Each character can be broken down into 2 parts: their overall strategy and their plot specific strategy.

Overall
Money makes the world go 'round. Rachel starts the game with $2000. Pay careful attention to keep money on hand. Many of Rachel's dark cards will either take money away from her or will cost her money to remove. Money will also play a big part in upgrading Rachel. Each one of her cyberware upgrades will give her a big boost, and can put her on par with Floyd in terms of raw power. In addition, Rachel's money is worth extra victory points at the end of the game. Pay special attention to Rachel's hand size. Many of her dark cards have the "play when Rachel's hand size is 3 or less." Also of importance are the dropship passes. Rachel has a number of dark cards that affect her mobility, these passes allow you to bypass the nasty effects and potentially complete a bounty, giving you the cash needed to remove the dark card. Lastly, Rachel has access to hits, via her light cards. These can be used to place a hit token on a suspect. Three of these tokens removes a suspect entirely. Use these wisely, as you can eliminate a potential guilty hunch, and take out a powerful opponent.

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Plots
Fathers Day
Captain Beckmann is Rachel's father. While he doesn't approve of her career, he still loves her. This plot revolves around Rachel's relationship with her father. Be very careful to steer this plot towards a good ending, as it makes all of your Captain Beckmann favor worth extra victory points at the end. Take care to avoid the "Oh, please... no." ending as it prevents you from playing bounty cards ever again.

Friend In Need
Rachel has taken up a bounty on McManus, a real nasty piece of work. Take care to see which plot resolution will help you out more. The "Why not crash at my place?" plot gives you +7 victory points, while the "Cha-ching! Come to Momma!" gives you $10,000. Both have their applications and, depending on which plot this is, the money can be worth more than seven victory points. This plot can fuel many a cyberware upgrade.

Friend Indeed
Money problems keep popping up for Rachel. So much so that her best friend Lena has offered to help her out. Rachel has her pride though, and won't take the money. Akin to the above plot line, this plot has two endings, both of which can be equally good. The "Our friendship means more than money." ending grants Rachel three Lena favors and +7 victory points. This can be a big swing depending on which links in the conspriacy are attached to favors. Alternatively, the other outcome gives +2 victory points and gives each unspent Lena favor +1 victory points. Depending on which you need more, either outcome can be equally rewarding.

In addition to the above, each detective comes with a sheet detailing some of the key strengths and weaknesses. Rachel's sheet is listed below.

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Now while these provide some useful tips, they are by no means the only way to play Rachel. Play through Rachel a few times and find which of her many strategies work for you.

Next we look at the psychic, Caprice.