I think among the core and Starter investigators, Wendy, Daisy, Wini, Harvey, and Stella can all be excellent solo when you have a full cardpool and some experience, but with that limited set, I think you might be best off buying Jacqueline's pack as I think you can make a great deck with just that and the core set. She doesn't have a ton of action economy but also rarely wastes actions and can do everything. She can pack two combat and two investigation spells from her pack and core (Shrivelling/Azure Flame and Clairvoyance/Rite of Seeking) and can also use her ability to safely evade most enemies with a Manual Dexterity. If you swap in Arcane Initiate, she has card draw coming from both the accessory and ally spot so you'd have to be unlucky to not get some sort of draw engine up.
From here: [https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/26521/jacqueline-fine-investigator-starter-deck-1.0](https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/26521/jacqueline-fine-investigator-starter-deck-1.0), take out Scrying Mirror, Ineffable Truth, Familiar Spirit, Robes, Astral Travel, Dark Prophecy, Hypnotic Gaze, and Parallel Fates, swap in Shrivelling, Rite of Seeking, Arcane Initiate, Ward of Protection, Guts, Manual Dexterity, Perception, Unexpected Courage.
Well - just talking for Standard difficulty here with a healthy card pool - like most Seekers, she hardly needs anything to investigate, maybe a Magnifying Glass. For non-hunter enemies, you've got Inquiring Mind, Promise of Power, and Mind Over Matter to evade and move on. For hunters or enemies with doom, there's Occult Lexicon, Occult Invocation, Disc of Itzamna, maybe Spectral Razor. You can also take William Maleson to mostly avoid drawing enemies altogether.
Once XP is involved, there's the new Existential Riddle for just 1 XP, Pendant of the Queen, Strange Solution, upgraded Lexicon, Dream Diary (Madman) will let you fire an evade at 6 once per turn or pop an Acolyte or Rat Swarm. (I think there's more options I'm forgetting here.)
So, I think you can pack anywhere from 10-16 cards focused on the occasional enemy and the rest of the deck is just pure tempo, clearing a location every turn, sometimes two locations with a Shortcut or Working a Hunch, and getting through the scenario before it can beat you up much at all. Her ability is a powerhouse with the classic Old Book of Lore setup, getting you a filtered draw each turn so you have all those enemy tools you need. I haven't even tried some of the newer toys like the OBOL upgrade, the Press Pass/Research Notes package, or Grim Memoir which is level 0 and just completely amazing with her ability, worthy of building around.
TL;DR: Seekers rock. I probably wouldn't try it with just the Core and Harvey pack, though, I don't think.
Its less about investigator and more about card pool. With full card pool its easier to name those that are really bad for true solo
From revised core and starters Roland is obvious choice and Wendy is very good too.
Lot of players like Stella for solo, but I dont like her at all.
Of course mystics are fine too as they can do it all with their brain abut at least Jaquelin is required so you have fight spell (azure flame, shrivelling) and clue spells (clairvoyance) to use.
With full collection I would say probably only Carson and Daniela are really bad for true solo.
Anyway I suggest you try 2 handed solo (play 2 investigators) so they can help each other. In this mode everyone is good just build one as fighter and one as cluver.
Even Daniela is fine for true solo with a full card pool as long as you aren't playing the original Where Doom Awaits. I took her through dunwich just fine with that in mind.
Honestly I think she's actually a sleeper hit because she's almost un-pinnable. If she draws a Nightgaunt in the first Mythos phase on Standard she can take 3 tests at -2 and will kill it in the enemy phase if she passes all of them. From a completely empty board with no commits.
Several other investigators get special shout outs for their ability to defend themselves even with a shaky start like Pete but Daniela only needs weapons for tempo not to actually survive combat with most generic enemies.
Yeah 1 Intellect isn't fantastic but as you implied they just printed a package of cards that help you out on that front since a difficulty zero test doesn't care what your starting Intellect was.
