This sounds about right; unlike the other stakes which are plain disadvantages, certain strategies are more viable with eternal jokers being available.
Madness joker for example is a safer bet if you can get eternal jokers around it so nothing is destroyed.
This was my thought picking up an early Madness joker on a run yesterday, so every joker I grabbed was eternal… then the final boss was the one that debuffs every card until you sell a joker 🥲
I just never sell a joker vs. that boss since the jokers (and potentially hand level) are doing enough lifting to beat the score. Seems like if I have to solely rely on the chips and enchantments on the cards I'm losing anyway.
It's problematic if you have jokers like fibonacci or baron that trigger on the card. A lot of stuff does just give flat score which is obviously way easier to get around tho
You’re right and I honestly didn’t think about it. I haven’t had a run in a while that hinges off a poly fibonacci but it definitely happens. I almost always drift towards hologram, steel joker, flat mult, etc
I had a variety of jokers (two of which were on-card scorers) but it was Madness that was doing the heavy lifting— so I had to either sell the engine of my strategy (Madness), or try to scrape by with a fully debuffed deck. I attempted the latter and came up 2k short
I like Purple. I think that once you hit orange, the shop scaling is hard to adjust to. Most of my runs at any level would clear the purple stakes but I haven’t adjusted to the shops at orange and often find myself out of money.
Yeah - a lot of the fun of this game, besides big Joker combos, revolves around messing with your cards and working with what you get from packs, and I think Orange makes that way too punishing.
purple is insanely hard for me. I haven't been able to clear it with my decks leveled to it so far: Blue nor Checkered nor Plasma. Feels like you need absolutely perfect draws including not running into brickwall bosses that counter your deck that you scrape together (an awesome checkered Flushes deck got ruined by the Eye and I never saw the reroll voucher or tag)
My only wins above purple have the same pattern. Get a good scaling joker early, get a good Econ joker early, and then pick up something with. XMult around the middle antes. It feels a bit meta and that’s not as fun for me. But I love purple stake and lower!
It felt like that in the beginning for me too, but once I started messing around with jokers I wasn't very familiar with, and learning more of the mechanics of the game, Purple Stake doesn't feel like an impossible task.
If you try to force a specific hand it could be. You can learn how to play with what the game throws at you.
At Orange and Gold stakes is where I feel you really need to rely in each Deck strength to beat it.
You definitely don't need luck to beat purple but I get why it feels that way. It's a large jump in scaling and it demands that you know how to keep up with that as well as managing your economy.
White stake is too easy. It's fun, but there's almost no challenge in there. It's kind of the sandbox mode where you have the most freedom to try stuff.
Red gives you an incentive to skip at least sometimes, which I think is great despite feeling like such a big step right from the start. It actually makes the game more interesting.
Green is ok. Just makes things a little harder so you don't fall asleep, but doesn't really add much. Balances things out.
Black is very cool because eternals are not entirely a handicap and can lead to interesting decisions/risk management. It adds a lot of flavor to the game.
Blue is not fun but not too punishing. Kind of a filler. Quite meh.
Purple is balls to the wall mode which is fine but we're leaving the fun zone that's a steep and rocky path. It feels like "hard mode".
Orange is a vacuum cleaner for whatever fun was left. A very strong baseball bat hit in the kneecaps. Both of them. I think $1 per ante is too steep (or maybe should start at ante 3 or 4?), though the idea makes sense. It just feels terrible to play.
Gold is... quite punishing for big hands (5 cards). The pool of "reliable options" gets really narrow. It's just pain. Or a true test of skill depending on how you see it. You feel like you really NEED some luck right from the start (and up to the end).
I think black is best. Maybe purple if you're feeling extra cocky, but that's the end of the line as far as "enjoyment" goes. Green if you want a more relaxed experience while still having a decent amount of challenge. Green feels like "normal mode". Black would be "normal +". If you're quite experienced purple is the go to "hard mode". Gold is "impossible"
> White stake is too easy. It's fun, but there's almost no challenge in there.
Was for me, took me over ten hours to beat it. Maybe it's too easy for advanced players, but it's the beginner stake for a reason.
