#Is the game's difficulty too tilted towards the first antes?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

ripe holly
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I don't think this is an unpopular opinion, and it's especially apparent on decks that have weak early game, like the Black Deck.
Most rougelikes are easy at the beginning, but quickly ramp up the challenge and require you to assemble some kind of build. Balatro (on high stakes) is actually the opposite, being incredibly tough early-game, but a breeze once you get some kind of combo going.

You need that first Small Blind to be a one-shot. You need the first Joker pack to not have an Eternal Egg. At some point, rerolling the first ante becomes incredibly tedious.
And then, if you do get some combo going, the only thing that can stop you is a bad draw or a bad Boss Blind. That's less of an issue, because winning is fun.
I don't think the early game should be easier - that would make the whole game really easy. I think, in some way, the pressure of Ante 1 and 2 should be moved to Ante 3 and 4. I think the design of Stakes is what makes the early game so hard, while not really affecting further Antes. The stickers just mean ~72% of Jokers you'll see early game are unpickable.

verbal plank
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@pastel patio This isn't mucho texto

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Mucho texto is when the suggestion itself takes too much text to explain, this is just in-depth discussion

devout garden
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I think it would help if Anaglyph, Black, Zodiac and Nebula had something additional to start the run (like double fool in magic or hex in ghost), for example I saw a lot the idea of making Anaglyph start with a double tag, maybe Zodiac could stay like this but it doesn't guarantee you a good early game so I don't know

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Or make the downsides affect more in the late game, for example on the green the loss of interest in early doesn't matter much

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(When i said that interest doesn't matter in early game means that it doesn't make you lose in ante 1, it's not like a -1 hand of a black deck)

ripe holly
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It's confirmed that some Stakes will be reworked, so I am hoping Rental Stickers will be something more than "this Joker is unpickable" and Eternal Stickers are also an issue with Commons that are meant to carry the early game.

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In some ways, Eternal Sticker feels much more like the ultimate Stake, than Rental Stickers which are just annoying.

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Also I think some form of "Jokers cannot appear on Ante 4 and 5" as a Stake would make the mid-game much more deadly.

verbal plank
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Maybe there could even be "tiers" of stickers (Black Stake unlocks Tier 1, Orange Stake unlocks Tier 2, and Gold Stake unlocks Tier 3)

oak blaze
modest pivot
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if ghost deck gets a really useful starting hex, then black deck should get an ankh, damn it