Unstoppable Survivor (True Solo, Normal/Hard) Updated 2025

Looks great, i will give it a try :)

The lack off willpower skill icons got my attention

You switched 4 Willpower icons of "Say your prayers" for only 2 Intelect at "Perception" or 2 Combat at Overpower

By your experience, Combat and Intelect skill icons are so more necessary than Willpower icons?

You even valued Perception above Unexpected Courage

By switched, i mean didn't include, that choice was also made at the previous deck

@lucasandradefisico Thanks for the feedback! Having 4 in the first scenario is usually enough, then Plucky (3) brings it to 5 and you can spend a resource when needed. On the other hand, having only 2 against treacheries is a problem. Perception helps you with treacheries, it boosts your second investigation in the same turn and it replaces itself if you succeed, unlike Unexpected Courage. In the last scenario of The Drowned City, the + 5 ? of Strength in Numbers (1) was really powerful and Unscrupulous Loan (3) made me pass so many tests with -4 modifiers. Would love to hear about your experience with this deck!

A really cool list! This looks like it leans into everything that makes Ashcan great, namely, his ability to hit the ground running. A few questions.

1) Do you think your low sanity ever comes an issue?

2) Is there ever a world where a deck like this would want Ascetic?

@Marymatician Thanks for the feedback!

1. Direct horror can be an issue, for example if you draw multiple Dreams of R'lyeh in The Drowned City. If you got mental trauma, invest 2xp to get Spirit of Humanity (2) and heal yourself. Regular horror won't be an issue. "Ashcan" Pete starts with 5 sanity, -2 for In the Thick of It. From the second scenario, you will have in play Duke, Leo De Luca and Plucky (3), giving you +5 sanity. If Plucky (3) gets discarded, you can recover it with Resourceful.
2. Absolutely! If your investigator dies at scenario 5 or later, you can continue the campaign with this deck and take Ascetic. If you enjoy playing fan-made campaigns (I do), some of them are shorter, such as Jumanji, a 4-part campaign that can benefit from Ascetic

Lucky Cigarette Case really makes it next level and True Awakening is a nice touch. On standard difficulty instead of Track Shoes to replace Gift of Nodens I would get rid of Wolf Mask, as at that moment you already have Scrapper to deal with extra difficult test. On hard it depends how it goes up to that point, but that's just a cosmetic change anyway. I believe it might be one of the strongest true solo decks out there.

@Drostt Thanks so much for the feedback, your ideas made a real difference in improving this deck! Hopefully, it will give true solo players a chance with really tough scenarios. Adding Lucky Cigarette Case made the deck more consistent thanks to the frequent card draw. I will test replacing Wolf Mask instead of Track Shoes. Let me know if you have any other suggestions!

Amazing deck! Just finished Return to the Forgotten Age on standard difficulty. There were no critical problems during the entire playthrough. Lucky Cigarette Case, Track shoes, Scrapper, Strength in Numbers, True Awakening. Unscrupulous Loan, made the deck even more stable and reliable. The problem with direct damage and horror is very well solved by the Spirit of Humanity. I maxed out the entire deck by the end of the campaign and used the rest of my experience to buy a level 5 Dark Horse. This card allowed me to waste resources on agility tests through the scrapper and still get an extra +1 from the dark horse. By the end of the campaign, I was no longer afraid of the Unscrupulous Loan being exiled.

I will try to go through Return to the Circle Undone soon. I think this is really one of the strongest decks in solo!

@Vanesko Thanks so much for the feedback, your ideas made this deck stronger! I agree that Dark Horse (5) is a great addition with the unused VPs. Congrats on your Return to TFA win, and best of luck with Return to TCU!

Thanks for the deck! Tried for the first time true solo (Cyclopean Foundations) with this deck - it went marvelous!! The only thing I have some XP to spare in the last couple of scenarios and upgraded Lucky (3) and Will to Survive arkhamdb.com as well. I think it worked well with this deck :)

@flerka66 Fantastic to hear! I'm thrilled the deck worked well for your true solo run of Cyclopean Foundations. Lucky! (3) is already among the 'nice additions', Will to Survive (3) makes a lot of sense to turn the tide in tough situations. Thanks for the feedback and for sharing your success!

I've been using this deck to experiment with true solo for the first time, and it's working great. This deck's advantages are its flexibility and speed. With Leo plus Duke's move + investigate combo, you are getting 5 impactful actions most turns. Then once the key upgrade pieces are in place, you can pass any test as long as you have resources to pay for them. The tempo is key -- you are looking to speed through the scenario before the encounter deck can throw too much at you.

This deck can struggle with clue compression (which is not as necessary in solo) and handling multiple enemies or high-health enemies (which is a problem for many investigators in solo). You can deal with that by making liberal use of Pete's ability to discard a card to refresh Duke or discarding an Ice Pick (3) in a pinch. It's a little dicey in the early scenarios, but once you get the key upgrades, it's amazing how often this deck will just coast through scenarios with huge amounts of time to spare.

Unscrupulous Loan ends up getting exiled a lot late in the campaign, but that's fine because the deck is fully functional by then and it's no problem to spend XP to repurchase it.

