Zoey Samaras: The Chef

There is a variety of motives, causing the investigators to stand against the seemingly unbeatable powers of the otherworldly forces. Revenge, curiosity, or simply will to survive when faced with monstrous being trying to hunt you down. Zoey, however, is different. She is on a God-given mission. While technically a Chef, most of her life is spent following God’s orders. He speaks to her and she fulfills His instructions, killing the wicked abominations and guarding our world.

Legacy: I have a revelation to make in the very beginning of this article. Zoey has been pretty much my favorite character so far, when taking into account both Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror. She was always a very proficient fighter with added layer of other capabilities and neat skills. In AH, she had high Lore/Luck value on top of her fighting competence and due to her Killer Instinct only needed one weapon to wreak havoc on all monsters. In Eldritch Horror she got even better! While still bearing her Cross to aid her during fights, she was also able to get additional missions straight from the Creator. And due to her well-spread stats she was also a proficient gate closer! A “killer” combination! (if you pardon this unintended punchline)

So when I learned, Zoey will be included as one of Dunwich Legacy investigators, I was beyond excited. And my excitement grew even further upon reading all Zoey-related cards. I was a bit conscious about her skill seemingly being inferior to Jenny’s, still was very much looking forward to playing her.

SPOILER ALERT!

I was disappointed

Zoey I love. This is how I will remember her!

Skill values: Zoey’s skill values shape her as a very evident killer with one job – slaying the wicked foes. Combat of 4 allows her to rip through them with a great efficiency, whereas Will of 4 protects her from all kinds of negative effects (while also inviting to take advantage of some of the Mystic options). However, one can wonder, since she’s to be a fighter and only a fighter, why wouldn’t she have lower Agility? One point less wouldn’t make a noticeable difference, but could help her to either do a decent job at investigating or boost her Combat to crazy levels (there are characters with a skill value of 5 in the end). 

I don’t really find any thematic explanation for this choice, either. In the end she just seems like a worse version of Roland (another spoiler alert – you’re going to read this phrase again).

Strength 

Theme 

Special Ability: Getting a resource for engaging an enemy is a decent skill. It comes even more handy for a Guardian – their cards are expensive and they do not have any cards to gather extra resources (so far). However, if you compare Zoey’s ability with Jenny’s you have a nasty impression, it’s a slightly weaker variant, really. On an average you do not engage one enemy per turn. The difference is not that big and the ability provides a cool synergy with Zoey’s Cross, nevertheless one can easily see it’s on the weaker side of thing. 

 I am not too sure how to thematically interpret her ability, unless on a quite abstract level. Is it the killer instinct that enables her to be very ehm… resourceful when faced with monsters?

I have mixed feelings about Zoey’s Elder Sign effect. On one hand it’s very thematic. On top of that, many of Zoey’s tests are, in fact, Combat skill checks, so there are decent chances it will get triggered during a fight. On the other hand – it annoyingly often gets drawn during other kinds of skill checks. Moreover, quite often an extra damage doesn’t matter at all – it just leads to an unnecessary overkill – mostly because you can’t really plan to draw an Elder Sing or make reasonable strategy based on an assumption you will get one of 16 (or more!) tokens.

Strength

 Theme

Signature cards: Here we go! Zoey starts to shine for a difference. Her Cross is my favorite signature card so far. It provides alternative means of doing extra damage, while not being a weapon. Beat Cop style, if you allow me such a comparison. It does not require any actions and the resource cost is pretty much negligible, since Zoey gets one when engaging an enemy.

All points one can raise about an upgraded Beat Cop apply to her Crucifix too – you can snipe out single health enemies with a great efficiency (this is definitely my favorite use). If your partner did some damage to the enemy you might finish it off, just by engaging it – no risk, no nasty chaos tokens). When facing a major guy (Ghoul Priest level or so), one additional damage for the start of the fight might also save you one attack in the end.

