Hello,
My son and I are playing for the first time and a question came up. I'm hoping someone can assist.
If player 2 wants to engage creature, does the creature stay exhausted during the player 2 attack, making it unable to hit back during the enemy phase?
Yes. Engaged/disengaged and ready/exhausted are distinct from each other.
Some effects, especially evasion, change both states, but changing one state (here, by engaging) has no inherent impact on the other (here, whether the enemy is ready or exhausted).
Thank you, very helpful.
By the way, you don't have to be engaged with an enemy to attack it, though it might more interesting with some card effects (you need to be engaged with the enemy to get the bonus damage from a Machete).
You have to be engaged with an enemy to evade it, but if it's already exhausted there's not much point. Unless the cards or keywords indicate otherwise you do NOT have to be engaged to attack(There are several possibilities where this is the case). If the enemy is exhausted and not engaged with anyone there are no downsides to this. If the enemy is engaged with another investigator and you FAIL the attack, you inflict the damage you would have done to the enemy to the investigator it is engaged with instead. - note that bonuses to damage that activate with a success do not come into play.