Gathering Clues
Gathering clues is simple. All you have to do is:
1. Get your Investigator into a scene where relevant information can be gathered,
2. Have the right ability to discover the clue, and
3. Tell the Keeper that you’re using it.

As long as you do these three things, you will never fail to gain a piece of necessary information. It is never dependent on a die roll. If you ask for it, you will get it. You can specify exactly what you intend to achieve: "I use Art History to see if the idol is authentically Late Minoan". You can convey a wider speculation to the Keeper: "I use oral History to find the town drunk and pump him for local legends". Or you can engage in a more general informational fishing expedition: "I use Evidence Collection to search the alley" or "I use Chemistry to test the meteorite".

Also you can perform a simple search by by just narrowing down the scope of your investigation, i.e.: "I look in the roll-top desk." "Is there anything in the tub?, etc?"

Spends and Benefits
Certain clues allow you to gain special benefits by spending points from the relevant investigative ability pool. Each benefit costs either 1 or 2 points from the relevant pool, depending on the difficulty of the additional action and the scope of the reward. The act of spending points for benefits is called a spend. The Keeper’s scenario notes may specify that you get
Benefit X for a 1-point spend, or Benefit Y for a 2-point spend. When asking you if you want to spend, the Keeper always tells you how much it will cost. During your first few scenarios, your Keeper will offer you the opportunity to spend additional points as you uncover these clues. After that it’s up to you to ask if it there’s anything to be gained by spending extra time or effort on a given clue. You can even propose specific ways to improve your already good result; if your suggestion is persuasive or entertaining, the Keeper may award you a special benefit not mentioned in her scenario notes.

Tests
A test occurs when the outcome of an ability use is in doubt. This is where dice rolling comes in. Tests only occur for general abilities. All die rolls in this systems are a single d6.

A simple test is there there is no active resistance, examples being driving on an icy road, sneaking into a building, etc. I will determine how difficult it is, ranging from 2 to 8. You spend as many pool points as you want before the roll, and add it to a d6 roll. You you match, or exceed the number you pass. If you fail a test you cannot try again unless aided, or you otherwise increase your odds, and you must spend more points than the previous attempt.

I will reveal test difficulties for conventional obstacles, where your character could reasonable determine the difficulty.

Piggybacking
When a group of Investigators act in concert to perform a task together, they designate one to take the lead. That character makes a simple test, spending any number of his own pool points toward the task, as usual. All other characters pay 1 point from their relevant pools in order to gain the benefits of the leader’s action. These points are not added to the leader’s die result. For every character who is unable to pay this piggybacking cost, either because he lacks pool points or does not have the ability at all, the Difficulty number of the attempt increases by 2. In most instances a group cannot logically act in concert.

Cooperation
When two Investigators cooperate toward a single goal, they agree which of them is undertaking the task directly, and which is assisting. The leader may spend any number of points from her pool, adding them to the die roll. The assistant may pay any number of points from his pool. All but one of these is applied to the die roll.