#š¹ć»game-discussion
1 messages Ā· Page 55 of 1
they are both chill
It's just his humor
He's dry
To each their own, personally I don't watch him cuz of his attitude toward his own chat and opponents š¤·āāļø
very nice way of saying not funny
Very silicone valley esque
Fr
Dry humor is best served like this.
i find apandah kinda silly and funny and twinky
Also hard not to be passive aggressive when chat is stupid
Atleast he doesn't scream when someone disagrees with him and electrecutes his dog.
What does this have to do with Hassan š
"I didn't see any animal abuse" ~twitch ceo apparently
Since we were on the topic of judging people's personalities.
I find both of them insufferable to watch
They act like theyre better than everyone around them
Is your pfp from that one 4h video of garfield characters saying people's names and ends with a very graphic scene.
today's topic on how out of touch streamers are online
...
why do you know this
I saw it in an iceberg.
I have never read one garfield comic in my life.
neither has garfield
back when they appeared on newspapers
Ofc you read newspapers unc.
Hi Zelda
link:
Hi.
I love roffle he's my go to sleep vid
No
Link and zelda consistently had some of the most neutral-kinda bad relationships in the series aside from totk and botw.
Do I drop dna for Idol
I refunded balala
He says with 200 cards in his deck.
cruelty challenge completed, 18/20
guys do i sell the yorick or sock or donāt take it
got hard carried by blueprint + rebate
cause egg is kinda scary cause of that eternal
Oh god no, its just a knock off garfield plushy

So do I?
What jokers are you even using.
I just started making glass red seal queens
3 trib, 2 sock, Blueprint and Brainstorm copying sock
Observatory voucher as well
Wait are you using red seals.
I've just started making them
Haven't seen blank/antimatter yet
Sadly
ATP what's the play?
I don't want 30000 dollas in credit card debt
I have glass gold seal foil
And lucky
Not necessarily
It's ante 24.
Is this seeded or seedless?
https://youtu.be/54RRyCyDfr0?si=NYo2L_qtw3WpdsFJ
11:16 im really surprised at how much pause he's giving to gold seal vs purple seal when he has eternal drunkard
https://ko-fi.com/drspectred
https://www.twitch.tv/drspectred
Seed:
15A69FVH
Daily Gold Stake gameplay with tips and other commentary. Learn to play Balatro at the highest level of difficulty. If you're able, try the seed yourself before watching what I do.
Playlists:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdNGt-ihEAcF55gYlGCQxU8ymTmgZwwOt
...
Seeded
I would pick purple regardless.
like, he has a purple seal already I guess but
could use purple seal to make more gold and purple seals
it seems like purple seals are way more valuable to me than gold seals
since he didnāt have any other seal type
purple seals make gold cards
but yeah purp
Im not proud of myself
Zebra what do you think is the best enhancement.
gold
then wild
Lucky cards all the way š„
in 1.1
He explains why to and why not to, justifiable
Comparing seals is interesting.
Blue seals are the best insta-value
Gold seals are pretty great econ with retriggers
Purple seals make your deck a lot more self-reliant and have this quircky snowball effect
Red seals are the most versatile
They all have their use cases its hard to determine which one would be the best
blue and purple you take the moment you see one
Purple is always my go to, there's so much you can do with the various tarots. Even just selling the useless ones or keeping them to block them from appearing again
definitely not my best run but it still was fun (lost cause idol wasnāt fully online)
if idol hit either my queens or kings (any suit would be fine) iād be at e18 from what last score showed
Most accurate idol be like.
Eternal egg carrying the run fr fr
i had maybe 3 cards that werenāt kings or queens so it was a little stupid the idol didnāt hit but it was basically a 1/5
that thing made me scared half the run cause i got two invisibles and if it hit on the egg the run wouldāve lost
Bets? (I CANT BELIEVE I FOUND 2 SOULS IN 1 DAY IM BOUT TO CRY)
egg was nat negative i didnāt get ecto on it
this time
chicot
again
once i found 3 souls before ante 8
Damn
So just free temperance value, nice. Unless you were already at 50
Ill never bet my souls when ur in the chat prophesying chicot.
i was not
LMAOOO
it was sad to part with the yorick
Chicot is very good, also very boring tho
Yea, basically a free win if youre just going 8 antes
I lost cuz this game is buns
skill issue
Skill issue š
The only time its the games fault is when I lose, when everyone else loses its obviously a skill issue though
fr
nah sometimes it's bs fr
once i didn't draw the card i needed and it was the last one in the deck
šsometimes it just be like that
Youre telling me wheel of fortune is 1/4? Ain't no way its like 1/100
and sometime 1/2
Should i?
best way to get the most money and win?
Prolly not
how's the deck looking
Like and round 5 deck
if pants is scaled then absolutely
it's chips and really good xmult
Oh those are eternal pants, then probably
it's still early he can scale easly
I got it at 8 now cuz i got it last shop
?
actually you don't need to sell anything yet because you're going into the boss
i'd play a full house for safety
Probably full house with 2 jacks
i was thinking the same thing
but i really want the intrest
maybe i will play the king
Both of those 3oaks would score 240
and hope for the +2
oh yeah you could go with that then
So youād be just short if you didnt draw an extra pair after the 3oak 5s
You could always ship it and do the quit out but that depends on what kind of player you are
Whats yall favorite deck type?
A good choice for sure
welp i died next blind
zodiac and ghost
i greeded too much
and painted too
also zodiac is really fun
fuck painted!
Id have to go checkered and ghost
painted is one of the harder ones but not by much
?
it's just at the very bottom half
Isnt black deck the hardest?
i mean it's good
Or erratic?
you kinda have to lower your standards when using madness
yeah
Awh š
free planets
like definitively
not bad
But can i take it?
that was a yes by the way

