New player questions and impressions

[Cows Moo & Run]

Greetings, Balatrites.

A sexy guy recommended this game to me. I love deckbuilder roguelikes, but don't know much about Poker. Anyways, I dove in and have been having a ball.

I have some questions on cards and mechanics. If you can help me out, I'd appreciate it!

Red Card -- What does it mean if a Booster Pack is skipped? That doesn't seem to mean if you go Next Round without buying one. Does this mean you have to buy the booster pack, then not select any of the cards?

Store -- Does performance in a round influence shop choices?

Interest -- I am used to some autochess/autobattler games where building interest early is more important than spending. In some cases this can mean prioritizing building your interest vs. short term shop upgrades. I notice this game's interest cap is $5 per round/blind, so I am wondering if this is a game where you should rush max interest (ie keep climbing intervals of $5) or if you should make certain early buys no matter what.

Tempo -- Somewhat related to the previous question, what're the early Jokers or upgrades to grab that will give you the best tempo early on? I am using terms here from Hearthstone I guess.

Boss Blinds -- Do only certain boss blinds appear at certain antes?

Mult -- Does Joker Mult persist through blinds? What about through hands? Why don't I see a central Mult value available in the interface? I have to hover each Joker card right now which I don't care for.

Hotkeys/Mods -- Is there a command or hotkey to de-select all selected cards?

[zirune]

Originally posted by Cows Moo & Run:

Red Card -- What does it mean if a Booster Pack is skipped? That doesn't seem to mean if you go Next Round without buying one. Does this mean you have to buy the booster pack, then not select any of the cards?

Buy the pack and choose not to take anything from it, using the button to skip. If you buy a Mega pack, you can take 1 card from it and still choose to skip it.

Originally posted by Cows Moo & Run:

Store -- Does performance in a round influence shop choices?

Other than the amount of money you have, no.

Originally posted by Cows Moo & Run:

Interest -- I am used to some autochess/autobattler games where building interest early is more important than spending. In some cases this can mean prioritizing building your interest vs. short term shop upgrades. I notice this game's interest cap is $5 per round/blind, so I am wondering if this is a game where you should rush max interest (ie keep climbing intervals of $5) or if you should make certain early buys no matter what.

Tempo -- Somewhat related to the previous question, what're the early Jokers or upgrades to grab that will give you the best tempo early on? I am using terms here from Hearthstone I guess.

Buy jokers early if they're strong. Ride the Bus, Stuntman, Green Joker, Vagabond, Hologram, Riff Raff, Spare Trousers, and other jokers are capable of carrying a run, or at least giving you a lot of power to carry you through a good chunk of it. A holographic joker can get you through ante 2 basically on its own.

If you're capable of beating the next battle, there's no need to spend your money on mediocre jokers. But that whole being capable of beating the next battle is pretty key. You're usually fine buying a mediocre joker if it's contributing a decent amount to your score. You can always sell it later so it's only costing you a couple dollars, hardly breaking the bank.

Anything that gives a scaling amount of mult is a safe bet early (assuming you can scale it). Anything that reliably gives 10 mult or more is good on ante 1 or 2. A good xMult joker like Hologram is good, but they shouldn't be your first purchase since they're weak on their own compared to flat muilt or chips. And of course jokers that give money like Cloud 9 or Rocket.

Originally posted by Cows Moo & Run:

Boss Blinds -- Do only certain boss blinds appear at certain antes?

Different bosses will only start appearing at certain antes. The boss of ante 8 (and every 8th ante after that) is taken from a specific set of bosses.

Originally posted by Cows Moo & Run:

Mult -- Does Joker Mult persist through blinds? What about through hands? Why don't I see a central Mult value available in the interface? I have to hover each Joker card right now which I don't care for.

There are too many conditionals to show a single mult value. The hand you play contributes. Its level contributes. The cards themselves can contribute. Jokers can contribute, and also have their effects negated (by scoring a face card with Ride the Bus, or a particular boss blind for example). Jokers can gain more power based on what you play. There's too many factors to just show you what you score with a single number.

