Hot Compress

Hot Compress is a common Drake card.

Description

Costs 1 energy. When played:

1. Heal 1 hull.

2. Gain 1 Temp Shield.

3. Gain 3 Heat.

Exhausts when played.

Upgrades

Hot Compress A

Costs 1 energy. When played:

1. Heal 1 hull.

2. Gain 1 Temp Shield.

3. Gain 2 Heat.

Exhausts when played.

Hot Compress B

Costs 0 energy. When played:

1. Heal 1 hull.

2. Gain 1 Temp Shield.

3. Gain 3 Heat.

Exhausts when played.

Strategy

Hot Compress is a very interesting common card. In a "typical" case, it doesn't do much; it heals you for 1, then damages you for 1 because of the Heat it gives you, netting you just the 1 Temp Shield, a rather weak effect for its cost. However, there are many ways that you can harness it into a heal, which is very valuable for Drake as she likes to gambit hull:

1. You can play it on the last turn of combat, causing the fight to end before you take the overheat damage

2. You can play it with cards that cause you to lose heat (or upgrade it to its A version), to avoid overheating in the first place

3. Many of Drake's artifacts give ways you can play this card without getting hurt, including Subzero Heatsinks, Heat Distiller, or Next Gen Insulation

4. Heal Booster means this will heal you for more than it damages you

5. You can play it on a turn where you were going to overheat anyway due to other Drake cards or artifacts; you still get the heal, but aren't damaged any more than you were already going to

6. If you can manage to find Perfect Shield, this is a heal while that's active

Its A upgrade focuses on option #2, making it easier to "get away" with the heal, though it isn't the most efficient upgrade as far as losing heat goes.

Its B upgrade makes it 0 cost, helping for options 1 and 5.