re Polaroid joker (thanks page turn)...

Tempy wrote:

Moving it to the right doesn't work either, the trigger order means it scores before Joker - trigger orders are weird until you see it often enough. It goes Scored cards left to right, hand left to right, then Jokers left to right - hence why you always stack xMult after your +Mult, and why things like Steel Cards are weak until they are retrigger over and over.

It scores before the jokers but at least if it's last in the hand it will trigger after any other card related multiplier pluses . It's minor but might just tip the balance if things are tight.

Good pointer about the steel cards triggering before the jokers - hadn't thought of that. But I still like getting them into the hand. I think there's a joker that retriggers the cards not played which would hit them too.

Got that joker that perm adds 5 chips to any card played.  Had the seltzer joker so it boosted them nicely before it got used up. Was going along nicely but screwed up .     Some runs just don't hand out multipliers or even good mult+ jokers soon enough for me.

I've been getting a lot of straights thrown at me early on and it's hard to not use them. Leaves me too lean to progress. Not sure why though - it distracts me and tempts me to invest in a joker that rewards them -  which is - you know - stupid.  

I always try and skip to get the $25 bonus for beating the boss blind early on. Lets me try a reroll if the jokers aren't good. Hasn't worked yet for me.     Will usually skip for a polychrome joker too if I can - early on anyway.

By the way @tempy , thanks for being so helpful.  You are clearly doing considerably better than I am!! 

davyK wrote:

By the way @tempy , thanks for being so helpful.  You are clearly doing considerably better than I am!! 

Not a problem - I played it a lot when it first came out and all those mistakes were very helpful. I initially felt like a lot of people, that it was RNG as hell, but have come around to it since.

I also am not trying to teach you how to suck eggs, I keep making my posts as clear as possible in case other people are reading too, hence why I tend to name jokers and their effects rather than assuming people will know either half of that info. A friend I chat with a lot literally cannot remember the names of jokers, and will only know the effects, whereas I tend to know both.

Sometimes even if you have the "right" jokers on a run, it might be better to cash out and swap to other jokers - you just need to know when it's the right time to do it. Almost all of the common "+mult/+chips for Specific Hand" jokers are mega cool early on but scale so poorly, and a lot of people who lose show me their losing setup and still have +12 mult for Straights in there.

That's why scaling is so important. If you have play some suboptimal hands to power up Green Joker/Ride the Bus/Supernova it will always be worth it when later in the game it's pumping out 30-60 +mult.

Balatro University on YouTube was chatting during one of his videos about how people undervalue Obelisk (x1 base mult x0.2 mult added for each hand played that isn't your most played hand) and when the developer was asked about his favourite/most played jokers, he mentioned Obelisk.

I find it very hard to use well, but it's an extremely powerful joker that keys off pivoting and can scale incredibly high if you are flexible. That's the key to winning, and in that it's quite similar to Slay the Spire - when it gets harder you won't get far by trying to stick to an archetype. Each joker, booster pack, voucher, and skip tag has to be considered.

You would need to have a few hands at the same usage level to derisk the obelisk I'm guessing. If you have one way ahead of the others it would be hard to change tack.

davyK wrote:

By the way @tempy , thanks for being so helpful.  You are clearly doing considerably better than I am!! 

At least I didn't offer advice - not like the time I offered advice to @Dubs - who cleared the shmup I had been playing for months (Gigawing) in a day or two!!!

(⸝⸝⸝O﹏ O⸝⸝⸝)

I spent 6 hours on a Trials Evo map to beat him once, I ended up like 8th in the world. Logged back on an hour later and he was 5th in the world.

hylian_elf wrote:

You offered advice to Dubs ahhaahhaahhaah oh man.  I almost offered advice to him on Street Fighter.  He picked the game up, learned how to play in a day, and got better than me (after all my years of playing) in maybe anotehr day.  FUCKING MACHINE

He was really nice about it too.

Dubs is The Terminator.

Got this over the weekend. No regrets, but byebye homelife.

Not won a game yet but got a couple of amazing (for me) set ups going. I also gravitate towards flushes, Davey. Green deck, cos I like monies. Had the joker that treats hearts and diamonds, spades and clubs the same, the mult jokers for hearts and clubs. Winning in one or two hands, rolling in coin, got a voucher to reroll the big boss. Dunno which round I was in but I rerolled and I think I got no discards. I lost, with a beautiful strategy blossoming around me. Shoulda stuck with drawing face cards down.

Did a two pair run, joker for two pairs, mult on face, retrigger face, mult depending on number of tarot used. Spectral card raised all my hand levels which was niiiiiice. Died because of another shitty reroll.

I got good at focussing on jokers early, I need to remember to get the chips up, too. Need to hammer it in my head that I can play discards in my hand if less than 5 cards in it.

Also misclicking the discard and play buttons sucks.

Looking forward to actually winning a game.

Always worth remembering that if you haven't got any discards, you can play cards instead. Ideally you want to be winning with a hand or two left over, for cash flow and for security. I think Green Deck is fun but can teach bad habits because of its lack of interest earned on rounds.

As for scoring - just make sure your +Mult Jokers are on the left of your xMult Jokers, that's the most important thing. I feel it's much better to feel out your hands as reckons rather than math anything out.

Yeah when I rebought it on Steam I got four wins in a row, including unlocking Stuntman. Definitely goes to show that knowledge is king.

I went back to some base level runs after doing some harder difficulties and it's stupidly easy now there. Love it.

Yeah flushes and straights have too much variance for too little reward once you get past the first ante, second max.
Pair or High Card is where it's at.  Love the joker that bumps the level of the first hand you discard.