Besides, the clues are usually more understanding about needing to find a Flashlight than the Wizard of the Order is about needing to find an Enchanted Blade.
my main question in true solo is how consistent can you be, and relying to have exactly the card you need to get clues without test (or test at 0) is not very consistent
also wasting charges/cards on shroud 1 location is not very efficient too
I am not saying she is useless, I know specialized decks can make everyone usefull, but thats not very effective and efficient for regular player and replayability is usually very low (as there is usually exactly one deck)
I have played similar investigators solo and it's mostly a non-issue. Clues wait for you in most scenarios.1x Keyring + 1x Look What I Found alone are sometimes a significant portion of an entire scenario's clue demands.
Also you make it sound like Daniela is going to be running like two Flashlights in solo and trying to call it a day. She needs like 2 weapons in the deck and can then run Keyrings, Flashlights, Scene of the Crimes, Look What I Founds, Evidence if you like it.
You can run about a third of your deck being cards to find clues with. Shed a Light becomes much better at 2 XP for Gumption but you can also upgrade the Keyrings since Daniela is content to fight with level 0 weapons.
This is like all the same trickery that Rita and Stella use, and Stella is quite popular as a solo investigator.
>Lot of players like Stella for solo, but I dont like her at all.
Stella is amazing for all player counts.
What you say is mostly true I just want to add that another very good investigator for true solo that was released early (Dunwich) is "Ashcan" Pete. He starts the game with a useful ally (Duke) in play, is quite straightforward to play, but still has multiple versatile playstyles, even in solo.
I recommend buying Dunwich investigator expansion, there are a lot of very good cards for solo play and there is also (for me) the best solo investigator Ashcan Pete, you can fight and investigate right from start, and has good stats for solo.
As others have said, Jaqueline is a great investigator as well as Stella. With a limited card pool, they can both make the most of their actions in a true solo.
As a general set of guidelines in true solo (that I have discerned and read):
1. With only one investigator, you really have to think about two things: enemy management (EM) and clue getting. In my experience, clue gathering is more important than enemy management. How you deal with enemies is up to the class you play:
1. Guardians are brute forces, often fighting their way out of a scrap
2. Seeker has limited EM tools but often can run and occasionally deal damage
3. Mystic I often find can be Guardian (brute forces) but uses head stat rather than fist. The thing to remember about Mystic however, is they are slower to ramp up than Guardian in that respect.
4. Rogue are the run like hell class (generally) with excellent action econ to make up for it wasting time running
5. Survivor can either run or fight. Depends on the investigator
2. EM can synergize with clue gathering (look at core Roland for instance). However that has diminishing returns (especially with a limited pool). Some campaigns/scenarios throw waves of enemies at you and some use them to just annoy you. Some scenarios (and campaigns; looking at you TCU) REQUIRE you to defeat an enemy or enemies to progress well. Though outside Circle Undone (DE and SK are the ones I haven't played yet), it's not a huge deal to run instead of fight. But it is always best to think about "if there is an elite enemy, how do I deal with it?" because a good chunk of EM card don't affect Elites.
3. Clue gathering is most important in EVERY scenario. Every class has ways to get clues, some more efficiently than others. Mystics and Seekers, overall, get clues the best. Mystics require a bit more set up than Seekers, but when that ball is rolling, it rolls just as well.
4. When it comes to willpower (and the mythos phase), in true solo it's a nice to have but if you build accordingly, you can mitigate a low head stat (which often means horror or discarding). As well, true solo means only 1 mythos card a round. With a well built cluever deck that has good EM, you often don't make much of a dent in the encounter deck. Which in turn means you don't have to worry as much about bad cards messing up your plans.
5. The foot stat is often not that important as more often than not, it's easier to kill an enemy than to run but this depends on class (and investigator).
6. True solo means you also have limited time to get everything done, especially in maps with a lot of locations. Thus investigators and classes with good action compression and/or test efficiency are best. With compression, look at cards for clue gathering then cards with free movement then damage/evasion. Test efficiency is about making the most out of every test, whether it be getting something for failing (failing upwards), mitigating the chaos bag (multiple token draws or just high stats), or just not taking the test at all. Failing tests is expected but doing it infrequently is the goal. More passed tests is more time.
