"Ashcan" Pete thinks he can read

ashcan 2p standard difficulty, pairs best with a strong fighter for dealing with 4+ fight mobs

upgrade path:

scrapper(3) to use resources and make improvised weapon more effective

charisma(3) because charisma

better boyfriend pete because more brain more better

upgraded lucky because juicy card draw

relic hunter so you can not only be a smarter hobo but a faster hobo

versatile if you feel like adding some more red funzies. lots of great level 0 options that just make the deck consistent at all times.

meta:

run around investigating tough shrouds with duke and fieldwork, winging it to grab bonus clues on lower shrouds.

louisville slugger and improvised weapon let you deal with annoying low fight enemies

leather coats to help soak up more red tokens

pete sylvester once you have a comfortable nest egg from dr milan chungus. pete is your main way of dealing with encounter deck oopsies.

improvised weapon, winging it and moonstone so you have worthwhile things to chuck at duke and replay later

gg GLHF

alternative options for 4p are using impromptu barrier instead of improvised weapon and letting your fighters handle the enemies.

you can also use emergency cache instead of take heart and upgraded emergency cache into "nothing left to lose". I'd consider this more of a later scenario upgrade as you get fairly good economy from dr milan.

old hunting rifle makes a nice upgrade option for 2p if you're playing with a someone who likes to use a flex fighting investigator like Diana Stanley as opposed to a dedicated fighter like mark harrigan or tony morgan

Hyperawareness can also be a handy spender in 3p-4p, you can readily drop a leather coat to make use of this.