@surreal condor go hog wild
#AirHater opinion thread
wise basin
ancient crest
Some would even say, go hamdome
surreal condor
These are great suggestions <:balatrojoker:1139524811421405224>
i was freaking busy, sir
surreal condor
but now that you woke me up, i guess i will do the work
ancient crest
ok hang on I didnt wake you up, I didnt ping you
I think we can all agree its vonneguts fault (Im joking Ill stop poking the beast)
surreal condor
My wall of text directed mainly to @ localthunk. Im not good at writing these things so bear with me.
Positive things first - a bit delayed, but congratz on full release, game as expected is great. I cant say how many hours exactly i spent on this game, since had game open for more than needed, but i definitely spent at least 100 hours of actively playing (in full release). Since i played previous demos and wanted to base my opinion only after beating "most" of the game (completionist++ excluded).
A lot of great things added (including new "modes", aswell as overall game improvements). New jokers (aswell as the old ones) are great, really happy that you added "consumable" jokers in particular, aswell as many others that have unique effect. Game design takes effort and you definitely got most of the things right for this game.
Second part of this wall of text want to dedicate to "challenges" (quotation marks because some of them are just unique effects, and not actual difficulty increase, IMO).
At least 15 of them are unique and operate on different ideas. Some even teach some of the unintuitive mechanics of the game. My personal favorites are Fragile and Jokerless, definetely helped playing them before finishing some of the harder gold stake decks. Some of them however (Medusa + Monolith, Non-perishable + Typecast, Double or nothing + Fragile, Cruelty + Jokerless) feels like an iteration on each other, and leave small stain of "adding stuff for the sake of round number".
Some of the challenges felt like lacking some of the bans (Swashbuckler in Omelette, discard synergy on Golden needle etc), that kinda ruin the intent of the challenge.
As for the vouchers, i will be repeating this, but i really dislike how current Magic trick (and partially Merchants) ruin your shop. Would have hoped for them to be a separate spot
Now for the stakes.
"Base" difficulty is great and from what iv seen on this discord, still takes some skill to beat and most things "are just right".
As someone who played this game "for a bit" before, playing on white stake was something that i wanted to move on immediately. Game is fun, but way too easy, after you learn "what you need to do".
Different stakes felt "right" for basic decks, but does not feel like scaling proportionally to different decks. Playing on gold stake Abandoned and gold stake Black is MUCH different experience.
Also one complaint that i had to stakes personally - how orange stake straight up ruins many jokers. If i would be a streamer that wanted to play this game for streaks, i would prefer to play on Purple, maybe even with gold penalty, but without orange one.
I am not sure if "fixing" by changing them per deck is even correct move, reminder that its just a personal opinion.
One thing in particular that i was surprised wasnt changed is early shops. Especially on purple+, where second ante starts with 1200 score, you really need some "damage", mainly coming from jokers. And being possible to not have any of them withing first 2 shops doesnt seem right to me still.
Some of the QOL that i felt missing - key shortcuts for pc. AFAIK this games plays amazingly on consoles, so i would really like shortcuts for things like "preview deck", "shop reroll" etc.
Also, i understand that full release is full release, so new content is highly likely not to come to the "core", so im really waiting for steam workshop support (or other way to mod the game) to come sooner rather than later.
Challenge guides.
Reminder that they are all on white stake difficulties, which makes them require much less scoring and no econ debuffs.