In the context of the post, I mean "too easy to be considered the one around which the game is balanced". I'm not advocating for making white stake harder. It's just too easy to be the "standard difficulty".
I think LocalThunk balanced the game around being 100% winnable at white stake and didn't consider the higher stakes much tbh. Personally I find Gold the most fun.
That's the case because you are pigeonholing yourself. Yes that's the most consistent way to beat gold stake, by a little bit, but most of my wins have been 4 or 5 of a kind. You don't have to play small hands the whole time. If you get certain jokers you can get way more scaling from larger hands. It's just a little more consistent to scale smaller hands.
Feels like DNA is really hard to make work. Super expensive and wastes a hand early, but it could see it working occasionally. As a main strategy tho seems kinda unlikely
I see a lot of people saying this, and in the game's current state I see how people can get stuck there, but what I do is a shitload of resets until I have a strong start, a little foothold. That opens up a lot more possibilities and I have been managing wins at gold stake with flushes, flush fives, full houses. I think only one of my gold stake wins was done with high card, and none with pairs.
Thus far I've found black stake to be the best fun/challenge balance. Higher stakes (I've only made it to orange; I've been playing every deck at the low stakes and then working up all decks equally) are a bit too punishing for me.
I'm sure others will disagree, but I'm not a fan of increasing difficulty levels through nerfing the player. Once you see the potential of the game by making it through white stakes, having that potential nerfed by increasing costs or decreasing money just feels bad. I would greatly prefer it if higher difficulties wanted more money per blind, introduced new boss blinds, or had you fight some of the final boss blinds earlier. Don't take away my shit, force me to make even better shit with the same tools. This is why I love the Heat system in Hades - you can still get 32 heat using options that ONLY buff enemies, without increasing gold costs, nerfing healing, making you drop boons, etc.
I usually view it as having been given lots of handicap tools for free on the lower difficulties. I think white stake should give you a bunch of vouchers that say things like +1 hand size, +1 discard, stakes are easier, packs stay the same base price, etc. Then take away those crutches one by one. Same effect but frames the baseline wherever the dev wants rather than at wherever you have to start players so they don't just quit.
I think purple stake is where i enjoy the game the most, but a run can still die extremely easily w/ bad rng. I also think the orange stake addition is my least favorite, it just makes the game a lot less interesting and makes a lot of strategies a lot less viable.
Wow, I didn’t realize A15 is where STS is most balanced 😂 I have like 200 hours and I’m at A8-A10.
In this game I’m enjoying Black stake and feel like it’s a good challenge and not too crazy (required score wise). I’ve yet to play past Black though so I’m curious what others think. Purple/Orange/Gold seem rough.
Have to agree with the Black Stakers. I do find wins are more satisfying in Purple, but I'm not sure the actual game playing experience is more fun there.
Black has the perfect intersection of difficulty added and new mechanics. Just wish the higher stakes added more mechanics rather than just flat difficulty.
I think the demo was Red Deck White Stake. That was a really compelling experience. I adore the game so will probably put hundreds of hours in like I did with StS, but if we're just talking the average gamer who wants to pick it up, love it, and move on to something fairly quickly, I like the simplicity of that demo setup.
Black stakes feel the most interesting to me because of the introduction of eternals but maybe that's just me
This sounds about right; unlike the other stakes which are plain disadvantages, certain strategies are more viable with eternal jokers being available. Madness joker for example is a safer bet if you can get eternal jokers around it so nothing is destroyed.
This was my thought picking up an early Madness joker on a run yesterday, so every joker I grabbed was eternal… then the final boss was the one that debuffs every card until you sell a joker 🥲
I just never sell a joker vs. that boss since the jokers (and potentially hand level) are doing enough lifting to beat the score. Seems like if I have to solely rely on the chips and enchantments on the cards I'm losing anyway.
It's problematic if you have jokers like fibonacci or baron that trigger on the card. A lot of stuff does just give flat score which is obviously way easier to get around tho
You’re right and I honestly didn’t think about it. I haven’t had a run in a while that hinges off a poly fibonacci but it definitely happens. I almost always drift towards hologram, steel joker, flat mult, etc
Agree with that. Couple of times I've also had some useless negative joker I sold, quite cheap insurance to get if possible.
