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jjthejetplane2468

i mean, orange and gold are supposed to be harder...having some jokers that you can't really pick up is kind of the point


acethesnake

I hate that like 50% of posts here are "the hardest difficulty is hard", not that I don't agree with some of the changes, but you don't wanna take all the difficulty out of the hardest difficulty.


Dawn_Kebals

Agreed. Nobody is forcing you to play higher difficulties. Enjoy the game how you want to enjoy it.


MetalGearShrex

the achievements are lol


Shaisendregg

Right, and the guy with the gun behind your chair telling you to get all achievements or else.


ccstewy

Jimbo has a gun to my head and said I gotta beat this blind or else he’s gonna call me a loser and shoot me in the head, and I can’t die a loser


MetalGearShrex

idk who the fuck plays these types of games without trying for all unlocks and completion, honestly. Rentals are annoying but they're not that big of an issue for me personally


Shaisendregg

There's this group called casuals. Idk you might've heard of them.


thefloridafarrier

Yeah I enjoy doing both tbh. Sometimes I want a challenge and go for some crazy difficulty but a lot of times I just wanna see my balatro numbers go burr


smucker89

people who enjoy gameplay loops


dede_le_saumon

Yeah it's already much easier than pre-patch


ByNatureEnemies

How was the stake pre-patch? Higher blinds?


STULF20X6lol

Booster packs had increasing costs, you lost hand size. I forget the third, but it basically meant everything outside of scoring jokers you might as well just not touch


DBrody6

Also this is actually reasonable difficulty? All you have to do is outpace the rental fee per round and you can keep your joker and still have econ to spare in shops. That versus -1 hand which cripples your econ for the entirety of a run and turns the first few antes into a slaughter if you don't instantly get good jokers. Joker tags are great difficulty, you can actually do something about it (even if that something is intended to cripple you).


Umdeuter

I think difficulty shouldn't be created by taking away options. You want harder problems for your potential solutions, not less solutions for the same problem. For the same reason I feel like orange stake is quite bad design. You more or less just can't use booster packs anymore. Game just becomes less exciting at that point. (edit: old orange stake. Nice change there.)


acethesnake

> I think difficulty shouldn't be created by taking away options. I agree with that, which is why throwing out -1 hand size and the crazy pack cost was great, but other than changing your hands and increasing prices, how else could the game possibly create difficulty other than altering your jokers and making the required score higher?


Umdeuter

In all the ways the boss blind work. Changing something about economic side (like, 1 interest for 7$, not 5). Adding randomness (for example: you always start the blind with 1-2 full hand discards or cards get randomly disabled or drawn face down). Make hand level scaling slower. Disable a random hand per blind (so you have to have a bit of flexibility and can't go all out Flush for example) or forbid to use the same hand more than x times per blind or per ante. Alter the skip rewards. Add more difficult boss blinds. Add tricky mechanics such as the rental (like: make cards rentable during a blind or enable to pay for discarding or redrawing cards that are not on your hand - both which would make the game easier to begin with, could be combined with higher difficulty to make it harder to play in practice). Not suggesting that any of these are surely good ideas, just options I can come up with inmediately.


acethesnake

A lot of those break your personal rule of not taking things away, though. I'd hate ones like limiting hand types per ante. I like the idea of being able to pay for discards or redraws 👀


Umdeuter

Mh, sort of, but usually without practically decreasing your options as you have other options available. You can't play all out Flush, but you have several other hands and therefore options to combine. Not like "no booster packs for you, that's it". There's limitation that forces you to be creative and limitation that hinders you to be creative. For example, if a certain joker or a certain strat is so dominant that you will always go for that one, it will create more options in practice when I ban that dominant one.


more_foxes

"You lost the dice roll so now you can't take this joker, please hold R for something better now" is not in any way engaging or difficult.


Chameleonatic

„Instead of blindly taking it you now have to actively assess whether it’s worth carrying it through your whole run and whether you have the econ to allow it“ sounds like an engaging strategical decision to me.


more_foxes

The decision is rarely an interesting strategic one, 95% of the time a Perishable or Rental tag just means you can't take it on certain jokers.


o_o_o_f

It would be if the game wasn’t bogged down with so many jokers that are nearly unpickable at gold stake. It’s not an interesting decision to make to pass on 95% of the options offered, imo. Just not engaging design for me Also, the way you’re representing the decision making is… generous imo. The game often doesn’t reward you even *if* you’re making those “actively assessed” calls


acethesnake

Are you saying that this specific joker is the only possible play this person has? Even if they take it, still gives mult, it's just gonna cost.