Omelette - dont skip any fights, break one egg at ante 1 to buy some power, break second at ante 2 for same reason, try to save one until ante 6. Some of the economy jokers are still available, but you dont "need" it, remember that you have no interest and no bonus for hands, so feel free to waste them. Swashbuckler breaks it
15 minute city - try not to skip and abuse the bus - playing a single card hands to scale it (before discarding), than use single discards to "clear" faces and finish off the fights with straights
Rich get richer - not even a challenge, your chips should not exceed ~250 anyway, so getting to that is the goal, but starting +20 interest makes it very easy. Skipping is bad
On a knifes edge - a bit hard to setup income, but the bonus from knife should make it easy, try to feed knife cheap things at the start, even small multi will carry. Riff-raff breaks it
X-ray vision - good design challenge, but 1/4 feels just a bit too much. This should teach you to use both suit and rank filters. Going for flushes (spades/diamonds) makes it easy
Mad world - smaller deck than abandoned, which makes going for 4oak the best thing. Use all hands to get money, since even high card is net +1$
Luxury tax - staying at 10$ makes it a basic white stake no bonus deck. Staying at 5$ is better, prefering vouchers>packs>jokers (if you already have power)
Non-perishable - first lesson to learn how good planets are. Even tho all jokers are eternal, you still want to buy "any" jokers at ante 1. Since its a white stake, you can win even with no xMult, but having at least one makes this easy. Madness breaks it
Medusa - pairs/high card is the way. Getting +multi is prio. Hologram/vampire/stone joker breaks it
Double or nothing - second lesson to learn how good planets are. Early game is easy, later on debuffed cards doesnt matter that much, but try to save some for "hard fights". Steel is good. Reminder that only scoring cards are debuffed, so feel free to use non-debuffed ones with higher cards as discards
**Typecast **- very similar to Non-perishable, but with a bit leeway early. Challenge that is much easier if you already played the game for a bit, so you know what you need to win
**Inflation **- annoying one... very similar to Non-perishable. Later you should have interest anyway to buy what you need even for 20$, but you still need to "know what to buy". Try to avoid buying packs and only buy good vouchers. Reminder that rerolls do not increase prices
Bram poker - similar to challenges 19 and 20, but much much easier, since Vampire can easily scale to x20+ in this. Empress + Hierophant > other buffs. Dont let Vampire to eat much steel. Planets are still great
**Fragile **- my personal favorite challenge. IMO there is only 2 strats - either go for flushes or 2 pairs and "boss rush". Since all of the Enchant tarots are banned, you only lowroll on "paints"/hangedman/strength/wheel. With flushes you can take ~1-2 non boss fights (if you do a bit deck manipulation, but you need to be careful), with 2 pairs you can have 5. Planets are still great
**Monolith **- very similar to Medusa, same things apply here. Personally think that you still want to use Obelisk. Do that by playing a lot of "throwaway" pairs in antes 1-3, than start playing high cards/other hands that are "free" with opening hand. Obelisk should end up with ~5x+, which is not nothing. Skip later fights if you are close to resetting it
Blast off - one of the harder challenges, similar to playing Black deck. The goal is to get out of first 2 antes, so try to get every early damage joker, after that its easy. Madness/bull+bootstraps breaks it. Planets are.... still great
Five-card draw - pair land. Your jokers can carry by themself first 2 antes, but you still should buy one more damage joker, than sit on income. 7 joker slots on white stake make it so even pairs can win easily. If you get Stuntman you should go for high card. Reminder that Blackboard works even with no cards left in hand
Golden needle - another annoying one. 6 discards + 1 hand is similar to 4 hands + 3 discards, but you must go for oneshots, which makes scaling jokers like Bus bad. You should get your money to 31$ asap (but remember not to lose in the process). Troubadour is free. Mail-in rebate/trading card/faceless joker kinda breaks it.