gg
good
is reserved parking worth?
sometimes
like are you getting more than 3$ per round?
yea
nice
but i sold it because i'm getting rid of face cards
and blackboard is great xmult anyways
do i take the funny ecto
Ur on white stake i dont see why not
i will be the happiest person alive if i get an ankh or ecto
I completely forgot full house scale pants
Skill issue 

Deja vu on stencil to get double triggers
900 iq plays
"A person who thinks all the time, has nothing to think about but thoughts"
a. constellation
b. lucky cat or steel i think? one of the scaling xmult i forgot [it was glass joker fuck fuck fuck]
c. oops! all sixes i donāt remember a natural 2 in 3 chance
d. cavendish
e. shoot the moon
f. scholar
g. yorick
I chose ramen for 2.a
D is probably cavendish
i forgot banana for the 1000
was typing this when u sent this lol
A. Vampire
B. Glass Joker C Oops! All 6's D Cavendish E idk F Scholar G Yorick
Moyai
i was all right except for constellation but iām pretty sure constellation is also a 0.01
.01 constellation would be, pardon my french, dogshit
ahhh misprint is clever
rembered it at the last second and had to put it at the end
did you make that
yea
that was my first useful invis in a while
it scratches a similar itch
FUCK NO
sorry the one before was the wrong one but what do i sell
i mean
ur fine?
none of your scoring is cards
Im not
you could, i suppose without an actual game show format limiting time theres no saying whats legal
I dont know if can beat it either way, but ill try
https://youtu.be/7yNjCcQZmQU me when. Flibt
- uhhh all i can think of is dna and sly š maybe thereās one with ātheā [the poker hand xmult rares]
- i think they just give chip value so 11
3a. probably sock and buskin
b. adds seals - pretty sure only the legendaries
these are kinda tricky iām not the best with memory
just rember that red suited wild cards wont be blackboard cards when theyre debuffed
- All of the rare xmult hand jokers
one big hint is theres a lot with the
And idol
2 minutes i post answers
oh yeah rip
Yayy
when the time is :10 minutes ill post the answer sheet
balatro
balatro
give me a trib
oh i forgot about yorick for the description question
LMAO
@vocal quartz @terse dock @wintry ice
The fuck you mean theres 139 shop slots
I knew im just faded
not "theres 2 slots"
ohhh i forgot the enhancement jokers š„
almost 30 xd
hehe
erm
also i forgot about cavendish and the legendaries
completed the first run in a new file and stats looks cursed with jimbo in the first place
frick the mouth
If I had hands I would have covered my eyes!
of o had eyes i would have covered my hands?
i wanna make a bunch of these quizzes, its a lota fun
mouth sucks for 5 card hands
Again!
handy
I feel like I'm playing wormhole deck with how many natural negatives I've found
Wtf
could I get some advice?
triple dead god
for what

