Almost identical to the level 0 version of Stealth, for 3 XP you get an additional Agility icon, and Finn Edward's ability to Evade as a free action once per turn. This is further bolstered by the - 2 evade, making this a solid pickup. 3 XP might seem like a lot, but any enemy with an Agility of 2 or less is automatically evaded, unless you draw the auto-fail. Yet another benefit is that seemingly ever present inclusion of "a non elite enemy.", is missing from the card. This means you potentially can evade some big elites, turn after turn. It can also be used aggressively with Waylay, if the investigator can take it, potentially turning Waylay into a 1 action kill, or with Sneak Attack, for a cool 2 test-free damage. Might be overkill in a Finn deck, but also turns him into a pretty great dodge tank with just a bit of support. I personally think it's a great card, with a lot of potential.

TL:DR Grab Flashlight if your is low or mediocre, it's outright amazing solo but looses it's luster progressively with player count, it picks up again on hard and expert as a means to cheat low difficulty locations.

The ubiquitous Flashlight is at this point a legacy card, its one of the more decent cards in the core set, but it is a little specific.

When a difficulty test is (0) it's automatically passed regardless of what token you reveal (except if you get ), this means that a Flashlight outright wrecks easy locations, this is a good means for 1, 2 and 3 characters to help in the clue game. It has combo potential with some skills, netting you guaranteed hits with Double or Nothing, Deduction, Resourceful and so on.

In higher difficulty this ability to cheat some locations is even better, those -5's and -6's really don't impact you when everything but succeeds.

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Flashlight isn't a must have though, when player count grows and the clues start getting placed in bulk Flashlight just doesn't cut it anymore. A solo character who is bad at clues might be able to finish 2 easy locations with just 1 flashlight, and cheat the hard locations with other tricks, in 3-player it'd only get you through one location! Of course if the full team is doing their thing then beating one location isn't terrible rate, but specialization is the name of the game in multiplayer and a fighter spending 4 actions, 2 resources and the card slot to beat a 1 or 2 difficulty location isn't the best use of his time at all.

That said, Flashlight isn't bad for flex characters in multiplayer, dudes like Roland Banks who can pretty even-handedly do clues and combat, Wendy Adams until she gets Lockpicks, Sefina Rousseau as a means to conserve Rite of Seeking charges.

It's a fine card, but it's definitely better on higher difficulties and lower player counts (ideally: Solo).

Anyone who doesn't see the use in this card has never played the 5-Sanity investigators on Hard or Expert. Part of playing Mark Harrigan on high difficulties is being able to survive losing four Sanity in the mid game. Allies are great, but plenty of Guardians are limited to guardian allies which will only go so far. Roland Banks is in a slightly better place with his selection of throwaway allies, but is still very interested in this card. Guardians are ultimately fragile and more liable to die off mid-scenario than most other characters. Despite being the class most hard up for resources, cards like this can go a long way toward winning a campaign.

I think The Skeleton Key should definately part of the conversation. I played a duo game with Daisy Walker and Preston Fairmont. Preston moved the key around & Diasy and stripped the clues from every location with Deduction, this card, and Perception.

It's good.

It's very hard to not justify +3 actions for 0 cost. The only thing I can really mention is that it's better to get this upgrade at the end of a core build rather then to start with, you really want some good cards in play to capitalize on so get those upgrades before Ace in the Hole.

For example:

• A 6 action round with a .45 Automatic in hand is nice.
• A 6 action round with Chicago Typewriter, now THAT wins games.

I.E, dont spend your first 6 Xp on this thing, spend your first 10-14 XP on key mechanics, then cash in on that with Ace in the Hole.