Hitting a ceiling after stacking up with common scoring jokers

[Andronos]

I got the hang of the basics of the game, but I am yet to beat a run. Ante 8 requires enormous scores to beat, and it appears that my build is not up for the task.

In the current run, I had a great economy, steamrolled early game and collected a powerful collection of common jokers which provide a lot of flat score and score multiplyer for my Full House of face cards build. But since ante 5 I've been having a problem that it's really hard to scale anywhere from here - strictly better jokers don't appear regardless of how much money I sink into rerolls, there are all kinds of "weird" jokers that are either sidegrades, or would weaken my build before potentially making it stronger (not even guaranteed). In general I am just sitting in some sort of a local minimum and getting out would require a leap of faith. Ante 6 was already quite difficult and I used all my hands and discards to reach ante 7.

Is there some general strategy for how to pivot to endgame builds? It's clear that the game gives me only limited tools to keep upgrading this one.

[Mastodon_2]

Generally to clear a run you need a decent economy joker early on, then you need something to give you bonus chips, bonus mult and then a decent multiplier joker or two.

Once you're in the mid-game, above the interest cap and with a good amount of cash in the bank, you can reroll looking for a joker to give you multiplier. If you need to make room, you can sell the economy joker as cash becomes irrelevant to a degree if your build is good enough, often you can win a round in a single hand and bank max 'hands remaining' cash and max interest.

If you don't have a good multiplier joker or two by the mid game, I find I run out of steam towards the end.

Of course, part of Balatro is about working with what you have, I've won runs where my jokers looked pretty lame but I seemed to just scrape by. I've had runs where I could clear the score total of the final rounds by double or the required score, only to lose the run when my specific card combo never came any my draws and discards couldn't filter down my deck to get what I needed.

[AlphaGodith]

i finally beat ante 8 (and 9) on my 7th or 8th run, and what i learned and think helped was-

- jokers that boost eachother, and as many non commons as you can. i didn't win at all until i had more uncommon than common jokers. (i also had one that gave me x1.5 mult for each uncommon, which definitely helped, but they were also good on their own)
- a combo of jokers that boost chips, +mult, and xmult, with a focus on xmult
- thinning my deck to just two suits for flushes and straight flushes
- the bus joker or any really that gets more powerful over time, except the obelisk which you will be forced to reset eventually
- going all in on one or two hand types as soon as you get jokers that line up with one (for me it was straights, since they default pretty high and i got lucky with a joker that made them very easy to get)
- getting temperance and planets whenever possible, and avoiding gambles like the wheel of fortune

[beatles42o]

full house isnt all its cracked up to be, which is something ive realized.

3 of a kind is the first hand to start giving x2mults on planet cards. so they can end up easily being better than full house.

sure, two less scoring cards for the hand, but its easier to get one 3 of a kind than it is a two of a kind AND 3 of a kind.

planet mults are about the same, personally i see no reason to force yourself into full house if 3 of a kind does just about as well, more consistently.

[Moray Eel]

Originally posted by beatles42o:

full house isnt all its cracked up to be, which is something ive realized.

3 of a kind is the first hand to start giving x2mults on planet cards. so they can end up easily being better than full house.

sure, two less scoring cards for the hand, but its easier to get one 3 of a kind than it is a two of a kind AND 3 of a kind.

planet mults are about the same, personally i see no reason to force yourself into full house if 3 of a kind does just about as well, more consistently.

3 of a kind also perfectly combos with half joker, which can still be strong enough to get you all the way to 8/8

[Xaelon]

If you want to win ante 8 consistently you need some form of scaling and/or "#X mult" (assuming you can trigger it consistently).

Hanging Chad is a common joker that enables all kinds of crazy combos, so keep an eye out for that.

Once you've settled on what kind of hand you want to play for the run, then start modifying your deck to make it easier to play that hand consistently.

If you can reliably play your highest scoring hand WHILE scaling your jokers, that's how you win.