I would say the level 0 Cleaning Kit is one of the best cards of Hemlock Vale, sitting in the relatively uncontested Accessory Slot and adding huge value to anything with slightly scarce ammo (Lightning Gun, Shotgun, Old Shotgun and especially the Ornate Bow) and also to other off-class cards which use supplies (Fingerprint Kit, Chainsaw, Strange Solution, Thieves' Kit). So, does the upgraded version perform quite so well? For me, not quite.

At one extra supply, the Cleaning Kit (3) won't go much further than it's level 0 counterpart - and usually decks built around Cleaning Kit in general will have other means to make supplies go farther, such as Emergency Cache ••• and occasionally Contraband. The main aspect of this therefore is the utility of the +2 boost, which is one per turn given it exhausts the Cleaning Kit.

For over-succeed gun builds making use of a shotgun (Old or otherwise), most will use Custom Modifications. In these cases, the Extended Stock upgrade achieves the same effect as a persistent boost and for just 2 XP rather than the 6 XP you would use on two copies of Cleaning Kit (3). What's more, Custom Modifications is also a candidate for the perennial Guardian-enabler Stick to the Plan, making it dramatically more reliable. Even discounting Custom Modifications, cards like Enchant Weapon will usually provide a bigger one off boost. The only niche it becomes useful is on Guardians who can't take high level Guardian cards (and so can't access a fully tricked out Custom Modifications or wouldn't be keen on guns anyway - Parallel Roland Banks for the former with an Old Shotgun and Wilson Richards for the latter). Even then, 6 XP is a lot to spend when the base Cleaning Kit is a level 0.

On the side of generically providing a boost, I'd say other cards often do this better. Girish Kadakia provides fat soak with an unlimited +2 per turn boost, and costs just 1 more XP than the upgraded Kit (and you can still keep the level 0 Kit for its supply utility alongside). Likewise, Well Prepared can provide stronger boosts if used well. Even the humble Reliable accesses a persistent +1 for the asset you want to be using at much less XP. While Girish and/or Well Prepared are extra assets you need to get into play, Guardians love Ever Vigilant on Stick to the Plan - so additional assets typically do not have the same opportunity cost usually that they do for other classes.

EDIT: People say this is a false equivalence because of the cost to source the card and get it into play and the resource cost (which I thought was too obvious to mention). It's a cost I would take personally as the boosts on the other cards are more flexible, just flagging the discussion below.

Overall, I'd say there's vanishingly few reasons to use the upgraded Cleaning Kit over its level 0 counterpart - there's just better ways to get boosts and most of them cost less XP as well. What would have made this better would have been adding more icons to the card (e.g. having it as ) so it too could have been a target of Well Prepared, but even then I'd still say it doesn't offer enough for its price.

This card is absolutely insane.

With level 0 fine clothes on, you pass all of these tests with no commits unless you draw a tentacle and there is no penalty for tentacle draw. That's an extraordinary amount of tempo in one card, potentially even for free, and just shoots Alessandra to the top of the list. Absolutely broken card!

Sure, this is a great card, and it will see a lot of play, but it kind of makes me sad, how it ruins this whole "slot game".

Why bother youself with Familiar Spirit or Book of Shadows if you want more arcane slots? Blessed/cursed will cover a lot of mystic assets, just pack this.

Why bother youself with Bandolier as a guardian for sidearm? Just pack this and Enchanted Blade or Blessed Blade while keeping your hands for a big gun.

You got the idea. Yes, this costs you 3 XP, but for that XP you gain stability, actions and resources that you would spend to "fix" your slots. Not a fun of such game design.

This card is going to be major for pairing with the Fireaxe (which also got an upgraded version this time!). You can dispatch much bigger enemies at ease now - hatchet for the first shot and FA for the second one. Pete can use Duke in a similar fashion.

Agnes, Ashcan, Calvin, Hank, Rita (can evade for the 3rd damage!), Silas, Stella and maybe Willson even are all very good targets for the weapon.

Dynamite Blast is the biggest "noob trap" card in the game, and by that I mean this: Imagine you just bought the game, know very little about it and decide to get started with the Core Campaign. You pick Roland as your Investigator, as naturally Guardians are usually the Investigator that attract greenhorns the most for solo play, and decide to build a deck yourself. You pick cards to build your deck, see Dynamite Blast among the main offensive events, pick it up and try using it... And then realise how botherline useless it is.

Let's talk about the positive: 3 AoE damage that doesn't not require a test to deal is extremely good. If you nail a room of 3 enemies or so, it already pays for itself despite the high resource cost. The cards also gets a discount and makes you immune to attacks of opportunity when played when upgraded

As for the negatives: you provoke attacks of opportunity when played and it can cause friendly fire, these two combine makes it impractical to blow your location up with it, because most of the time it will leave you and your companions in pretty awful conditions, making any kill you score with it a phyrric victory at best

And now let's talk about what actually makes the card nearly useless in my opinion: it is an issue with the card itself, is an issue in how the game is designed, specifically about one aspect of the game: enemy spawning

Enemies in Arkham spawn usually in 2 ways: on top of you, or in an empty location (connecting or otherwise). Sometimes they spawn the furthest location from you, very rarely on a specific location (that is usally reserved to Elites), but the mayority of spawn instruction are usually right in your face or annoyingly close and separated.

That means, it is rare for enemies to clump up in any location beside your own, if all Investigators are in the room: which is NEVER when you want to chuck dynamite. You never get your dream scenario of blowing up 3 Acolytes and their leader with one explosive because they all spawn separately. You never get a chance of annhilating every Ghoul Minion on the board without first exploding alongside them.

This is a perfect example of a card that would be better if it belonged in a different class: Rogues can make much better use of this because at least they can run away from enemies using Elusive or Cat Burglar and then chuck a stick of dynamite in the room just left, but even you run into the issue of having to evacuate your buddies as well to avoid frindly fire. Still "Skids" and Jenny can take it, and Skids can even upgrade it to level 2, if you are considering running it to make up for his average fight.

I do not think Dynamite Blast is a good event: it is not completely useless, but most of the is impractical to properly use in most situations, and the few time where you can get that perfect scenario where you get to blow up 6 enemies without hurting any Investigator means you just failed your job as Guardian by allowing these many enemies to be alive at once.