**Cruelty **- IMO the hardest challenge. No rewards from small/big blind doesnt necessary make them always a skip. Since its white stake difficulty, you can still setup your interest early on with just a single damage joker. Kinda obvious, but having 3 joker slots makes it really worth to look for actually good jokers, but you still want to buy almost every tarot and planet pack. Planets are truly amazing here
**Jokerless **- my second favorite challenge. As mentioned above, i think this challenge is actually easier than Cruelty. Since jokers are banned from the shop (and joker packs from packs), you have a bunch of "pocket" tarots to use in fights, aswell as overall insane number of planets + tarots. Your early game is still to go for flushes (with pocket Empress/Hierophant to oneshot first 2 antes). Endgame goal should be to setup reliable 4oak with 10s (since its white stake, you can technically go for 5oak, but 4oak will be better in almost every case), with bunch of Mars and steel/glass cards. I usually target 9's with steel/gold, since you can strength it later and keeping 10's is all you want. You really should learn damage numbers that you need to get. In antes 6+ you should have pocket Justice (glass). Skipping is bad
stakes
guides. leaving this as is, because dont have much time right now, and will just edit the messages later, to have all that text in one place
also my tier list for gold stakes "basic" decks, as with every tier list, rankings are from left to right, top to bottom. and my stats for reference
ffs, i forgot to move icecream. between mime and abstract
ancient crest
I think you forgot wee joker on tier list
surreal condor
I think you forgot wee joker on tier list
its in teal tier. this tier list has some old art and wee joker art is taken with midifications
surreal condor
mainly walkie talkie
ancient crest
makes sense
surreal condor
i tried to keep tier list ratings "as is" from left to right, top to bottom, but they are still mainly grouped by tiers. and within tiers jokers that "do damage" will be on top almost no matter what
vapid dune
thanks for these, it's helping me beat the challenges
vapid dune
pls god lemme win this
best start i've had
I'm lucking out so hard rn
im gonna cry if i get water
cloud 9 now (sorry for spam will just report back when I'm done, golden needle was just a pain in the ass to reset)
surreal condor
cloud 9 now (sorry for spam will just report back when I'm done, golden needle w...
no worries. thats really annoying challenge
wise basin
@surreal condor this was insanely helpful on challenges for me thank you!!
royal wraith
me after seeing the thread: 💀
vapid dune
i just assume people take refuge here after being frustrated and ctrl f'ing the challenges to see how everyone else did it
then seeing this guide thread
surreal condor
you got small typo, but i really dont mind. glad it helped
surreal condor
Cant fit stake guides into reserved messages above, so pasting them here
Gold stake deck guides
**General **("normal" deck):
Skipping most of the time is bad, unless its ante 1/stacked anaglyph/already winning and need to rush to boss cos of idol/ancient/obelisk.
For ante 1, i prefer to not skip 1-1 (ante 1, small blind), since getting any "damage" joker is better than going into boss fight with only 1 shop, unless its 15$/free shop/deck specific tags. To oneshot 1-1 you need 8+ straight/tt555+ full house/40+ flush. For 1-2 you want to get double straight/flush/full house, if numbers are low (which you should be discarding), finish off with pairs. For boss you need to have a joker, or you will end up losing in 95%.
You can beat ante up to 2-3 with most of the +mult jokers, so you want to get it, than dont buy anything to get income setup. You dont need to get to 25$, but getting to 15$ is very helpful. Most of the xMult jokers are worth buying early, even if it would ruin the interest.
Ante 4 is the first damage check, by that time you should have 4 +mult and chip jokers. Ante 6 is the second damage check, by that time you should have at least one xMult joker, otherwise you will most likely lose.
You can WIN with most hands, but usually you want to do first 2-4 antes on flushes, than transition into whatever you have jokers/deck for. I prefer to go for 4oak on blue/red/magic/abandoned/painted/erratic, straight flush on checkered. I dont like high card/pair (unless given perfect jokers for), but blue/green/nebula/zodiac are best for that.
In most runs you will want at least 2 3xMult jokers "for comfort", but if you got lucky on planets/steel/glass, you can win even with 1.
*Overstock/SaleCost/Handsize/Hands/Discard vouchers are worth buying even if going low on money. Hieroglyph/Reroll/Tarot merchant/DCut are ok. Else are not worth buying
You can technically win with with any deck with ||Stuntman/Squared + Bus/Green/Supernova + 2 xMults, and going for high card.|| But that will kill the fun out of the game very quickly for you
Red+Blue:
2 of the mediocre decks.
Very similar in nature, blue being better overall, for one "free" interest. One hand/discard ends up being ~4 cards for deck searching, unless you get scaling jokers (Bus/Green/Pants/Squared/Supernova) on Blue or discard synergy (Banner/Castle) on Red.
If you get build defining jokers early (Bus/Green/Pants/Burnt/4 Fingers/Ancient) go for that, otherwise i prefer to go for 4oak on these.
Yellow:
One of the better decks.
