White Stakes too hard

[Freshdaxx]

Could the devs please lower the base difficulty? Or is there an option (aside from mods) to lower the difficulty? I lost pretty much 95% of all matches. Even with a perfect setup and perfect play the game says "No, here's 300k to beat - piss off and never come back".

[Scrub]

This is the same difficulty curve we all go through, it feels hard to even make it to ante 4 and then it eventually it clicks and you don't need help anymore.

If you had perfect setup in perfect play then you wouldn't have lost. Check out Balatro University or some other guides on some tips and tricks you might be missing.

[Freshdaxx]

Originally posted by Scrub:

This is the same difficulty curve we all go through, it feels hard to even make it to ante 4 and then it eventually it clicks and you don't need help anymore.

If you had perfect setup in perfect play then you wouldn't have lost. Check out Balatro University or some other guides on some tips and tricks you might be missing.

So... when does it "click"? I've played the game for nearly 13 hours now and I still don't have fun (only because of the difficulty - the premise and design of the game are cool).

[Scrub]

If you are having fun then it's okay to stop playing. It's a video game.

I don't think I got my first win for the first dozen hours or so.

There might be some things you don't know, like moving Jokers around, or the types of jokers you should be trying to find. It's hard to give general advice because there's so many little tricks in this game.

[I am SCREAMING]

Originally posted by Freshdaxx:

Originally posted by Scrub:

This is the same difficulty curve we all go through, it feels hard to even make it to ante 4 and then it eventually it clicks and you don't need help anymore.

If you had perfect setup in perfect play then you wouldn't have lost. Check out Balatro University or some other guides on some tips and tricks you might be missing.

So... when does it "click"? I've played the game for nearly 13 hours now and I still don't have fun (only because of the difficulty - the premise and design of the game are cool).

It depends on the player, for me it was 48hrs of playtime.

Some general tips:
1. You want a lot of money early on or a least a sustainable amount.
1a. with more money can buy more stuff from the shop and even your odds, just make sure you have some to spare.
2. Find jokers that match with others to get better scores.
3. What deck you play on can matter a lot, when you unlock one make sure to try it.

There is more I could list, but these are the tips I've heard and tried before with decent success.

[Matt]

At 10 hours for me it finally clicked that I needed to open a lot more taro and planet packs, as well as get the economy going early. If you have good economy, the RNG becomes less of a big deal.

And don't skip blinds until you get a couple wins. The money is more important than a free mega celestial pack.

[Custom Priest]

To be honest with you, the white stake at the moment is the easiest it can be.
It's your skill issue (don't get insulted, it's just my point of view).

With around 35 hours in the game and having completed only the Checkered Deck up to Gold Stake, I'm able to consistently win let's say 90% of my White Stake runs with any deck.

It's just a matter of understanding the positioning of jokers and how to make the best with what you get.
Also economy is fundamental in this game, often overlooked by beginners, but something like an early gift card + swashbuckler could lead you to a sure win once you get some X multiplier... and that's fairly easy to get.
I'm still far away from being a good Balatro player so the level of playing that I'm currently doing is reachable with anybody with an understanding of the basic game mechanic.

[doingwork]

It depends on how good you are at finding patterns, finding connections between things that may not seem relevant at first, and "number smarts" I guess. It will click eventually, it just will take longer for some than others.

Some advice that might help:
1. Almost always skip the first small blind. I would restart until you get a "free X joker" or "initial shop is free" tag. These jumpstart a run like nobodies business. This is especially relevant past white stake as small blind stops giving money.
2. You should almost never be going below $5 or $10 even as you will have a terrible time crawling out of that hole unless you pull good money jokers.
3. Use your discards. Hands = money, discards = nothing if you have some at the end of the round (baring some jokers). Always use discards before using hands, although its nice to save 1 discard in case your 1st hand doesn't win it.
4. Tarot cards are more important than you think. Alot of the time you can spend $4 opening a pack to get you a hermit that will give you $20.
5. Remember to reorder your jokers/cards. +mult before Xmult.

[AlphaGodith]

if you are losing white stake a lot, you are NOT doing perfect play/perfect setup. something about your choice of jokers or how you build your deck MUST be faulty. also, 300k is only one specific boss you can get, or else you have already won and don't realize that going into endless mode is optional and 'beating' it doesn't even count as an actual win, since you already won to get there.

[Goblin]

Originally posted by Freshdaxx:

Originally posted by Scrub:

This is the same difficulty curve we all go through, it feels hard to even make it to ante 4 and then it eventually it clicks and you don't need help anymore.

If you had perfect setup in perfect play then you wouldn't have lost. Check out Balatro University or some other guides on some tips and tricks you might be missing.

So... when does it "click"? I've played the game for nearly 13 hours now and I still don't have fun (only because of the difficulty - the premise and design of the game are cool).

