completionist ++

[AlphaGodith]

i know it's good for achievements to be hard and well-earned, but doesn't this one seem a bit ridiculous? getting ANY stickers on ALL jokers seems very difficult AND annoying, with how many there are and how rare a lot of them are, but add in that it has to be a win on the HIGHEST difficulty, where you have to be SUPER careful and strategic about which jokers you select just to survive long enough to win...

i honestly can't believe anyone's done this legit, without hacking somehow. anyone who has gotten it have any tips, or how long did it take you?

i know i'm a filthy casual, but the regular 'complete all collections' and 'win with every deck on golden stake' seem plenty time-consuming and difficult to be the final achievements, to me. this last one just seems insane, and frankly quite cruel to people who like to 100% their achievements. like i'm a NEET so i have all the time in the world and it STILL seems impossible. i can't imagine it for folks who actually have jobs.

[malogoss]

You have 110 hours in the game. Some players get C++ (edit: and all other achievements too) in around 200 hours total. Is it a ridiculous achievement?

Less than 10% of players have won a single run on gold stake.
Of those who did, about 10% have a win with all 15 decks at gold stake.
And about half who did that got C++.
If you have never won or even played on gold stake, I don't see how you can accurately evaluate C++.

I can speak of my experience. It took me over 350 hours total to 100% the game. I was not playing great at the start, I never looked at guides, I improved slowly. A good portion of my C++ grind was done prior to a patch that made orange and gold easier. When the patch dropped, I was playing better due to the volume of games I played. Now the game was suddenly easier so the last stretch was a formality, it was just a matter of putting the time into it.

I did at least 90% of the C++ grind with the Ghost deck. Other decks can work, no problem. I just enjoy the Ghost deck, never got tired of playing it. If the first joker I found was good, then I Hex'd it and I was set to win the run. Finding a random Ectoplasm in a shop is also nice, especially in the context of C++.

Adding stickers sounds awful, but I kept adding more than one in runs where I was not even sure I'd win at one point. At other times, of course, I just lost. At other times, I got greedy and failed to beat the ante 8 boss by 2% its chips total, because I decided to go for 3 new jokers instead of 2, while in the last shop. When I had only 11 jokers left that needed a sticker, in a single run, I cleared 4 more. It was unexpected, but it's exactly that, unexpected things, that kept it fun.

I decided to earn my final sticker by playing the Black deck. IIRC it took me +/- 4 hours. Which was less than 1/2 how long it took me to simply beat gold with the Black deck the first time around. And that's what is fun. You look back and realise you've improved a lot. To put things in perspective, the first gold stake I did beat was with the Abandoned Deck. I started a run, made it to the final boss and lost by a small margin. I had a feeling it was a good seed, so I replayed the seed a couple times to finally win. It was not about getting the gold stake achievement, I knew a seeded run would block that. It was about knowing for sure that I could win at gold stake, which was not clear at all. And from there things snowballed.

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This is not just a Balatro thing. If you look at the achievements list of any game and some look insane, you're already caring way too much about them. The next guy will see the same achievements and think "cool! 100 hours of never playing the same build, sounds great!".

[RazzberryMocha]

I got the achievement at around 200 hours but realistically only 70-80 was devoted to the achievement. I played mainly on blue/yellow/ghost deck since those are all good and ones I enjoy playing. Essentially you need to be good at gold stake and often win with 4 jokers, devoting a dead slot for a sticker. Having a list of what stickers you need helps a lot and organizing them by how difficult they are to get (I used a joker tier list for it). It sounds impossible but after you get the good jokers gold stickers it will seem much more feasible.

[AlphaGodith]

Originally posted by RazzberryMocha:

I got the achievement at around 200 hours but realistically only 70-80 was devoted to the achievement. I played mainly on blue/yellow/ghost deck since those are all good and ones I enjoy playing. Essentially you need to be good at gold stake and often win with 4 jokers, devoting a dead slot for a sticker. Having a list of what stickers you need helps a lot and organizing them by how difficult they are to get (I used a joker tier list for it). It sounds impossible but after you get the good jokers gold stickers it will seem much more feasible.

man that's wild, i still struggle with blue stake, and i usually have 5-7 jokers. any tips for how to win gold with just 4?

when i mentioned feeling like i was struggling before, everyone told me i was doing really well actually, and that beating ante 10 with any consistency was good, and that was just on white stake. when i asked about how to go farther, most of them said it was only possible with a very specific setup (retriggering effects and steel kings), so finding out i'd need to beat gold stake multiple times over without any of those specific jokers seems so daunting.