@ChrisSF Thanks so much for the review! I am thrilled to hear the deck is working well for your true solo experiments with its flexibility and speed. I would add that consistency is an important advantage in true solo. For high-health enemies you can try adding Sledgehammer (4), it can do 7 damage in one turn with Long Shot. Let me know if you have suggestions on how to improve this deck!

This is a phenomenal deck for True Solo play. Thank you @walla for the excellent work here. I just sailed through 'The Innsmouth Conspiracy' campaign using this build. I have been using the new 'Boon of Hermes' for True Solo play, otherwise it becomes too much of an RNG chore-fest, and although I also used the boon with this deck too, I really do not believe it was needed, so I will likely skip it for my next playthrough with unstoppable Duke! I was thinking of starting 'The Dream Eaters' next - but would need another investigator for that - any suggestions for another True Solo deck as strong as this one?? (PS: Probably worth mentioning that players should take 2 mental trauma with 'In The Thick of It', so that they have immediate access to the 'Desperate' skills.)

@Alziel Thank you so much for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the deck and that it performed well for you in The Innsmouth Conspiracy. I have never actually used the Boon of Hermes, give it a try without the boon and let me know how it goes. For another strong True Solo investigator, you could check out Sokourov's True Solo content at www.reddit.com They have a lot of experience and are responsive to comments. It's a great idea to clarify how In the Thick of It interacts with mental trauma and 'Desperate' cards. I will add that to the deck description, thanks for the suggestion!

Appreciate the shout out! It feels forever ago I posted that list. But I love the deck and what you’ve done here. Looks phenomenal. It’s been fun to incorporate many of the new tools we have received over the years to make this kind of deck better. Thanks for the deck and write up

@jamjams32 Wow! It's a honor to read your comment, thanks so much for the kind words! I am glad you like the new version. Your original deck was such a great resource for True Solo players like me, opening the "Desperate" skills archetype. It's been a blast updating it with all the new cards and strategies that have come out since then. I really appreciated you sharing the deck with the community and inspired me to do the same! Are you still enjoying playing Arkham Horror?

Appreciate the kind words! Yes Arkham is still my number 1 game of all time. I absolutely love it. I think I’m around 600 plays of it and only want to play more. I don’t get around posting decklists anymore as life gets so busy with work and kids etc. but you better believe I’m still deckbuilding and tinkering around constantly. It’s such a great game. Again thx for the kind words and the great decklist. Excited to see what list you post next!

@jamjams32 600 plays is just amazing! I can definitely relate that life gets busy with work and family, but it's great you are still making time for gaming and having fun :)

@walla has made an amazing deck.! I consider myself a moderately-experienced Arkham player, but True Solo has always punched me in the face every time I've tried. I'm taking this deck through Dunwich Legacy an am having a great time. The core engine of Duke/Leo/skill cards runs smoother than you could dream. For a truly phenomonal experience, use Duke's move-investigate, trigger Track Shoes and investigate a location 2 moves away all in go. That's 3 actions rolled into 1!! That said, I do think a few campaign-specific tweaks are in order.

MINOR DUNWICH SPOILERS BELOW

Beyond the Veil (10 damage for running out of card in your deck) is an extremely scary encounter card for any Short Supply/heavy draw deck: I died to the veil scenario 1 of DWL. I recommend adding Deny Existence specifically to counter the Veil. If you're in a scenario where Beyond the Veil is in the encoutner deck, treat Deny with the same level of urgency as you would Leo.

• Cut one of the off-class cards (at a glance, I recommend Lucky Cigarette Case) OR
• take Versatile as soon as possible and use the extra off-class slot to take Deny (this is what I ended up doing and I've been killing it so far).

I imagine every campaign will need some specific tech (ie horror soak for Carcosa, evade skills for Forgotten Age, more reliable brain boost for Circle Undone etc...). But that doesn't change the fact that the core of this deck is absolute gold and is a great entry point for those interested in playing True Solo.

@spockw Thanks a lot for the feedback, Iam thrilled you are enjoying playing True Solo with this deck! Using Deny Existence against Beyond the Veil is a brilliant idea, you are spot on. A couple of other options for dealing with it in the Survivor class are A Test of Will or Nine of Rods (3). Good luck with the rest of the campaign!

Well! Given up on The Dream Eaters campaign A. I don't think even a deck as strong as this one can beat 'Where The Gods Dwell' in True Solo, which seems to be the most poorly designed scenario I've come across in the game so far (at least for low player counts). I even used the suggested boon for that scenario from the official FAQ, but it made no difference at all. Thought I'd add this comment, in case any other players wanted to try The Dream Eaters (Campaign A) in True Solo (even using this excellent deck).

@Alziel I feel you, WtGD is incredibly thematic, but the True Solo player scaling is brutal. I have managed to win a couple of times though!

SPOILERS BELOW

High Priest Not to Be Described and Onyx Gates were not an issue. The real challenge is quickly finding two copies of Nyarlathotep and two of Whispering Chaos while at the correct Tower. That's a lot of luck. Good news: to improve your odds, you can add On the Hunt to your deck for this scenario. It can directly spawn Nyarlathotep engaged with you. If it's never in your hand to begin with, the window for revelation effect doesn't happen :)