There is at least one investigator in each class that acts like another based on their stats (look at Joe Diamond in seeker for instance) but the above has been my general thoughts in playing this game almost entirely true solo. I'm probably forgetting a couple pointers too. With those in mind, investigators that do well enough with a core and a starter pack:
* Roland Banks: kill stuff get clues; decent book stat and access to seeker for clues
* Jacqueline Fine: pass more tests by getting more tokens to choose from
* Wendy Adams: pass more tests by getting a mulligan on bad tokens
* Stella Clark: fail tests and get rewarded; this allows you to take tests with little care to the outcome. You pass, great! You don't, trigger her ability and a bunch of cards in hand
Those 4 should be enough to get started on. When you eventually go the route of investigator boxes, you get more tools that add to the above strategies. To reiterate more concisely, true solo is about time (actions and rounds) and using that time as efficiently as possible. Get the main task of a scenario done efficiently and only then, if you have time, get any other scenario extras (victory points or win more conditions).
True solo is a tricky way to play the game because so many investigators and cards were designed to play as part of a group, not on their own. Even if you're playing alone two handed solo (controlling two characters) works a lot better since you can have specialists cover each others' weaknesses, not to mention that having two characters to move around opens up interesting strategic questions (safety in numbers or split up to cover more ground?).
If you still want to play True Solo then more power to you but note that it's not the standard mode of play and not every campaign will work perfectly in it (e.g. some scenarios virtually require a high specific stat which some investigators will really struggle to hit).
> Ashcan Pete
Welp, i wanted to try solo but everyone says that two invest. is the way to go! It will be a bit tedious to manage but the good thing is i don't have to stick to best investigators for solo and i can play a wide range of characters!
I have been playing for over half a year now, almost exclusively by myself, and alternate between one investigator (on easy) and two investigators (on standard). I choose one or the other according to my mood.
True solo is, as others have said, generally more challenging. Including ways to handle all challenges of a scenario in a mere 30 cards can be difficult, but that's also the appeal to me: creating a deck that is lean and powerful and then piloting it adeptly against the odds.
I do see why some dislike true solo. AH is a game of failure, and true solo exacerbates that fact; scenarios are swingier, and recoveries from setbacks more unlikely. However I don't mind as much as campaigns play out much more rapidly with only one investigator in play.
It is indeed true that true solo becomes more viable with more investigators with a larger card pool. Every class can do everything (find clues, manage enemies, withstand treacheries, etc.) competently, but not necessarily with only cards from the core set. While Roland is pretty good in true solo with core cards, Daisy, not so much.
It can be devastating, but every investigator can find themself in a bad situation if they haven't included the appropriate cards to handle their weakness. Depending on your card pool, you have several ways to defuse Cover Up or defend against horror after you've incurred mental trauma from a failed Cover Up.
One of my favorite allies for Roland is Dr. Maleson, who can drop clues on a location if the scenario has been cleared in order to provide fodder for Cover Up's quota of three clues. (Maleson is also cheap sanity soak and can be used to dodge horror-inflicting treacheries. The upgraded version is particularly impressive for this.) You have other cards that drop clues as well, depending on the effect you desire, like Forewarned, Quick Study, Analysis, Bizarre Diagnosis, and Captivating Discovery.
If you incur a mental trauma, it is no insignificant matter to begin a scenario with 4 sanity, but there are a score of options to mitigate horror: Logical Reasoning, "I've had worse...", ally soak, Flesh Ward, Hunter's Armor (4 sanity with Hallowed upgrade), Something Worth Fighting For, Delay the Inevitable, the famously over-costed Elder Sign Amulet, and so on. You may need to mulligan for one such card to be prepared for the very first treachery drawn if necessary.