[RazzberryMocha]

Originally posted by AlphaGodith:

Originally posted by RazzberryMocha:

I got the achievement at around 200 hours but realistically only 70-80 was devoted to the achievement. I played mainly on blue/yellow/ghost deck since those are all good and ones I enjoy playing. Essentially you need to be good at gold stake and often win with 4 jokers, devoting a dead slot for a sticker. Having a list of what stickers you need helps a lot and organizing them by how difficult they are to get (I used a joker tier list for it). It sounds impossible but after you get the good jokers gold stickers it will seem much more feasible.

man that's wild, i still struggle with blue stake, and i usually have 5-7 jokers. any tips for how to win gold with just 4?

when i mentioned feeling like i was struggling before, everyone told me i was doing really well actually, and that beating ante 10 with any consistency was good, and that was just on white stake. when i asked about how to go farther, most of them said it was only possible with a very specific setup (retriggering effects and steel kings), so finding out i'd need to beat gold stake multiple times over without any of those specific jokers seems so daunting.

A massive part is understanding both what jokers are good and what jokers are good enough. Seeing the value in something as basic as the +4 mult joker will reshape how you approach runs. Skip tags are bad decisions 99% of the time, with $25 in ante 1 being the only one I’d recommend to consistently take. Don’t be afraid of committing to something weak or temporary. Taking an eternal greedy joker early for example might suck long term but if it’s the only option that’ll keep the run going then do it. There’s definitely more tips but these are just some good general ones of the top of my head.

[malogoss]

Beating gold is not related to reaching ante 13, or 18, or whatever number it is on white stake.

Starting at purple stake, you're under pressure. The blinds' chips scale fast enough that you can't take 8-9 ante to prepare for what's next, which is pretty much what endless white stake is.

If you want to improve faster, my suggestion is to start a new run once you've seen the victory screen after the ante 8 boss. But if you enjoy playing endless 50 times more than I do, then I guess my suggestion sounds silly to you.

[AlphaGodith]

Originally posted by RazzberryMocha:

Originally posted by AlphaGodith:

man that's wild, i still struggle with blue stake, and i usually have 5-7 jokers. any tips for how to win gold with just 4?

A massive part is understanding both what jokers are good and what jokers are good enough. Seeing the value in something as basic as the +4 mult joker will reshape how you approach runs. Skip tags are bad decisions 99% of the time, with $25 in ante 1 being the only one I’d recommend to consistently take. Don’t be afraid of committing to something weak or temporary. Taking an eternal greedy joker early for example might suck long term but if it’s the only option that’ll keep the run going then do it. There’s definitely more tips but these are just some good general ones of the top of my head.

hm, thanks, those are indeed good tips. i was aware that skipping was usually not worth it, but i do struggle to see the value in weaker jokers. pretty sure i've failed some higher stake runs specifically cuz i avoided the weaker eternal jokers just like you mentioned, afraid that i'd miss out on something better cuz of them but then i died before i even had a chance of getting it, so what was the point...

i did also do a challenge run recently where i just grabbed a joker right at the start that i thought would be silly and pointless, and i kept doing that instead of going with ones i thought made more sense for a cohesive strategy, and somehow i won... being able to use hex freely due to the eternal sticker probably helps a lot XD

what would you say about economy? like is it usually gonna be better to grab any good jokers as soon as you see them, even if it bankrupts you early on, or should you be building up your interest farm first priority?

