“Cleavin’” Calvin Wright

Meat Cleaver was an absolute godsend for Calvin. It’s by far his favourite level 0 weapon, I don’t think he was ever quite comfortable with Fire Axe.

I’m quite fond of Gravedigger's Shovel here. It makes a great backup weapon if you can’t find your cleaver, the +2 being very handy when your skills are still low, if only for chip damage. But unlike other backup weapons, this continues to be useful even after you find your cleaver, as you can dump it to grab a clue before playing your Flashlight.

Soaks, soaks, soaks. We all know Calvin loves soaks.

Although fail to win cards may seem like a great pick for him, you have to remember that your skills will only be low early in the scenario, and even this will become less true as the campaign progresses. It’s for this reason that Take Heart will be an early drop, and that I don’t bother with Drawing Thin.

I think the sweet spot for Calvin is at 2 remaining health/sanity. With Five of Pentacles this gives him five of everything, meaning you can do anything. If you have all your soaks in play you can go to 1 remaining, and while I used to do that, getting wrecked repeatedly by Curse of Yig in TFA has left me overly cautious.

Calvin can sometimes be a bit slow getting set up, but I’ve found that once he does he becomes so powerful that he generally catches up.

Upgrades:

First port of call should be Five of Pentacles. Calvin gets more value out of this card than anyone else gets out of any tarot. Replace Take Heart.

Next, upgrade Peter Sylvestre. He’s really the only ally you need, although I recently finished NOTZ with Calvin and found that he got a heck of a lot of value out of Lita Chantler, so if you’re playing a campaign with good story asset allies like her you could consider picking up Charisma.

It’s also a good idea to replace Gravedigger's Shovel with Timeworn Brand, since as the campaign progresses he won’t be struggling for clues anymore and won’t be looking to lower his sanity with the cleaver so much.

Will to Survive is a possibility, as always. Devil's Luck can replace Perseverance, though I’m not sure it’s necessary. Alter Fate can be spectacular but it depends on your campaign.