take half for safety
my condolences
lot of my black deck runs die from me selling an important joker only to remember that i had another joker slot
š
Skill issue
black deck moment
MR WEEEEEEEEE
I just beat orange stake yesterday. Plus, aside from four decks I beat white stake on to get challenges, this is the only deck I have played.
I'm on gold stake attempt 100
Dayum
dead god like the dead god of the hit game the binding of isaac (related to balatro cuz isaac is on balatro)

how it feels to sell all ur jokers to ankh a blueprint
?
blueprint, copy my egg
mistype. It is actually 123
plus I just lost...
im not trusting blood stone THAT much
sigh*
you could sell that too
lebaron james
Where tf is runic when you need her
page 1 jokers and stuff like scary face don't have much longevity
runic?
@serene forge
I noticed.
hey
Bloodstone
foreshadowing an epic 3 hour long game show with every major balatro content creator and community member
BalaQu
iz!
3
you picked baron over fib ante 1 and fucking died immediately dude
sshhhh
we don't talk about that
it was for the meme
I have had 5 runs with legendary jokers and have lost them all. This is so painful.

i shall play a black deck run on white stake
i mean if you got trib nobody blames you for losing
bro fuck the arm
Real
looking like this now
all my homies hate the arm
Who the fuck plays both bloodstone and barob
i'd move to some other deck if this is one of your first gold stakes
violet vessel is crazy, +90 red card and 4x madness and i still barely won
its a pivot
i have to get a decent high card
it wasnt a baron run but i can make it
Tbf you have one xmult joker
generally speaking you need at least 2 unless it's canio
yeah but its a 4x
worst advice ive ever heard
i didnt?
?
the one thing that bothers me is I always could win. I am now on attempt 125 and I watched a video by balatro university saying he wins 40 percent of the time on this deck. This is the only deck I play AND I suck on it.
in the case of vessel yeah
Lmao okay
you do need 2
really?
specially if they're a lower xmult joker
90% of my gold stakes have been with 1
you always need at least 2 otherwise you will always die to violet vessel
always keep vv in mind
ok thats fair
vv has it's reputation for a reason
if you don't play with the intent to score 1.2 million chips you will get fucked by vv
bloodstone baron oh my god
besides securing a win isn't a bad idea
rn with only 4 red seal kings it's 300k
also crimson should be treated as nullifying your best joker 1/2 of the time
what is it with a full hand of kings?
if anyone here can guess how much money id get from an uncapped temperance here i will paypal them that amount
50
Nah
Idk lemme check next blind
no
average joker skip
$38
no
how is balatro so calming and so rage inducing
wait no you said uncapped temperance
yeah
$86
no
i mean sure hologram alone lets you reach 400k
probably not 1.2 million
jury's out on your crimson heart rng too
e11
hologram gets to 4x on average so
you could replace bloodstone with something then
you need a lot of economy for endless so
yep
if you were curious it's 108
im still farming with golden ticket tho
Damn
depends
stm
yeah i think so too
shoot the moon
it's a good early joker
attempt 127 and I think I'm getting progressively worse lol
Alternatively hold R
youre gonna be broke anyways constellation wont be able to scale the greatest
Yikes
WAIT THAT WORKS
i sure hope i can beat the needle
thats gonna be close
I've been pressing escape new run play
might need some glass
i'd take stm but it's kinda scary with the hand penalty
playboicarti is breathing rn chat š® š® š® š® š® š® š® š® š® š® š® š® š®
believe me.
we gamin
was kinda difficult to get it going but u can always bet on greenbo
Alright... Now THIS is looking fine (ill lose ante 5)
it's less likely for the queen to be drawn
do you have any other decks left to gold sticker
thats looking good
I'm going to be honest
this is a very good start.
+100 and x4 will keep you going for a while
was awfully difficult btw lol not exactly kinda difficult
there were several tense moments
do i sell out for invi?
more than i would like
ye
I have only played four other decks up to white stake to get challenges. Aside from that, I have exclusively played black deck in my week span of playing the game (excluding my week vacation during which I could not play, so technically two week)
i would like to keep the show man
just keep bt bp braon
he will come around
sounds rough
worse case scenario
running ghost deck with stencil and i have yet to hit an ankh on ante 3 im tweaking
Btw, the invis was from a judgement
i hate so much green deck
Probably of my best draws
I dont find it really hard, but it is pretty boring
I dont like getting my econ from my hands or discards
Maybe ante 1 or 2
But all the run
yikes
i lost cuz the plant is a mf
pluh? trib and duo same shop
Fr
might have to use the hex instead of saving for ecto because iām not getting ANY ANKHS
Should i hold invis till i find something better for my duo?
I hate Baron
i got the ankh right after hexing for needleā¦..
well thats just a mirror lol
probably yes
it is
you don't want it to copy half
aces are fibonacci and odd todd value
aces are the best cards
Is that fine or nah?
Does using the hermit while in debt cause you to lose money
Im a bit concerned abou 2 xmult jokers early game