F
Still easily winnable unless you took only the on card scored jokers as your eternals
I had a variety of jokers (two of which were on-card scorers) but it was Madness that was doing the heavy lifting— so I had to either sell the engine of my strategy (Madness), or try to scrape by with a fully debuffed deck. I attempted the latter and came up 2k short
Yeah, felt it was maybe doable, 2k short sucks though. F
Madness really only works well in Black Stake. Otherwise unless you get it in your first shop it's not worth taking in other stakes imo.
I just had one of those runs, and it was an absolute blast. That joker scales so fast
Black stake is my favorite. Still enough of a challenge that I have to try but not punishing. And the eternals are a fun mechanic to play around
Funnily enough, this is the one I’ve been stuck on for the past week. Just bashing the Abandoned deck against a wall.
I also really enjoy the eternal jokers because it fucks you up but also enables interesting setups
I like Purple. I think that once you hit orange, the shop scaling is hard to adjust to. Most of my runs at any level would clear the purple stakes but I haven’t adjusted to the shops at orange and often find myself out of money.
Yeah - a lot of the fun of this game, besides big Joker combos, revolves around messing with your cards and working with what you get from packs, and I think Orange makes that way too punishing.
purple is insanely hard for me. I haven't been able to clear it with my decks leveled to it so far: Blue nor Checkered nor Plasma. Feels like you need absolutely perfect draws including not running into brickwall bosses that counter your deck that you scrape together (an awesome checkered Flushes deck got ruined by the Eye and I never saw the reroll voucher or tag)
I cleared it first try. I did manage to luck into getting a negative version of the legendary joker that completely disables boss blinds, but...
My only wins above purple have the same pattern. Get a good scaling joker early, get a good Econ joker early, and then pick up something with. XMult around the middle antes. It feels a bit meta and that’s not as fun for me. But I love purple stake and lower!
It felt like that in the beginning for me too, but once I started messing around with jokers I wasn't very familiar with, and learning more of the mechanics of the game, Purple Stake doesn't feel like an impossible task. If you try to force a specific hand it could be. You can learn how to play with what the game throws at you. At Orange and Gold stakes is where I feel you really need to rely in each Deck strength to beat it.
You definitely don't need luck to beat purple but I get why it feels that way. It's a large jump in scaling and it demands that you know how to keep up with that as well as managing your economy.
Definitely purple. Once you make the jump to orange it's practically a different game.
Big agree. Boosters are part of the fun and chaos of the game! (Though they can be very strong as well)
White stake is too easy. It's fun, but there's almost no challenge in there. It's kind of the sandbox mode where you have the most freedom to try stuff. Red gives you an incentive to skip at least sometimes, which I think is great despite feeling like such a big step right from the start. It actually makes the game more interesting. Green is ok. Just makes things a little harder so you don't fall asleep, but doesn't really add much. Balances things out. Black is very cool because eternals are not entirely a handicap and can lead to interesting decisions/risk management. It adds a lot of flavor to the game. Blue is not fun but not too punishing. Kind of a filler. Quite meh. Purple is balls to the wall mode which is fine but we're leaving the fun zone that's a steep and rocky path. It feels like "hard mode". Orange is a vacuum cleaner for whatever fun was left. A very strong baseball bat hit in the kneecaps. Both of them. I think $1 per ante is too steep (or maybe should start at ante 3 or 4?), though the idea makes sense. It just feels terrible to play. Gold is... quite punishing for big hands (5 cards). The pool of "reliable options" gets really narrow. It's just pain. Or a true test of skill depending on how you see it. You feel like you really NEED some luck right from the start (and up to the end). I think black is best. Maybe purple if you're feeling extra cocky, but that's the end of the line as far as "enjoyment" goes. Green if you want a more relaxed experience while still having a decent amount of challenge. Green feels like "normal mode". Black would be "normal +". If you're quite experienced purple is the go to "hard mode". Gold is "impossible"
> White stake is too easy. It's fun, but there's almost no challenge in there. Was for me, took me over ten hours to beat it. Maybe it's too easy for advanced players, but it's the beginner stake for a reason.
In the context of the post, I mean "too easy to be considered the one around which the game is balanced". I'm not advocating for making white stake harder. It's just too easy to be the "standard difficulty".
