Here are all the things Bob can toss folks.

This card obviously gets stronger when you understand your team's deck and can slot specific things to give them a hand, you know, toss an Eye of the Djinn to Patrice, get Cho some Crystal Dreams, ect. These kinda effects are sorta a pain to talk about in a venue like this, and not with your buds while your planning your deck, so they don't get a ton of love here.

But Bob HAS to run this. And while the 1 resource discount is nice for him, because he needs to run it, it is important to look for 'generic' uses of it that don't require specific deck knowledge that may come in handy.

One thing that jumps out at me is that Bob has the potential to be a fairly strong 'healer' when it comes to physical damage, between Bandages and Leather Coat which both let you toss a 3 (or together, 6 or even 9), HP buffer onto a character in crisis. Bullet Proof Vest becomes really attractive on him as well: a 1 resource, heal 4? Nice!

He can do alright at healing horror too, with Keepsake and maybe Grimm's on a character liable to faceplant tests, but Grimm's is questionable and Mr. Pawterson takes up a more contested slot than Coat does. Elder Sign Amulet likewise could be a nice thing for him to toss into his deck to help buffer for lower sanity folk. And hey, if you are about to die to horror, the fact its an important slot low key doesn't matter anyway: if you are sitting at 1 horror it doesn't really matter how much you like your Cig Case or Fancy Mirror or whatever: you will be glad Bob is offering you a 2 or even 4 horror 'heal' right then and there.

Ultimately though, Bob is a dedicated multiplayer support character, more than anyone else in the cast (though we all just know someone is going to find a way to clear Devourer Below on Super Ultra Double Expert Arcade Edition with him solo!) because both his personal ability and his signature reference other players. So it truly does pay to be cognizant of them, even though you probably shouldn't build decks where someone NEEDS something from you.

Got a lot of rich characters who tend to not use their hand slots and could use a good trash clearing tool because they aren't swole enough to punch rats away bare handed? Toss your friendly Ursula or Sefina your spare Fire Axe. Got a Fin playing flex? Toss him your spare kicks too while your at it. Give Mandy (or most seekers really) a Lucky Cig Case to help them get their crazy combos out faster and end the scenario sooner.

Bob can't ever guarantee anyone he is going to be able to toss items to them unless he goes out of his way to get more effects that allow people to swap things around, so you shouldn't build around this specific card if you want to setup something nuts. Instead, you need to use your game knowledge and understanding of what other people might want, but not need. If you do get that Dream Crystalizer for The Boxer, make sure you have enough events yourself with useful symbols on them so that you can use it as well in case you just brick on finding this thing, and make sure Nathaniel doesn't skimp on skills just because you MIGHT be able to give this to him. You tossing an item to someone should make the scenario far easier, rather than you failing to toss someone something making someone's deck fall apart.

In essence, you need to be a good salesman: the stuff your hocking needs to be things people never even knew they needed, but the second you offer it to them they realize they realize life is going to be so much better with it.

There are a lot of healing cards out there, and most aren't that great. Some, like Spirit of Humanity or Ancient Stone are at the top of the list because they can heal without a direct action cost to the player. Of the cards that convert clicks into raw healing, IME Earthly Serenity is probably the best of them.

Drop it for 2 resources for one action, blow up all 4 charges in a test for another, and ... that's it, you're done. It's a strong way to pull an ally out of the danger zone, fast. Compare to First Aid - play for 2, click 3 times, and ultimately heal one less. That said, it being a test complicates things: luck of the draw can have you fail to empty it in one go, although Mystics and Survivors easily have the to make that a rarity. And if you're running Hard or Expert tokens, drawing any symbol token can have consequences that easily outweigh 4 - or even 6 - healing in one action.

You'll probably pick it up mid-campaign when people are traumatized, but it gets good mileage - and the art is gorgeous.

Passively heals 3 damage, so long as the victim can take that damage in the first place. Absolutely great.

The only real comparison here is Leather Coat, which does a similar job, but it takes up a slot, saves one less HP, is free, but it's also self-locked. It's leaning a bit in favor of leather coat, but dont discount that part about helping your friends.

Talk about friends, the ally heal is actually deceptively powerful. In vacuum "heal ally, 1 health," is pretty tame. Now add in allies like Grete Wagner, Beat Cop and Agency Backup. See my point?

Speed!

Three moves in one. Bypass enemies.

Value wise, a resource and a card are still "expensive", theyre "worth" as many actions as the actions saved. Your net math on including this card in a deck essentially boils down to how easily you generate resources, and how useful it'd be to you to move through enemies, is it worth a deckslot? Is it worth two deckslots?

But. Also. Speed!

Speed wins scenarios, if you get ahead of the encounter deck, standing on top of a mountain of clues before you've drawn too many treacheries and enemies, this is especially true in solo, particularly if youre familiar with the scenario.

So this is what you get for using Scout Ahead, speed and agility, to make it shine, either build an engine that gets you through cards quickly (Lucky Cigarette Case, Winifred Habbamock) or plan to be through the scenario before a depleted hand catches up to you.

Cheap, persistent stat boost, the occational free move, very likable stuff.

You can set up the free move on purpose, with cards like Gené Beauregard and Vantage Point to manage where clues go, or you can rely on good knowledge of how the scenario works to glide around and get out of trouble by your own strength sometimes.

Note the cool feature that the benefit trigger is not personal, a buddy can finish what you start and give you that speed boost. It's not keyed to being unengaged.