Health and Sanity

*See also: Rest*

 Health is the measure of the investigators' physical state and  Sanity is the measure of their mental state.

Each investigator starts with an amount of Health and Sanity equal to his maximum Health and Sanity, respectively; this maximum is between 4 and 8 depending on the investigator and can be increased through some Personal Stories Rewards.

Health or Sanity tokens that are marked with a "3" represent three single Health or Sanity tokens, respectively. Players may swap a "3" token for three single tokens or three single tokens for a "3" token at any time. When an investigator loses Health or Sanity, he returns an equal number of Health or Sanity tokens to the token pool.

## Losing and Recovering Health & Sanity

An investigator can lose  Health and  Sanity for any number of reasons, most commonly through  checks (for Health) and  checks (for Sanity) during a Combat Encounter, through a failed encounter, or the effect of a Mythos card. If the investigator's Health or Sanity reaches zero for any reason, he is defeated.

For effects that causes investigators as a group to lose Health or Sanity like Unknown Dangers:

* Health or Sanity loss cannot be assigned to an investigator in a greater quantity than that investigator's current Health or Sanity, respectively, even if he can prevent or replace the loss to keep himself from dying as a result.
* After all investigators have been assigned loss and all mitigation effects have been applied, if there are still unassigned Health or Sanity loss leftover from the effect, keep assigning those loss to the investigators still alive.

An investigator can recover Health and Sanity mostly through the Rest action. However, it may be possible to recover Health and Sanity through other ways, such as an investigator's ability, or a successful encounter. An investigator cannot recover Health or Sanity beyond his maximum Health or Sanity, respectively.

 Lily Chen may spend any number of Health or Sanity to recover an equal number of Health or Sanity.

### Health & Sanity Recovery Prevention Effects

An investigator with an effect that restricts him from recovering  Health or  Sanity, such as Poisoned or Hypothermia, cannot recover Health or Sanity from a Rest action including additional Health and Sanity from other effects during a Rest action such as using Healing Words or Provisions. The effect "you cannot recover Health nor Sanity" persists until all effects triggered by the Rest action have been fully resolved. This is true even if the investigator discards the Poisoned Condition before resolving an effect that causes him to recover additional Health or Sanity.

However, effects that cause an investigator to recover Health or Sanity without performing a Rest action, such as the Private Care Asset, affect that investigator as normal.

### Spending vs Losing Health & Sanity

Some effects in the game may allow to *spend*  Health or  Sanity (e.g.  Agnes Baker's ability). Effects that prevent this loss of Health or Sanity cannot be used when an investigator spends Health or Sanity. An investigator cannot spend Health or Sanity if doing so would cause him to be defeated (i.e., he cannot spend his last Health or Sanity).

On the other hand, effects that force an investigator to *lose* Health or Sanity, like the back of Spell cards as an example, can be prevented by any effect. Here are some examples to prevent a Health or Sanity loss:

* Flesh Ward and Instill Bravery can prevent from losing up to 2 Health or Sanity.
* Resilient and Headstrong can prevent from losing up to 2 Health or Sanity.
* Rugged and Moxie can prevent from losing 1 Health or Sanity.
* Some Artifacts or Unique Assets can prevent the loss of Health or Sanity under certain conditions (e.g. Grotesque Statue).

## Defeated

An investigator is **defeated** when he loses all Health, Sanity, or both, through any means. When an investigator has lost all Health or Sanity, he is immediately defeated and resolves the following steps:

### Defeated Resolution Steps

1. **Advance Doom**: immediately advance  Doom by 1.

2. **Relocation**: move the Investigator token to the nearest  City space, or if the investigator is already on a city, leave them where they are. Lay the token on its side and place a Health token on it if the player has lost all Health, or a Sanity token if the player has lost all Sanity. If the player lost all Health and Sanity at the same time, the player may choose which token he wishes to place on the card.

3. **Collect Possessions**: the investigator discard all Conditions, Health and Sanity tokens, Improvement and Impairment tokens, and   Focus tokens, then places his possessions on his Investigator sheet. Keep the sheet faceup and place it in a common area, out of the way.

4. **Pass Lead Investigator**: if the defeated investigator has the Lead Investigator token, he must pass it to an investigator of his choice. If all investigators are defeated or are Lost in Time and Space, the Lead Investigator token cannot be passed. The player who had it last keeps it. If an effect refers to the Lead Investigator during that time, the effect will be resolved only if able. For example, the Lead Investigator player could still make a decision, but cannot gain a possession or a Condition because there is currently no investigator to do so.

### Other Rules

If an investigator is defeated during an encounter or action, he immediately stops resolving that encounter or action.

The player chooses a new investigator at the end of the Mythos Phase. A player may not choose an investigator that has been previously defeated during the same game. If the player cannot choose a new investigator because there are none available, he is eliminated. If the newly chosen investigator requires a starting item that is already in play, he will not get that item. If an investigator is defeated after the Ancient One awakens, that player is eliminated; this is checking if the Ancient One has awoken at the time the investigator is defeated, not at the end of the Mythos Phase. If an investigator or multiple investigators are defeated from a single effect and the Doom advancement from their defeat causes the Ancient One to awaken, all of those players will be allowed to select new investigators at the end of that Mythos Phase.

If a single effect causes more than 1 investigator to resolve a Combat Encounter and they are defeated in combat, that doesn't count as defeated by a single effect but rather by their respective Combat Encounter effect. Since the Combat Encounters are resolved one at a time, each investigator up to and including the one whose defeat causes the Ancient One to awaken will not be eliminated. But each investigator defeated after that point will be eliminated.

During the Encounter Phase, an investigator on a space containing a defeated investigator token may encounter it by resolving the Defeated Investigator Encounter on the back of the Investigator sheet in order to gain that investigator's possessions or other benefits, most probably retreating  Doom. The investigator resolves the Crippled effect on the back of the defeated investigator's sheet if the defeated investigator's token has a Health token on it, or the Insane effect if it has a Sanity token on it. After this is completed, remove the investigator token from the board.

When an investigator gains a defeated investigator’s possessions, he is considered "gaining" them. Any effect that triggers when investigators gain possessions (e.g "When an investigator gains an artifact") will trigger in this case.

If the space a defeated Investigator token is on is devastated, remove the Investigator token from the board.

## References

1. ↑ Official answer from Nikki Valens for losing Health or Sanity as a group on  *BoardGameGeek*.
2. ↑ Official answer from Dane Beltrami for Leftover loss on  *BoardGameGeek*.
3. ↑ FAQ p. 8.
4. ↑ Official answer from Nikki Valens for Rest action and Poisoned condition on  *BoardGameGeek*.
5. ↑ FAQ p. 7.
6. ↑ Official answer from Nikki Valens for Lead Investigator on  *BoardGameGeek*.
7. ↑ Official answer from Nikki Valens for investigators defeated causing the Ancient One to awake on  *BoardGameGeek*.
8. ↑ Official answer from Nikki Valens for investigators defeated in Combat Encounter on  *BoardGameGeek*.
9. ↑ Official answer from Nikki Valens for gaining possessions on  *BoardGameGeek*.