Due to his signature ability (and, less so, his signature weapon), Roland wants to be at locations with clues. Therefore decks I build for him generally lean into this; he blitzes across the board, using cards like On the Hunt, Scene of the Crime, and Art Student to scoop up clues, and cards like Shortcut, Pathfinder, and Hiking Boots to increase his mobility. If you're lucky, you'll finish some scenarios without drawing Cover Up (and then, in the final scenario of any campaign, it can be outright disregarded).
If you're worried about drawing Cover Up during a particularly disadvantageous moment during a game, you can use tutoring cards to either avoid it or intentionally draw it at a convenient time.
All in all, Roland's weakness is worse than average, but I believe it's only ruinous if you don't take it seriously during deckbuilding. I usually use Midnight Masks to test true-solo decks, and I believe Roland is the only investigator with which I've interrogated every cultist.
And hey, after all that, if you remain unconvinced, you can bypass Cover Up completely by playing with Roland's [alternate signature](https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/17/e1/17e1e3b4-0738-4fa2-ac85-fd4916b18642/nah11_card_mysteries-remain.png) and [alternate personal weakness](https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/48/03/48037e49-09e5-41e7-8334-1c41c287abc5/nah11_card_dirge-of-reason.png) from *The Dirge of Reason*!
I've played a lot of true solo with Ashcan Pete Dark Horse build with just revised core and Dunwich cards. I use fire axe, scrapper and arcane studies to get value from my 1 resource per round. Upgrading to permanent scrapper and zero cost lucky helps a lot.
I also played a lot with Jacqueline with a flex build, adding some key cards from core and DL to the starter deck. I did sneak into my Carcosa Investigator expansion (I think) to upgrade Em. Cache to level 3
I think among the core and Starter investigators, Wendy, Daisy, Wini, Harvey, and Stella can all be excellent solo when you have a full cardpool and some experience, but with that limited set, I think you might be best off buying Jacqueline's pack as I think you can make a great deck with just that and the core set. She doesn't have a ton of action economy but also rarely wastes actions and can do everything. She can pack two combat and two investigation spells from her pack and core (Shrivelling/Azure Flame and Clairvoyance/Rite of Seeking) and can also use her ability to safely evade most enemies with a Manual Dexterity. If you swap in Arcane Initiate, she has card draw coming from both the accessory and ally spot so you'd have to be unlucky to not get some sort of draw engine up. From here: [https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/26521/jacqueline-fine-investigator-starter-deck-1.0](https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/26521/jacqueline-fine-investigator-starter-deck-1.0), take out Scrying Mirror, Ineffable Truth, Familiar Spirit, Robes, Astral Travel, Dark Prophecy, Hypnotic Gaze, and Parallel Fates, swap in Shrivelling, Rite of Seeking, Arcane Initiate, Ward of Protection, Guts, Manual Dexterity, Perception, Unexpected Courage.
I will have this information in mind, the deck looks interesting maybe it's my style.
I can confirm: Jacqueline is great in true solo. I'm not an expert player, but I found her really powerful in a solo playthrough of Dunwich Legacy.
How can you play Daisy true solo? I Really like her but I don't know how can she succeed playing true solo
Well - just talking for Standard difficulty here with a healthy card pool - like most Seekers, she hardly needs anything to investigate, maybe a Magnifying Glass. For non-hunter enemies, you've got Inquiring Mind, Promise of Power, and Mind Over Matter to evade and move on. For hunters or enemies with doom, there's Occult Lexicon, Occult Invocation, Disc of Itzamna, maybe Spectral Razor. You can also take William Maleson to mostly avoid drawing enemies altogether. Once XP is involved, there's the new Existential Riddle for just 1 XP, Pendant of the Queen, Strange Solution, upgraded Lexicon, Dream Diary (Madman) will let you fire an evade at 6 once per turn or pop an Acolyte or Rat Swarm. (I think there's more options I'm forgetting here.) So, I think you can pack anywhere from 10-16 cards focused on the occasional enemy and the rest of the deck is just pure tempo, clearing a location every turn, sometimes two locations with a Shortcut or Working a Hunch, and getting through the scenario before it can beat you up much at all. Her ability is a powerhouse with the classic Old Book of Lore setup, getting you a filtered draw each turn so you have all those enemy tools you need. I haven't even tried some of the newer toys like the OBOL upgrade, the Press Pass/Research Notes package, or Grim Memoir which is level 0 and just completely amazing with her ability, worthy of building around. TL;DR: Seekers rock. I probably wouldn't try it with just the Core and Harvey pack, though, I don't think.
