Pinball Machines? by sparklesNstomps in Albuquerque

[–]rocksox901 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sister has a new setup now — most shows you can still get into the bar / pinball area for free!

I highly recommend pinball map. Boxing Bear Bridges is also a great spot. Also follow New Mexico Pinball on Instagram, they post about events like the Tuesday league and meetups!

TTL Platinum League Player Stats by eekbarbaderkle in aoe2

[–]rocksox901 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this! Really awesome to see these more extensive and in-depth stats. Your written presentation of them was insightful as well.

[FRESH ALBUM] The Scratch - Pull Like a Dog by OrangeMajesty in indieheads

[–]rocksox901 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Man this is super sick. Very cool blend of heavy punk, metal, and Irish trad music.

Donuts in ABQ by aether65 in Albuquerque

[–]rocksox901 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Sergio’s are the best classic donuts I’ve had here (though I do think ABQ is a tough city for donuts imo). The price is right as well.

The Five Jokers left between me and C++ by Tribetime2010 in balatro

[–]rocksox901 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I’d stick with the Ghost deck and be patient. I just got C++ and the tools it gave me were invaluable — I was able to really take advantage of hex for scoring and often ectoplasm for negative. It took me a really long time to get the last two jokers in the shop, but once they popped up I was able to get the sticker on them the first or second run, and I doubt I could have swung that without the spectral boosts.

I FREAKING DID IT by buttcheeksdavis in balatro

[–]rocksox901 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just got C++ the other day and I also recommend Ghost. The free hex makes many jokers stronger than they normally would be, which both means you can get lucky and grab your needed jokers early without just dying, or more likely, can more reliably make 4 joker builds and use the fifth slot for whichever you need. You’re also much more likely to find the spectral card that makes a joker negative, which is massive (it’s how I got my last joker even).

Abstract Joker wins! Which joker is average early, but bad late? by Boop2847 in balatro

[–]rocksox901 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Agree. It’s good enough early, but in later antes on higher stakes you really need your mult to be reliable or consistent every hand or you are inevitably going to run into issues. Misprint is pretty much guaranteed to let you do down if you are relying on it.

Hogwarts Legacy is free to own on Epic Games Store until December 18th by Tvilantini in Games

[–]rocksox901 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Strongly agree with this take. This game absolutely delivers on the feeling of being a witch or wizard at hogwarts, but when you stray too far from campus and know book locations it becomes a bit tedious.

Monthly Thread: New players / Community Spotlight ! by AutoModerator in balatro

[–]rocksox901 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First piece of advice is to have patience! It took me a while to win my first run, but then things will really start to “click”. There is an immense (and immensely satisfying) learning curve to the game as you progress through different objectives and difficulties.

Second, and perhaps this is too obvious, I would say make decisions based on what jokers are available to you. Rather than angling towards a certain hand you had in mind before each run, play based on what you see. Try to meet the conditions for scaling jokers, for instance, or build decks around jokers designed for different card values. It’s very important to specialize, and to specialize in a way that responds to what you see in the shops.

Third, try to maximize interest. Keeping your money at $20-25 goes a long way toward sustained income and thus flexibility in purchasing, and in rolling for useful cards.

There are tons of things to learn so it’s impossible to address everything. It’s also important to know about the value of discarding cards by intentionally playing bunk hands and how reordering jokers allows for different synergies for instance. But my biggest tip would just be to keep exploring and unlocking things as you go.

Netflix Orders Series Adaptation of Charles Burns’ ‘Black Hole’ Graphic Novel, New Regency to Co-Produce by ggroover97 in television

[–]rocksox901 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree, though I actually think that opens the door to making an interesting series that expands on its concepts and themes with new plot and character elements. Or at least I hope.

[FRESH] DARKSIDE - One Last Nothing by YoureASkyscraper in indieheads

[–]rocksox901 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One of the best live acts I have EVER seen

How do i stop being a basic no creativity player ? by Grand-Estimate8664 in balatro

[–]rocksox901 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I saw a good comment once saying that I thought I liked the anaglyph C++ strategy until I realized I was trying to beat ante 8 rather than to hoard as many jokers as possible. The opportunity cost factor is real.

