I have less than 10 hours in the game, 7 runs, only one success (with a blue deck).

The game is cool, difficulty really ramps up with the last 2 antes, but there are two boss modifiers that always kill me, especially when they are assigned to the last boss:

  1. the one that moves the target up to 300000 (instead of 100000) and
  2. the one that forces you to win in only one hand.

It feels like the game pushes you to be in a position where you can win in a single hand with a base target and that’s asking a lot on the basic difficulty when the player is still trying to understand all synergies and mechanics. I dunno, it feels these modifers should be unlocked at higher difficulty levels.

It doesn’t help that runs are so long (over 1 hour) and losing at the final boss with such a difficulty spile feels pretty frustrating.

Anyone else feels frustrated with these specific modifiers? How do I counter then? Is it a matter of “git gud” and just be more aggressive in Joker selection?

  • BlackthornOP
    2·
    4 days ago

    Good points. I definitely focus one hand only: Two Pairs. It’s relatively easy to achieve and you get 4 cards that score chips. And you get +mult by Jokers that require you to have a pair in your hand.

    My favourite Jokers so far are the one that gives you a +3 mult every time you skip a booster pack and the one that gives a +1 mult every time you play your favorite hand. Those are the jokens that really allowed me to reach ante 8.

    One question I have: am I supposed to mess with the deck (e.g. suits) at this starting difficulty level? I’m talking about the tarots that allow you to change the suit of 2 cards, or the ones that create duplicates. I’m avoid doing that because I don’t want to skew the probabilities, but perhaps it’s required to do that since the beginning?

    • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
      4·
      3 days ago

      It’s probably easier to build towards higher-scoring hands like flushes, straights, straight flushes and beyond.

      Deck manipulation is highly beneficial at all levels - not required early on, but a big boost.

      If you want to invest a bit of time into improving, I suggest you watch Balatro University’s video series: Balatro Basics

      Using that knowledge, I’ve gotten past Gold stake at this point.