Giving Zoey a Cross was an obvious design choice – it’s her starting gear in Arkham Files since its beginning and naturally fits a believer (a God’s warrior, one could say). I am just slightly skeptical about a connection between the holy jewelry and suddenly striking the monsters.¹

This would be such a cool graphic if not for the dinosaur-like creature
making a come back from Unexpected Courage

Zoey’s weakness might vary in impact, depending on few factors. The obvious one is the strength of the drawn enemy. The second one is its type – is it a hunter enemy or not? If it is, Zoey most probably won’t have to >>hunt<< (haha!) it down, though it might stalk some of her teammates. The timing (and size of the map) is also crucial. If there’s nothing very urgent to do, Zoey (or one of her friends) might as well go and smite the wicked. In this sense it’s just one extra monster added to the adventure, possibly even less impactful for a bigger team. If it’s drawn towards the end of a tense scenario… oh well, then it’s Cover Up all over again (these seem to affect Guardians so badly!). And unlike all the task weaknesses it still matters in the last scenario. All in all, it’s slightly more damaging than a typical weakness, while not being Roland’s level.

The weakness is an obvious thematic choice for Zoey. Even though the design is bit simplistic (and surprisingly similar to Jenny’s weakness) one cannot deny its thematic quality. She’s on a God given quest and once he points to another target, she feels compelled to fulfill his commands to the point at which failing does permanent damage to her mental stability. 

Strength

Theme

Class/Deckbuilding options: Zoey is a Dunwich Style Guardian. The class choice is obvious both mechanically and thematically. She can have some options on what to take from the different classes depending on your needs and approach. Regardless of exact direction, you can always use Double or Nothing for devastating blows (combined with a weapon and a Vicious Blow it does 6 damage in one go!), all round strong Lucky! (nicely supporting Double or Nothing, as well). If you’re looking for an extra fighting edge (and more chances to draw a weapon), Baseball Bats come in very handy. If you decide to help a bit with Zoey’s investigating capabilities, Rite of Seeking and Drawn to the Flame both seem to be a very good option. Finally, if you’re looking at some support alternatives (also helping with Zoey’s low Sanity), Liquid Courage does the job.

A Chef by day, a monster slayer by night.
Let's hope she does not use any of the gained monster bits in her day job...

 I have already mentioned how the Dunwich characters’ deckbuilding requirements are on the weaker side of things for me. Zoey is less affected, as there are tons of strong level 0 Guardian cards. However, I could picture her with a Mystic subclass so well! High Will would allow her to use multiple spells, Fearless to heal Sanity… That would not only make Zoey stronger, it would also fit her legacy image. In Arkham Files games her Lore stat (which is the spellcasting attribute in the previous 2 games) is on the higher end. Such a wasted opportunity! Not to mention, I feel slightly uneasy with some of the cards Zoey can theoretically access when it comes to the theme side of things (all Dunwich guys are affected, I guess).

Strength

Theme

All in all Zoey seems to be a bit bland. She does lots of fighting and that’s pretty much it. Even spiced up a tiny bit with a selection of 5 cards from different classes, she’s still extremely one-dimensional. In fact, in the post about Roland I criticized him for being rather dull. I am taking my words back – he’s so actually quite fun and even more so, compared to the killer chef.

While I do appreciate a specialized approach, it makes playing her bit on the boring side. To make matters worse, she is only slightly more of an efficient killer, than Roland is, while the latter can do so much more! We even tried her in a 4-player game, hoping her highly specialized profile would fit a bigger party more. Still she was a minor disappointment. Unfortunately the final verdict is not favorable to Zoey.

Strength

Theme

¹I am a Christian myself, however I can see no place for God in the universe of Lovercraft and definitely not the Judeo-Christian one. The cold, uncaring universe in which humanity is part of thin layer of a biosphere in a Necro-cosmos faced with unhuman powers beyond their understanding, Idiot-God Azathoth, destroying worlds at will and just all the lack of purpose do not fit with the concept of the all-loving God. It begs a question – who speaks to Zoey? 

All images are courtesy of cardgamedb.com and fantasyflightgames.com