After 200+ hours on Balatro, I have finally beaten every deck on the Gold Stake difficulty, earning myself the Completionist+ achievement. I see a lot of conflicting online advice on how to approach Gold Stake, and after playing the game for so long I will attempt to break it down and create a guide on how to beat the hardest difficulty for each deck in the game.
The one key piece of advice to beating Gold Stake should be obvious, but a lot of players ignore it - PLAY TOWARDS YOUR DECK. There is no one-size-fits-all setup to win every time, and you will need to strategise and reason based on the strengths and weaknesses of your deck. My advice for each deck is as follows:
Red Deck: +1 discard per round
Having more discards means the quality of each played hand can and should be higher than other decks, so prioritise hands like full houses, straights or flushes, and deck-fix towards one. Don't just play the first decent hand you see, discard for a better one. Enhancing cards is favourable as you will likely play five cards per turn.
Good jokers: Faceless Joker and Mail-In Rebate (econ), Trading Card (deck-fixing), Burnt Joker (hand levels) and Castle (chip scaling). If you're lucky enough to get a Yorick out of a Soul card the run is almost definitely won.
Blue Deck: +1 hand per round
More hands means more potential for hand-based joker scaling, so you should look to play a higher number of lower quality hands. In my experience, pairs are the most consistently drawable and reliably scalable. Don't prioritise enhancing cards and focus on a joker-based chip/Mult setup.
Good jokers: Green Joker, Ride the Bus and Supernova (+Mult scaling), Space Joker (hand levels), Runner and Square Joker (chip scaling), To Do List (powerful but unreliable econ), Card Sharp (powerful xMult) and Vagabond (tarot generation).
Yellow Deck: Start with extra $10
The starting $10 means you should focus on early-game strength and generating interest until you are at the $25 cap, then establish a setup. This is one of the easier decks to beat on Gold Stake due to the ease of early-game econ, unlike other decks.
Good jokers: Since your econ will be sorted early, Bull and Bootstraps (econ-based chips and +Mult).
Green Deck: Earn $2/hand and $1/discard at end of round, no interest
No interest means you can spend down in every shop, but the added stipulation of money per hand and discard at the end of round means that you should try to beat rounds quickly, unlike other decks where you can use all your discards before playing a hand. Aim to beat rounds in one hand. Take strong jokers early without worrying about econ.
Good jokers: Merry Andy, Drunkard and Burglar (hand/discard-based econ), Banner (early-game chips) and Ramen (solid xMult without discarding). Vagabond is very powerful due to the lack of downside of the under $4 requirement.
Bad jokers: Anything that scales using discards or hands, such as Green Joker or Castle. Mystic Summit ruins discard econ completely. Since Dusk and Acrobat require you to be on your final hand to gain utility, they are also bad. NEVER take To the Moon or the Seed Money/Money Tree vouchers, as they are all useless without interest.
Black Deck: +1 joker slot, -1 hand per round
Oh boy, Black Deck. This was the last deck I completed Gold Stake on, and I would imagine the same for many other players. The -1 hand per round not only makes drawing necessary cards harder, but also cripples early-game econ since less hands per round = less money per round = less interest. The +1 joker slot is decent, but so many runs die in early rounds that it's rare you'll get a chance to use it effectively. Attempting Gold Stake Black Deck was the only time in the game where I wasn't having fun, and it took me about 30 tries to do it, winning with a double Stencil Joker setup.
An early-game econ joker is VITAL to get runs going. Cloud Nine, Gold Joker and Rocket are all excellent options, even if they're eternal. Additionally, you will need short-term strength to get through to rounds 3 and 4 and reach the interest cap, so strong +Mult jokers like Half Joker and Popcorn are good picks. Riff-Raff and the Judgement tarot are amazing early-game as joker generation is particularly strong with 6 slots, and you can sell the ones you don't need. If you see an Immolate spectral, use it. The Grabber voucher negates the deck's drawback.
Jokers like Green Joker that rely on hands to scale are bad. Rental jokers will kill your econ. I would not recommend this in any other deck, but restarting for a round 1 investment tag skip is one of the better options to reliably win. It is that difficult.
Magic Deck: Start with Crystal Ball voucher and 2 copies of The Fool
+1 consumable slot and 2 Fools are very solid with a good starting tarot card. $60 with Hermit, three jokers with Judgement, three hand levels for any planet card etc.
Good jokers: Any tarot generators. Purple seals are also good.
Nebula Deck: Start with Telescope voucher, -1 consumable slot
The Telescope voucher gives a guaranteed planet card for your most played hand in planet packs, helping setups based on a single hand type. Pick an easily drawable hand, like pairs.
Good jokers: Astronomer (free planet packs), Constellation (planet-based scaling xMult), and Supernova since you will likely be playing many of the same hand. The Crystal Ball voucher negates the deck's drawback.
Be careful with tarot/spectral/planet generators due to one less consumable slot. Since you'll be utilising planet packs, Red Card is less useful. Obelisk is awful due to not being able to play your most played hand. The Observatory voucher is also much harder to use effectively.
Ghost Deck: Start with Hex spectral, spectral cards can appear in the shop
Spectrals are incredibly overpowered, so this deck is one of the easier ones to beat in Gold Stake as an early-game Immolate or Wraith can be a run-winner. As soon as you find a good joker that you will keep late-game, use Hex on it for the 1.5x Mult.
Good jokers: Chaos the Clown (shop rerolls) and Perkeo (spectral duplication). Additionally, since spectrals like Hex and Ankh destroy jokers when used, eternal jokers are much better here than other decks. Overstock/Overstock Plus/Reroll Surplus/Reroll Glut vouchers are also useful to see more cards in the shop.
