
Use Oops! to deal damage against enemies with: High value; Retaliate; Aloof; or who are engaged with another player. Engage with and attack another enemy with a lower Fight value (the ideal would be a Fight of 2, since it would be impossible to fail the attack by more than 2), without Retaliate, or who are not Aloof.
Do so without bonuses of s / icons, preferably using an attack with a natural Damage bonus (i.e. not one that depends on the attack being successful), and better still not using your investigator's better skill-values. Thus favourable choices (when available for the investigator's deck) are: Backstab; .32 Colt and Shrivelling [also Knuckleduster though this will result in the initial 'phoney' target doing its own Retaliate damage to you].
Since damage dealt by Oops! is not the result of an attack on the "target", failure now results in damaging the higher Fight-value enemy/bypassing its' Retaliate/avoiding risks of injuring another player already engaged with it.
This can be a directed tactic or merely to hedge bets facing multiple enemies. It is more practical cooperating with fellow players; and when your deck and/or that of a team-mate includes cards apt for bringing weaker and stronger enemies together and/or engaged with the attacker (e.g. Shortcut; "Let me handle this!"; On the Hunt; Taunt; Heroic Rescue).