no
it caps downward at 0
you can take it
maybe also get a planet if you're not sure about your scoring
who goes to italy?
Already on another shop, sadly
But
Grimbo
Canio
take
nice
challenge: guess what hand im playing based on this absolute beauty of a deck
Now Jj is on the shop
Shoul i?
Also got holo in grimbo from a wheel
you have grimbo for scaling mult
Then what do i want?
did you pop invis yet
Yep
screenshot the shop
2 duo with foil
econ and more xmult
i almost ankhād before i remembered how the card actually functions
if only this was black stake
nobody guessed D:
the answer was pairs
thats a pair deck
š„
if there was any meaningful updates id play
Is sixth sense compatible with blueprint?
no
Hmmm
sadlty
nothing that destroys cards is blueprint compat
having 2x sixth sense doesnt even work
like double trading card at least gives you 3 more dollars but double sixth sense is litterally nothing
insane riff raff that i only took for econ gen
we goin endless
gg
fuck you crimson heart
srry for the late response lol yes, its fine
o7
.
o7 golden needle really is beaten me up
what's golden needle?
i'm relatively new to the game, but doing stupid stuff like this makes me chuckle
arcana skip into judgment into some scoring joker perhaps
this
damn
midas mask saying all played but only works on all scored š
got stupid lucky with ante 1 tags by getting two rare jokers, those happened to be burnt joker and brainstorm, i was playing ghost deck so i polychrome-d brainstorm, and then got stupid lucky again with blueprint
Insane clutch
I won to the water but die to the pillar cuz i only have seeing double as my Xmult joker
still didn't answer my quesiton
you would've beaten the ante 1 boss blind
to get to the shop
with high cards
What now? The boss is the needle... I may get past with a glass card, but i only have 2 of em
wich is impossible without tarots/jokers
my apologies, i misunderstood the question
i played four flushes at some point, i assume that that's when
didn't see the flushes played
well if anyone was wondering, if cavendish gets eaten it actualy comes back didn't know that was even possible but it just happened
I looked at Blueprint and apparently thereās a negative Hit The Road in this seed
how's the deck looking?
Shitty
i dont know what to say pal
how much is your score with a pair +1 steel?
the deck looks very bad
ngl
About 60k ig
6ļøā£7ļøā£
Anybody got tips for zodiac Deck on Blue stake? I'm trying to 100% everything, in blue stake has been giving me trouble.
how much is the needle requirement?
Ye, i got nothing really good
110
maybe u can try to get a 3oak
you have to take the 3oak
with all that six's
Ill try
So...
very possible
I dont know if i shoul try the king
Or just do the 6
Ima calc that
I hate Baron
me too but it's funny
but i understand it's not a good joker
but it's funny
Does anyone know how can i change the green joker value in the balatro calculator?
1...
damn bro is so cooked
groker mult?
just install the calc mod
rip, was a good run o7
for the next runs
Mobile
skill issue
whats the lvl
i will do it
25 if i play
but you have to do 2 discrads
for finding kings/sixes
i mean you have basically doble the chance to find the sixes
than the kings
and the 3oak of sixes IS winning
I already have the sixs, i would just look for the blue seals ones then
Which im not sure is worth
Since my 3oak is lvl 1
3oak Lv1 is 30x3 base
(30+6x3+50x2) x (3+25+10) x2x2x3x3 = 202464
so your base mult is better
^
i think you should go for the sixes
and pray
ngl
if it fails
nt gg go next
you are indeed
indeed
yeah by a mile
I got 5k less for some reason tho
nice
Thx guys
I thought this was not enough and then I noticed there were editions on the groker and the 2 Duos
if uncommen tag doesnt make seance mabye it would be top tier ???
wdym, seance makes immolate for free š
I'll try tomorow
here, win
weesy choice
yo you got the evil twin
i love playing with my wee
Thanks amber acorn for being the worst boss š
you mean... the joker right??..
cap
i guess bro
violet vessel the biggest run killer
yeah of course...
I mean worse as the easiest
oh yeah
kid named violent vessel
And i hate crimson way more than i do with vv
Its pretty rare for me to have a real difficulty with vv
š¤
I usually one shot or need 3 hands
But ye
what is y'all's best run
easy game

