Attempts per Deck/Stake

	Purple Stake	Orange Stake	Gold Stake
Red	3	3	3
Blue	1	2	6
Yellow	1	1	1
Green	1	1	5
Black	43	1	52
Magic	4	3	7
Nebula	1	2	9
Ghost	1	1	1
Abandoned	3	2	1
Checkered	1	1	6
Zodiac	1	7	21
Painted	3	8	7
Anaglyph	2	9	2
Plasma	5	1	2
Erratic	2	1	9

I was playing through each stake with all the decks, and when I hit Purple stake, I decided to log the results of all of my games as this is when the game really ramps up. I’ve read some Gold Stake guides which recommend a lot of restarting, but I wanted to see what it would look like if I gave every run my best shot. A couple of clarifications: First, this is only trying to “win” a run which means to clear ante 8. High score builds are super fun but that was not the goal here. Second, I never reset once and played every run to the end. Here is the table showing the number of attempts it took me to clear each deck at each stake. I also included my personal game log which has the data from every “You Win”/“Game Over” screen. Below are my observations on the data and strategy tips.

Game Log: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K4GBcFfgu_6N7YxWqDX25AlPaVGfPZtELVkrkrA23-A/edit?usp=sharing *Note: There are a few missing entries, mostly due to accidentally leaving the end screen with a couple due to rage quitting. I still added them in as part of the W/L record which is ultimately what I wanted to track.

Hours Played: 104

Cavendishes lost: 1

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Observations

• Non-Black Deck Win Rates:
  • Purple Stake: 48.3%
  • Orange Stake: 33.3%
  • Gold Stake: 17.5%
• Overall Black Deck Win Rate: 3.1%
• Purple, Orange, and Gold are relatively the same when you shoot for High Card builds. The biggest hurdle for Gold is getting through the early game with -1 hand size, but that’s about it. Even though my win rate was a lot less for Gold, the amount of time to grind through was about the same as a lot of runs die in ante 1/2.
• Thoughts on Resetting - This game is awesome and it’s so fun to navigate a run with what you’re given instead of resetting for the perfect joker to start your run. You will also improve immensely as a player when you’re forced to deal with a run where you’re barely surviving every round. Plus when you leave a run up to RNG in the beginning, you’re less likely to depend on your own piloting skill. This all being said, it does feel bad when you’re hanging on for 4/5 antes with tempo jokers only and can never get anything going. If you want to save yourself some time, I think looking for a solid joker in ante 1/2 and resetting if you don’t find one is pretty reasonable.
• The most difficult deck is Black deck by far. Missing a hand makes the early game much harder to navigate, and long-term, the -1 hand size takes 25% of your points away. Not to mention your scaling mults have one less hand to trigger on. Not to mention less money from extra hands. Not to mention Hieroglyph is near unplayable…I have no idea how I spiked a win on my first attempt at Orange stake but I guess that’s what happens with a low sample size. I think the 43/52 attempts on Purple/Gold stake are more realistic.
• The second-most difficult deck IMO is a tossup between Zodiac and Painted. The reason Zodiac is difficult is a bit nuanced. You get Overstock which gives you an extra slot in the shop. However, you also get the Tarot and Planet Merchants so your shops end up littered with non-Jokers which makes things a lot more difficult. This difficulty is more apparent in Gold stake (took me 21 attempts) as you have a really hard time finding an early joker to get you off the ground. For Painted deck, having a missing Joker slot is huge. Painted deck is one where you can play around with other builds with the increased hand size, but limiting to 4 jokers is a big deal and I always felt strapped when playing it. This is one deck where I go for the “Negative Joker in the next shop” tag as spiking a decent fifth joker is a big deal.
• Plasma deck takes a bit getting used to. Things are scaling so fast that you kinda have to go with chips to get the big “Balanced” scores. There’s not much time to transition into a big mult + multx setup so I always felt like I was forced into big chip builds with this one. I remember one of my runs had 2 Arrowheads, Brainstorm, and Seltzer to get through. Once I switched my mindset to “chips only”, it was a lot easier to pilot.
• The other decks are all basically the same. Blue deck is probably easiest but also Yellow/Green are also comfortable to play due to the better econ. Ghost was nice too as the 1.5x mult gets you going early.