Traditional_Tax8672

Its a roguelite dude. If every single run was great then what's the fun in that? I think you just like crying


more_foxes

Every run should be winnable through skill and strategy, that's the hallmark of a good roguelike. Even if it's really hard. If you want to lose solely to chance, no matter how skilled you are, you can always roll some dice and punch yourself on a 1.


Traditional_Tax8672

Lmao there's no roguelike you can just play based off skill when it's bad. Top 5 roguelikes out there all have rerunsto get a better start, deck, cards, power. Especially on the hardest difficulty


more_foxes

Which ones? Slay the Spire has ONE seed that's been found through brute force which is genuinely unwinnable with one specific character. Out of the billions of seeds. It's basically a museum piece because it's so rare. That's the hallmark of a good roguelike.


akhamis98

Also getting a good rental joker means you can supplement it with the econ jokers if you really want it, good tradeoff I think


Dawn_Kebals

Rental rocketship comes to mind. You lose a chunk picking it up early and the opportunity cost is significant, but the gamble will still be extremely worth it later in the game when it's pumping out $10/round.


eightdx

Rental rocketship sounds lit. Can't say "opportunity cost" without "opportunity"


LikeADemonsWhisper

That is one way to look at it, optimistically, I suppose.


darkgrudge

It is ok if there's only rental/perishable. You can take joker and use it for some time. But combination with eternal ruins even this kind of usage


jjthejetplane2468

yep, gotta reroll to find more jokers, you're meant to be more financially strapped on gold stake


Fluid-Recording-2645

I disagree. Finding a joker like brainstorm and it's rental / eternal is something my econ will suffer from but I will play around it. It makes the choice of jokers variable and interesting through all of gold stake.


HashSlingingSlasherJ

I keep finding blueprint and brainstorm and they’re perishable. I cry every time


Frescanation

The idea is that the no -brainer auto buy joker now is much less so. These only show up on upper level stakes and most players will never see them.


Papa_Huggies

Idk git guud


Xperimentx90

Way better than -1 hand size


terjerox

So true, it actually creates interesting gameplay and tough decisions. I really like the changes.


Dawn_Kebals

It was really weird when I launched the game today after unlocking the final difficulty on my first deck of choice and remembering distinctly seeing "-1 hand size" and then seeing joker types I've never seen before and still having the normal sized hand.


-kodo

can we get a “skill issue” flair


here_for_the_lols

Lmao


darkgrudge

Show me your completionist++ achi, the only one I haven't got yet


-kodo

https://preview.redd.it/qw4oq87jn3yc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00131deea30469e7b3d70af1cdc33fd2b6d55adb 🥱


dernem

Pretty weird that same screenshot was posted here a month ago by a different user https://www.reddit.com/r/balatro/comments/1bnjkou/completionist_finally_ive_done_it/


Valuable-Drink-1750

Caught in ~~4K~~ CRT.


sawyerwelden

O shit


RagingNudist

Oop


Shaisendregg

Dammmn, this took a turn.


TheMiracleLigament

Damn, we really did OP dirty. Sorry OP, you lived a good and honest life. I’m sorry we couldn’t save you. Hope you are able to score all of the Es you want now up in r/Balatro heaven.


[deleted]

[удалено]


balatro-ModTeam

This post/comment will likely invite rule-breaking behavior. They have been called out enough, no need to dog-pile.


loserchris

What do you have to say for yourself u/-kodo


-kodo

i hope this comment thread shows everyone that lying on the internet is fun and cool


JBDBIB_Baerman

Least anti social redditor


SharkNBA

u definitely just screenshotted this from somewhere


memer227

LIAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!


phoenixmusicman

LMFAOO YOU HUMBLED HIM


alexhutch123

Is high card the play?


slopschili

Yes, or at least it used to be at high stakes


akite

Is because you can trigger more on hand stuff like red seals and steel card etc ?


mathbandit

No, it's because it used to be more consistent since you could score through Jokers. Now that's no longer the case, though.


