White Stake, my absolute bane.

[Sasha]

So, I have played a bit of Balatro. I love it. I can't play it consistently for hours on end, but I love it. And more often than not, it really doesn't feel too bad when losing. However, I am starting to get a bit frustrated and discouraged by the fact that I have never made it out of white stake, and I have only once actually reached Ante 8. Most of the rest of the game is locked away because of that. I'd like to do challenges, or... whatever else it has to offer, but alas, I just can't make it, no matter how much I try.

Maybe I just don't get the game. Maybe I don't understand how it works. Or... idk. Is there some sort of definitive guide that I could maybe look up and learn? I want to keep playing because it's fun, but endlessly losing like that is starting to take a toll.

[malogoss]

Try to have a good economy. Banking $5 interest each round is huge, so keep $25+ in bank.

In a perfect world you'd want that $25 asap, but at the start of a run of course you must spend on jokers to not die. Just don't overspend. With that in mind, not buying ante 1 and ante 2 vouchers is usually not a bad idea, as a good bankroll gives you more flexibility.

An economy joker is also huge. Something like a Golden joker early on totally changes the game.

About jokers, prioritise scaling ones early on, work on scaling them through the whole run. When in doubt, keep 1 joker that gives +chips. Others should be +mult and xmult (keep the xmult on the right end, for scoring purpose), plus possibly an economy one. Pure utility ones are nice but keep too many and problems arise as your scores will suffer.

Else, if you got $30+, don't hesitate to spend on arcana packs. A few standard packs early on can be a big deal too, if you see a blue seal grab it, they are kind of busted.

Good luck.

[ulzgoroth]

There's guides right here on Steam. I don't know which are good, but probably most of them are good enough to help you here.

I can't know what's bringing you down, since you haven't given any details, but basic bullet points:
- Have money. Money earns you interest. You want to be earning max interest as early as you reasonably can. Plus, having money means being able to buy good things when you see them. (Unless you're playing green deck.) Jokers that give you money are often good.
-- To have money, win blinds immediately. You should be concerned if you need to play more than two hands for a blind. (Especially with green deck.)
--- You still can play more hands if doing so rewards you. (Some scaling or money jokers.)
-- Once you have money, don't neglect to buy anything that might help you.
- Don't skip blinds unless you have a really good reason. Playing a blind gets you money, another shop, and potentially benefits from your jokers. Skipping it just gets you one usually small thing.
- Most of the time, to score you want to focus on mult, because hands (especially when upgraded) give a bunch of chips already. In the late game, you want to have at least some mult multiplier jokers. You might want one chip-adder. If you have two chip adders you probably should have taken something else instead.
-- Jokers that give increasing benefits rather than fixed ones are best if the way they increase is something you can do.
-- Jokers that don't increase chips or mult or money can be good, but make sure you have a real plan for them if you're trying to win. Being able to score straight flushes a lot by using Four Fingers and Shortcut is fun, but it's pretty likely it's not pulling its weight.
- Try not to depend on making a difficult hand for your scoring. You don't need to play flushes or straights or full houses to win, and you may not be able to deliver them.

[Beakst0re]

Scaling, scaling, scaling. Once you focus on scaling you'll be out of white stake in no time.

[noisyturtle]

Red Ticket blind skip is your best friend

[malogoss]

Every time someone suggests to a new player to skip blinds, an angel dies.

[Sasha]

Yeah, okay, now I'm really pissed off. Made a play entirely around pairs and 3-of-a-kind. 3 of a kind was level 7, pair was level 5. Had jokers that added mult for it, had a polychrome, all was going exceptionally well. Gathered like $90 and I was buying out most of the shop after each blind. Every single blind I hit scores that were way, way higher than the stake. I reach ante 8, big blind, 52k, should be easy, right? I made 60k at some point. Well... guess what? It was not. With 5 entire hands, 4 discards, I could not scrounge up at least a couple of 3-of-a-kind face cards to get those super high scores. Lost with like 35k. I hate this so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ much it's unreal. I was SO close.

[RazzberryMocha]

Originally posted by Sasha:

Yeah, okay, now I'm really pissed off. Made a play entirely around pairs and 3-of-a-kind. 3 of a kind was level 7, pair was level 5. Had jokers that added mult for it, had a polychrome, all was going exceptionally well. Gathered like $90 and I was buying out most of the shop after each blind. Every single blind I hit scores that were way, way higher than the stake. I reach ante 8, big blind, 52k, should be easy, right? I made 60k at some point. Well... guess what? It was not. With 5 entire hands, 4 discards, I could not scrounge up at least a couple of 3-of-a-kind face cards to get those super high scores. Lost with like 35k. I hate this so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ much it's unreal. I was SO close.

