ancient covenant). At the cost of having to find his asset (not that hard with two backpacks), you get access to cards like fey that go incredibly well with favor of the moon, pretty much guaranteeing 2 successes per turn

[@RatherIncoherent]

@@Hakkene Requiring certain assets and not having access to cards that find 3 clues at once are both massive drops in power, even before acknowledging that living myths does not 100% guarantee a bless token every turn in every team like ll Mateo easily can.

[@danstepanov6873]

I don't get it about Matheo. Isn't resolving a Bless token implies you still have to draw one from the bag (and might fail)?

[@RatherIncoherent]

@@danstepanov6873 Ancient Covenant. You use ll Mateo's ability to force one bless per turn and then Ancient Covenant to stop at +2 and not draw the next token.

[@danstepanov6873]

@@RatherIncoherent Ah, that makes more sense now, thanks ^^

[@emergency.jergens]

I think you can’t duplicate ace in the hole with Sefina because her signature specifies non-exceptional

[@RatherIncoherent]

My disappointment is immeasurable and, if I liked Sefina, my day would be ruined. Luckily, Ace in the Hole was a low prio upgrade in the first place since event-based characters don't love extra actions as much as anyone else in the first place.

[@cabbagepotato2421]

​@@RatherIncoherentIf you liked Whona? Who are you talking about?

[@hammerdall]

I’m curious to see if Transfiguration can salvage Lola at all in the tier list next year. But for now she’s probably right where she belongs

[@dragonhawk00]

She has (probably) the strongest card pool in the game with weakest investigator front. Transfiguration probably actually doesn't move her power wise. She's going to be way more fun though. Forcing your in the thick of it xp to be transfiguration and a 1 xp card is probably not the best play, which means your scenario 1 is going to be rough, which is huge for this tier list. Your setup is also finding and putting your investigator into play. Transfiguration Lola isn't high competiveness and consistency, she's strong combo in the late game. Maybe I'll be mistaken due to the insane card economy she has access to with that pool, but she also can't run no stone unturned to tutor, so she has to draw it.

[@DrDifra]

Who's "Joe main" new obsession?

[@RatherIncoherent]

@@DrDifra These days it's Monty but he's been looking for a new flex to grind out half a dozen games on lately.

[@DrDifra]

@RatherIncoherent tell him to flex Lily Chen

[@obsidian-dice]

I'm a fan of 2x Bizarre Diagnosis as the go-to way to clear Injured Bystander. Low cost, great in the right circumstances, good icons otherwise.

[@freeman2582]

Sister Mary is so getting out of D tier in Drowned city. The new toys shes getting are just amazing.

[@mike_howes]

What cards do you think will improve her? I can only think of the parley defeat an enemy card that would go well in her.

[@freeman2582]

@@mike_howes The great work for easier xp bloat, Transfiguration to morph into Daniela with guard dogs 2, Memory of another life for fast free Leo de Luca or bank job or thorough inquary or whatever is ideal in a particular moment.