Asim is my favorite character to play in NEON HOPE. Our lovable workers’ rights enthusiast has it all: a great support build, grid manipulation, and a fair bit of movement shenanigans. 

»Neighborhood Solidarity« makes him possibly the best support in the game, especially in a four-player campaign. His base kit revolves around the Get Support action, but also offers amazing flexibility, especially at later levels, fitting his persona as an [ Activist | Maker ]. Asim makes change happen.

But what if things went a different route? What if Asim never left his job as a middle manager at a big corporation behind? He would have surely kept his pragmatic attitude, his sense of justice and his love for teamwork. But the tools in his kit might be less based on support and more on trust.

Alternate Asim is all about believing in yourself and your team to make anything happen you put your mind to. That’s why Mr. Shakib adopts a new calling as a [ Believer | Maker], his playstyle revolving around the attribute die.

If you want to spice up your Asim games and to trust in the power of luck and normal distribution, this character offers all you may desire. But beware of unpredictable turns: Sometimes, you might accomplish next to nothing; other times, you will make three turns worth of progress in a single round.

View this deck on neonhopedb.com.

But why listen to me? I’m in the fortunate position to have been part of NEON HOPE’s journey since 2021 (back when the game was called Hope Punk and the cards used stock photos) and can be considered the very first Asim Main. I had some influence on Asim’s design and co-designed Alternate Asim as well. One could say I’ve played this build once or twice before.

The base idea is to roll dice, and lots of them. But what do we want to hit? All our effects look for either the Mut or the Technologie side of the die; our two attributes with a value of two. Depending on the character tool you choose, we want to build around one of the two attributes.

This Guide focuses on »Company Stock Options«. This means, we want to hit Technologie as often as possible to generate Hoffnung, which we will leverage to our advantage. The Tool works as follows: Every time we roll Technologie, we put one Hope on it. Once we have collected four Hope, we may take it into our hope pool, but wait! Should we reach eight Hope, we get eleven instead. We always want to go for the eleven Hope, except in the late game or in an emergency.

Asim’s Action Card Deck

Hope is nice and well, but how do we make sure to roll Technologie often enough to make our build work? Let’s talk about our Action cards. These are the sets we will take:

Meeting Marathon will be our core set. Both cards offer a great advantage for our successful Technologie rolls: An extra turn for another character (or us in solo play). They are also a Hope sink thanks to the Hopeful keyword, but we usually won’t bother with that. Instead, we want to level up these cards as fast as possible, because the upgraded version rolls three dice. That’s a lot of value! It also makes it likely to hit at least one Mut for the +2, circumventing the need to pay for the Hopeful effect in most cases.

Take Initiative is another obvious choice, enabling us to roll more dice once leveled up. These cards are definitely most powerful in four player campaigns, but we mainly care about rolling more dice, which they will already do on LV. 2. The third level is more of a luxury upgrade, making the card suitable for any action type.

Our third set will be Decisive Action. “But why?”, I hear you ask. “Those cards don’t roll any dice!” Well that’s true, but you have to think about how NEON HOPE is played. There will always be cards in your kit that won’t see a lot of play once the endurance runs low, especially in four-player games. It’s more important for these cards to be flexible and offer a lot of value on LV. 1 than to work with the kit. Besides, our first two sets already contain the best dice cards in the game. »Sleeves up« is arguably the best flex card ever printed and enables our movement cards. Don’t underestimate its base version! »Unerwartete Verbündete« is just a pretty good Get Support card. With our Charisma on 3, we can succeed in most Get Support tasks with this. Later in the episode, it can sit in the discard pile without shame.

Our first [Universal] will be »Go Big or Go Home«, the best Hope sink and possibly best card in the game. This will be the payoff for all the Hope we generate, just spend as much as you need and watch those boss Enemies crumble! Lastly, the humble »Refocus the Mind« will allow us to get back one of our heavy hitters or just keep us in the game for longer.

Asim’s Tool Kit

The game plan should now be clear. Roll as many dice as you can, fish for Technologie and make the big bucks to spend on a game winning »Go big or go Home«. Now to the Tools that will help us get there:

• »Emergency Plan« is a must take for all [Makers]. The card effect is really good, but the psychological effect is even better! It will give you the confidence to risk more. And at the Asimo Royale, those who risk more will win more.
• »Trust the Process« and you can’t lose! Attribute dice will always offer you a one in three chance to hit that all important Technologie. With this Tool, the odds become slightly better than one in two!
• »Code-Switching« will be quite impactful in this build because your many Any Action cards will allow you to be flexible and use the stat boosts to their fullest advantage. It’s also a free dice roll every turn.
• »Crash Course« is great for those stationary phases where you must tackle a location for multiple turns. It also gives you two more dice rolls for a good price. That’s free Hope!
• »Quarterly Projections« will support your gambling habit in a good way, because you will basically always want to call Technologie for the double payout.
• »Utopian Vision« is our big payoff if everything goes smoothly and our hope pile keeps growing. It will turn Asim into an unstoppable force. You always want to spend as few resources as possible on buying it, ideally zero. There’s only so many resources to go around, but your Hope winnings will be endless.
• »Be a Multiplier« is only useful for team play, but there it can lead to amazing game winning plays! Don’t be afraid to donate your actions, especially in the early game where your Wahrnehmung value of 1 does make flipping leads quite difficult.
• »Inter-Generational Contract« will enable you to use your vast wealth to protect your teammates. Make sure to use your movement to always stay close to the others.

Your choice of Verbündeter depends mainly on your team composition. This build is not really meant for solo play. You can find some good team compositions in the following paragraph. However, if you choose to try this one on your own, »Beate Schönleben« is a must-take to mitigate your terrible Wahrnehmung stat. In a full party where you end up being the Charisma guy, »Mona & Luca« are a nice luxury upgrade once your build is up and running. You won’t be buying this duo very often though. I find myself running with »Alex de Klerck« most games for the bonus Mut, especially if the team does not have a dedicated combat carry.

And that’s the build!

At first, your impact might be low and your turns quite swingy. But do not worry! Once your build gets online, your success becomes inevitable! Trust your teammates in the early game, so you can carry them on your casino winnings come the late game. Your best friends will be single focus characters: a good Investigator like Felina, a Fighter like Larx and a Hacker like grid-focused Deniz. 

Jan-Peter und Veeron5 tend to fill the same niche as you, as will a hope-focused Deniz, which can make for underwhelming play.

So, if you are feeling lucky, bet it all on blue and give Asimo Royale a try! And remember, if you invest in people, the stock is only going to go up!