Even though the deck doesnt provide anything "unique" or build defining, it allows for very good early economy. Buying "every" joker in the shop, and still sitting on 10$+ early is very good to have. Also deck is getting to 25$ ~3 rounds earlier than other decks, which makes it much easier to have some of the cheap early packs/vaucher.
This deck still want to ante 1 skip for 15$, but it also loves to skip for 2x money tag.
Joker choices follow "basic" rules.
Green:
Similar to power to Yellow, even in early gameplay (getting bunch of money early), yet you never want to be on 15$+ on this. Allows to have a lot of power early, use it to get even more money. Idea for the deck is either to oneshot fights (and get double money from hands), or not use any discards and get some money from that.
For jokers you ideally want to get a lot of early power and get through first 2 antes while still getting ton of cash and buy vouchers/packs. Later gameplay is similar to other decks, with slight preference to high card.
Black:
Hardest deck for gold.
Losing a hand early will make harsh early game even harsher, but ALSO make you even more poor for not having +1 hand. Getting out of ante 1 is the challenge on its own. Similar to Green deck you want a lot of early power, even accepting "bad" eternal joker, since you have 6 slots for them. If you can get out of first 4 antes with 10$+, you most likely won.
The best deck for skipping, but you need to have a good reason to skip anyway.
Joker choices follow basic rules, with big decline in high card synergy. Stencil/Abstract are funny, but not much.
Magic:
Mediocre deck. Main benefit is to get some good early tarots and snowball from them.
This deck loves skipping in ante 1 for tarot tag.
Ideal scenario for this deck is to get Hermit/Judgement/Death/Strength from shop 1/tarot tag, and be a better Yellow deck. If you get Hermit - save the fools to use them after the second fight, to get to 44$+, than buy most stuff from the shop. If you miss on these 4 tarots, Empress/Emperor will do, but you will be sad
If you get early Death/Strength - going for late 4oak is ideal. Otherwise scrumble from what you have.
Nebula:
Second worst deck. Just like Black deck has a downside, and the upside is almost irrelevant for gold.
Since at orange+ your pack prices will be way too high, you will want to either setup some crazy economy early on, or try to go for high card and ignore tarot packs.
Since planets are strong (but expensive), "ideal" strat for this deck is to go high card and get some income, so you can buy all of the Pluto's, but you will have troubles in early antes.
Astronomer is great on this deck, since its practically a Burnt joker, which also gives you some money (by buy+selling "bad" planets)
Ghost:
Mediocre deck. Since you will likely start with some throwaway jokers, selling starting Hex is actually not that crazy to start your economy (if you are not rerolling for perfect joker). Most of the spectral cards are just better tarots and you will want to buy almost all of them, since pocket spectrals are much stronger than spectrals in packs.
At ~ante 4 you might need to lock on a good joker that you found and hex+/ankh it (and not die). Than get carried by that.
Abandoned:
Arguably the best deck for gold. Starts with only 40 cards, which makes most hands much more consistent and all deck manipulation are much stronger.
Best late hand for that deck is 4oak and getting to that consistent might start as early as ante 3.
This deck loves skipping in ante 1 for tarot tag.
Checkered:
Top 5 deck. Very easy to get going early one with pretty consistent flushes. Flushes are too low scaling for win tho. You would either need to get very good xMults, or go for straight flushes(/flush house) later on.
As mentioned previously - you will be likely to get flushes without even wasting both discards. Ideally if you get early Goad/Heart boss, you can go full on that suit.
4 fingers/shortcut are insane on this deck, basically making any hand into straight flush.
Zodiac:
"Secretly" good deck. Changing shop from normal into 2x tarots/planets, but with +1 slot, makes the odds of getting jokers BETTER, than on normal deck. On top of getting more tarots/planets.
Pocket tarots might carry you early, but you still prefer jokers. Deck exceeds at giving you more options on deck manipulation + planets that you want to lock on early.
My personal preference for the deck is also to go for late 4oak.
Joker-wise, very similar for "normal" decks, with slight preference for Constellation/Fortune teller.
Deck doesnt like to skip at all.
