It feels like there’s so much information wrong in this. I can elaborate if needed, but: Early “”Bad”” Eternal isn’t bad. Eternal Econ isn’t bad. Eternal Consistency isn’t bad. Consistency Jokers aren’t a waste of a slot. Forcing your way into High Card and Straight will not give you consistency on Gold Stake. Because of the 1.0.1F update, 5-Card Hands can be viable due to the Gold Stake Rework. Pair is better than High Card by a long shot. 3oaK can be better than High Card with slight deck fixing by a long shot. Building Straights so High Card also works to close fights isn’t great when you could use something like Shortcut or 4 Fingers to just play another straight at a high level. On average, when used properly, Blue Seal is good. It doesn’t matter if it’s hard to find initially. Rarity doesn’t affect strength. It’s like calling Vagabond’s 1.0.1F changes a nerf despite the buff to its ability because it’s rare now. Gold Stake isn’t unfair. You can get Blue Seals from Certificate and Standard Packs. This is as someone with just over 500 hours in Balatro. I can write stuff more in depth later if there’s actual interest shown.
Hard agree with all of this. Particularly want to bring attention to the 3oak bit because this is absolutely correct imo (second best hand type behind pair, ahead of straights imo) and people don't really discuss it - great planet scaling, concentrated ranks for things like photochad, lets you add cards freely, great digging potential. Such an underappreciated hand type.
Ok I really think there is a lot of core strategy missing here. First of all, the bit about blue seals is totally misleading. One out of every few Standard packs has them! Whenever my economy is good I open standard packs and go for purple and blue seals. Second, if you are playing straight builds the most important cards to find are not jokers like shortcut but rather tarot generators and packs. Specifically hanged man and death. Even better, combine an occasional hanged man with a standard pack to shrink the ends of your deck and inflate the middle (e.g. remove 2s and 3s and add 8s and 9s). Finally, I have to call out that keeping the focus solely on jokers will make Orange and Gold stake a nightmare. The last two stakes deliberately target a joker-centric strategy after all. IMO it’s set up this way to make sure players combine expert deck manipulation with the jokers to be able to win. If you ignore this your win rate will plummet. I completely agree with the advice on eternals, perishables and rentals btw
I saw a reddit post from a dude with a 80% win rate on gold stake who compiled a spreadsheet of the strategies he every game. He used pairs & blue seals in the majority of games, and anecdotally I can confirm that pairs are goated. The chips just scale fast enough that you no longer need a chips joker, granting some flexibility early to take eternal mult / econ.
5:14 localthunk nerfing straights would make high card the only viable option. Getting rid of what little viable options you had can make the game stale. If straights are to be nerfed, I think high card should be as well, and other hands should be buffed.
You only need one blue seal. If you’re going for high card build anyway you might as well death your blue seal card and make as many copies as you can. Guaranteeing 2 or more planets per round. Blue seal cards are also very valuable targets for Devil or Chariot. Personally I like having a purple seal and blue seal so I open standard packs and spectral packs when my econ is good.
Bro thank you! I was ready to uninstall the game, couldn't beat gold stake and convinced I never would. Finally got it after watching your video. Spare Trousers, Vampire, Card Sharp, baseball card, mime joker
youre last guide got me my first win. Ive since beaten ante17, gotten a +239 green joker, but havent beaten purple stake yet. hope ur advice helps me out
This video showed up in my recommended yesterday, so I decided to check it out. I've been trying to get my first Gold Stake victory for a while, my favorite deck to play has been Ghost Deck, with which I've beaten up to Purple Stake, but after messing with Checkered Deck just for fun, I found myself beating Orange Stake with it. I know, Checkered Deck is one of, if not the easiest decks in the game, but after a few tries to check out Gold Stake for the first time, I decided to just go to sleep. Today I woke up, and I decided to watch this video again to seriously go for a Gold Stake run, and I already was aware of everything I was doing right and wrong, but what really opened my eyes was the strategy you presented. On my first run after watching this video, I got some INSANE luck. I got a (Holographic) Card Sharp on Ante 1, then at the start of Ante 3 I got Supernova and (Rental) Brainstorm, but I managed to balance my economy with Mail-In Rebate. I used some other jokers up until Ante 5, on which I got The Tribe and Crafty Joker on the same shop after 2 re-rolls, and then, my hand was all set! And it's all thanks to your strategy! I got basically 2 (really good) scaling mult, because I used Brainstorm for Supernova, 1 good chip joker, Crafty Joker, because I was only ever playing Flushes. and 2 amazing xMult jokers for Flushes. That's all I have to say. It may be a cheap victory thanks to Checkered Deck, but I owe my first ever victorious Gold Stake run to you, your strategy, and good luck. Thanks a lot!
