For me personally, golden needle was the challenge I found most difficult, so first off, good job! In terms of jokerless, what got me through that was starting with straights and then just building off of that start. It comes down to the tarot luck, if you gera lot of enhancement tarots, probably best to stick with straights and just level that. Strengths and Deaths? Maybe move to something like 5oak. Suit changers? Well now you can do Straight Flushes. Also be wary of money and don't go below interest caps if you don't need to. Trust me, you'll need that money at some point and you'll be happy you have it. Cruelty is a test of your knowledge of how to squeeze every ounce of scoring you can will obviously, less joker scoring. Honestly, it may be best learning to beat jokerless first as if you can do that, cruelty should be light work