I believe in trying to make the most of the initial 2-3 turns for improving investigators before sending them out into the world to battle the mythos. As such, here are some suggestions for the opening turns for each investigator.

For almost all the investigators, I suggest staying in one place long enough to have a chance to gain improvements, and to pick up 2 travel tickets (so you can move quickly as soon as you’re done). I would also seek to maximize opportunities to acquire assets, even with low influence investigators (who can either pick up a debt to get something good, or to cycle better assets into the reserve by discarding a lesser asset).

Do keep in mind that this is general advice and that you would also need to take into account: 1) the Ancient One; and 2) the composition of the team. Those two things may push you in a different direction than what is outlined in the default suggestions below.

Akachi – Send her to Rome. She can make it there in 1 turn if you buy a ship ticket. Stay there 2 more turns, acquiring assets and picking up tickets. Improvements in Will can help her gate closing chances, but a Bless condition is the real hope (and I would probably leave immediately after gaining one). An alternative is to send her to Shanghai to improve her Lore, which is quite beneficial for closing and casting Mists, but unfortunately she can’t make it there in 1 turn. The extra turn required to do this may be offset by her ability to move from one gate to another.

Charlie – Stay in San Francisco, obviously acquiring assets and staying long enough to acquire 2 tickets to go to London (to generate clues) or 1 ticket to go to Tokyo (to harm monsters). Getting improvements to Observation will help in London, but if going to Tokyo you may hope for a chance to improve Lore instead.

Diana – Departing from my usual advice, send her to Buenos Aires to gain Ritual spells. I think her strongest role is usually that of a Support investigator, specifically with Spells due to her high Lore and Arcane Manuscripts. Rituals will give her powerful options for her actions, for those times when she isn’t being sent off to kill a monster. An alternative is to send her to San Francisco to improve her Observation, but the drawback is her low Will for passing the tests there. If it works out, she will be good at Research encounters and solving Rumors.

Jacqueline – She has 2 great options – San Francisco or Arkham. By default I’d go to San Francisco, in the hopes of improvements to her Observation, since her powers make her great both for doing Research Encounters and solving Rumors (both of which mainly require Observation tests). But she can also do wonders with her high Lore and the Incantation spells to be gained in Arkham.

Jim – He has the same options as Jacqueline, but his lower Lore makes me think San Francisco is a better option. Improvements to his Observation can make him competent in Research/Rumor tasks, but if you get the chance to improve Lore that would be ideal (both for his ability to close gates and to get off his Shriveling spell). But Arkham remains a viable alternative for spell support.

Leo – Travel to Sydney. He’s good for Expeditions and killing monsters, both of which rely primarily on Strength (though a weapon would help too). An alternative is to send him to San Francisco to improve his Observation, which would make him good for Research and Rumors. Both of those destinations can be reached in 1 turn with a ticket, so it’s really just a choice of what you want to focus on given the Ancient One and team composition.

Lily – Stay in Shanghi. If she can pick up just one improvement for Lore, she’ll end up with a 4 in Lore and be arguably the best gate closer. An alternative would be to send her to Sydney, to improve her Strength and focus instead on Expeditions and killing monsters, but the drawback is that the second most likely gain from Sydney is not an improvement to a skill but a weapon. Shanghai is better for making the most of her +1 to improvement gains.

Lola – Travel to Shanghi. It technically doesn’t matter where she gets her improvements, since she can shift them around as an action. However, Shanghi is close, and she should have good chances to pick up an improvement there. An alternative is San Francisco for improvements, but it takes longer to get there. Better there than Sydney though to maximize chances of getting an improvement.

Mark –Travel to Rome. While an improvement in Will helps with preserving his sanity while killing monsters, a Bless would be better. An alternative would be to go to Istanbul, which he can get to in 1 turn if he also picks up a rail ticket. Increasing Influence isn’t that helpful for later in the game, but he might be acquiring assets more often than others due to his narrow focus on killing. A potential boost to Observation would be a nicer pick up there.

Norman – Stay in Arkham. You’ll be using your action to Feed the Mind, instead of acquiring assets, and that will be your source of improvements. You’ll acquire items, specifically Incantation spells, through encounters instead. Presumably at least your first improvement from Feed the Mind will be for Lore, and that combined with the Incantations will make him a great support investigator (in addition to him already being good for closing, research, rumors, etc.). As an alternative, I would travel to Buenos Aires to acquire Ritual spells, but it takes longer to get there, and I would hesitate to pick up a ticket instead of using Feed the Mind.

Silas – Stay in Sydney, basically for the same reasons as Leo. As an alternative, I’m not sure he has a much better option than heading to Shanghai. Unless he improves Lore multiple times he likely won’t get much out of it, but you have the potential there to increase other abilities instead.

Trish – I find her to be the toughest one to figure out. You’ll want to spend one of your first actions generating a clue, and the other acquiring assets. After that, I’m most tempted to acquire another asset and pick up a rail ticket. That’s two turns in a city location, but her Influence is high so that should serve her well in the encounters. After that, I think you start heading out in the direction of the first Rumor to solve or the nearest clue. It’s just that the nearby locations for improvement aren’t all that great for her (given her low Lore and Will for passing tests), and it also isn’t likely to be worth staying around to pick up 2 rail tickets.

Thanks to everyone on the forum who posted statistics on encounters in the game, as that helped me to come up with these recommendations!

Edits to my original post are in italics.

Sounds really interesting. Thank you

my wife an i were talking about this last week while playing.

i was Trish, she was Mark. she spent the better part of the first 4 turns buffing his willpower and acquiring assets, while i was able to clear a few monsters, close a gate, and retreat the doom via an expedition. to be honest, my early game utility soon fell off as she became a monster killing machine, and i was simply struggling to take out the weakest of monsters, after a wraith in the city of the great race took my gun. i must agree, the early turns could be best spent buffing stats and acquiring assets. great little guide there. thanks a lot.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad people are finding it helpful.

I've put some additional notes (in italics) in my original post, to show what some of the alternatives look like.