The Archer

Vitality: 5

Courage: 6

Key Mechanics:

Resource Management (Ammunition), Combos (Ammunition + Buff + Attack)

Starting Gear:

Stick and Twine – A simple but effective bow.  It gives short range attacks, and reduces threat on a successful fate die.

Arrow Sack – A sack to hold up to four arrows.

Strategy Guide

Maneuverability: Strong (5 cards)

Two sprint and one hustle card would put the archer as an average maneuverability (although two hustles and a sprint that other heroes have is slightly more versatile.  However, it’s the combination attack/move cards (tumble and circumvent) that really help set the archer apart from the average hero when it comes to moving around the battlefield.  25% of the archer deck allows extra movement, with 3 of the 5 cards able to be played as reactions/interrupts, and the two special moves don’t count as movement, which is an added bonus.

Defense: Average (3 cards)

The archer has a couple of cards to simply dodge an attack, and one to knock an attacker prone to prevent them from attacking.  The archer is much better served by using superior maneuverability to stay away from attackers.

Attack (Single Target): Average (5 cards)

The archer only has 5 cards to hit single targets, and one of those requires taking an attack in order to use it.  For a character that is mainly an offensive force, this isn’t a lot of attack cards.  The range of the attacks is the only reason they are comparable to other heroes.  Do note that one attack does 3 damage, which should always be used for maximum damage when it come up.

Attack (Multiple Targets): Very Weak (1 Card)

Tears of Orion is arguably the best offensive card in the game.  However, with only one multi-target attack, and the need for plenty of ammo to use Orion’s well, you need to basically revolve your whole strategy around this single card.  On the upside, you should be able to get a treasure token spawned every time you go through your deck.

Utility: Weak (5 cards)

Although the archer has one very strong utility card (fools errand), the other utility cards are either to mitigate ammunition shortages (retrieve) or to increase damage on the archer’s limited number of attacks.

Special: Ammunition

The Archer has 7 arrow cards (28% of the deck.)  These arrows are used in a number of the archer’s cards including attacks.  This is the unique mechanic that the archer is built around, and it offsets the archer’s ability to shoot at range.

Advancement

Orion’s Tears – Getting your second copy of Orion’s Tears into your deck should be a priority.  Since this one card is your primary source of damage, getting a second one into your deck is a huge advantage.  This will make you more resource constrained however, since tears eats through ammo.

Pacify – Although not as strong as fool’s errand, as one of the only ways to reduce the darkness meter, this card is a useful addition to the archer’s deck to add utility.

Quiver – Upgrading to a quiver is a big deal.  It makes you much less susceptible to bad draws (since not getting an arrow this turn doesn’t mean not getting an attack next turn), it frees up an action slot (possibly allowing you to use all 5 cards from hand each hero cycle), and allows you to attack on round 1 of the game, shoring up a weakness of the archer.

Boots of Speed – Since almost all of the archer’s cards can’t be played after an aggressive move, converting aggressive moves into normal moves is a huge advantage, improving the hit and run tactics by a lot.