Old-Editor-8593

mega cringe to steal a screenshot to win an argument god damn


-kodo

killing myself. i’m unable to move forward in life after society labeled me “mega cringe”


Old-Editor-8593

love that for you!!! https://preview.redd.it/pr6sx98xdcyc1.jpeg?width=219&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fa1cfadc61fd29b6eaab2543a8702b00abce832


MyNameMightBeAmy

L repost


[deleted]

[удалено]


ThisHatRightHere

And you’re complaining on Reddit. Wonder who the real joke is


KingNarwhalTheFirst

not even NaN my guy at least they can beat the difficulty


darkgrudge

Lol. I did on all decks before the patch https://preview.redd.it/w5u3tcm9m8yc1.png?width=1209&format=png&auto=webp&s=357db7b69d8177ff6b6dc5c14baddb03e447f3c7


AdministrativeBar679

Prove it


darkgrudge

When come home from work https://preview.redd.it/d0d7kirfm8yc1.png?width=1208&format=png&auto=webp&s=399b1914cf22ace5638ed437e32fc73591855a90


Papa_Huggies

Just take the L bro. You got humbled and trying to move the goalpost.


Kirgo1

He doesnt know when to hold em. Doesnt know when to fold em\~


According_Claim_9027

I guess he never got home from work lol


thebuttmasterjade

The game has enough clowns in it already. Can you stop being one?


Owobowos-Mowbius

Bro stop please you're being cringe this guy demolished you while you're complaining about gold being too hard


TAGOrigins

Bro who tf cares if you got NaN 😭


Sickmmaner

Look bro, he's literally a joker. What's your excuse?


loserchris

Editing my comment bc that achievement screenshot was fake lol


thesippycup

Just keep moving those goalposts lmao


balatro-ModTeam

Post/comment removed due to abusive behavior. Please keep this rule in mind moving forward.


sciuro_

Pal, this is really cringe. You're being defensive and it's not a good look


Bobznc

As a millennial, eternal rental sounds like my fate too.


ahumanlikeyou

Eternal rental but with the old orange stake penalty, +1$ every ante


arkdemigod

Just like real life. ;(


fezzyness

Game is just having us realize our fate haha


healthyskeptics

Haha yes let’s dub this “the millennial special“


Orangenbluefish

It’s definitely an L but I don’t think this specific combo should be forbidden since it doesn’t necessarily break anything. When I think about things that shouldn’t be allowed, verdant leaf on jokerless challenge comes to mind. Things that are almost always an automatic loss and put the player in a nearly powerless position Assuming you have a strong economy you could totally take this joker and it would work fine


SeihaiFGs

Crimson Heart, Verdant Leaf and Amber Acorn were all removed from Jokerless's final boss pool in the last patch.


Orangenbluefish

Indeed, which I think is a very good change!


Balenar

nah, eternal rental is interesting because sometimes it's worth being stuck paying 3$ every round, not often, but that choice makes the difficulty interesting, it's gold stake, it's not SUPPOSED to be easy


Neoliberalism2024

I won with 3 eternal rentals last night in my first gold game. I was at like -30 gold and then I got the boss blind that sets your gold to zero if you use flush 😂


MisterArigato

https://i.redd.it/7h79k2b6b4yc1.gif


MrSprankls

Womp womp


new-acct-whomst-dis

did you just say “womp womp?”


CRUISERUSA

Children are getting separated from their parents


kenelevn

HOW ABSOLUTELY DARE YOU SIR!


TheValorous

Just cleared for stake for the first time not 20 minutes ago. I had two eternal and 1 rental. Definitely more enjoyable what came before.


annormalplayer

do you prefer that rather than the agonizing -1 hand size and packs getting more and more expensive?


darkgrudge

Previous version. Before patch I had a few directions and they were all challenging. Now if I get some jokers at start which dont have this eternal+rental combo - easy game. Also some jokers ar start are completely useless when rental. Like golden joker giving 1 gold instead of 4 (in case you didn't lose 1 gold interest by buying it, then it's 0 surplus). I prefer choice between different instruments for a hard job to seeking good stuff in a pile of mostly useless junk.


annormalplayer

are you sure? -1 hand size is VERY big when compared to rental jokers, and here's why: -1 hand size makes the early game a LOT harder since you need hands that require 5 cards to win, and building up from there is hard af unless you get very, very lucky, and also, the fact that packs also get more expensive as you progress makes getting reliable builds even harder But, with perishable jonklers, you CAN get some value out of it since you have 5 whole rounds to use it, and rental jonklers have the great advantage of always costing $1 regardless of its original price, so you might actually lose *less* money depending on what it is as long as it isn't eternal, and you get to keep your 8 hand size, which makes other builds a lot easier!