If you want to know exactly what you'll score by playing a particular hand you have selected, I believe there's a mod that can do that. Or you can pull out a calculator and determine it yourself.

Originally posted by Cows Moo & Run:

Hotkeys/Mods -- Is there a command or hotkey to de-select all selected cards?

Right click.

[malogoss]

Red Card,
yes, it scales when you open a pack and don't pick a card. Or when you open a mega pack and pick just 1 card instead of 2.

Stores,
They are random, only some vouchers can influence them. More tarot cards, more cards offered, etc...

Interest,
build as big of a bankroll as possible, just don't die by being overly greedy. For me, at the start of the game, that means beating the first SB in 1 hand, visit the shop, and buy a joker. So that $25 bankroll is not the top priority. At the same time, overspending is a no no. It's usually a fine balance.

Tempo,
a flat +mult joker as your first joker is the best. Ideally not tied to a specific hand. Something like Abstract joker or Even Steven, for example. The strongest tempo jokers are probably Popcorn (it loses power over time) and Half joker for +mult at +20 mult each and Stuntman for +chips, at +250 chips. Riff Raff is very strong as a first joker. Don't over estimate tempo. Scaling jokers picked early are usually the work horses.

Bosses,
I know some can't appear before a fixed ante level. Don't know the full list. Only one I can think of, and I'm not 100% sure, is the Ox. I think you can't encounter it before ante 4 or 5? Don't quote me on that. Oh and bosses can't repeat, that's important to plan and invest on safe builds.
And there are 5 "ante 8" bosses. You always get one of those at ante 8.

Mult,
not too sure what you mean, sorry. All I can say is your chips and mult are calculated for every hand, because many factors will make the result vary.

Hotkeys,
During a run, hold R to restart the run from ante 1, with a random seed.
No key to select cards. To deselect all selected cards, right-click.

Hope some of that helped.

[Draco18s]

Originally posted by Cows Moo & Run:

Interest -- I am used to some autochess/autobattler games where building interest early is more important than spending. In some cases this can mean prioritizing building your interest vs. short term shop upgrades. I notice this game's interest cap is $5 per round/blind, so I am wondering if this is a game where you should rush max interest (ie keep climbing intervals of $5) or if you should make certain early buys no matter what.

Really really depends. There are absolutely times when buying a card and dropping your interest value is better than that extra $1 in the future.

Mult -- Does Joker Mult persist through blinds? What about through hands? Why don't I see a central Mult value available in the interface? I have to hover each Joker card right now which I don't care for.

Unless a joker says that its value increases by some mechanic, no. Everything is stateless. If you do not play (a hand that contains) a pair, then you do not get +8 Mult from the Jolly Joker, full stop, do not pass go, do not collect 200 chips. Similarly you do not get your Mult doubled by The Duo. The game does not care about prior pairs played unless the card says it does (Square Joker, Supernova, Runner, etc.)

[Goblin]

Originally posted by Draco18s:

Originally posted by Cows Moo & Run:

Interest -- I am used to some autochess/autobattler games where building interest early is more important than spending. In some cases this can mean prioritizing building your interest vs. short term shop upgrades. I notice this game's interest cap is $5 per round/blind, so I am wondering if this is a game where you should rush max interest (ie keep climbing intervals of $5) or if you should make certain early buys no matter what.

Really really depends. There are absolutely times when buying a card and dropping your interest value is better than that extra $1 in the future.

Also important to remember you get money per hand left. So if buying something lowers your interest by $1, but saves you playing an extra hand, you lost zero income, power gained.
And if you buy some of the economy jokers and get them to trigger, it can push you back over the interest threshold too. Again zero income lost, but now even more future income gained.

So yeah, it really depends a lot indeed. Which is great, it'd be a shame if it were always ideal to just save to $25 first.

[Cows Moo & Run]

Thanks everyone for the help and answers! I am having a great time with the game so far.