How to Complete Mysteries?

[D Bo]

I'm a little at a loss here.

Do you just spam investigate whichever area has a circle around it to progress the mystery?

-or-

Is the little checklist actually required? Such as "Discard two items" or "Investigate Village twice".

I feel like I am wasting so much Doom on this. I'm having zero problem with fights or bosses to make it worse. Its sad I am losing to a feature that I hated even in XCOM.

Any clarity would be appreciated.

[Muscarine]

Investigate on the white circle only to make progress

Complete the checklist if you think you have spare time on your doom timer, mostly for bonus experience later, but also for different possible outcomes sometimes

If you really think you're ahead on your doom clock then you can spend extra investigations wherever else and gamble events to see if you can get something, but honestly it's way too rng to be worth it.
Better spend that extra time sleeping at your house, trying to recruit better allies or buy some stuff at the shops.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the game it's very possible to get screwed over by getting too many bad events or failed checks in a row, especially with your doom clock since it's very hard to recover.

[NisseDood]

well many bad events are what keep runs more interesting since each run is incredibly short.

[D Bo]

Originally posted by Muscarine:

Investigate on the white circle only to make progress

Complete the checklist if you think you have spare time on your doom timer, mostly for bonus experience later, but also for different possible outcomes sometimes

If you really think you're ahead on your doom clock then you can spend extra investigations wherever else and gamble events to see if you can get something, but honestly it's way too rng to be worth it.
Better spend that extra time sleeping at your house, trying to recruit better allies or buy some stuff at the shops.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the game it's very possible to get screwed over by getting too many bad events or failed checks in a row, especially with your doom clock since it's very hard to recover.

Much appreciated, this is the answer I was looking for! Thank you!

[Yal]

For most mysteries, doing the special investigation on your checklist unlocks the "true ending" of the mystery (though you can still mess it up if you fail to meet other requirements). Usually this path is harder but more rewarding (and you also get a +50% "thorough investigation" EXP boost)... first of all, two more investigations means two more random events that could harm you, and several mysteries end up with you facing a tougher end boss (of that mystery) if you do a full investigation.