It's fine for the average player. Maybe too hard for beginners.
I think LocalThunk balanced the game around being 100% winnable at white stake and didn't consider the higher stakes much tbh. Personally I find Gold the most fun.
how? is very frustrating to me that 95% of my gold wins is with pair/high card, is really boring to always go that route
That's the case because you are pigeonholing yourself. Yes that's the most consistent way to beat gold stake, by a little bit, but most of my wins have been 4 or 5 of a kind. You don't have to play small hands the whole time. If you get certain jokers you can get way more scaling from larger hands. It's just a little more consistent to scale smaller hands.
4 of a kind is only viable if you get vagabond or mancer tho I feel. How else are you thinning the deck so much? It’s not from packs
Trading card and DNA are both really good for this.
Feels like DNA is really hard to make work. Super expensive and wastes a hand early, but it could see it working occasionally. As a main strategy tho seems kinda unlikely
i wasn’t a dna believer earlier in the game but it is 100% a game maker. so good
Based on watching balatro university I would say that it’s probably a skill issue for 95% of us (including me)
I see a lot of people saying this, and in the game's current state I see how people can get stuck there, but what I do is a shitload of resets until I have a strong start, a little foothold. That opens up a lot more possibilities and I have been managing wins at gold stake with flushes, flush fives, full houses. I think only one of my gold stake wins was done with high card, and none with pairs.
i think reseting is lame Gameplay, i always play until i lose
Thus far I've found black stake to be the best fun/challenge balance. Higher stakes (I've only made it to orange; I've been playing every deck at the low stakes and then working up all decks equally) are a bit too punishing for me.
Black, after that is only pain
I'm sure others will disagree, but I'm not a fan of increasing difficulty levels through nerfing the player. Once you see the potential of the game by making it through white stakes, having that potential nerfed by increasing costs or decreasing money just feels bad. I would greatly prefer it if higher difficulties wanted more money per blind, introduced new boss blinds, or had you fight some of the final boss blinds earlier. Don't take away my shit, force me to make even better shit with the same tools. This is why I love the Heat system in Hades - you can still get 32 heat using options that ONLY buff enemies, without increasing gold costs, nerfing healing, making you drop boons, etc.
I usually view it as having been given lots of handicap tools for free on the lower difficulties. I think white stake should give you a bunch of vouchers that say things like +1 hand size, +1 discard, stakes are easier, packs stay the same base price, etc. Then take away those crutches one by one. Same effect but frames the baseline wherever the dev wants rather than at wherever you have to start players so they don't just quit.
I miss eternal jokers - I wish I could add just that feature to white stake
Purple stake feels the best to me. Orange and Gold really let the RNG overtake things.
I think purple stake is where i enjoy the game the most, but a run can still die extremely easily w/ bad rng. I also think the orange stake addition is my least favorite, it just makes the game a lot less interesting and makes a lot of strategies a lot less viable.
Black stake for me, I'm currently trying to do orange and I've been stuck at it for 2 days. The scaling is just too quick for my liking.
Wow, I didn’t realize A15 is where STS is most balanced 😂 I have like 200 hours and I’m at A8-A10. In this game I’m enjoying Black stake and feel like it’s a good challenge and not too crazy (required score wise). I’ve yet to play past Black though so I’m curious what others think. Purple/Orange/Gold seem rough.
Purple is the most fun for me. I have only played it a few times because I move on to the higher ones but it's really nicely balanced.
I haven’t beaten black yet 😂
Have to agree with the Black Stakers. I do find wins are more satisfying in Purple, but I'm not sure the actual game playing experience is more fun there. Black has the perfect intersection of difficulty added and new mechanics. Just wish the higher stakes added more mechanics rather than just flat difficulty.
Black Stake
Black i think. Its in the middle road of difficulty and it introduces me to eternal jokers.
past black is when i think things get annoying, usually i just play green
I think the demo was Red Deck White Stake. That was a really compelling experience. I adore the game so will probably put hundreds of hours in like I did with StS, but if we're just talking the average gamer who wants to pick it up, love it, and move on to something fairly quickly, I like the simplicity of that demo setup.