Let's talk about Gold Stake

[warmingbird]

So I think I just passed 6h (if not more) today trying to beat Gold Stake. And I actually genuinely think this is one of the most hardcore "Ascension" I've seen in a Roguelike card game.

Now, arguably, I might be the one at fault here because I did the climbing with the yellow deck, and in the higher difficulty, it seems to not be able to keep up at all. The initial 10-buck boost seems very weak in comparison to other decks perks.

But I'm stubborn, and I've been trying for too long now. I just can't see myself doing the climb all over again with another deck, so I came for advice. At this point, I just want to be one and done with, so I can then stay in this peaceful place that is white stake again haha.

So, I'd be happy if anyone who has overcome that difficulty could give advice, tips and tricks, or just talk about gold stake in general in this thread.

[Nothing]

Golden stake seems really bad to me. The purple and orange ones had me hanging by a thread, but I felt like I had agency in strategy and decision making. Golden stake feels like I'm throwing 17 dice in the air each run and hoping they all land on sixes with any improvment in my decision making maybe able to reduce the number of dice to 12. I'm hoping it'll get changed to something more reasonable, I was hoping to get all achievments in the game chipping away at the completionist ones little by little but with how horrible Golden currently feels I feel like just getting a win on all decks is impossible, let alone finishing with every joker...

[Ave]

I have been stuck on Gold Stake checkered deck for like 15 in game hours. I have no idea what the absolute ♥♥♥♥ I am doing wrong. Every time I get to roll on and get a chance for a polychrome joker, its some randome ♥♥♥♥ that would never be able to stay around or I might not even get a joker at all after Stake 2 blind 1 because they never show up with the cash I have. This ♥♥♥♥ is so hard it isnt even fun

[Winter Wolf]

Heh getting past black seems hard enough, A Gold stakes win may be just completely out of my reach. for months to come

[Chicken_man84]

Just keep playing and try to force for a flush win condition. Your first 3 antes you should be building economy and buying jokers that keep you alive. Don’t buy long term investment jokers or jokers that are used for niche win conditions. Always remember money is how you win, if you don’t have a good economy just give up. Money is what makes or breaks most of my runs. Don’t buy planet or spectral packs. They are usually too risky and too expensive. Always buy arcana packs and ALWAYS add steel cards. Playing around steel cards can make bad runs good and good runs great.
Also know when to reset a run. You can usually figure out if you are dead or not by ante 5.
The rest is luck but you there are always small things you can do to better your odds! Know when to take risk and always try to look at the opportunity cost of your major plays. Good luck!

[Amplify]

Originally posted by Ave:

I have been stuck on Gold Stake checkered deck for like 15 in game hours. I have no idea what the absolute ♥♥♥♥ I am doing wrong. Every time I get to roll on and get a chance for a polychrome joker, its some randome ♥♥♥♥ that would never be able to stay around or I might not even get a joker at all after Stake 2 blind 1 because they never show up with the cash I have. This ♥♥♥♥ is so hard it isnt even fun

Gold stake, and you're using the Checkered deck. Found the problem.

You need to use pairs and high card to win on gold stake, and build your joker comp around those.

[Polyurethane]

I won with Yellow deck at gold by starting with a double money tag and grabbing an Arrowhead and a Constellation in the first shop. Not long after I got Flash Cards and a Baseball card and my build was set.

It was especially Lucky because it was one of the first real attempts I had on Gold stake. I must have spent about 7-8 hours on Purple and another 2-3 on Orange.

[Zelakon]

Originally posted by Amplify:

Originally posted by Ave:

I have been stuck on Gold Stake checkered deck for like 15 in game hours. I have no idea what the absolute ♥♥♥♥ I am doing wrong. Every time I get to roll on and get a chance for a polychrome joker, its some randome ♥♥♥♥ that would never be able to stay around or I might not even get a joker at all after Stake 2 blind 1 because they never show up with the cash I have. This ♥♥♥♥ is so hard it isnt even fun

Gold stake, and you're using the Checkered deck. Found the problem.

You need to use pairs and high card to win on gold stake, and build your joker comp around those.

Not necessarily; I just beat it with a flush build using chequered on my 3rd try. Purple and orange took many more attempts for me than gold, so I think I got pretty lucky in this run!

Basically found a Madness joker early on, then just built eternal jokers around that. Had an arrowhead to give me chips for spades, a supernova to scale mult playing flushes only, a burnt joker to level up flush every round by discarding the hearts, and a vagabond to generate tarot cards every hand to enhance the spades. Madness had reached 10x mult by the ante 8 boss!

[Deez_Noots]

ignore the other guy saying to never skip the first battle, most consistent way to start a high stake run is to just reroll until your first small stake skip is the tag that makes all initial cards and packs free in the next shop, being able to buy 2 cards and 2 booster packs in your first shop for free is probably the strongest start to a run you can get, negative tag is tempting but it doesn't give you the momentum in the early game to survive.

[Crabulon]

I'm on 60 hours trying to beat gold, hopefully it doesn't take you that long!

[MinatoHiraishin]

Originally posted by Deez_Noots:

ignore the other guy saying to never skip the first battle, most consistent way to start a high stake run is to just reroll until your first small stake skip is the tag that makes all initial cards and packs free in the next shop, being able to buy 2 cards and 2 booster packs in your first shop for free is probably the strongest start to a run you can get, negative tag is tempting but it doesn't give you the momentum in the early game to survive.

I would definitely agree, other tags like mega-arcana pack and 15$ for boss blind can also help you depending on what happens ! I'd say the gold stakes runs depends on a high-risk high-reward first Ante ! I was aiming for good first skips even if I struggled to get my 600 points at first, cause I knew that's what I needed to go through.
I just beat my first gold stake run with extreme luck and the ghost deck and my start was two skips for free shop and 15$ ! Will now try my hand at Erractic or Chequered, and will go for the same kind of start 100%