Very nice!

This card is dreadfully simple and ever so effective at what it does, and does it well. You hunt clues, in between grabbing clues you fill your hand, meet the prerequisite on Higher Education and save your hard earned Dr. Milan Christopher resources for the exclusive use of Higher Education boosts.

If you manage to hit 7xp from your first scenario or two, 2xPreposterous Sketches and Higher Education is a perfectly worthwhile investment for a character.

There aren't many partial characters yet, but the one that does exist, Roland Banks, is DEFINITELY going to want this card in his deck at some point.

The upgraded Bandolier is a pretty nice card, the old version suffered from having a high cost for a minuscule bonus that doesn't actually contribute to winning a scenario but rather enables some very specific deck-tech. Spending 2 resources and an action to -allow- yourself to spend further actions and resources to deploy MORE assets, is'nt particularly useful, especially since 2 resources is quite a lot, considering that the assets filling your hand slots typically cost 2-6 resources themselves.

Bandolier's saving grace is the boost, it's exactly the kind of thing a combat character really needs. Whether you're Roland Banks or "Skids" O'Toole the boost helps combat horror treacheries like Rotting Remains and nasty stuff like Crypt Chill or Frozen in Fear. The additional hand slot is also surprisingly useful, suddently your fully setup hand plan might look something like this: Lightning Gun + 2xMagnifying Glass, Chicago Typewriter + Switchblade + Lockpicks, Shotgun + Switchblade + Flashlight, Old Hunting Rifle + Machete + Flashlight. The extra hand slot also makes deploying the whole build easier since there wont be any cases where you deploy backup weapons and gotta discard one when a 2-handed weapon comes into play, and more usefully, you can deploy two two-handed weapons simultaneously. I found the ability to get both my copies of a main weapon into play simultaneously just as useful as opening space for backups and/or clue-tools, not to mention the deckbuilding freedom that opens up when you can put 3 or 4 2-handers in a deck and not be redundant.

This upgrade doesn't get around Bandoliers core issue, an added cost and time investment to net benefits that don't serve to progress the scenario but are purely defensive or utilitarian. However, the static defense is certainly potent, the deckbuilding impact and increase to combat efficiency can really smooth out a babysitter or allow a focused fighter to contribute clues.

Frankly, I still think the card lacks an active role in beating a scenario, and 2xp (multiplied to 4 for the set, which is absolutely required) is a lot to ask when the plan is to get a bunch of high level weapons, but perhaps if your main concerns at that point are your ability to withstand horror then the Bandolier is your ideal next step. Personally, I think it could have done with an extra pip.

This card bonkers.

In 2P, mystics sometimes upgrade Rite of Seeking to the level 4 version just for the sake of the +2 boost. The third clue is often wasted, and the extra cost is painful. People still do this because the +2 is such a critical buff. Combined with other buffs (Holy Rosary, David Renfield, etc.), it makes even high shroud investigate tests trivial. The level 2 version solves all the problems. It has much lower costs, compared with the level 4 version, and give just what is needed: the +2 boost.

As an intermediate upgrade, the level 2 version can help when you don't have enough xp to directly upgrade to the level 4 version. In case you have exactly 4 xp, upgrading 2 Rite of Seekings to level 2 is also better to consistently get the +2, against upgrading 1 copy to level 4. It also synergizes with Arcane Research. Now you can upgrade 2 copies of Rite of Seeking to level 4 with 0xp total (across 4 scenarios)!

Being level 2, the card could be used by off-class mystics. Not sure if Daisy Walker would use this, but Sefina Rousseau definitely love this upgrade. Hell, this may even encourage her to take Arcane Research, since now she has 2 very strong targets (along with Ward of Protection).

Not sure I like the power level of the card, but I guess this is how FFG seduces min-maxers to buy the Return to Dunwich box :P

Despite obvious weaknesses (once per turn only, does not help teammates), this may be worthwhile for a few investigators since there are few alternatives. Like flashlight, this makes 2 evade enemies much easier to succeed against (only the auto-fail token fails), especially on expert mode.

Why does this use the language, "uses ," instead of the more common language, "uses instead of " (for instance)? It came out after Shrivelling and Rite of Seeking, but before Blood Eclipse, which all use the replacement language. It's probably just an oversight, but I kind of wish FFG had opted into this cleaner, but perhaps more confusing, language for all these effects.