Do characters perform Upkeep actions, such as rolls for Blessed/Cursed, during a final battle?

Question

During an Ancient One final battle, do investigators roll for Blessed/Cursed and any other Upkeep rolls? (Not sure if there are any others that matter, since Retainer is useless then). I find that the rules tend to be a bit vague on this:

At the beginning of a round of combat with an Ancient One, the investigators may refresh their cards, use any character abilities, and adjust their skill sliders as though it were the Upkeep Phase.

I find it strange that "make an Upkeep roll" is not listed in the things that are to be done, and the wording "as though it were an Upkeep Phase" makes it unclear to me whether or not this omission means that it is like an Upkeep Phase, but deliberately lacks this.

This came up when we played against Yig. We all got Cursed when he came out (per his card), but we couldn't figure out if we could roll to get uncursed. We decided the omission and the "as though it were an Upkeep Phase" meant that we didn't. However, we think we might have done that wrong since we got it handed to us even though the Arkham Horror Statistics Report says that he's the easiest to defeat in a straight up final battle (with only 37% fail rate as of this writing).

So do investigators roll for Blessed/Cursed and any other Upkeep rolls during a final battle?

Answer 1

This is clarified/fixed in the FAQ in the Dunwich Horror rules:

Battling the Ancient One

Q: In combat with Ancient Ones, do investigators get a full Upkeep Phase, or is the Upkeep Phase limited in some way during the final battle?

A: Investigators get a full Upkeep phase.

So yes, you roll for blessings and curses.

I can only assume they wrote the original rules the way they did because it's not a normal turn - it's combat, and you don't have any normal turn phases. (No movement, no encounters, no mythos.) So they were perhaps thinking it wasn't actually an upkeep phase, and you simply do everything you would do if it were an upkeep phase. And then for some reason they tried to list the things you do in the upkeep phase instead of just saying "everything". Obviously that was pretty misleading!