Black Stake Tips Please!

[Jackel]

Played over 200 hours - but cant get to the next stake - stuck on black.

Please can some kind soul provide me with tips on how to crack and pass black!

Thanks :-)

[malogoss]

It only adds eternal jokers, compared to the previous stake. It's probably the smallest difficulty bump, of all the stakes. So keep playing and you'll surely get a win.

Just refrain from taking eternal jokers when they won't help you much when you'll reach ante 7-8 with them and you'll be fine. Eternal Ride the Bus? Totally fine. Eternal Banner? Well... up to you, but in many cases i'd just leave it there.

The fact that some jokers can randomly be eternal also decreases the value of tags that give a free joker at the next shop. Either live with the 30% risk of it being eternal, which could make it worthless, or totally avoid those tags from now on. I suppose the negative tags aren't as bad if you're a fan, but a random joker is a random joker. Skipping a blind for that is a gamble, it often gets you no benefit at all and you just skipped a blind for no good reason.

Good luck.

[Ica]

Black stake is only a tiny bit harder than the stake before it, so I suspect your problems aren't specific to black stake but more general. Thus, if you just learn to play the game better (even on white stake), you'll probably quickly get good enough to beat black stake.

It's hard to know what you're doing wrong. Maybe you're overvaluing or undervaluing certain types of jokers or hands. I've noticed a lot of beginners really love flushes and avoid pairs and high cards despite them being often better.

Other common mistakes are undervaluing scaling jokers that get better over time, overvaluing mediocre or subpar +mult jokers like Greedy Joker and pals or Jolly Joker and not selling them before the late antes, and not noticing that +mult and xmult are not the same. You should always try to eventually get some way to multiply your mult. Just adding to it isn't enough in the long run.

[SundownKid]

The main benefit of Black Stake and everything below Orange Stake is that cards are not perishable or rental. That means that any rare cards you get will probably be great and worth it. So use the rare card tags as much as possible because regardless of their actual effect, they'll probably be good simply on their own giving you free chips and mult.

[Ica]

Originally posted by SundownKid:

The main benefit of Black Stake and everything below Orange Stake is that cards are not perishable or rental. That means that any rare cards you get will probably be great and worth it. So use the rare card tags as much as possible because regardless of their actual effect, they'll probably be good simply on their own giving you free chips and mult.

Except for ante 1 and anaglyph deck, skipping's probably not something you want to do often. You miss out on interest, a visit to the shop, and the chance to make your scaling jokers better in case you have any.

Also at least in my experience, early on rare jokers are less likely to be very useful than common or uncommon jokers. Rare jokers often need something else to make them good, while there's a lot of simple common +mult and +chips jokers. There are exceptions of course. An ante 1 Vagabond will make the entire run very easy.

[Jackel]

Well I have tried everything, and failed. I will ask Steam for a refund.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Jackel:

Well I have tried everything, and failed. I will ask Steam for a refund.

How did you even get to black stake if you have that little patience?

[DG]

As the stakes get higher the joker pool gets worse because of the eternal, perishable, and rental jokers. You have to be more selective about the jokers you buy and perhaps work harder with the planets and tarots. There isn't a magic bullet that solves the poor joker quality. Just use good judgement and play well.

With eternal jokers you sometime get to play tricks with joker destroying effects that can't destroy eternal jokers. That's a nice when you can manage it but it's not how you generally beat stakes with eternal jokers. Tarot and jokers that create new random jokers will create new jokers without eternal/perishable/rental.

[malogoss]

Originally posted by Jackel:

Well I have tried everything, and failed. I will ask Steam for a refund.

Either your initial statement is false (200h played) or you're never getting a refund.

[Jackel]

Originally posted by malogoss:

Originally posted by Jackel:

Well I have tried everything, and failed. I will ask Steam for a refund.

Either your initial statement is false (200h played) or you're never getting a refund.

216 hours now and 15 Steam achievements sir! 132 jokers unlocked, 12 /15 decks unlocked, 32 out of 32 booster packs and all the consumables have been eaten dear sir.

[Jackel]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Originally posted by Jackel:

Well I have tried everything, and failed. I will ask Steam for a refund.

How did you even get to black stake if you have that little patience?

My dear cat - I have given my heart and soul to this game!

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Jackel:

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

How did you even get to black stake if you have that little patience?

My dear cat - I have given my heart and soul to this game!

But not more than 9 hours between declaring you need help and attempting to misuse the refund process? Your heart and soul seem to be pretty cheap.

[malogoss]

Originally posted by Jackel:

216 hours now and 15 Steam achievements sir! 132 jokers unlocked, 12 /15 decks unlocked, 32 out of 32 booster packs and all the consumables have been eaten dear sir.

Then it's the other option, quite simple isn't it?

[False Prophet]

Originally posted by Jackel:

Well I have tried everything, and failed. I will ask Steam for a refund.

I dont think they will refund you with 200 hours in it. Youre probably playing too risky