split nymph
Starting from deck of 25 cards randomly selected from a standard deck of 52 cards. Rebuild the entire standard deck before Ante 8 ends. (Enhancements, editions, and seals are OK.)
Starting Jokers: Negative Certificate
Starting Vouchers: Tarot Merchant, Overstock
Banned Vouchers: Magic Trick, Illusion, Hieroglyph, Petroglyph
(Note, the win condition checks to make sure you have exactly one of every number and suit combination.)
split nymph
Note, originally the challenge also included a negative DNA, but that made the challenge much too easy (second try after I killed myself in a stupid way), so I removed it.
thorn tapir
What's student loan debt??
split nymph
What's student loan debt??
hearty ore
Mmm RNG Could go crazy with only a few cards left and banned magic trick
split nymph
It's also technically possible that you get invisible joker and blueprint in the first guaranteed buffoon pack, and then no jokers at all in the shop, only fool and wheel of fortune tarot cards that don't hit, and planets for hands that the RNG doesn't allow you to make (mars, neptune) until you inevitably die to the ante 2 boss (the flint)
split nymph
In play testing, I had pretty average luck with standard packs, and I had to sell my certificate in the middle of ante 6, which makes it pretty doable. With DNA I was over 52 cards in ante 4 both times, which is way too much time for fixing the deck.
The first run where I accidentally killed myself I strengthened a 10 into a J, and I was 5 cards away from a complete deck in ante 6, but that ruined my straight because I wasn't thinking, and I died.
If anything, the RNG is pretty dependent on strength tarots, but because of certificate you essentially have like infinity purple seals, so tarot cards are not a problem.
split nymph
The certificate is enough to get you to where you need to be, assuming you're on top of your deck anti-fixing
This challenge is really quite odd, feels super different than a regular Balatro game, or even a challenge run, because you're constantly making your deck worse, it never feels like you're consistently out scaling the difficulty curve, you can't really commit to one hand type (except flushes?)
edgy dagger
random starting deck is odd and i dont think any other challenge does this
split nymph
random starting deck is odd and i dont think any other challenge does this
No other challenge does, and the way things are set up in the challenge code made implementing it a bit of a puzzle
But I think I have it set up so that it works properly and is seeded correctly
edgy dagger
wait is it like erratic deck where you can get duplicates of the same card
i assume not
split nymph
No, I remove 27 random cards from a deck of 52
I figured that you might find a bugged seed that causes an erratic deck problem (oops all 10 of spades) which might make the challenge even more unfair than normal
The cool thing is because I implemented it the way I did, you can actually change tabs into the deck view and get a new deck each time.
(and it doesn't affect the seeding of the actual deck)
(at least, I think it doesn't, difficult to test)
(the code that does the deck, line 95 is a lie, I updated the code but not the comment, the worst programming sin)
low fjord
Feels weird how magic trick is banned
Like I understand why it’s like that, but it feels in the vanilla challenge spirit
split nymph
Well, if magic trick wasn't banned then either you get a seed with magic trick and the challenge is significantly easier, or you don't and the challenge is significantly harder. I didn't like the idea that the challenge comes down to luck because then it's just a matter of rerolling until you get magic trick ante 1 or 2, and now you're EZ moding it.
So if magic trick is allowed, I'd rather just give it to the player
Because that just eliminates a lot of the time spent rerolling for it
That's why I gave overstock and tarot merchant as well, this challenge lives and dies by tarots, and although you have purple seals coming out of every orifice, being able to roll down shops in search of them to use with arcana/spectral packs is a big part of the challenge as well, and then you have the same "either you get these vouchers and the challenge is easier, or you don't and it's much harder," problem
split nymph
Holograph on this challenge is so overpowered.
split nymph
Hologram whoops
thorn tapir
I agree
lone nebula
modest panther