Help Me Out Here (2 questions)

[isu_trickster]

1) Does a player need to max out what they can do before playing the "Help me out here" card to steal an item?
Situation 1: Player 1 is a Warrior of a combat strength of 9 (level + items). She is fighting a monster of level 13. Does she have to use all of her berserker bonuses before using the "Help me out here" card to steal a +3 item from another player? Or does she have the option to only use 1 berserker bonus and steal the +3?

2) Does the player using "Help me out here" to steal any item they wish as long as it gets them stronger than the monster? Or does it have to be the weakest item that would get them the win? +3 item vs +5 item. The +3 could get them the win, so obviously so does the +5.