It "clicking" isn't a feature of the game, it has to be a feature of you. Much like some people who have been posting really bad deviantart for years, just blindly repeating what you've been doing isn't going to help you improve. Claiming you're doing "perfect play" when you can't even beat the (incredibly lenient) easiest difficulty is a pretty good indicator of what you're doing wrong.

In the end, the game's just about a combination of understanding basic math, and understanding probabilities and how to maximize them. And of course you need enough reading comprehension to be able to understand what the math and probabilities are. Sadly, we can't read your mind to figure out which of these is the issue for you, so the only one who can help you is you yourself - unless someone like Malogoss offers to watch you play and point out what you do wrong, but people patient enough to do that are rare.

[Twelvefield]

It took me about 15 hours to start winning, and then another 5 hours to be able to win reliably enough.

With Balatro you definitely learn from your mistakes, since the runs are plenty but short. There is a lot of good advice, but until you learn from your own errors, it's hard to understand.

For example: Two Pair vs. Flush. There's a lot of debate as to which is the most powerful. I agree with most of the arguments, on both sides. That means that the average player has to come up with the experience in the game to be able to reason that out, which takes runs, which takes time.

If you're not having fun, then quit. Balatro is a game that sets you up to lose. If losing at cards bugs you, this is not your game. I get that. I attended a poker night where everyone got a lot better than me, and that stank. I lost a fair bit of money, and my closet got cluttered with consolation prizes. Whoop-de-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-do. Eventually, I stopped going: the effort to improve to that level was a lot more than whatever fun I was having.

Originally posted by Goblin:

Much like some people who have been posting really bad deviantart for years, just blindly repeating what you've been doing isn't going to help you improve.

That's a little different. Repeating an art project over and over again might not make the final piece any different or better, but probably the artist is working faster and making fewer mistakes. And at least they are consistent.

Beyond that, posting good art of deviantart (something I consider truly futile now that DA has gotten so big) just gets you ripped off.

[malogoss]

Originally posted by Goblin:

(...) unless someone like Malogoss offers to watch you play and point out what you do wrong (...)

About that. The last person I offered to help decided to just quit after playing 2 more hours on their own, never bothered getting coached, not even for a minute. Too bad.

@Freshdaxx

If interested, send me a friend request. I'll watch you play for 1-2 hours (meaning you stream your game to me via Steam) and I'll point at 3-4 things that will make a world of difference in your results, if you take a different approach. One well aimed tip is worth more than 20 random ones I could give here.

So it's like a coaching session, free for you. It worked for someone who never won a run before, it also worked for someone stuck at blue-purple stake. In fact, that last person is currently grinding for all the gold stickers, for the last achievement.

Waiting for the friend request, just let me know.

[beatles42o]

Originally posted by Scrub:

If you are having fun then it's okay to stop playing. It's a video game.

I don't think I got my first win for the first dozen hours or so.

There might be some things you don't know, like moving Jokers around, or the types of jokers you should be trying to find. It's hard to give general advice because there's so many little tricks in this game.

rougue likes there is something almost all players do when starting out.

they go off into a specific direction and start to force it,sure, its fun, but not alwways ideal.

you have to dabble in everything enough to know what it can do and should do.

but, IMO the number one thing people are not doing that are not winning, is looking at their deck. if you arent looking at what youve already played, you wont be winning much.

oh, i want a pair or straight or what ever im looking for. if you arent looking at your deck and realizing (oh, ive used two 3s and three 4s. i really should just discard this 3/4 and hope to get better ods, as its a 1/4 or 2/4 chance to draw the card you need.

you will get more good hands doing this. because. lets say youve played some 1-5 cards, but not some 6-10 cards. you may be better off just discarding all your 1-5s as, your odds of getting more 6-10s are so much better, that not having one doesnt matter, as your odds of getting two of something you dont have, are higher than getting another of something you already have.

im not gonna say im good, but i accidently beat the game on a deck on 3 difficultes. BY ACCIDENT. i guess i just did so well i didnt realize i won? kept trying to win onyl to realize it was impossible. then i realize i was on/past green

[Crews]

Originally posted by Freshdaxx:

Could the devs please lower the base difficulty? Or is there an option (aside from mods) to lower the difficulty? I lost pretty much 95% of all matches. Even with a perfect setup and perfect play the game says "No, here's 300k to beat - piss off and never come back".

You gotta learn the game bruther, I believe in you. Once you learn synergies and how to make builds you'll fly through the game. So far I have 2 decks on gold stake and im goin for all of em. Holding R is my best friend and its going to be yours too. Don't think of failing as not winning and thinking your bad. The entire game is a learning curve and you cant keep the same build the whole run thinking ittl stay strong.

Make sure to go for scaling jokers, Supernova is nice, Constellation is great for xmult, runner if you like straights and it pairs well with the plasma deck once you unlock it....