This card is not a niche card, rather, one of the best, if not the best, level 0 weapon. Its main strength in my opinion is actually the second ability, as I explain below. The first ability is just icing on the cake that adds some flexibility for enemies with low fight and high health. You can choose to attempt 1 (basic attack), 2 or 3 damage to handle a given enemy situation. My only hesitation about saying it is the number 1 weapon at level zero is that it is two-handed, which is unacceptable for some decks.

Why is the second ability so good? The answer is: the +2 combat with unlimited uses plus increased damage. Many people miss this important point when they look at/review weapons: the net damage you deal per action is affected by not only the damage modifier but also how often you hit. It is a mistake to look at .32 colt and sledgehammer and say that the colt deals 2 damage per action and the sledgehammer’s second ability only 1.5. People tend to act as if a given weapon will either never hit or always hit, which is obviously incorrect.

In fact, the +2 combat action often has a big effect on the average damage dealt. For example, using the standard night of the zealot chaos token pool, going from a net even fight test to a +2 increases odds to hit from 4/16 to 13/16, which translates to a more than 3-fold increase in damage! This is why the second ability on sledgehammer is usually better than the first on a per action basis, because you have to be at a huge skill advantage to have the 0.5 damage boost be more important than the 3 point difference in combat.

And it doesn’t run out of ammo. This should not be taken lightly. Those of you that remember how much better machete was at level zero than the firearms at the time will understand. So while the .45 Thompson deals more damage per action, this is not a fair comparison with its limited uses. Direct competitors with sledgehammer at level 0 that increase damage and have unlimited uses are fire axe, knuckleduster, meat cleaver, switchblade, dragon pole (any others I’m forgetting?). Gravedigger’s shovel gives +2 combat but no damage bonus. It’s easy to see that sledgehammer is arguably the most useful among these, its main limitation again that it takes up two hand slots.

What about the first ability? This is obviously best when you are at a large combat advantage, such as enemies with 1 or 2 fight. It is hard to use when your base combat is less than 4, but will still usually be better than a basic fight action, since it deals double damage with hits. It’s not so common that -1 combat reduces your chances of hitting by 50%.

One trick to use with the sledgehammer is gaining an extra action to get two of the double action hits in; for example, the original Skids loves this as he can always swing twice per round by paying for an extra action. Otherwise, you can use the odd extra action for something else, such as a basic attack, an evade, or a fight action on an event or arcane asset.

In summary, for survivors and guardians willing to use both hand slots for a weapon, this card is right at the top of the competition. Please consider odds to hit when comparing weapons.

I think this card is valuable and the comments don't do it justice because it is not being interpreted right (or maybe I am wrong). The key phrasing here is "X is the difference between the test's difficulty and your base skill value." The base value is the value printed on your investigators card. Because it uses that value before any modifications, you can technically have a higher skill value for the test and still draw extra tokens. You would then just pick the token that allows you to pass. Still kind of niche, but can be a life saver for Calvin or Preston. I plan on trying it out in Preston's deck. Really, this card is meant to be used for skill tests you need to succeed and used alongside other card abilities to boost your stats on those really difficult tests (like an elite boss enemy), it can be very useful and you'll be glad you have it in your hand.

As the other review mentioned, but I'd like to highlight this card goes from 1 cost to 0 cost + gain 3 resources. One of the cardinal rules of Arkham is that you put cards in your deck to play them and you need money for that, so don't cut your econ. This can replace cards like Emergency Cache without diluting the number of econ cards in your deck (as long as you can kill whatever you find). It's also tactic so it can go under Stick to the Plan the same way Emergency Cache can as an early game econ option (grab an easy enemy) with the flexibility of being able to hunt down a strong victory point enemy to keep them off your seekers.

This card has a cool interaction with Gene Beauregard. You can freely move to locations and move enemies off of you to a convenient spot. It's a very expensive combination in terms of slots, resources, and XP. However, it gives you tremendous, testless protection against enemies.

Amanda, Silas and Minh need good skills. Bob, Carol and Yorick traffic in assets. But nobody does events like the famed forger. And as the carpool is expanded, she’s gone from a curiosity to a main eventer if you know how to build her.

For example, rogues now have more ways to make money. Instead of just Hot Streak, there is Faustian bargain, 21 or bust (which pairs well with token manipulation, easily available in Mystics 0-2), voice of Ra…because forging isn’t for artistic value, it’s for money.

Miss Rousseau plays a different big money game than Preston or Jenny. Willpower four and matching agility mean you don’t have to fear the encounter deck as you build up your cash. And instead of steady supplies, you get big rushes: up to 16 bucks in one action with a double blackjack, or 10 bucks spread to the team and four curses at only 8xp.

Edge of the earth adds underworld ties, which makes sense for someone who encounters the mythos from a profit perspective. You get triples of your best card (the painted world), your favorite toys are exceptional… and your deck size is big enough that you can still fit in whatever you want, with substitutions. Lockpicks and spells. Well Connected and Greg Gry (add a +5, then get a dollar for over succeeding!) or David R. Unlike Winnifred, you can ignore skill dependency with spells, and use your money to avoid having to upgrade them much. Then, Well Connected.

Plus, tarot cards, not introduced when The portraiteer first took the path to Carcosa, are easy to find in a 13 card opening hand.

Get rich quick. Succeed by a ton. Forge, forge, forge!