This game is WAY too RNG based. 50 hours in and no win. WTF gives?

[エロ音声作品学者]

Just kidding, it's actually possible to win the majority of your runs if you understand how it works. Balatro is more skill than luck. Skill issue, study the game and ascend.

The new player says "this game is pure RNG, i never win"
The old player says "this game is so winnable i have a gambling problem please send help"

See through the matrix of the cards. Be the old player.

Also, enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJi6m7R8ADY

edit: To quote myself from later in the thread, for new players:

The difference between a skilled Balatro player and a novice is that the skilled player can see, and thus take, opportunities that the new player isn't even aware are opportunities. You improve at Balatro by becoming better at spotting those potential synergies and win chances, and improving your own ability to judge what is and isn't the right opportunity to take. To a veteran player, the game is rich with many paths to victory, and they have their choice of the lot. To the novice player, most or all of those paths don't stand out - the novice does not yet recognize them. The whole thrill of games like this is feeling it pay off, as you learn to spot opportunities you would've once passed over unaware. It's a slow, strategic burn.

If you do seriously want to be able to win at Balatro, read and watch guides and commentary by experienced players. Learn about build types, strategies, how to use the Jokers you currently think are useless, etc. - that joker you think is useless right now might be your ticket to victory, if you apply it to a strategy you weren't previously considering.

[srn347]

Ha, thanks for not actually meaning it. You'd be amazed how tiresome it is to constantly hear the paradoxical argument "I consistently lose, therefore the game is luck-based" (and not just in balatro).

[[Sane]]

Sry to say but its actually skill issue. i have 21h now and won 3 or 5 times, yea its Rng but u still need to know what to do.

[Scrub]

Originally posted by Sane:

Sry to say but its actually skill issue. i have 21h now and won 3 or 5 times, yea its Rng but u still need to know what to do.

(does he know?)

[sab0t]

Originally posted by doc:

Originally posted by Sane:

Sry to say but its actually skill issue. i have 21h now and won 3 or 5 times, yea its Rng but u still need to know what to do.

(does he know?)

(nope)

[エロ音声作品学者]

"doesn't read the post, just the title" people giving me steam points, i salute you.

[Polyurethane]

What's your win percentage on Gold Stake?

[Winter Wolf]

Originally posted by エロ音声作品学者:

"doesn't read the post, just the title" people giving me steam points, i salute you.

This is the click bait world you live in.

[srn347]

If this argument were true, it'd prove not just balatro, but literally every roguelike with randomized shops and shuffled decks (so nearly every card-based roguelike) to be more luck than skill, which is empirically shown to be false. You can't just take a game that gives you tons of options and say "yeah but they were generated randomly, random in random out" as though the player were forced to also choose randomly.

The fact of the matter is that several skilled players are win streaking on the highest difficulty and several unskilled players are lose streaking on the lowest difficulty. If that's not a consistent enough demonstration of skill mattering to convince you, you've got your eyes closed.

[エロ音声作品学者]

Originally posted by Godhand:

Also comparing Balatro to a deck building game lmao. In deck building games, you usually build your deck and THEN start the game. Not start the game and then pray to the shop gods that they bless you with something useful.

This is literally not what "deckbuilder" means. It's a genre derived from the tabletop game Dominion, where the entire mechanic is building and shaping the deck while in play - not before. Removing and adding and altering cards within your deck to improve it over the course of the run is the name of the game in this subgenre. It's not a matter of opinion, that's what the word means. The games where you build up the deck prior to playing are usually called TCGs or CCGs.

Aside from that... it's patently obvious from your posts in this thread you're furious and frustrated at Balatro, presumably from failing repeatedly to win at it. Your personal experience of frustration is clouding your ability to rationally and pragmatically judge the actual mechanics of these games. There's a pretty well established science to it that games like these can - with sufficient strategy, rule-understanding and perceptiveness, be won more often than lost.

The difference between a skilled Balatro player and a novice is that the skilled player can see, and thus take, opportunities that the new player isn't even aware are opportunities. You improve at Balatro by becoming better at spotting those potential synergies and win chances, and improving your own ability to judge what is and isn't the right opportunity to take. To a veteran player, the game is rich with many paths to victory, and they have their choice of the lot. To the novice player, most or all of those paths don't stand out - the novice does not yet recognize them. The whole thrill of games like this is feeling it pay off, as you learn to spot opportunities you would've once passed over unaware. It's a slow, strategic burn.

If you do seriously want to be able to win at Balatro, read and watch guides and commentary by experienced players. Learn about build types, strategies, how to use the Jokers you currently think are useless, etc. - that joker you think is useless right now might be your ticket to victory, if you apply it to a strategy you weren't previously considering.

Call me a git-gud degenerate troll all you want... it doesn't make it true. This thread is some lighthearted memeing, nothing more. I'm sorry you came into it enraged by the game, and it made your day worse. Not my intent, but it is what it is. Go have a breather.

[Lit]

higher stake difficulties definitely require a lot of luck because the game removes a lot of agency you have to negate the RNG each stake level.

[S♥ShiMe]

Originally posted by Lit:

higher stake difficulties definitely require a lot of luck because the game removes a lot of agency you have to negate the RNG each stake level.

totally agree. you can't win on skill alone on Gold.
The higher the difficulty, the more luck it requires.

[Lil brekky]

as I move up through the difficulties it does seem as though the RNG is "balanced" around white stake, and higher difficulties are increasingly RNG hail maries

[snakeskip]

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡:

Another argument people state is win percentage, but still I argue the fact, how winnable is that percentage WITHOUT holding R to reset a new run, as I'd believe it, they probably reset their runs waiting for a good start, which in turn should lower the win percentage as it's basically giving up on the current run in question

I have never restarted the game and I don't even remember the last time I've lost against White Stake. Lost the first couple of games, though.

IMHO restarting is counterproductive. You don't learn how to play the game if you spend time and effort trying to cherry pick exceptional seeds while giving up on lots of decent ones. Difficult starts turn around quite often. Especially on low stakes.

The developer thinks a perfect player wins White Stake every time. I think he might be right. Some people are speedrunning all decks on White Stake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs9ATdX_bIQ

[エロ音声作品学者]

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡:

coping, etc.

Skill issue. Not trying to be flippant here, but I have tons of cards unlocked and I still win all the time - have won first-time on many new deck unlocks, sometimes using freshly unlocked jokers, etc. - there are multiple unlockable decks I have never, ever lost a run on.

Also, I have literally never held R - I see all my runs through to the end, because I am not emotionally attached to winning, I enjoy the process.

Every single joker in the game has at least one or two viable winnable synergies - you just need to be able to figure out how to make them happen - and how to best pick from the first couple of shops which ones are most viable for you in that run. That's skill and experience, not RNG.

You just can't see the synergies they offer yet, and so to you, they are harmful fluff padding out your shops - but at some point you will understand why they're good. Because basically every joker has a role to play - especially the unlockables.

[エロ音声作品学者]

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡:

Except, I tried multiple variable hands different runs, focusing on one hand building up planet cards, getting the jokers that work well with the 80% of unlocks I had before my first win, nothing worked, my first win was what everyone said was the best, the flush, so I just don't see how viable the first win is unless you actually beat it without unlocking a bunch of cards prior which makes it seemingly impossible, after the first win, it's easy because you have multiple cards that help you immensely rather than when you don't prior to the win in question

Yeah you're not gonna win every time, you're a new player, duh. It's a video game, it's supposed to be at least somewhat of a challenge.

Don't let frustration cloud your judgement here - you can't seriously believe that a handful of joker unlocks ruins your odds, when you ended up winning with a flush build in your first few hours of play, right?