I’m glad you gave a shout out to straights! On certain decks like Painted they are unusually powerful. In fact, I think they are necessary on Painted deck since that -1 joker spot will really hurt you. I’m surprised you are suggesting that leveled up hands could replace static mult. In my experience they are more effective at replacing your chip joker
Great video as always, I live for the good player with good editing crossover that you so rarely see. The rest of what I'm saying will be disagreements because that's always the interesting part, but don't let this detract from that most of this video is correct imo. Some disagreements: I think Pair is just objectively better than high card, due to the better chips scaling and coming online significantly faster, while still being able to be played 4 times a round almost every round. Notably, it comes online a lot faster than HC - level 4 pair gives as many chips as level 7 HC. With pair, you can completely bypass the chip joker part of the hand-independent formula, which is really powerful for consistency. A hot take I have is that 3oak is the second best hand type behind pair, but that's a wall of text for another time. I think blue seals are more forcible than made out due to the ability to fish for them in standard packs, and providing permanent value (meaning you don't have to play it every round) If you're playing a small hand, then you should be able to dig through half your deck every round, and end with the hand you want. Given all that, 2 Blue Seals in deck is the same value as a negative burnt joker. You obviously won't see them in packs every game, but in those you do, they're game winning (especially provided you're playing a somewhat small hand type like pairs or 3oak that can freely dig for them) and more than worth fishing for. I think good tempo, econ or utility eternal jokers are often worth taking - I think the level of power you can reasonably force lategame is very high and can beat the final boss consistently with 4 joker slots, especially if you're playing pair and do some blue seal fishing. I think lategame is relatively easy now compared to earlygame, in particular getting past earlygame in a comfortable position with good econ, that guarenteeing the good earlygame is oftentimes worth the -1 Joker slot. Again, I don't want to have the fact I have some disagreements take away from the rest of this - this is a well-produced breakdown of general strategy that mostly holds true and would be especially helpful for people struggling on the stake.
Dont know if you already said it somewhere else, but I might something : dont greed your enchanted cards How many run did I end up almost loosing or just straight up loosing because I kept a gold card in hand instead of digging for the cards I needed ? Sure 3 golds is nice, but not dying is even better. Especially when you already have 20$+ Same for Steel card when you know your best hand can score enough points And same for blue seal. Sometimes you gotta accept that it is just like opening a planet pack and not getting the thing you want
Balatro is such a neatly designed game. Excited for the next updates and what the developer and community does with it
It feels like there’s so much information wrong in this. I can elaborate if needed, but:
Early “”Bad”” Eternal isn’t bad.
Eternal Econ isn’t bad.
Eternal Consistency isn’t bad.
Consistency Jokers aren’t a waste of a slot.
Forcing your way into High Card and Straight will not give you consistency on Gold Stake.
Because of the 1.0.1F update, 5-Card Hands can be viable due to the Gold Stake Rework.
Pair is better than High Card by a long shot.
3oaK can be better than High Card with slight deck fixing by a long shot.
Building Straights so High Card also works to close fights isn’t great when you could use something like Shortcut or 4 Fingers to just play another straight at a high level.
On average, when used properly, Blue Seal is good. It doesn’t matter if it’s hard to find initially. Rarity doesn’t affect strength. It’s like calling Vagabond’s 1.0.1F changes a nerf despite the buff to its ability because it’s rare now.
Gold Stake isn’t unfair.
You can get Blue Seals from Certificate and Standard Packs.
This is as someone with just over 500 hours in Balatro. I can write stuff more in depth later if there’s actual interest shown.
Hard agree with all of this. Particularly want to bring attention to the 3oak bit because this is absolutely correct imo (second best hand type behind pair, ahead of straights imo) and people don't really discuss it - great planet scaling, concentrated ranks for things like photochad, lets you add cards freely, great digging potential. Such an underappreciated hand type.
Ok I really think there is a lot of core strategy missing here. First of all, the bit about blue seals is totally misleading. One out of every few Standard packs has them! Whenever my economy is good I open standard packs and go for purple and blue seals. Second, if you are playing straight builds the most important cards to find are not jokers like shortcut but rather tarot generators and packs. Specifically hanged man and death. Even better, combine an occasional hanged man with a standard pack to shrink the ends of your deck and inflate the middle (e.g. remove 2s and 3s and add 8s and 9s). Finally, I have to call out that keeping the focus solely on jokers will make Orange and Gold stake a nightmare. The last two stakes deliberately target a joker-centric strategy after all. IMO it’s set up this way to make sure players combine expert deck manipulation with the jokers to be able to win. If you ignore this your win rate will plummet.
I completely agree with the advice on eternals, perishables and rentals btw
I saw a reddit post from a dude with a 80% win rate on gold stake who compiled a spreadsheet of the strategies he every game. He used pairs & blue seals in the majority of games, and anecdotally I can confirm that pairs are goated. The chips just scale fast enough that you no longer need a chips joker, granting some flexibility early to take eternal mult / econ.
5:14 localthunk nerfing straights would make high card the only viable option. Getting rid of what little viable options you had can make the game stale. If straights are to be nerfed, I think high card should be as well, and other hands should be buffed.
You can also fish for blue seals in standard packs, if your econ is strong enough
good point!
