Nuttism

Just got 100% of collectibles. I beat gold stake on gold deck, which I think is one of the best decks for that because it lets you buy that early good joker (or gain interest early).

@daavpuke Mime, the king joker and joker mimics are indeed most powerful when going for megacombos, but I think there are plenty of great jokers if you are just thinking about beating stake 8. I generally try to have one good chip joker, one good multiplier joker, and the rest xmult or assist. An important thing to keep in mind when working with multipliers is the order in which the multipliers are activated. Having a lot of passive xmult can make a +4 mult from your first hand played be more valuable than a +100 after your whole hand has been played. That's why upgrading your main hand is generally a good idea if you can afford it.

As someone who has pretty much exclusively been playing indies for the last few years, this is a great post! I especially connect with your last point about the lack of discourse, as someone who tends to play relatively obscure games.

Last year, I bought "Beacon Pines" on a sale. It's a cute and pretty polished narrative game with a well paced story and incredible music (composed by the director). I wouldn't say it was mind-shattering, but I really enjoyed my time with it, and even replayed it with my partner last month. However, there's no real discourse about it, and it seems to have just sunk without a trace despite having been on GamePass. Even games that do retain something of a niche like "Roadwarden" are still completely passed over by the news sites.

I think a part of it is that unless the developer is well known or a lot of marketing money is funneled into a project, the people working on the sites simply don't hear about those games when they are new, and if a game starts picking up steam, the staff already missed the zeitgeist so they don't bother. I realize that news sites are much less important than they used to be, but I still think they can help shape the narrative around a product of which more organic discussions form.

This might be what I miss the most about "old" Giant Bomb. Abby was a big champion of indies which weren't obscure so much as outside the main discourse. I discovered a lot of games I would never have heard about otherwise through her, so when she left and the staffing situation got so bad they couldn't keep doing Quick Looks of smaller games, those games lost an important outlet for exposure and community formation. Contradiction probably would have been completely lost if not for the Quick Looks.

The Magnavox Odyssey.

The highest single joker multiplier I ever got was the joker that adds 2 to the multiplier whenever you reroll the store. If you have the cheap reroll (or two) voucher and a decent money engine, you can add six to ten multiplier between every round. I got well over 100x with that one.

I think the highest single joker multiplier of multiplier is the joker that adds 0.2x multiplier for every hand you play that isn't the most played one. I took it about a third through after having built a heavily pair focused deck, so pretty much every other setup gave me lots of chips. I think I got it close to 6x.

The quickest I've racked up a multiplier of multiplier is with the vampiric joker. Almost half my deck was gold from a mix of every card being considered a face card, and the midas mask which turns every face card to gold. I added a whole 1x multiplier pretty much every hand. Sadly, I didn't have high enough chips or basic multipliers so I only lasted a few turns after getting it.

If you can double the chance of getting it, the 2x multiplier from heart cards is very powerful with the right deck. The joker giving 1.5x multiplier for each uncommon cards is probably the one I've won with the most.

My favourite jokers are probably the copy ones. They can really break your run.

I haven't saved any seeds (though I've had some ridiculous runs), but in my experience, sometimes it is best to switch tactics even if your hand works for now. Oftentimes, successful starting hands don't work mid or late game, even when the cards synergize. You might need to clean the jokers out and buy new ones with more potential. Also, taking the tags instead of the blinds is sometimes the best options, contrary to most other roguelikes when you want to encounter as much combat as you can. Especially if you can get upgraded jokers. Late game (post ante 8) the chips really start to matter, even if you have good multipliers. I've had runs with loads of x2, x1.5 and x3 multipliers, but they were still too late for ante 11, because of the lack of chips to multiply with. Having one great chips joker can really keep you in the game.

Finally, a minor tip, but don't lose track of the order your cards and jokers are in. You should always place the (x) multipliers last to maximise the value of your multi. Place your glass cards last too. If some of your cards are hidden, swapping between value and suit can clue you in on what the card might be.

@sombre: And me!

@bigsocrates: Except RC cola at least has the advantage of coming first, so not even that.

This was a great read! I'm honestly not sure if I've ever played a real deal pinball table, but they've always intrigued me.

Just lettuce on a burger.

No sauces on either burger or glissy.

Yup, I'm a freak.

The biggest example of this to me is Spec Ops: The Line. It could be argued that the developers purposefully made the beginning dull to lure you into a sense of complacency, but it doesn't change the fact that it's very boring till about chapter four, and it isn't till chapter nine when the game fully reveals itself. It might be my favourite game of all time, but that beginning is very rough.

I think Life is Strange (season 1) episode 1 is the weakest of the bunch. The characters are kinda flat when you are just starting to know them, and there's a bit too much typical teenage drama. It doesn't get interesting till the tail end of episode 2, but then it's great the whole way through.

Omori is an absolute gem, but it has some serious pacing issues, especially at the beginning. It has a ridiculously long prologue which really doesn't give an idea of where the story is going. I've known a lot of people who stopped playing before reaching faraway town.

It turns out pretty much all of my favourite games have weak beginnings. I wonder if it's a coincidence, a feature, or if it's simply very common for games to have weak starts.