Golden needle

[hardcoriste]

How long did it take you to beat golden needle? I've been trying for a week now, it's my last challange and i feel like I'm losing my mind over it

[Pretoryan]

If you are struggling just use plasma or hearts/spades deck.

Also when starting a run, you can restart a few times to make sure your 1st round is meaningful (good joker, or making good money or whatever)

To answer your question, I believe I cleared it all in one evening after unlocking hearts/spades deck.

[Goblin]

Just replayed it, and took about an hour: https://imgur.com/a/SrWV6cD
Though this challenge is probably the most RNG-dependent the game ever gets, so estimates aren't going to help much. But no amount of RNG is going to help if you pass up the right things when you get them.
I got an early Delayed Gratification, which pretty much allowed me to sell Credit Card and start building up tons of cash. Was relying on just Swashbuckler at that point, so just filled up my joker slots pretty quick. Lucked into Dusk and Acrobat because I got to reroll a bit with all that money (also bought the cheaper rerolls voucher). Got a blue seal from a spectral pack and used it to get flush to level 10 by the end (got terrible planet pack rolls). Got the Holo Fibbonaci from a buffoon pack. I also would've died to Violet Vessel, but was lucky enough to see Mr. Bones in the first shop after the boss. Was a great reminder to always check what your upcoming boss is in Run Info after you beat the last one, saved my hide.

Originally posted by Pretoryan:

If you are struggling just use plasma or hearts/spades deck

'Just use a deck"... during a challenge? If you don't know what Golden Needle is, why respond?

[FilipinoMilitiaMan]

Originally posted by Goblin:

Originally posted by Pretoryan:

If you are struggling just use plasma or hearts/spades deck

'Just use a deck"... during a challenge? If you don't know what Golden Needle is, why respond?

That person was probably thinking of the boss, "The Needle."

[Veuve Pinsec - LUPsClub]

(google translate).

I just beat it today, I don't know how many tries it took because I don't keep trying when it doesn't work. I just come back to it from time to time. I think I made less than 20 attempts.

Through this part, I was able to quickly have a good saving with "Mail in rebate" (excellent for this challenge, we gain more from discarding than we ultimately lose money) and also and "golden joker", I quickly got rid of the credit card.

I played flush (level 6 only at the end of the game).

It was enough with "Acrobat" (X 3 because as a reminder we only have one hand, so it's the last one so X 3) I also had "The Duo" (X2; because I had converted a maximum of card in the same color, so many pairs), I also had the "Blueprint" and finally bought just before the final boss "Ancient Joker - which was initialized with the heart color, the color that, luckily, I had favored).

There must be quite a few ways to beat this challenge, but economy is key.
I was quickly over $40 when I sold the credit card, by the end of the game I had over $100.

[AlphaGodith]

not long but i remember it relying a lot on just getting lucky with synergistic jokers. my winning setup had dusk, for example, which retriggers all cards played in the last hand, which since you're limited to one hand, always triggered, as well as two jokers that enhanced straights, my favorite hand, one that did +mult and one that did xmult. i also had the one that gives money for played face cards and the tarot mult joker which i got up to 50 by the end. i know the acrobat which gives x3 mult for your final hand would also be very good.

[RazzberryMocha]

Straights are probably your best bet unless if you get some other good direction early as they have some of the best risk/reward out of any hand type (excluding large amounts of deckfixing of course). They also have some really good scaling with runner and planets, are really easy to make with the 6 discards (though you shouldn't need to use many), are powerful with/without glass/steel cards, and are very versatile with a wide range of jokers. Also, it's probably safe to sell the credit card once you're consistently able to stay around $20 and mail-in-rebate is absurd.

[GTTV]

Beat it on 3rd try with straights

[ROORnNUGZ]

yeah jokerless is much easier than this one

[Ackranome]

1 try

[hardcoriste]

Originally posted by Ackranome:

1 try

Nice

[Jonez Smoakee]

I've been on this challenge for the last 2 weeks. RNG hates me.

I pull a hearts +3 card, all hearts are de-buffed.

I get to round 6. final hand is to start with 0 discards.

It's odd how the RNG lines up perfectly against whatever I'm holding.