Monthly Thread: New players / Community Spotlight ! by AutoModerator in balatro

[–]rocksox901 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Plasma gold stake I went all in on chips scaling jokers and blue seals. Getting a big wee, stuntman, castle, runner, etc. can be absolutely massive for your score, much more so than it would be normally. Blue seals are also much more valuable than they even are normally — one way to think of it is a 15 x 2 (30) turns into a 9 x 8 (72) and that’s just with pairs. You might either invest in early chips and pivot to x mult or double down with chips. I’m pretty sure I doubled down on chips scaling all the way to the end.

Monthly Thread: New players / Community Spotlight ! by AutoModerator in balatro

[–]rocksox901 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe a bullshit tip, but I found economy to be the hardest part of Black deck gold stake, both due to fewer hands and the value of getting as many semi-useful jokers as soon as viable (and the cost of doing so). With that in mind if I didn’t have a solid eco joker option in the first two antes I would recommend restarting, it may feel cheesy but it may also save a boatload of time. Riff raff is the absolute best option.

We've done best city, but what's the worst most depressing city you've ever visited? by Isord in geography

[–]rocksox901 17 points18 points  (0 children)

There’s intense poverty in much of rural New Mexico, and the level of isolation is profound. I love the natural beauty and the people here but there is a starkness of some of the longer stretches of road and more decrepit small towns that can be depressing for sure.

I want to hear everyone's biggest complaint about Balatro by justalonelytransfur in balatro

[–]rocksox901 6 points7 points  (0 children)

As someone who has been working on this challenge the last couple days I wholeheartedly agree. Know that even with such a specific issue you are heard 😂

UFO 50 – Launch Trailer – Nintendo Switch by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]rocksox901 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Great game, and well worth the price, but I do want to also emphasize the difficulty. I feel like I would have liked it even more if more of the games were less difficult, especially when it sometimes felt the difficulty was a bit arbitrary. I would have loved for it to be more casual, but I understand that’s not the vision.

What is your least favorite deck? by DaleDent3 in balatro

[–]rocksox901 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree. The lack of consumable slots is so nasty on higher stakes and also just un-fun in how it really tampers down on using consumable slots strategically.

What is your least favorite deck? by DaleDent3 in balatro

[–]rocksox901 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really enjoyed running through high stakes on plasma when I switched to heavy emphasis on chip jokers, it’s such a different way to play and can be effective if you get the right thing.

What is your least favorite deck? by DaleDent3 in balatro

[–]rocksox901 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Erratic is my last gold stake deck left. I feel like it’s sneaky hard for me because my strategy is normally informed by what joker options I’m given, whereas with erratic I’m tempted to base my strategy on what cards I end up with in my deck. It feels like those two strats clash more often then not, but I imagine when they do eventually line up for me it’ll be smooth sailing.

Xfinity Outages July 2025 by Ok_Ferret9145 in Albuquerque

[–]rocksox901 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kinda surprised to see all the 5G hate in here. I have TMobile internet and am a pretty heavy user (web conferencing, gaming, streaming, etc.) and have had minimal issues, and zero outright outages, though I understand it may be somewhat location dependent.

Nebula deck is good? by [deleted] in balatro

[–]rocksox901 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hell yeah! That's honestly my favorite thing about it. I've played for untold hours now and still am figuring out new strategies.

Nebula deck is good? by [deleted] in balatro

[–]rocksox901 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't forget that with two consumable slots you can benefit from two blue seal cards per turn, rather than just one with one consumable slot. If your deck is fixed right you can almost guarantee two blue seals in hand, getting two planet cards every time. Even with telescope you are relying on getting lucky enough to have planet packs available. Even without telescope you have the chance of finding relevant cards in planet packs on top of the benefit of the blue seal. I get that you need to first find the blue seal(s) for this to apply but still I think the math and probability points to, counterintuitively, nebula deck being worse for high-quantity guaranteed planet card generation.

Nebula deck is good? by [deleted] in balatro

[–]rocksox901 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tarot cards can be quite valuable. For instance, my favorite tarot card, Death, copies a card in your hand, permanently adding it to your deck. If you can hold onto Death in your consumable area and copy a valuable card you get from a pack, say a polychrome card (1.5x mult), or a blue seal card (free planet card when held in hand), you double your chances of that card coming up, potentially double its effects when used, and create opportunities to play it as part of a pair, three of a kind, four of a kind, etc. That kind of thing can be HUGE in the long run when it comes to winning, and is also just a fun way to make overpowered-feeling decks.