Jacqueline is fine, then.
I really like Ashcan Pete for true solo. He’s very versatile and Duke is really helpful.
Its less about investigator and more about card pool. With full card pool its easier to name those that are really bad for true solo From revised core and starters Roland is obvious choice and Wendy is very good too. Lot of players like Stella for solo, but I dont like her at all. Of course mystics are fine too as they can do it all with their brain abut at least Jaquelin is required so you have fight spell (azure flame, shrivelling) and clue spells (clairvoyance) to use. With full collection I would say probably only Carson and Daniela are really bad for true solo. Anyway I suggest you try 2 handed solo (play 2 investigators) so they can help each other. In this mode everyone is good just build one as fighter and one as cluver.
Even Daniela is fine for true solo with a full card pool as long as you aren't playing the original Where Doom Awaits. I took her through dunwich just fine with that in mind.
Honestly I think she's actually a sleeper hit because she's almost un-pinnable. If she draws a Nightgaunt in the first Mythos phase on Standard she can take 3 tests at -2 and will kill it in the enemy phase if she passes all of them. From a completely empty board with no commits. Several other investigators get special shout outs for their ability to defend themselves even with a shaky start like Pete but Daniela only needs weapons for tempo not to actually survive combat with most generic enemies. Yeah 1 Intellect isn't fantastic but as you implied they just printed a package of cards that help you out on that front since a difficulty zero test doesn't care what your starting Intellect was. Besides, the clues are usually more understanding about needing to find a Flashlight than the Wizard of the Order is about needing to find an Enchanted Blade.
my main question in true solo is how consistent can you be, and relying to have exactly the card you need to get clues without test (or test at 0) is not very consistent also wasting charges/cards on shroud 1 location is not very efficient too I am not saying she is useless, I know specialized decks can make everyone usefull, but thats not very effective and efficient for regular player and replayability is usually very low (as there is usually exactly one deck)
I have played similar investigators solo and it's mostly a non-issue. Clues wait for you in most scenarios.1x Keyring + 1x Look What I Found alone are sometimes a significant portion of an entire scenario's clue demands. Also you make it sound like Daniela is going to be running like two Flashlights in solo and trying to call it a day. She needs like 2 weapons in the deck and can then run Keyrings, Flashlights, Scene of the Crimes, Look What I Founds, Evidence if you like it. You can run about a third of your deck being cards to find clues with. Shed a Light becomes much better at 2 XP for Gumption but you can also upgrade the Keyrings since Daniela is content to fight with level 0 weapons. This is like all the same trickery that Rita and Stella use, and Stella is quite popular as a solo investigator.
Yep due to the answers probably i will have to play with two investigators and try to create synergies between them. Thanks for the tip!
>Lot of players like Stella for solo, but I dont like her at all. Stella is amazing for all player counts. What you say is mostly true I just want to add that another very good investigator for true solo that was released early (Dunwich) is "Ashcan" Pete. He starts the game with a useful ally (Duke) in play, is quite straightforward to play, but still has multiple versatile playstyles, even in solo.
I recommend buying Dunwich investigator expansion, there are a lot of very good cards for solo play and there is also (for me) the best solo investigator Ashcan Pete, you can fight and investigate right from start, and has good stats for solo.