Painted:
Personally think that its top 5. Going from 7 to 9 handsize helps massively with anything higher than high card, since you can always use full 5 discards, aswell as target hands more easily before discarding. Helps early, but has penalty later, that should be ideally counteracted with steel/planets.
Ideal late hand for that is 4oak(/straights), but since you only can have 4 jokers, you should be going for planets/steel more aggressively. Every xMult is even more important than on other decks.
Since you already have 9 handsize, going for more is overkill.
Anaglyph:
On the worse side of decks. Benefits only start from ante 2, and even than, you need to get lucky for the good skips (money/jokers/poker hand/tarots). Negative tag is good, but you need to already have build going, since you will likely get garbage, for which you still need to have money.
Since this deck gives you power later (similar to Black), you should get "every" damage joker early, than get carried/shaped by good skips.
Erratic:
Top 5 deck if you scam it, mediocre otherwise. I personally dislike rerolling ante 1, but for this deck i make an exception. Getting 9+ of the same rank/8+ of the same rank + good skip is something that im looking for on this deck. Rank itself really doesnt matter.
Since this deck gets shaped by default, ideal late hand is 4oak.
Jokers that work with that rank are obviously good.
This deck loves skipping in ante 1 for tarot tag. Rare tag is also good, if you can roll Wee/HitTR/Baron(/DNA/Duo/Trio/Family) on already massive number of that rank.
Plasma:
One of the better deck, but probably the hardest to actually play. Very easy early on, due to massive amount of chips from just cards and very strong boost from chip jokers. On later antes just chips will not carry, since getting 720k within 4 hands, means you will need 850 chips per hand. Violet vessel also exists.
Two pairs of 10's will one shot first 2 fights. "Any" flush/straight/full house will win 1-3. Overall, going for 5 hand hands will be the goal, until you get going with good jokers.
Hardest part of this deck is to learn how to transition from chips to mult (since mult scales much better with xMults). Point of that transition is ~ante 5-6 (since you need 500 score on scales with 4 hands to beat the 6-3), which is VERY hard if you are using only chips. You should be looking for "all" xMults to buy, even if they are doing nothing for you at that moment.
Hierophant early is amazing, Empress is great for late (with later steel/glass).
Economy should be easy, since even one "small" chip joker will carry ante 2 by itself.
"Cheat code" for beating gold plasma without a transition - ||restart until you get rare tag, which gives you Wee joker (Castle/Stuntman is not enough for purple+), than go full on 2's + some chip jokers/full economy. This joker by itself can scale to 600+, this combined with some Hierophants/other chip joker will win, even on gold||
north token
thanks for the guide! as someone who has bashed all the gold stakes with the club known as high card/pair, i clearly have something to learn about other strategies :P
lavish fjord
surreal condor
its the best hand out of the hard ones. as said, you can win with any, but thats what i was going for
north token
something i struggle with past orange stake is getting any sort of deck control (which is why i love my high card builds) -- any tips there?
like the tarot packs are expensive and i don't feel like i usually have time for dna or trading card
surreal condor
i think you can always have time for trading card. as per deck manipulation - dont buy anything that you dont need (to not die) and just get to 25$ asap. half of the tarots from shop are good
ruby surge
royal wraith
very true
hes goated
wraith hill
**Challenge guides.**
Reminder that they are all on white stake difficulties, w...
Something i've mostly complained about is rich get richer's difficulty, or lack there of
royal wraith
gj
vapid dune
4 of a kind build made it so much easier
royal wraith
u have joined the 0.1% gang
royal wraith
4 of a kind build made it so much easier
i did flushes 😂
royal wraith
but it was so close
vapid dune
2x tarot helped a lot w/ money generators
surreal condor
out of curiosity, what your Mars ended level wise, that you oneshot the boss?
vapid dune
**Painted**:
Personally think that its top 5. Going from 7 to 9 handsize helps m...
took a break from balatro, currently following this guide for gold stake, thanks for your help as always 
ancient crest
I forgot this existed
vapid dune
I did it! Thank you so so much for the guides!!