got e227
me too
0
look at the skip tags brah
hes getting away with this
And now my gold stake awaits me tomorrow š
who's he ?
holy text wall š„
What deck should i gs after green? I already have blue, red, yellow, green, black, ghost and plasma
i think checkered deck
i dont like flush that much but its kinda fun
this baron mime run is so cooked i have 21 cards
no red seals either š„
OR antimatter
I hate Plasma Deck
yeah bro pack it upš
*she
whyš„
its bad
This sucks
bait
Well, yeah, but still
would've killed u anyway
the greatest natneg oat?
riffraff probably
bait
attempt 150...
egg, gift card
nah bus
that's the point?
try reading the description of dagger
gold stake
the point is that they rise their value, that makes synergy with dagger
riff raff

ohhhhhhh
i thought it just feeds on cards
they should add a "extinct!" emoji
Did someone say Riff Raff?
neg riff raff!!!
goat
the best joker
Hope i don't blow this run
actually fuck off
once i got a photochad and the next shop a blueprint, this game so crazy
photochad from the riff raff
im going to sleep
high card build ftw
bye bye
Goodnight plasma hater

Chicot kinda goes hard on high card build ngl
especially if final ante is something like VV
with the eye
yeah, plus the hand size it gives you when you play the manacle
Trueee
Also I'm steel queening it up with shoot the moon
its joever bro I win purple stake
Ig u can have only 2 mimes
do stones count as enhanced cards?
yes, stone is an enhancement
me when I chipmax on high stakes
chicklets
canio
CANIO?!
Never let them say stone cards are useless

