This old staple still doesn't have a review?

Testless damage is always good, and this one is a huge upgrade. While Sneak Attack (0) requires you to pass an evade*, this one doesn't as long as the enemy is engaged on someone else. That saves you a test and an action most of the time. Two testless damage that can hit aloof enemies is excellent. Chuck Fergus makes it fast and allows it to be used on other players turns, too. An auto-include in any Chuck deck and a generally strong event that Sefina Rousseau usually wants.

When it comes to contributing to fights, I've always felt it appropriate that this and Backstab are so much stronger than any of the rogue guns. That's how a Rogue's supposed to fight, after all — not head on, but sneaking in a punch while the 's got them distracted. Save your hands for picking locks and strange gizmos, don't try to be a worse guardian!*

* unless you use it in the player window after enemy attacks with Chuck Fergus.

** unless you're Tony, in which case you're actually secretly a Guardian

Galvanize is a card in need of good targets. Guardian assets that you want to use multiple times in a round are relative rare, most common targets would probably be Agency Backup, Beat Cop or Well Prepared. I've also tried this with Nathaniel Cho with Boxing Gloves to some success, since it can be found by the gloves as well.

Note that if you cannot make use of the ready effect, Galvanize is relatively inefficient for what it does; contrast Swift Reflexes, Shortcut, and Taunt. That two resource cost isn't cheap at all.

Here's another item that Lonnie Ritter can fix (along with the two Precious Mementos and Heavy Furs in this set), and in the two other factions likely to want the horror healing of Lonnie. But to get more uses of Protective Gear's ability, you'll need to heal the horror, too. That's a tougher task, since most card effects heal horror only from investigator cards or Ally cards. The exceptions are Ancient Stone, for which you'll need Seeker access, and Call for Backup, but for that one you'll need a Mystic card, too to do the horror healing. All of this points to just one investigator, Carolyn Fern, who can additionally run The Star • XVII to beef up this and Lonnie and just never die.

For other investigators looking to get extra uses out of this card, forget Lonnie, Call for Backup on its own will do the trick. This card already gives you the damage healing from being a Survivor card, you just need a Mystic card in play, too. Lily Chen and Diana Stanley don't need any more help since their investigator card counts. There's a good chance Sister Mary and Patrice Hathaway already have a Mystic asset out. For all other Guardians and Survivors, you'll need to run another multiclass card, which isn't a bad idea if you are playing Call for Backup anyways.

A more straightforward combo is just to use this thing up three times and pull it out of the discard. Anyone with Resourceful can do this, or anyone happy to take Scavenging like Minh Thi Phan or Agnes Baker.

Finally, the use of Protective Gear's ability depends on the campaign. A few campaigns so far have little to no specific Hazards. Canceling a Hazard usually lets you bypass an Agility test (sometimes a Willpower or Strength), but other times a nasty revelation effect.

The best time to have a quick injection of a lot of money is at the beginning of the game, especially if you are asset-heavy. If you mulligan for this or it comes up within the first few turns, you're in for a good time. Play your expensive cards, and the rest of the game will be easier. If it comes up later, maybe don't play it. Anyways, you'd better have a plan to get the money back. The best way is to either play an investigator who makes the money back passively or is rewarded for having stockpiles of cash (Jenny Barnes, Preston Fairmont, Bob Jenkins, Monterey Jack (EDIT: Monterey Jack obviously cannot take Rogue level 3 cards)), or is asset/skill heavy where you just don't need to spend too many resources past putting down your key assets. Event-heavy Rogues are probably going to spend all of their money no matter how much they get. If you do need help getting the money back, the usual suspects like Hot Streak and Faustian Bargain are fine, and The Red Clock, Lone Wolf, and Investments will get you the money back eventually, but a special mention for Cheat the System, which cares about assets in play from other classes, and hey, this one is also a Survivor Card.

Speaking of, do any Survivors besides Bob Jenkins really need this? Survivor is, after all, the class that has Dark Horse. Wendy Adams can use this to pay for Leo De Luca, and with Pickpocketing (2) and other Rogue economy cards can make the money back. Rita Young can take Trick cards, so that means Easy Mark and Sneak By are on the menu, and she may want this to pay for an early Pilfer or two. Daniela Reyes may like this to put down some expensive Guardian assets or in Survivor, Aquinnah or a Chainsaw. But paying the loan back may be a challenge with Survivor cards. You can stop playing events or assets and build up your resource pool slowly. Maybe a key Drawing Thin or Take Heart will help. If you have time at the end of a scenario take the resources with the basic action yourself, or maybe get help from a friendly Guardian, Rogue, Seeker, or psychiatrist. Of course, taking Déjà Vu to mitigate the forced Exile may be the answer.

You just need two items to break even.

But there's an additional downside to taking this that neither of the existing reviews have pointed out: this card makes your mulligan feel terrible.

Even in the most item-heavy decks, you have other events or assets that you'd really like to open with. That Beat Cop (2) or Safeguard would be great to have in your opening hand, but if you've only a single item to put down, are you going to mulligan away your ally? Your tarot? That Stand Together or Enchant Weapon or Pathfinder? Sure, you can say you won't take those cards, but that's a lot of good cards you're leaving in your binder just because they don't play well with Geared Up.

Two copies of Studious and backpacks later, an asset heavy Joe Diamond can be fairly reliable at getting efficiency out of this card. The problem is how it cripples him before he gets those two copies of Studious and his Backpacks. Neither of those cards are high priority upgrades for any investigator, and yet they are mandatory for Geared Up to function at all. If it weren't for the "Purchase at Deck Creation", this would be much more playable.

Fortunately, most guardians can actually purchase this card after deck creation, where its just known as Stick to the Plan and Ever Vigilant.