Before Custom Modification, melee weapons such as Cyclopean Hammer or Butterfly Swords was preferred due to Enchant Weapon, but now, firearm weapons are another good choices. In this review, I only handle guardian weapon because I have no idea about 4xp version of Custom Modification.

Notched Sight is cost-effective upgrade, which reduces the risk of the non-engaged attack. Yes, we do not need to ask our friend before attacking the enemy engaged with them. I always recommend except you plan to attach Custome Modification to Flamethrower. In fact, Custom Modification is not 0xp card, but 1xp card :)

Quicksilver Bullets is amazing upgrade, which gives additional damage. One problem is the way to success by 3 or more.

Extended Stock increases the stat; it increases not only the stability of the test success but also additional damage using Quicksilver Bullets.

Leather Grip makes Custom Modification "Fast with 2 resources" card. If our deck is "playing a firearm and swaping another one after out-of-ammo", Leather Grip is great candidate.

Extended Magazine provides one ammo with ammo event. If our deck is "playing one strong firearm, attaching several upgrades, and continually supplying ammos", Extended Magazine is great candidate.

Counterbalance.... has no space to spend xp. sorry

My upgrade recommendation

Notched Sight(1xp) + Extended Stock(2xp) + Quicksilver Bullets(4xp) + Leather Grip or Extended Magazine(3xp) = 10xp

• Leather Grip: with one-handed gun like .32 Colt...
• Extended Magazine: with two-handed gun like Shotgun, .45 Thompson...

It is noted that the reaction ability of Becky and Extended Magazine does not interact. Thus, Leather Grip is a good candidate for Becky deck.

I am not sure if someone has ever brought this to the wider audience... but I am pretty sure no investigator comes even close to Silas when considering the capability to build a combo that absolutely brakes the game [and he needs no more than 7XP to do that]. [Disclaimer: taboos are disregarded.]

Hear me out.

• Cards required for the combo:

Sea Change Harpoon

Quick Thinking x2

Resourceful x2

Inspiring Presence

Helping Hand

Schoffner's Catalogue x2

Eucatastrophe

Versatile x2

"Watch this!"

Joey "the Rat" Vigil

• Setup:

one available action

five resources

in play: Versatile x2, Sea Change Harpoon, Schoffner's Catalogue with five secrets, Joey "the Rat" Vigil

in hand: Quick Thinking x2, Resourceful x2, Inspiring Presence, Helping Hand, "Watch this!", Eucatastrophe

in discard: Schoffner's Catalogue

• Execution:

initiate Fight action from the Sea Change Harpoon,

commit all the skill cards from hand [including three resources with "Watch this!"],

with combat value of 17 and Eucatastrophe thirsty for the auto-fail token, failure is nonexistent [unless playing on Expert difficulty and using a very curse-heavy bag - when failure is only almost nonexistent],

succeed at the Fight action resulting in: Dealing two damage, Gaining three resources, Gaining two actions, Adding Schoffner's Catalogue from the discard pile to hand, [Adding Eucatastrophe from the discard pile to hand if it just needed to be played to counter the auto-fail token], [Healing one point of damage/horror from Joey "the Rat" Vigil]

take Sea Change Harpoon along with all the committed skills back to hand

play Schoffner's Catalogue and Sea Change Harpoon using Joey "the Rat" Vigil's ability, two resources gained from "Watch this!" and five secrets from Schoffner's Catalogue

[use an action to gain a resource if there are fewer than five resources available because of the just played Eucatastrophe]

• New state of play:

two available actions [one available action if Eucatastrophe had to be played]

six resources [five resources if Eucatastrophe had to be played]

in play: Versatile x2, Sea Change Harpoon, Schoffner's Catalogue with five secrets, Joey "the Rat" Vigil [potentially with one more health/sanity]

in hand: Quick Thinking x2, Resourceful x2, Inspiring Presence, Helping Hand, "Watch this!", Eucatastrophe, [Potentially an extra skill card if an Elder Sign Token or Auto-fail token was drawn]

in discard: Schoffner's Catalogue

• Repeat for as long as there still is anything alive in range and enjoy the free actions and resources.

P.S. Taking realistic odds into account, the combo does not require all of the above cards to start working. Building a deck around the combo isn't very difficult either, it just needs to draw as much as possible and potentially keep Silas alive.

That might be just the right choice for a body slot for Dexter Drake. It saves an action and solves one of the issues of Dexter - low health. It does directly compete with a very Dexter-ish Living Ink. It may depend on the campaign and how your team is composed, but in true solo pure 6 health is a bit low and occasionally you may find yourself dead. Is the extra +1 from Living Ink enough to cover your weak body? Depending on your other deck choices it may go both ways. For now I think I'm more happy with the Leather Jacket, providing extra protection and extra action.

This is a weakness I let new players redraw if it's a starter (mid campaign is still fair). As a starting weakness, this card is absolutely crippling for most classes. If you are new to the game, itll wreck you for most characters. If you know what youre doing you can manage with a few.

Guardians are hit probably the weakest as they tend to play asset heavy and low draw. Survivors are probably next as they have high recursion. Mystics can also handle this ok.

Many seeker and rogue builds, or any fast draw, however are completely destroyed by this card. It'll not only destroy any momentum you have and make you dump your hand, but will also ruin combos and be back around to punish you once again when you get the draw engine going.

For that and in those classes, this is probably the worst starting weakness you can draw and isn't fun or thematic in the slightest. For that reason, I let most players redraw this one.

Now mid campaign... it's hilarious and often a damning and very Lovecraftian punishment.

Comparison between the leveled up dynamite

Pros: -Cheaper resource cost than Dynamite with more uses. -Doesnt hit you. -Same experience cost as that card.

Cons: -Does 1 less damage than dynamite. -Cost an action and requires a skill check. -Campaign specific. The amount of times you're going to be swarmed routinely in most scenarios that aren't Innsmouth or TFA make a regular use AoE somewhat pointless. -Can't be attached to Stick to the Plan.

Overall compared to the level 4 version of dynamite, this is far inferior. Compared to the level 0 version, it's just slightly inferior.

Tldr is dynamite sticks win.