For the rules of notalone, see GameHelpNotAlone

General

Think about the team

• If someone else can go to only 2 or 3 places, you know this place will have a higher chance of having a player there.
• So you should put less importance to going there.

Manage the lair

• You should generally go on the 1 only if you have 1 will left, or if there is no player with 1 will and you have 3 will.
• If you want to go for it on other cases, it's an all in move.
  • You should check before if someone else (or 2 players with many players) can go there instead of you with less risk and if it's useful.
    • If yes, you should let them go there if they want, and if not, you have the possibility to all-in.
    • Doesn't mean you should go for it, but it's a decent choice.

As the creature

• If you want to block 1+another place, you should generally put your creature token on 1 since it remove 2 will instead of 1.
• Only avoid putting the creature on 1 when you decide not to block 1.

First turn

• You should play according to the consequence of your card:
  • If your card can move the creature token, go on 1, if many players go there, you can cancel that.
  • If you can move the Artemis token, go on 5.
  • If you can copy an adjacent place, go on 4 in order to copy 5.
  • If you can use the rover power whatever your place, get 2 or 4, etc...
• Same for cards that let you take more or fewer risks.
• Playing a card that removes the possibility of play of the creature can be really good at the first turn, for trying to get some free 5
  • With either 1 or 5, or 3 and trying to get 5 second turn.

1 The lair

High risk, could be really good.

2 The jungle

Low risk, low reward, why not go there, you just temporise the game and keep all your 5 cards.

3 The river

Leaving you more liberty for after can be good.

4 The beach

• We don't agree on that.
• Some tokens for the creature let him block two different places, and the best move to do with that card is to block 4+5 and put the creature token on 1 or 3. So 4 can become collateral damage 25% of the time which removes a lot of the value of this place for the first turn.
• Even if the creature knows it (which happen ~25% of the time).
• But otherwise, it's fairly safe, and has a low chance to receive the creature token.

5 the rover

• Best one, but the creature knows it too.
• Still should put some pressure on it.

Cards that let you advance your token

• Cards that let you advance your token should be played when you can avoid the artemis token next turn, so don't hesitate to keep them a long time.
• Same with power 4 and 8 which both have more value when you can avoid artemis next turn.
• Value of places:

Value of Places

1-5

1 The lair

• Tips manage the lair and as the creature.
• A special one, high risk, high reward. It's efficient for trying to copy a 3 or a 5 on the early game if the creature protect the 5 a lot.

2 The jungle

• More powerful than it seems.
• Taking back one card 'for free' lets gives you more possibilities later in the game, which is really good.
• However, if you only have 1 will, you will have on average less turns before you will get caught by the creature, so it the jungle loses a lot of value.
• Going for the 2 if all players who can play the 2 are the ones who have played no card is fine, it's a low risk low reward choice.
• Otherwise, if other players have discarded many cards, you should leave the 2 to them.
• Something interesting about it and the 6 (the swamp), it's the fact the only way for this card to be discarded (is one of a specific card and) to be caught on this place. So often, all players will keep their 2 throughout the game.

3 The river

• A really good one who let you have more possibility to play one turn after.
• It's really good to be used in a combination of the 1 (the lair) for negate the high risk of this place.
• It's valour can goes up or down on value depending of the game play of the creature.
• If you see the creature to never focusing you, it will have few effect, you should instead still goes for your powerful place/help your team, and if the creature have a chance to focusing you, it will negate the focus on yourself next turn.
• After playing the river, you have the possibility to said to the team you will go on 1/x, or even saying the two place 7/9.
• Picking two adjacent place have less value since the creature have the possibility to randomly blocking you.

4 The beach

• Tip cards that let you advance your token.
• Same than 2, a really undervalued one.
• I can't compare 2 or 7 players - both have a really different mechanic.
• The Interference card remove this power and the power of the wreck (8).
  • So, in late game, if this card isn't played, you should keep on mind this card.
  • It becomes a little better to hide at the cost of losing one card, but a worst one for helping the team.
• Warning, mind blowing tips, you are warned.
• One turn after the Anticipation card is played (or one turn before if the copy card have been played), you should each turn assign one player for this place because having 2 players on this place is bad. Doesn't mean this player should go there, but he should take all the probability of all players on this place.
  • Knowing which players should do that is really hard, and you need to understand most of the advanced mechanic for knowing that.
• Note: on some specific turn it should be 2 or 3 players to be assigned because you want to keep pressure on some others card
  • Like if someone is the only one who can play the card 7 this turn, he should not be assigned alone on the 4.
• Before the anticipation card, it can still be used with more than one player.
  • The higher probability to go on the 4 for one player should be the highest probability to be catch at one place for another player.
  • Good luck for calculating that :D

5 the rover

• The best place early on.
• The priority early on is to separate all the probability on a maximum number of different place.
• So the creature should put more pressure on the 5 early on than usual, because it will help her later on the game.
• And the player should more probability on it.
• At mid game, it let you manage the card played by taking the card another player can't play next turn.
• Later on, it became a fairly safe place, who are just a little better than just taking back one card.
• You should not try to create the perfect deck with 10 different place, it's fun, but not worth it.

6-10

• We enter on the more specific cards, these places should be taken way more than the average, because their effects are better, and because other players don't have them, generally only 1 (or 2) can goes on this place.
• You have all the probability of all players on this card, so it's a lot.
• Note the fact if you are the only one who have taken one of this card at the second turn, and if there is at least 5 players, I think going for this place 100% of the time is worth it.
  • Because if the creature want to catch you, fine, but other players will be able to use their 1/3/5 effect for free, which seems good for the whole game.

