I think this is a very strong Guardian upgrade. Most people think the level 0 Beat Cop is already a pretty decent card. For 2 XP, you add the ability to do 2 additional automatic, action-free points of damage whenever you want.

This is simply amazing. You can pretty much always find situations where it lets you kill enemies in one fewer action than would otherwise be possible. And you're really saving even more than than that, because otherwise you would have had to take a fight action--which might have failed or at least required boosts to succeed. This guy, in contrast, is automatic.

And there are lots of further little benefits Beat Cop can deliver. He saves you at least two actions if he guns down a Whippoorwill (since you don't have to spend an action engaging.) He can finish off an enemy that would otherwise have survived into the enemy phase, thus saving you a lot of damage. Or maybe there's an enemy who absolutely must die this turn (an Acolyte with about-to-go-off doom, for example), and then it's wonderful to have a card that can get that done absolutely guaranteed.

He combines wonderfully with Zoey's Cross to let you gun down a 2-health enemy in zero actions. Awesome.

Compare all this to other upgrades like Lucky! or Emergency Cache, which also cost 2 XP. Those give you 1 extra card. The Beat Cop gives you 2 extra automatically successful actions. An action is stronger than a card, and an automatically successful action even moreso. The Beat Cop gives you far more bang for your buck.

This card will be even more crazy efficient for the upcoming Mark Harrigan (so much so that he probably wants to run Emergency Aid to recharge it), but it's the in-class ally of choice for Zoey and Roland, too.

The FAQ entry for Beat Cop and Beat Cop and the old comment from 4 years ago below are kind of misleading. I believed for a long time that Beat Cop could only trigger his ability 2 times. In fact he can do it 3 times, because, as it was pointed out to me, when the cost is paid the ability is not interrupted, even if the card leaves play due to being defeated by damage. As stated in the rules: "If the ability being initiated is on an in-play card, the sequence does not stop from completing if that card leaves play during the sequence".

The FAQ entry refers to the situation when lethal damage from enemy attack/treachery is assigned to Beat Cop. in that case there is no window to trigger ability. The FAQ entry does not apply to the situation, when a player deliberately uses ability.

So Beat Cop is even better for me now:)

I've just upgraded my Beat Cop in a Tommy deck. This version of the card synergises really well with his investigator power, because I can use BC++ to take a horror for me in a pinch, then churn through BC++'s health to deal damage every turn and recycle him back into my deck for resources - using this strat I should get at least 3 which is enough to buy in Guard Dog or Tetsuo Mori, 4 if I take a horror on BC++ at some point, and against the right enemy (or an Elder Sign at the right time) then I can get five back to get RGM or Brother Xavier out.

What's more, the fact that I don't have to engage to use BC++'s power means I can knock health off Aloof enemies (hello Stranger) without spending actions while I crack on with something else (setup, investigating, or just hoofing it to the exit at the end of a scenario)!

Like Beat Cop (0), his major advantage is to combat, so fighting investigators like Roland and Zoey might want to think about him. For your 2 XP you get:

• +1 Health and +1 Sanity over the level zero Beat Cop.
• You can take damage (rather than discarding) to do 1 point of harm.

However, I'm not sure he's worth the investment of XP. Granted, he might be for Roland, who has quite unbalanced Health and Sanity; Roland could use him as a sanity sink, and use his damage to do additional harm to enemies, and he's a little cheaper than Brother Xavier which Roland likes (as he's often strapped for cash).

Beyond Roland, though, it seems expensive in terms of XP over Brother Xavier