Since there is no benefit to saving past $25 you want to spend a lot once you get to that point, as spending time in shops is how you get stronger. Rerolling is invaluable for finding good jokers and packs can shape your deck to be much greater. Using tarots such as death/strength or opening packs to add cards to deck make strategies significantly more consistent.
Another tip, synergy doesn't always mean something is good. Just because you're using a pair/three of a kind build doesn't mean you'll want to use a joker that gives +8 mult if your hand contains a pair, since +8 is a weak amount and can be replaced by many better alternatives that still work for your build.

[ulzgoroth]

Yeah, that's what I mean about not betting the farm on harder hands.

There's ways to fix your deck so that it's safer, or keep a pocket Death or Strength to force a solution, but three of a kind is getting into that risk zone.

[Sasha]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Yeah, that's what I mean about not betting the farm on harder hands.

There's ways to fix your deck so that it's safer, or keep a pocket Death or Strength to force a solution, but three of a kind is getting into that risk zone.

Well, pair was not that far behind, but compared to three of a kind, the score it gave was always too low. I basically only had pairs to work with and I was barely getting 5-6k out of each hand, which is how I ended up with that pathetic 35k on a blind that one ante ago I could beat easily. It really felt like the game up and said "Nope, ♥♥♥♥ you, you're not getting past this".

[Sasha]

And now I try to focus solely on pairs, run against the Arm in Ante 4, lose by like 200 points... I'm seriously losing my patience with this game. It's grinding my nerves into dust.

[CMDR Shven]

Originally posted by Sasha:

And now I try to focus solely on pairs, run against the Arm in Ante 4, lose by like 200 points... I'm seriously losing my patience with this game. It's grinding my nerves into dust.

Part of the game is to not focus solely on anything unless you happen to get very lucky and find multiple jokers conducive to one specific strategy. You need to be willing to pivot strategy either temporarily for one blind or for the remainder of the run if a better option comes along and you haven't already warped your deck too far for it to be viable. Going into a run with a specific strategy in mind will almost always result in a loss. You have to adapt to what you get.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Sasha:

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Yeah, that's what I mean about not betting the farm on harder hands.

There's ways to fix your deck so that it's safer, or keep a pocket Death or Strength to force a solution, but three of a kind is getting into that risk zone.

Well, pair was not that far behind, but compared to three of a kind, the score it gave was always too low. I basically only had pairs to work with and I was barely getting 5-6k out of each hand, which is how I ended up with that pathetic 35k on a blind that one ante ago I could beat easily. It really felt like the game up and said "Nope, ♥♥♥♥ you, you're not getting past this".

Yeah, I wouldn't want my scoring to only work on three of a kind. Zany joker just isn't that good, if that's what you were on.

[Atlatlatlatlatlatlatlatlist]

planet card give some chip and mult boost, it mean you can replace some joker with it.
clever joker give +80 chips if your hand has two pair, and uranus pump up the two pair for +20 chips and +1 mult.
so you can rid off clever joker after using uranus 4 times.

few says about this perspective but planet card is piece of heart, you can collect them and form negative chip joker, instead heart container.

[Sasha]

Yeah... this just isn't gonna work. I got the biggest, meanest, worst kind of "♥♥♥♥ you" from this game just yet.

For the first time since I play, a tarot pack gives me a legendary Joker. I get Chicot. I'm in Ante 4 and so, so, so grateful that I don't have to bother with boss effects any long.

Next blind, 7.5k. Easy. I made more before. Well, 5 hands and 4 discards later, 5k, game over.

I don't know. I feel like this is weighing down my sanity. I don't understand how this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game works at all. People say "Yeah well just arrange your jokers left to right because that's how effects trigger, so put your +mult to the left of xmult". I did. But somehow it triggers xmult just randomly, I get +mult, then xmult, then +mult again. I try to arrange my hand so it also triggers properly but nah... the game still triggers effects willy-nilly.

I don't understand what cards work with each other, I don't understand a damn thing about how this thing even counts scores/hands/whatever, and after trying to read stuff only to just... be unable to actually put ANYTHING from there properly into practice, I'm really just too close to banging my head to a wall and calling it a day.

[malogoss]

Originally posted by Sasha:

Next blind, 7.5k. Easy. I made more before. Well, 5 hands and 4 discards later, 5k, game over.

What type of hand were you mainly playing and what were your other jokers aside from Chicot?