[RazzberryMocha]

Originally posted by AlphaGodith:

Originally posted by RazzberryMocha:

A massive part is understanding both what jokers are good and what jokers are good enough. Seeing the value in something as basic as the +4 mult joker will reshape how you approach runs. Skip tags are bad decisions 99% of the time, with $25 in ante 1 being the only one I’d recommend to consistently take. Don’t be afraid of committing to something weak or temporary. Taking an eternal greedy joker early for example might suck long term but if it’s the only option that’ll keep the run going then do it. There’s definitely more tips but these are just some good general ones of the top of my head.

hm, thanks, those are indeed good tips. i was aware that skipping was usually not worth it, but i do struggle to see the value in weaker jokers. pretty sure i've failed some higher stake runs specifically cuz i avoided the weaker eternal jokers just like you mentioned, afraid that i'd miss out on something better cuz of them but then i died before i even had a chance of getting it, so what was the point...

i did also do a challenge run recently where i just grabbed a joker right at the start that i thought would be silly and pointless, and i kept doing that instead of going with ones i thought made more sense for a cohesive strategy, and somehow i won... being able to use hex freely due to the eternal sticker probably helps a lot XD

what would you say about economy? like is it usually gonna be better to grab any good jokers as soon as you see them, even if it bankrupts you early on, or should you be building up your interest farm first priority?

Getting to $25 quickly is a priority, but assembling good pieces early on to survive is an even bigger priority. If you see an absurdly good joker like constellation after the first blind it is typically worth it, as great direction is worth that commitment. Never take rental jokers before establishing a decent econ unless absolutely necessary, I’ve had runs where I took a rental at the first shop and never got above $10 the rest of the run and lost. If you see a boss like the needle or the water that threatens to ruin you over rng then spend every last dollar you have to find a good tarot. Lastly, after every run you lose ask why you lost or if a different decision would’ve saved you, I find that roughly 80% of my gold stake losses I can blame myself and it helps a ton with mindset.

[AlphaGodith]

Originally posted by RazzberryMocha:

Getting to $25 quickly is a priority, but assembling good pieces early on to survive is an even bigger priority. If you see an absurdly good joker like constellation after the first blind it is typically worth it, as great direction is worth that commitment. Never take rental jokers before establishing a decent econ unless absolutely necessary, I’ve had runs where I took a rental at the first shop and never got above $10 the rest of the run and lost. If you see a boss like the needle or the water that threatens to ruin you over rng then spend every last dollar you have to find a good tarot. Lastly, after every run you lose ask why you lost or if a different decision would’ve saved you, I find that roughly 80% of my gold stake losses I can blame myself and it helps a ton with mindset.

rental jokers being just any of the ones that you don't really want but need to hold you over, or is that something else?

the last bit i'm not too sure on tho. how can you tell if you lost because of something you did, when so much of the game is rng? i feel like if you knew what you should have done, you would have just done it? but a lot of losses are like, if i'd gotten a different/better joker, or the right cards from my deck in the round, i wouldn't have lost.

[RazzberryMocha]

Originally posted by AlphaGodith:

Originally posted by RazzberryMocha:

Getting to $25 quickly is a priority, but assembling good pieces early on to survive is an even bigger priority. If you see an absurdly good joker like constellation after the first blind it is typically worth it, as great direction is worth that commitment. Never take rental jokers before establishing a decent econ unless absolutely necessary, I’ve had runs where I took a rental at the first shop and never got above $10 the rest of the run and lost. If you see a boss like the needle or the water that threatens to ruin you over rng then spend every last dollar you have to find a good tarot. Lastly, after every run you lose ask why you lost or if a different decision would’ve saved you, I find that roughly 80% of my gold stake losses I can blame myself and it helps a ton with mindset.

rental jokers being just any of the ones that you don't really want but need to hold you over, or is that something else?

the last bit i'm not too sure on tho. how can you tell if you lost because of something you did, when so much of the game is rng? i feel like if you knew what you should have done, you would have just done it? but a lot of losses are like, if i'd gotten a different/better joker, or the right cards from my deck in the round, i wouldn't have lost.