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Tips For High Stakes

• Learn how to play the first ante well. Point requirements go from 300 to 450 to 600. 300 can be cleared in a single hand by flushes, straights, or full houses. Flushes are the easiest to get and you need 40 chips from the hand to get to the 75x4=300 to clear the Small Blind. Be willing to discard aggressively to find a 300 point hand. Having an extra dollar for the first shop can be huge. 450 is a lot simpler as you usually need to do this in two hands meaning they can average a lower amount (225). 600 can be cleared in two hands, but likely will require three as it’s not trivial to find two 300 point hands. Playing the first ante is key as you need to get the money to buy jokers from the shop as soon as possible. This leads to the next point which is…
• Skipping blinds is severely overrated. Shops are incredibly valuable as they give you access to jokers which are the main way to win. Here are some examples of when I might skip: - Mega Buffoon pack on a Small Blind since the money received is minimal and I’m getting basically a better shop through the pack. This is especially true if I’m low on money and need a good joker ASAP.
  • Rare joker in next shop if my current build is tapped out and needs some juice to get past ante 8 - Negative joker in next shop if my build is tapped out and I’m not going to clear ante 8. This happens mostly w/ Painted deck - Anaglyph deck can do some fun things with skips as you get the double tag so pay a lot more attention than normal for these. Mega Buffoon packs or money are the best ones here. - A good way to think about it is to look at the money received from the blind and the shop access together as it’s own “tag” and make a decision on whether you’d want that or the skip tag. - There are strategic reasons to skip besides looking at immediate rewards. I had the Plasma deck I mentioned above (two Arrowheads, a Brainstorm, and a Seltzer) with 4 antes to go so I just skipped straight to the final boss to make sure seltzer was still up and running. Totally unique situation but something to keep in mind.
• Don’t hoard money early. It’s nice to get up to $25 for the interest, but don’t do it in lieu of picking up a joker in the shop, even a meh tempo joker. Going down to $0 if it means you’re going to survive one ante is totally fine. If you try and hoard your money early, you’ll find you will be fizzling out early on in runs. High Stakes Balatro is a lot about just surviving until you get more juice in your setup, so just try and stick around.
• Hoard money when you are comfortable. Once you have a build that is clearing rounds easily, save up to $25 so you get a “free” reroll every turn to dig for more jokers.
• High Card setups are the most consistent. Here are some reasons why: (1) you’re not dependent on the luck of the deck draw (2) points are more consistent so it’s easy to see where you stand (3) most bosses you just ignore (4) it makes a lot of jokers better (Stuntman, Blackboard, Card Sharp) and (5) It mostly ignores Orange/Gold stake restrictions. For those who are unaware, the High Card pieces look something like this:
  • Tempo Mult Joker early on - this will be something like Misprint, Lusty Joker, Fibonacci, etc. Basically something to get your points off the ground for the first few antes. And feel free to add multiple of these as you need them to keep surviving…
  • Chips Joker - Chips are the other side of the mult equation. If you don’t have a chips joker, your hands will be doing the heavy lifting to fill this void. The absolute goat of chip jokers is Stuntman but finding a scaling chip joker is also very great. Something like Square Joker, Castle, or Bull will be sufficient to fill your single chip joker slot. However, even a simple Blue Joker or Banner can carry you to the end
  • Scaling Mult - thinking Green Joker, Ride the Bus, Supernova, Burnt Joker, Bootstraps etc. These jokers gain mult as you go which is key to keeping up with the point ramp up without having to rely on good hands to get there. These are the crux of any High Card build so make sure you understand how they work and how to use them efficiently. The instant you first find a good scaling mult is a crucial part of a run. You need to find a way to get this joker off the ground and try and trigger it as many times as possible. The first few triggers are the most valuable. Going from 5 to 6 mult is way more valuable than going from 30 to 31 mult. This is where your tempo jokers will hold you over until the scaling mult takes over at which point you’re free to dump the tempo jokers for something better
    • As I said before, you need to trigger these AS MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE. This often includes nerfing your joker ordering to make sure you get the maximum triggers. If you don’t know how many points you’re scoring from different configurations, take a second and calculate it out. I’ve had quite a few runs where I’m optimizing my scaling jokers to the max and I get to ante 8 and barely clear the final boss. Without optimizing, that probably ends in a loss, so make sure you’re maximizing this.
  • MultX Jokers - This is your end game to clear ante 8 although this does not mean you don’t take these early. Some examples of these would Ramon, Vampire, Blackboard, Cavendish, and Campfire, but there are plenty other great ones. Also I would think of a card like Burglar as a 2X Mult in most cases as your hand points should be consistent if you’re running High Card. Obelisk can go insane in this build as well, especially if you were using another hand like flushes or two pairs to get going early on. In a standard High Card run, you ideally will have a single Chip Joker, a single Scaling Mult joker, and then the best possible MultX Jokers you can find.