You only need one blue seal. If you’re going for high card build anyway you might as well death your blue seal card and make as many copies as you can. Guaranteeing 2 or more planets per round. Blue seal cards are also very valuable targets for Devil or Chariot. Personally I like having a purple seal and blue seal so I open standard packs and spectral packs when my econ is good.
Bro thank you! I was ready to uninstall the game, couldn't beat gold stake and convinced I never would. Finally got it after watching your video. Spare Trousers, Vampire, Card Sharp, baseball card, mime joker
Came back to your previous video a few times! Great to see this one out now :)
The last bit about making smart decisions is good 😭
Great work, could not find a great summary of this on YT :)
i win pretty consistently at this game, but still watched the video just because it was put together in an entertaining way! Great vid :]
Found your channel from a balatro guide and now here I am, watching all the ones you have. Love the content
this video is perfect for me bc i just got into balatro
Really good video, this helps me a lot ^w^
youre last guide got me my first win. Ive since beaten ante17, gotten a +239 green joker, but havent beaten purple stake yet. hope ur advice helps me out
update: i have beaten gold stake on ghost deck using straights scaling, been struggling to do the same on red deck so far
This video showed up in my recommended yesterday, so I decided to check it out. I've been trying to get my first Gold Stake victory for a while, my favorite deck to play has been Ghost Deck, with which I've beaten up to Purple Stake, but after messing with Checkered Deck just for fun, I found myself beating Orange Stake with it. I know, Checkered Deck is one of, if not the easiest decks in the game, but after a few tries to check out Gold Stake for the first time, I decided to just go to sleep.
Today I woke up, and I decided to watch this video again to seriously go for a Gold Stake run, and I already was aware of everything I was doing right and wrong, but what really opened my eyes was the strategy you presented. On my first run after watching this video, I got some INSANE luck. I got a (Holographic) Card Sharp on Ante 1, then at the start of Ante 3 I got Supernova and (Rental) Brainstorm, but I managed to balance my economy with Mail-In Rebate. I used some other jokers up until Ante 5, on which I got The Tribe and Crafty Joker on the same shop after 2 re-rolls, and then, my hand was all set! And it's all thanks to your strategy! I got basically 2 (really good) scaling mult, because I used Brainstorm for Supernova, 1 good chip joker, Crafty Joker, because I was only ever playing Flushes. and 2 amazing xMult jokers for Flushes. That's all I have to say. It may be a cheap victory thanks to Checkered Deck, but I owe my first ever victorious Gold Stake run to you, your strategy, and good luck.
Thanks a lot!
nice work!!
I’m glad you gave a shout out to straights! On certain decks like Painted they are unusually powerful. In fact, I think they are necessary on Painted deck since that -1 joker spot will really hurt you.
I’m surprised you are suggesting that leveled up hands could replace static mult. In my experience they are more effective at replacing your chip joker
Great video as always, I live for the good player with good editing crossover that you so rarely see. The rest of what I'm saying will be disagreements because that's always the interesting part, but don't let this detract from that most of this video is correct imo.
Some disagreements:
I think Pair is just objectively better than high card, due to the better chips scaling and coming online significantly faster, while still being able to be played 4 times a round almost every round. Notably, it comes online a lot faster than HC - level 4 pair gives as many chips as level 7 HC. With pair, you can completely bypass the chip joker part of the hand-independent formula, which is really powerful for consistency. A hot take I have is that 3oak is the second best hand type behind pair, but that's a wall of text for another time.
I think blue seals are more forcible than made out due to the ability to fish for them in standard packs, and providing permanent value (meaning you don't have to play it every round) If you're playing a small hand, then you should be able to dig through half your deck every round, and end with the hand you want. Given all that, 2 Blue Seals in deck is the same value as a negative burnt joker. You obviously won't see them in packs every game, but in those you do, they're game winning (especially provided you're playing a somewhat small hand type like pairs or 3oak that can freely dig for them) and more than worth fishing for.
I think good tempo, econ or utility eternal jokers are often worth taking - I think the level of power you can reasonably force lategame is very high and can beat the final boss consistently with 4 joker slots, especially if you're playing pair and do some blue seal fishing. I think lategame is relatively easy now compared to earlygame, in particular getting past earlygame in a comfortable position with good econ, that guarenteeing the good earlygame is oftentimes worth the -1 Joker slot.
Again, I don't want to have the fact I have some disagreements take away from the rest of this - this is a well-produced breakdown of general strategy that mostly holds true and would be especially helpful for people struggling on the stake.
Dont know if you already said it somewhere else, but I might something : dont greed your enchanted cards
How many run did I end up almost loosing or just straight up loosing because I kept a gold card in hand instead of digging for the cards I needed ?
Sure 3 golds is nice, but not dying is even better. Especially when you already have 20$+
Same for Steel card when you know your best hand can score enough points
And same for blue seal. Sometimes you gotta accept that it is just like opening a planet pack and not getting the thing you want
6:14 you said there would be a link in the description, but there isnt one yet, sadge.
SORRY
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AjgGyU6yVQRZSlzieWyfMe0Fve0R_Qovm_hAHfpu-9c/edit