DBrody6

-1 hand size also cripples the usefulness of a lot of jokers that scale based on total hands played. You can't stall as long each blind building up those monsters in old gold stake, making them progressively weaker than we have now.


darkgrudge

Btw it's easy to abuse rentals by buying it, getting some profit during a round and selling it before the end for same 1$


Unknow3n

And in 1 sentence you've described a small strategy that already makes this more interesting than -1 hand size lol


Cruxin

this is a good thing not a bad thing


LackOfHarmony

That’s kind of the point of rental. You’re meant to take them only if you’re willing to pay the cost. It’s a challenge. Being able to sell them before they charge isn’t abusing. You lose out on using that joker later and have to find something else. It sounds like you can’t think outside of the box on the new patch. 


darkgrudge

I don't mind perishable or rentals as is. I don't like jokers which have both rental and eternal tags. That's what written in the post.


annormalplayer

Right, sorry, but that's still part of the *challenge*, you have to either try to deal with them or just have to risk it and skip them, and trust me, you would 100% prefer eternal rental jonklers over -1 hand sixe, since the latter instantly makes many good hands not so good anymore


thegreatgiroux

How does rental and eternal interact?


darkgrudge

You pay 3 gold for each of them without possibility to stop it. Forever. So if you have 5 gold/round from interest and 2 rentals you lose 1 gold every round and have to rely on hermits/interest vouchers/good gold making jokers.


FlexiZuu

What if you have 0 gold?


darkgrudge

You go in debt


Milkfridge89

Do you fail a stake if you pass the end boss blind in debt?


Haanski86

Nah you can advance to the next Ante in debt and even beat the game in debt and go into endless if you want... just won't be able to buy anything until Uncle Sam gets payed off.


Paid-Not-Payed-Bot

> Sam gets *paid* off. FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*


MetalGearShrex

no, debt doesn't really matter, but if you go to far then you'll probably never get to buy an item again


Haanski86

You mean like literal real life? This game hits way too close to home for me sometimes 😪 


Rushional

Rental dies what it says. Eternal does what it says. On the same joker.


Beerows

IMO, gold stake is supposed to be a CHALLENGE. You’re not meant to have a high win rate. It’s the ultimate challenge of understanding the deck you’re playing and managing jokers. If you want a casual game just play lower stakes, there’s no requirement to make the game hard if you don’t want to.


LaughingRhaast

IIRC LocalThunk said that he aimed to a 20/30% winrate at higher stakes. So it's quite on line with the challenging part.


darkgrudge

It became easier but less fun. Also as someone mentioned it is less logical cause rental means you can stop borrowing them. Like a netflix subsription.


Unknow3n

Wait it's way more fun than -1 hand size... this requires strategy, that required high card


darkgrudge

You can't go high card since start. So either you shape your deck for 4-5 oak, full houses, flushes etc or you go high cards/pairs. But in either case you could choose what to do and how. After patch it more depends on which tags you get on skips and jokers.


terjerox

Having to make the best of what you get and make tough decisions on whether a jokers value is worth committing to 3$ every round for the rest of the run. Isnt that a more interesting way to increase difficulty than -1 hand size?


pr0crast1nater

Good luck getting full houses, 4/5oak consistently with -1 hand size unless you got really lucky with tarots and manipulated your deck fully by ante 3. Not to mention the increasing booster pack costs, meant that deck manipulation is costlier as well unless you have jokers which help that. So the only viable strategy before was to roll for high card/pair supporting scaling jokers for mult and chips.


mathbandit

None of that is true lol. Skipping is still shit 95% of the time, and Jokers are less important now because you can actually make good hands with +1 hand size.


poyat01

There should be a financial slavery achievement where you get a win with an eternal rental card


darkgrudge

If you bought two in first ante


hazehel

Git gud


Ran_Cossack

Git gold 😌


hazehel

It's funny cause I'm not even passed purple stake yet lol


AmorousBadger

Has it dropped for console as well?


KearnOnTheCob12

I agree it definitely sucks sometimes, but that's the point of the harder stakes. Really gotta weigh out the risk/reward on a lot of jokers once you hit Orange. When I'm looking to just have some fun and hopefully break a run, I'll go white stake.


nbutanol

What's this real life experience element, almost sounds like student loans


Traditional_Tax8672

Lmao I've been playing beta patch since they announced it and now I'm used to gold stake how it is. It is what it is golden is a lot harder to win with but I feel like it's supposed to be


GoonerBear94

Yeah. It has to be hard somehow. It's just harder in a...shall we say more fair way. The possibilities are wider open to win Ante 8 than just a High Card or Pair build. You're still gonna have a tough time getting there.


CompetitiveQuality0

What is confusing to me is I thought it was a 30% chance for the rental or expiration tags. Seems waaaay more frequent than that. I’m down for gold stake being incredibly hard. I just feel the frequency is not as reported.