A lot of the game is rng but it’s about how you choose to play the hand you’re dealt. Sometimes when I lose I think about the jokers I passed in the shop and how my build would’ve looked with them instead. Sometimes I barely don’t beat a blind because I got greedy and stayed above interest instead of rerolling for something or taking an eternal that would’ve saved me. Sometimes you commit to a mediocre build instead of pivoting towards something else. A lot of losses will be rng but even more will be a learning experience.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by AlphaGodith:

rental jokers being just any of the ones that you don't really want but need to hold you over, or is that something else?

Rental is a modifier like eternal and perishable. According to reading it makes jokers cheap to buy (and sell) but cost you significant money every round.

I'd think you could maybe use one for a single critical round? But the cost of keeping them around would devastate an econ.

[RazzberryMocha]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Originally posted by AlphaGodith:

rental jokers being just any of the ones that you don't really want but need to hold you over, or is that something else?

Rental is a modifier like eternal and perishable. According to reading it makes jokers cheap to buy (and sell) but cost you significant money every round.

I'd think you could maybe use one for a single critical round? But the cost of keeping them around would devastate an econ.

Specifically, all rentals cost $1 to buy and sell for $1, for cost three dollars at the end of every round (this happens before interest).
You can keep one or even two rentals, even three if you have a great econ, but they will destroy your run if you don’t have interest established. With one, stay at $28 for interest, $31 for two, etc.

[AlphaGodith]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Originally posted by AlphaGodith:

rental jokers being just any of the ones that you don't really want but need to hold you over, or is that something else?

Rental is a modifier like eternal and perishable. According to reading it makes jokers cheap to buy (and sell) but cost you significant money every round.

I'd think you could maybe use one for a single critical round? But the cost of keeping them around would devastate an econ.

oh okay, thankyou. i haven't actually made it to gold stake yet so i hadn't seen that one yet.

[AlphaGodith]

Originally posted by RazzberryMocha:

You can keep one or even two rentals, even three if you have a great econ, but they will destroy your run if you don’t have interest established. With one, stay at $28 for interest, $31 for two, etc.

thanks for the math! that will definitely be helpful when i start getting those.

[Goblin]

As a little history trivia, the mechanics before the change Malogoss mentioned were at gold stake you got -1 hand size (an insidious killer, but not the worst thing on its own), but orange stake made the cost of booster packs go up by $1 or $2 per ante (forgot the exact number). That was pretty damn brutal, obviously. Blue stamps were also way worse, as well as a bunch of skip tags. X type of card guaranteed in the next shop? Full price, none of that free stuff :P
I hope that makes it clear why some people who were already playing gold stake before those changes might consider C++ to be a lot more obtainable now than it might appear at first glance.

Also one thing no one's mentioned yet, but can help speed up sticker grind early on if you don't hate the deck, is using Anaglyph Deck and trying to hoard double tags until you find a negative tag to skip for. It's not gonna pay off all the time, and you're kind of handicapping yourself by not skipping for things that might help you survive, but when it does pay off it usually gives you multiple runs worth of new gold stickers in one go. Obviously when going for final stickers it's next to useless, but it helps ease the grind.

[AlphaGodith]

Originally posted by Goblin:

As a little history trivia, the mechanics before the change Malogoss mentioned were at gold stake you got -1 hand size (an insidious killer, but not the worst thing on its own), but orange stake made the cost of booster packs go up by $1 or $2 per ante (forgot the exact number). That was pretty damn brutal, obviously. Blue stamps were also way worse, as well as a bunch of skip tags. X type of card guaranteed in the next shop? Full price, none of that free stuff :P
I hope that makes it clear why some people who were already playing gold stake before those changes might consider C++ to be a lot more obtainable now than it might appear at first glance.

Also one thing no one's mentioned yet, but can help speed up sticker grind early on if you don't hate the deck, is using Anaglyph Deck and trying to hoard double tags until you find a negative tag to skip for. It's not gonna pay off all the time, and you're kind of handicapping yourself by not skipping for things that might help you survive, but when it does pay off it usually gives you multiple runs worth of new gold stickers in one go. Obviously when going for final stickers it's next to useless, but it helps ease the grind.

geez, i'm glad they nerfed it!

oooh that is a VERY good tip, thankyou!