6 The swamp

• Same as the jungle (2).
• Something interesting about it is the number of swamp you should take as the team.
  • Because this card should be chosen when you have already 1 or 2 card discarded, but if it's not the case, it's only a card to hide for free, which isn't particularly good.
• But this card if you aren't caught, will always be on your hand, so there will always be a pressure on the 6.
• The player would have chosen the swamp, will have more liberty to taking back his card, so the creature should less often focusing him.
  • Since a little resist on 2+6, and it became really hard to focus again this player if you have wrong.

7 The shelter

• The most powerful one early on for me.
• Cards are really powerful.
  • The despair card who remove the possibility to play and draw survival card this turn doesn't put the shelter useless, it let you take back one other card of your choice, and from my experience, the creature have never goes there with that card.

8 The wreck

• The most powerful one later on for me.
• Advancing the token when all players have pressure on every number is really good, it make the game goes faster.
• Read 4 for Interference and Anticipation card, it stay true for the 8.

9 The source

• Lets you most of the time give another will for another player.
• The player who should receive this will can be very hard to know.
• If you are near the end game, you should try to not let any player loose all his 3 will.
• If one player have really few card, one will, and are catch, you should let him die for let him regain back all his card and will.
• If one player can put an high pressure on the lair (1) because he only have 1 will (or will have 1 since he will resist), you should let him at 1 will.
• If one player could put an high pressure by resisting (like on 7+8), you could choose this one.
• The despair card still let you give one will to another player.

10 The artifact

• The least powerful one.
• It stay good for hide, and just temporise the game, so it have more value with very few players.
  • If all others card have been taken.
• Else, with 7 players, perhaps using the effect could be good... Could be.

Strategy

• Now let's get deeper, and talk about strategy.
• I will suppose the creature is a god, and know everything you can think.
• So you need to add some randomness to what you do, else he will know what you will do:
  • so you need to have X% chance to go on Y, Z% chance to goes on W, etc...
  • That's why having for all players the possibility to goes on every different place, each turn if possible, is the main goal early on.
  • Now your probability should depend of lots of criteria :

What is the place reachable by at least one player?

• Early on, it's only between 1 and 5, so each place possible is already dangerous, that's why doing nothing by taking 2 or 4 have more value.
• Later on, with good/many players, it's between 8 and 10 different place.
• So using card who limit the action of the creature have more value early on (perhaps not first turn though, it depend since everybody have 5 cards), instead of later on.
• If one place can't be reached, and you hold that card on your discard pile, resist have way more value than usual.

Note which card have been played

• I talked more about the most interesting ones that can totally change some choices.

Examples

Player A: 1, 2, 3. 
Player B: 1, 2, 3.
Player C: 2, 5, 6.
Played D: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7.
Player E: 2, 5, 7.

• We will ignore the effect of different place for have a more simple situation to analyse.
• We will put a % for each player on each place.
• Let's calculate the average % we need on each place:
  • 100 * 5 players / 7 places = 71,4%
• So the goal is to have the sum of probability of all players to be at 71,4%.
• We can imagine to decide for the player A to put 71,4% for place 1 and 28,6% for place 2.
• It's possible, and it's fine if there is no power on the game.
• But since there are some, we still want some randomness for each player.
• So let's imagine player A and B both goes for 33% 1, 33% 2, and 33% 3.
• It's the best we can do since they only have 3 cards left.
• So that mean all others players should really rarely play a 1, 2 or 3 card.
  • If we suppose the creature can't play a single card and have one token.
• Only 4,8% of the time for all others players (so about 1,6% for each).
• Yes, it can be really strange, but the creature should play on this place most of the time, so if the creature played somewhere else, it's good for us.
• Now, let's see the rest, and calculate again everything is left for players C, D, and E :

Player A : 1 : 33,3% | 2 : 33,3% | 3 : 33,3% | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | --------------
Player B : 1 : 33,3% | 2 : 33,3% | 3 : 33,3% | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | --------------
Player C : -------------- | 2 : 01,6% | -------------- | -------------- | 5 : 27,0% | 6 : 71,4% | --------------
Player D : 1 : 04,8% | 2 : 01,6% | 3 : 04,8% | 4 : 71,4% | -------------- | -------------- | 7 : 17,4%
Player E : -------------- | 2 : 01,6% | -------------- | -------------- | 5 : 44,4% | -------------- | 7 : 54,0%

• So here, we got something nice, it's beautiful, isn't it?
• Of course, there is lots of others possibility, but by putting the same % each time I got the possibility to did it, I got something really different.
• We can see a lot of things:
  • For example: going to 4 or 6 should be done 71,4% of the time which is a pretty good number.
• And so, 8% of the time you should not go there two times on a row which is pretty low.
• This percentage increase when the number of players increase, and decrease when the number of players decreases.
• So the creature can target player C or D, play the card 'anticipate' and have 71,4% chance to have right.
  • That's true, but it's only one card on the game, and it's only 71,4%...
• Please note this % doesn't take on account the power of some card :
  • For example: if player D got exactly two will, player A and B should take his 4,8% into their 1.
  • Another example: we doesn't want two players to go on a 4, since the power can't be used twice.
  • So someone should take all % of 4 if they talk in chat.
  • Again, pay some attention to some specific card, so it isn't true.
  • But taking more % is at minimum worth it, and it's totally the case here since there is another place (6) who are already a good candidate for anticipate.
• Another example: if someone didn't played any card, he doesn't want to play 2.
  • It's fine at the first turn of the game, it's fine if the only player who doesn't play any card is the only player who can play 2.
  • But otherwise, it's better to let others players took this %.
• Another example: 1 with one will, 6 and 7 have better effect than other, so they should have a little more %, and others place should have a little less.
• If you understand all that, and if your teammates do the same, it becomes really difficult to be the creature :}