Abandoned Deck: Start with no face cards in deck
Also one of the easier Gold Stake wins, the smaller deck size and less value variance means that hands like straights and four of a kind are much easier to draw, so focus on hand-based builds. A good chip source is needed early-game due to low-scoring cards. Strongly prioritise deck-fixing and card enhancing.
Good jokers: Hack (retriggers), Fibonacci (powerful +Mult), and Odd Todd and Even Steven (+chips and +Mult). Ride the Bus is amazing, guaranteeing +1 Mult per hand played.
Obviously, don't take face card-based jokers. Additionally, Erosion doesn't work like it does in every other deck, and only gives +Mult for every card below 40 instead of 52.
Checkered Deck: Start with 26 spades and 26 hearts in deck
Predictably, the lack of suit variability means flushes, straight flushes and even flush houses are viable Gold Stake options.
Good jokers: Lusty Joker and Bloodstone with Oops! All 6s (heart builds), Wrathful Joker and Arrowhead (spade builds), Shortcut, Four Fingers and Séance (straight flush builds). Obviously, flush-based jokers are good. Anything with +1 hand size, such as the Paint Brush voucher, guarantees a flush draw.
Any diamond/club based joker is fundamentally useless, as is Smeared Joker unless combined with Ancient Joker.
Zodiac Deck: Start with Tarot Merchant, Planet Merchant and Overstock vouchers
Starting with these vouchers means the shop will be flooded with planets and tarots, so prioritise hand-based setups and deck-fixing over joker-based setups. Try to deck-fix towards one hand type and take strong jokers when you see them.
Good jokers: Fortune Teller (+Mult scaling), Vampire and Constellation (xMult scaling), Driver's License (easy x3 Mult), Astronomer (free planets) and Campfire (sell consumables to fuel). Judgement tarots can generate jokers if you can't find them reliably.
Painted Deck: +2 hand size, -1 joker slot
More hand size means you can reliably draw better hands such as straights and full houses. -1 Joker slot means you should focus on hand-based setups with card enhancements and planet scaling rather than Joker-based setups.
Good jokers: Wee Joker and Spare Trousers since you can more reliably draw the needed cards. Any joker that relies on cards in-hand, such as Mime, Shoot the Moon or Reserved Parking is boosted. Stuntman gives +250 chips with no downside compared to a regular deck. The Ectoplasm spectral provides an extra joker slot for only -1 hand size, which is a very acceptable tradeoff.
Blackboard is difficult to use as more held cards means it is less likely they will all be a black suit.
Anaglyph Deck: Obtain a double tag after boss blinds
I suggest waiting until about ante 5 or 6 before using a skip tag to reap the rewards. The investment, economy or handy tag can get you lots of money, and the ethereal tag can get you some good spectrals. Some players may be tempted to take a negative tag, however I would not suggest this due to perishable and rental modifications potentially making most of the negative jokers useless. However, if you are planning to complete Completionist++ which requires you to beat Gold Stake with every joker, this can be one of the most reliable ways to clear many jokers at a time.
Good jokers: Throwback, if you're taking many skips. Otherwise, play as normal.
Plasma Deck: Balance chips and Mult when calculating score, blind sizes multiplied by 2
This was the first deck I beat Gold Stake on, and in my opinion the easiest. Unlike other decks, you can focus on just a chip-based setup and still reliably win. Pivoting to an xMult setup also works. Score being calculated by balancing chips and Mult means that as long as you focus on either one, your score will always scale well.
Good jokers: Stuntman (+250 chips), Arrowhead (+250 chips for a spade flush, more with retriggers), Wee Joker and Runner (fast chip scaling) and Castle (slower but more reliable chip scaling). +Mult jokers are mostly useless early-game, but can be useful with a xMult setup later on.
Erratic Deck: Completely randomised deck
There is no reliable setup for this deck as every card is random. All you can do is check the distribution, and strategise accordingly. It's very quick to reset for a good start, so consider doing that if you want an easy run.
General Tips
Econ is king. Prioritise econ early game and don't take rental jokers until later on. Get to the $25 interest cap as soon as possible and stay there.
Skip tags are almost always useless; only take them in round 1 for an investment boost or in specific cases like Anaglyph Deck. You need to play rounds to see shops, accrue interest and scale jokers, and tags go against that philosophy.
To beat ante 8, you will almost always need strong chip, +Mult, and xMult scaling jokers. Runner is a powerful chip scaler and despite its requirements for playing straights, you can always pivot to another hand type later on. Red Card is one of the best and most reliable +Mult scalers. Good xMult options include Hologram, Constellation and Vampire.
Photochad (Photograph and Hanging Chad) is extremely powerful, getting at least x8 Mult for two common jokers.
When you start a new round, always check the boss blind. If it counters your build, restrategise or look for a Luchador/boss tag.
If you are less than 5 rounds from beating the ante 8 boss, there is no downside to taking perishable jokers. The same goes for rental jokers when your econ is sorted, although this is riskier.
The Wheel of Fortune tarot is never worth spending money on. Here is the probability breakdown:
75%: No effect 12.5%: Foil (+50 chips) - decent early-game but irrelevant late-game 8.75%: Holographic (+10 Mult) – not even good early-game 3.75%: Polychrome (x1.5 Mult) – the only strong outcome
Any card that only has a 1/27 chance of a good effect isn't worth taking, and if it hits a rental or joker you're planning to sell, it's even worse.
Take full advantage of Blueprint/Brainstorm and move them between hands and rounds to duplicate the most advantageous jokers you have.
Gold Stake isn’t about finding the “best” strategy - it’s about playing the right strategy for your deck. Master that, and you’ll go from struggling to dominating. Good luck - you'll need it.
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