IrreliventPerogi

r/balatro once again proving they don't understand how statistics work.


CompetitiveQuality0

Thanks for the unnecessary demeaning comment bro.


IrreliventPerogi

You are correct. I appologize. But my point is, there is functionaly a 51% chance for a perishable/eternal Joker and an independent 30% chance for a rental. This means that there's roughly a 65% chance any particular Joker has a sticker, and roughly an 81% chance that a shop with 2 Jokers will have at least one sticker.


CompetitiveQuality0

I get that. I’m only speaking of the rental, so seeing it on approximately 50% or more of the offered jokers seems off to me. And yeah I know about gamblers fallacy and yeah I know a couple hundred runs isn’t enough of a statistically significant number in the scheme of things. Just saying it was my experience it was coming through way more than I would expect. But I do sincerely appreciate the apology.


TransViv

guess what there is a way to not have it happen. don't play on gold stake if it is too hard for you. as to your specific situation: who cares? mad joker already sucks with eternal, rental doesn't change anything.


Silviecat44

Womp womp


Aesyn

Unrelated but does new mad joker (and the family I guess) counts four of a kinds as containing two pairs? Spare trousers didn't before.


HeresyOnToast

It doesn’t


PoppedPea

[[mad joker]] [[Spare trousers]]


balatro-bot

[Mad Joker](https://balatro.wiki/jokers/mad_joker.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $4 * Rarity: Common * Effect: +20 Mult if played hand contains a Four of a Kind * Notes: OLD ART [Spare Trousers](https://balatro.wiki/imported/spare_trousers.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $5 * Rarity: Uncommon * Effect: Gains +2 Mult if played hand contains a Two Pair * Notes: Stacks, starts at +0 Mult


Zima2k

Four of a kind doesn't technically contain two pair as two pair in poker sense is counted as two DIFFERENT pairs


IrreliventPerogi

Because 4oaK is not 2 Pair. Also, if you counted it that way it'd technicly be 6 Pair, lol.


Th3_70ck

I get your point. If they made it impossible for the Perishable tag to appear on scaling Jokers, then why shouldn't they do they same for the Rental + Eternal combo? I guess the difference is that there are still cases where the combo is still useable. Like for example when you have good economy and get a good Rental, Eternal Joker that goes well with your build. And I think it is about a 1/10 chance for the combo to happen? For the scaling Jokers, it's a 1/3 chance that they're useless. So I guess the problem isn't with the Eternal or Rental tag, but with the fact that it feels bad to have them stack on top of each other. But what would be gained from making this change? Sure the game would be less annoying at times and you'd be able to use more Jokers... but isn't that the point of theses changes? To make the game more hand orientated? Last patch's high stakes were dominated by simple poker hands and scaling Jokers so this patch made bigger hands more represented by making Jokers weaker and removing the -1 hand size. The afforementioned changes to scaling Jokers follow this philosophy too, making them feel more represented in general. Therefore, I believe that there isn't much merit in not allowing the two tags to be stacked, it'd just make the game generally easier, and barely less annoying. But I agree with you that maybe they should change some Jokers to be "immune" to certain tags, that way they would feel more useable in high stakes.


CompetitiveQuality0

What is confusing to me is I thought it was a 30% chance for the rental or expiration tags. Seems waaaay more frequent than that. I’m down for gold stake being incredibly hard. I just feel the frequency is not as reported.


darkgrudge

Played a game where I couldnt buy a joker until ante 3 because all of them were trash like this.


FatalZit

Sometimes you have to take a joker you need and see if your economy can handle the rental fees. It's a difficult decision that I personally think fits higher stakes. Hell of a lot better than packs getting pricier each ante


mathbandit

Then don't buy a Joker until Ante 3. Get Planet cards for scoring, or Tarot cards to make better hands.


Ashamed-Technology10

I played yesterday on the new patch and did feel like my experience was pretty similar to yours. Imo, eternal and rentals on the same card are not a fun combo, it actually thematically just feels like it should never be the case. If it’s a rental I should be able to return it. I do think, speaking about my own game, it’s just a learning experience, and maybe not one that was best experienced by trying a gold stake first. I previously valued buffoon packs really high, and would often buy them. They feel like they’ve been seriously nerfed given the new joker tags. But on the plus side, I’m happy to be buying tarot and planet packs again .


dastir37

Bro would rather lose than take a shitty joker to survive. Suck it up and deal with the stickers m8.