  • All this being said, you are not locked in to playing High Card. I had a run where I got Bloodstone from a joker pack and immediately got Lusty Joker in the next shop. I found Oops All Sixes later and cruised that for a win. Take what the game gives you, just know which long-term strategies are more solid if you come to a crossroad.
• Know the value of pacKs. If you’re late-game cruising on a High Card setup, don’t even bother with packs. Not to mention they go crazy expensive in Orange+ stake. The best packs are the Buffoon packs. These are almost an auto-pickup if I’m looking for jokers (depends on the price too). The main time I’ll go for Arcane packs is if I hit some tempo jokers early that steer me towards a hand like flushes or three of a kind, in which case tarot cards can help out. Although even then, it’s usually better to use your money to find better jokers than it is curating your deck. Same thing goes for Spectral packs, only go for them if you have an idea of what you want (Ectoplasm goes hard, also Wraith is great). At the end of the day, make sure you’re focusing on jokers first before jumping into packs.
• Always think in terms of Mult difference when choosing/swapping jokers. When deciding if you should swap out a joker for another one, you should know what your mult and/or chips are for a current hand. You can then figure out what the mult change is of adding/swapping a new joker. Here’s an example, let’s say I have a Green Joker at 20 mult and a Banner (usually 80 chips). Im at a shop and can choose between a card that gives me 40 chips on average or 5 mult on average. The correct play is to take the 40 chips as it 1.5xs your chips whereas the 5 mult is only 1.25xing your mult. When looking at these comparisons, also make sure to take into account scaling. So Green Joker is 20 mult now, but it’ll be 30 multi in a few rounds, so the 5 mult pickup is even worse than the 1.25x estimation. These calculations are usually simple although they can increase in complexity when there are more moving parts, thinking like Baseball Card on multiple cards that could be swapped out as an example. Also including editions on jokers can make it a tougher decision. But again, the main takeaway is you can usually boil things down to the mult change which makes these choices easier to compare.
• Understand how the blind scaling works. When you complete a boss, you should know how many points it will take to beat the Small Blind of the next ante so you know if you need to go all-in for jokers in the shop or if you can just chill. See this page for how blinds work: https://balatrogame.fandom.com/wiki/Blinds. Early on, you’ll see a bump from ante boss to the next ante’s small blind, although for late game (last 4 antes), this is not the case and the small blind is equal to or less than the previous boss. It’s very important to keep this in mind. If you know you’re screwed at the next level, GO ALL IN rerolling for jokers in the shop. Otherwise, it’s usually better to just chill and get the interest off your money.
• Vouchers
  • Great Tier:
    • Grabber - Basically 1.25x w/o needing a joker slot. It also gives you an extra $1 per turn, very good.
    • Overstock - Since we want jokers, increasing your shop efficiency by 1.5x is a big deal. - Director’s Cut - The biggest obstacle to winning a late game High Card run is hitting one of the two nasty end game bosses: Violet Vessel or Crimson Heart. These can totally wreck a run and picking up a $10 Director’s Cut is completely worth it to mitigate the 2/5 chance of hitting one of these. And if you happen to face one of them and reroll into the other, then I guess you win the 1 out of 10 lottery. Notice how the other three bosses are fairly trivial when running High Card. For the regular bosses, ones like The Wall, The Ox, The Needle, or the Eye can be nice to reroll as well.
    • Reroll Surplus - Can be nice if you have the econ for it. Rerolls happen a lot with High Card builds.
    • Hieroglyph - First thing is I rarely take this with Black deck as you’re basically losing 1/3 of your point output at a minimum by taking the -1 hands. With normal 4 hand decks, I usually take this early on, but if it’s late game and I can see that my point output trajectory is such that I don’t need it to win ante 8, then I’ll just skip. The extra nice thing about getting this early is you get access to Petroglyph which usually has no downside (-1 discard instead of -1 hand).
  • Situational Tier:
    • Clearance Sale - usually too much of an econ hit to be justified. Although if you’re doing things like Campfire, it can be really nice. Again, most of the time we’re just buying jokers so you won’t get your money back.
    • Wasteful - Can be nice with things that synergize with it like Banner or Delayed Gratification. I would say you probably want to have a good reason to take it.
    • Seed Money - Slaps with econ based jokers like Bootstraps or Bull. Otherwise it’s usually not worth it.
  • Trash Tier:
    • Blank Card - I usually don’t bother with this, it’s just too much of a econ hit for a chance to get Antimatter which honestly isn’t needed for getting a standard win
    • Hone - Only thing really worth hitting from this is Polychrome and still, just not worth the econ hit.
    • Crystal Ball - No need for an extra slot
    • Telescope - Definitely not worth for Orange/Gold stake due to expensive packs and even in purple, its pretty slow.
    • Tarot/Planet Merchant & Magic Trick - Not what we’re looking for
    • Paint Brush - This is probably the best one in this tier, but when running High Card, you usually don’t care about hand size. It even makes Blackboard worse. Can be nice very early on if you’re still trying to get established and stay alive with a flush setup or otherwise

Original Post by u/jjthejetplane2468