chicot...
caniš ¾ļø
A super rare soul card! This will surely improve my run tenfold!
The nefarious Chicot:
Anything but to do list wouldve been big mistake
to do list
good
Now losing to the needle seems like a skill issue
Chicot is pretty useful in most cases tf u mean
itās no canio but ricky puts in the work
the savior of runs:
Late game it's ass
good, at least no more boss blinds will hurt you. especially 
face card players being upset about getting chicot is so fucking funny to me
Plant doesn't affect me. I like Canio
u dont get canio all the time though
me when manacle
Really making my life hard here with no real way to retrigger 8s
I beg to differ
Nah it's just that i can reroll the bossblind
I hate Bloodstone
ok instead of plant now you have pillar and you played your faces already
now what
Yeah. Wanna know how?
no ty
inb4 reroll Mark into Plant
reroll again
Fun run but like how am I supposed to retrigger anything lmao
Holy moly
Emanon
how often are you getting retcon by ante 5 
But I do. I NEED CANIO
it's just in this particular situation that i was kinda disappointed by the fact that i got chicot
swishborkler user
Ante 5
when ol'reliable 4oak scaling:
accurate username
Wait doesnt clairvoyance unlock a joker
Gold seal on gold card gets golden ticket or something right?
5 gold cards in one hand
Fuuuh
Now what
Gold seal on gold card is certificate
yorick
Bye blue
I have 0 levels in all hands D:
o7
certificate
sell cert for sure
how many rounds left for certificate?
i dont think i gets something idk
Damn I thought fs it did
maybe its just the achievement then
4, I just took it
that should be a way to get a joker ngl
unlock
It was Canio, that's good
hell yeah
I swear to god it was but I must be misremembering
Me: Canio at X2 after holding it for 6 Antes.
Flower Pot: š«“
one of the best feelings in balatro
True
Honestly hit the road worst rare joker
Uh yeah lemme fill my deck with jacks just to throw em all away
yeah, one of the reasons i don't skip on the rare tags
Honestly I'd have been better off never unlocking it purely for that reason
but then I wouldn't be able to get C++ if I ever wanted to go for that
s/
s/
what do you think is the easiest build to get an e
Hello there
Blew that neg Riff Raff run. Got good econ going, but zodiac just cluttered my shop with mostly planets so i wasn't able to find any good scoring jokers.
Heck
oh snap
brah
Whats it do
X2 mult if played hand contains spade and club
riff raff gotta be the worst joker in the game
ohhhhh I see
?
*club and non-club
didn't notice you were that early on the run, this might be a pretty good run if you play it well
obelisk is good if you know how to use it
which you had flat mult so yeah it can carry as your only source of x mult
there are two types of people
people who think obelisk is bad
people who are good
Obelisk gaming
obelisk is very fun with runner
just build up a ton of straights
i gold staked green deck
and then pair/2 pair/high card to win with flat mult
fuh you man
obelisk bootycheeks
ive now done red, blue, yellow, green, nebula, ghost, checkered, painted and plasma
admitedly obelisk is a situationally good joker
get better
but its powerful in the right circumanstances
but you need to play very unconventionally
which makes people uncomfortable
arent like almost all jokers situational
I mean if you get it early it's pretty much a win
i feel like the same people who don't like obelisk don't like red card
okay fuck u brother
I'm not your bro
obelisk is worst xmult joker by far
Not a single Mercury or blue seal in 20 shops, I swear I couldn't get any good level in any planets
ugly ass
egg is faster right?
based
thats why ur granny dead
i like obelisk but i dont play it that much cause im really bad at pivoting
yeah egg is good with swash
how tf you know that
be sure to build up chips though, can't rely soley on +mult especially if it only scales 3 per round (thats half of red card)
flowerpot
I am clairvoyant and have the hand of God on my shoulders
same herešāļø
throwback
Sure, bud
I mean its not good every single time
lmao sure
but if its worth skipping, its worth having
ehh i find throwback pretty mediocre
That's the problem, it's never worth skipping
It's rarely worth skipping
Virtue signaling
throwback is an easy 1.25x-1.5x for me
i get it to like 2x at most if small blind skips are good enough
you usually skip max 3 times in a run
cause i think skipping isnt that good
but most of the time it is like 1.25-1.5x yeah
^
no that good
tsk tsk tsk
if talking about worst x mults
just saying words now huh
1.25x mult per sometimes, great joker
we gonna be talking about flower pot?
true
Read a book sometime
I said it earlier too lol
i've never encountered a negative invis joker before- does that mean the copy will become negative as well?
nope
Flower pot is actually really bad
in fact
Doesn't it also works with wild cards?
you can get 6/5 jokers
which means you can't get another joker until you sell 2 jokers
even if its negative
flowerpot always sucks cause everytime i try to use it i die most of the time
GOAT WHEEL
so true
interesting- but i dont have room for the joker
it copies no matter what
well currently I am reading a mƩmoire called "Utilitarism and capitalism, a study about the marxist critique of Bentham"
ohhh neat
honestly
Marxism 
1/4 that feels like its easier for cavendish to break btw
just be an anarchist brother, its just better socialism
problem is wild card aren't good, you're not buidling towards them
i would sell all besides burgblar and card sharp if you care a lot about scoring
I hate Wild Card
yeah wild cards are ehh, especially because of the 4 suit debuff blinds
Nah jokes aside thats pretty sick
they do sometimes save my bacon in ancient joker builds
you need to develop your study on many different ideology to sharpen your own
you can do some janky stuff with slapping wild on face cards for photochad flush reasons
I was joking, I was joking
eh i dont tbh, im js kinda spamming pairs and im low enough in the ante that it isnt a concern atm
yeah but you would end up just copying an econ which is ok but like, whats the plan for endgame then. might as well guarantee a strong copy
oh lol, yeah ill sell soon fs- im js waiting on a good joker to sell into yk?
card sharp and burglar are good enough to sell into
oo I see
maybe can grab an xmult you can reliably trigger
oh fair lol
yeah sorry I like to ragebait sometimes its a problem
"here, win"
still gotta survive the early game lmao
hopefully theres scoring in the buffoon pack
rework coming soon tho ! maybe they'll be good
I was in here last night saying flush builds were the best in the game LMAO
oh my really ragebating lol
but if you fall for that, you gotta wise up a bit