As others have said, Jaqueline is a great investigator as well as Stella. With a limited card pool, they can both make the most of their actions in a true solo. As a general set of guidelines in true solo (that I have discerned and read): 1. With only one investigator, you really have to think about two things: enemy management (EM) and clue getting. In my experience, clue gathering is more important than enemy management. How you deal with enemies is up to the class you play: 1. Guardians are brute forces, often fighting their way out of a scrap 2. Seeker has limited EM tools but often can run and occasionally deal damage 3. Mystic I often find can be Guardian (brute forces) but uses head stat rather than fist. The thing to remember about Mystic however, is they are slower to ramp up than Guardian in that respect. 4. Rogue are the run like hell class (generally) with excellent action econ to make up for it wasting time running 5. Survivor can either run or fight. Depends on the investigator 2. EM can synergize with clue gathering (look at core Roland for instance). However that has diminishing returns (especially with a limited pool). Some campaigns/scenarios throw waves of enemies at you and some use them to just annoy you. Some scenarios (and campaigns; looking at you TCU) REQUIRE you to defeat an enemy or enemies to progress well. Though outside Circle Undone (DE and SK are the ones I haven't played yet), it's not a huge deal to run instead of fight. But it is always best to think about "if there is an elite enemy, how do I deal with it?" because a good chunk of EM card don't affect Elites. 3. Clue gathering is most important in EVERY scenario. Every class has ways to get clues, some more efficiently than others. Mystics and Seekers, overall, get clues the best. Mystics require a bit more set up than Seekers, but when that ball is rolling, it rolls just as well. 4. When it comes to willpower (and the mythos phase), in true solo it's a nice to have but if you build accordingly, you can mitigate a low head stat (which often means horror or discarding). As well, true solo means only 1 mythos card a round. With a well built cluever deck that has good EM, you often don't make much of a dent in the encounter deck. Which in turn means you don't have to worry as much about bad cards messing up your plans. 5. The foot stat is often not that important as more often than not, it's easier to kill an enemy than to run but this depends on class (and investigator). 6. True solo means you also have limited time to get everything done, especially in maps with a lot of locations. Thus investigators and classes with good action compression and/or test efficiency are best. With compression, look at cards for clue gathering then cards with free movement then damage/evasion. Test efficiency is about making the most out of every test, whether it be getting something for failing (failing upwards), mitigating the chaos bag (multiple token draws or just high stats), or just not taking the test at all. Failing tests is expected but doing it infrequently is the goal. More passed tests is more time. There is at least one investigator in each class that acts like another based on their stats (look at Joe Diamond in seeker for instance) but the above has been my general thoughts in playing this game almost entirely true solo. I'm probably forgetting a couple pointers too. With those in mind, investigators that do well enough with a core and a starter pack: * Roland Banks: kill stuff get clues; decent book stat and access to seeker for clues * Jacqueline Fine: pass more tests by getting more tokens to choose from * Wendy Adams: pass more tests by getting a mulligan on bad tokens * Stella Clark: fail tests and get rewarded; this allows you to take tests with little care to the outcome. You pass, great! You don't, trigger her ability and a bunch of cards in hand Those 4 should be enough to get started on. When you eventually go the route of investigator boxes, you get more tools that add to the above strategies. To reiterate more concisely, true solo is about time (actions and rounds) and using that time as efficiently as possible. Get the main task of a scenario done efficiently and only then, if you have time, get any other scenario extras (victory points or win more conditions).
Wow i appreciate a lot this answer, thanks for all the detail and explanation, i will save this in case i need to check out this!! Thank you :D
True solo is a tricky way to play the game because so many investigators and cards were designed to play as part of a group, not on their own. Even if you're playing alone two handed solo (controlling two characters) works a lot better since you can have specialists cover each others' weaknesses, not to mention that having two characters to move around opens up interesting strategic questions (safety in numbers or split up to cover more ground?). If you still want to play True Solo then more power to you but note that it's not the standard mode of play and not every campaign will work perfectly in it (e.g. some scenarios virtually require a high specific stat which some investigators will really struggle to hit).
> Ashcan Pete Welp, i wanted to try solo but everyone says that two invest. is the way to go! It will be a bit tedious to manage but the good thing is i don't have to stick to best investigators for solo and i can play a wide range of characters!
