The soak ally. He soaks for you, he soaks for others. The willpower doesn't hurt, but he's honestly too expensive for that and the ally slot without charisma too valuable. You should try Police Badge and Bandolier before playing xavier for the +1

If you want to aggressively keep the map free from enemies, you should look for allies in the local police station.

As a defensive card in a slot important for the offensive, he is probably preferred over Beat Cop(2) only by Diana Stanley and Carolyn Fern, who likely do not want the +1.

Hatchet Man is useful in two scenarios not listed here: you have Delilah O’Rourke, or your fellow investigators include Rita Young. Card might as well say “for 0 actions, your pal does plus one damage.” Not essential, but in a combat heavy scenario this can help. You could also boost your sneak attack. Perhaps the greatest beneficiary would be Winifred , who already has the dexterity to evade things and loves adding skill cards to tests. And only a daredevil would have the guts to lather up an O’Bannion.

This is like doping but it's legal.

For this skill card, is the minimum. And all it asks of you is to be utterly screwed, which is like the core mechanic of the game. If you are really out of your element, it gives you

Say, a guardian friend is about to Teamwork all his possessions away, drench himself in ketchup and throw himself at the abominable monstrosities to buy your team one or 2 more turns. Now you're a low combat survivor with a Shotgun. Enter this card. You're at least 5 over the next fight test. 2 above the enemies fight value from rise of the occasion and 3 more from the shotgun itself(Well in theory. Who plays teamwork and shotgun?)

Either way, if you played Arkham and lost a scenario or three, you'll know what it's like when the situation goes totally out of control. Last clue location got Obscuring Fog; Vast Expanse threatens to drive you insane; one enemy too many spawned and needs to be exhausted with evasion; when the situation goes tits up, you just have Rise to the Occasion.

If you don’t actually need to defeat enemies as a guardian, this opens up a lot of opportunities. Roland and boxing gloves Nathaniel only benefit from the first foe they beat a round. Zoey, Mark, and other people with access to this card but don’t have evidence in their hand...this is a testless, room wide evade. Sending someone to an empty room is the equivalent to a defeat if the enemy isn’t a hunter. Unfortunately, unless you can recover events, you only get two attempts at this on your deck... but for Zoey, it means you can farm the same enemies for engagement, getting paid each time.

If you have a particularly rough enemy you can’t defeat in two attacks, but have a nearby investigator who hasn’t attacked...Send them over.

Typical combo card. If this doesn't make you want to build a Rube Goldberg machine to extract the maximum value out of it, this is probably not meant for you.

On a less judgy note, I would guess you want an investigator with 4 or 5 to make this funny complicated Not-.45 Automatic/Not-.32 Colt work. That would suggest Tony, Leo or Zoey. Possibly Dexter just for his ability to get it out with the text on the front of his card. Either way, I know you can increase your number of actions per turn to 5 or more, but I don't know of a way to get access to cards like Will to Survive along with Cold Vest Pocket. Sadly, I prefer my cards to be humorless and efficient.