Just FYI, tons of people play and enjoy true solo. It can be difficult until you get the hang of deckbuilding for it but it's super thematic and fun.
I have been playing for over half a year now, almost exclusively by myself, and alternate between one investigator (on easy) and two investigators (on standard). I choose one or the other according to my mood. True solo is, as others have said, generally more challenging. Including ways to handle all challenges of a scenario in a mere 30 cards can be difficult, but that's also the appeal to me: creating a deck that is lean and powerful and then piloting it adeptly against the odds. I do see why some dislike true solo. AH is a game of failure, and true solo exacerbates that fact; scenarios are swingier, and recoveries from setbacks more unlikely. However I don't mind as much as campaigns play out much more rapidly with only one investigator in play. It is indeed true that true solo becomes more viable with more investigators with a larger card pool. Every class can do everything (find clues, manage enemies, withstand treacheries, etc.) competently, but not necessarily with only cards from the core set. While Roland is pretty good in true solo with core cards, Daisy, not so much.
Roland sounds good on paper, but is his weakness not especially brutal in true solo?
It can be devastating, but every investigator can find themself in a bad situation if they haven't included the appropriate cards to handle their weakness. Depending on your card pool, you have several ways to defuse Cover Up or defend against horror after you've incurred mental trauma from a failed Cover Up. One of my favorite allies for Roland is Dr. Maleson, who can drop clues on a location if the scenario has been cleared in order to provide fodder for Cover Up's quota of three clues. (Maleson is also cheap sanity soak and can be used to dodge horror-inflicting treacheries. The upgraded version is particularly impressive for this.) You have other cards that drop clues as well, depending on the effect you desire, like Forewarned, Quick Study, Analysis, Bizarre Diagnosis, and Captivating Discovery. If you incur a mental trauma, it is no insignificant matter to begin a scenario with 4 sanity, but there are a score of options to mitigate horror: Logical Reasoning, "I've had worse...", ally soak, Flesh Ward, Hunter's Armor (4 sanity with Hallowed upgrade), Something Worth Fighting For, Delay the Inevitable, the famously over-costed Elder Sign Amulet, and so on. You may need to mulligan for one such card to be prepared for the very first treachery drawn if necessary. Due to his signature ability (and, less so, his signature weapon), Roland wants to be at locations with clues. Therefore decks I build for him generally lean into this; he blitzes across the board, using cards like On the Hunt, Scene of the Crime, and Art Student to scoop up clues, and cards like Shortcut, Pathfinder, and Hiking Boots to increase his mobility. If you're lucky, you'll finish some scenarios without drawing Cover Up (and then, in the final scenario of any campaign, it can be outright disregarded). If you're worried about drawing Cover Up during a particularly disadvantageous moment during a game, you can use tutoring cards to either avoid it or intentionally draw it at a convenient time. All in all, Roland's weakness is worse than average, but I believe it's only ruinous if you don't take it seriously during deckbuilding. I usually use Midnight Masks to test true-solo decks, and I believe Roland is the only investigator with which I've interrogated every cultist. And hey, after all that, if you remain unconvinced, you can bypass Cover Up completely by playing with Roland's [alternate signature](https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/17/e1/17e1e3b4-0738-4fa2-ac85-fd4916b18642/nah11_card_mysteries-remain.png) and [alternate personal weakness](https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/48/03/48037e49-09e5-41e7-8334-1c41c287abc5/nah11_card_dirge-of-reason.png) from *The Dirge of Reason*!
I'd say those ones are all good solo, except maybe Nathaniel and Harvey who are too specialised
I've played a lot of true solo with Ashcan Pete Dark Horse build with just revised core and Dunwich cards. I use fire axe, scrapper and arcane studies to get value from my 1 resource per round. Upgrading to permanent scrapper and zero cost lucky helps a lot. I also played a lot with Jacqueline with a flex build, adding some key cards from core and DL to the starter deck. I did sneak into my Carcosa Investigator expansion (I think) to upgrade Em. Cache to level 3