Balatro

Prior to unlocking Stuntman (and the achievement), my highest hand was ~3MM on a challenge run and around 900k on a regular run. Working towards this achievement took me from an intermediate player to a much more advanced one. My high hand during my 100,000K run was 2.551e11.

There are obviously multiple ways to achieve 100MM, and there are certainly more advanced Balatro players than myself, but here's what worked for me:

Recommended build/setup:

• Plasma Deck

• Chip-focused jokers in early game (up to about Ante 4), such as Bull/Blue Joker

• Some source of +Mult, ideally (but not necessarily) scaling - I used a holographic Abstract Joker from Ante 2 until late game when I transitioned to xMult

• Economy-focused joker, as you will need funds to feed your engine. If your economy is not rolling by Ante 3 or so, you will have a very difficult time. I was fortunate to get a Golden Joker that was given holographic enhancement by a Wheel of Fortune a couple of antes later. I did ditch this joker in late game to make better use of the slot once my economy was rolling on autopilot

• xMult-focused jokers in mid-to-late game (Ante 4-5 and beyond) - I used the Constellation Joker and the Drivers License Joker (you should have no problem hitting the Drivers License requirement of 16 enhanced cards). It's generally accepted that the best way to play Plasma Deck is to transition from chip jokers early to xMult jokers mid-to-late. Don't forget to retain some +Mult as well, otherwise you won't have enough base mult to experience any meaningful multiplicative effect

• Retrigger-focused joker(s) - I used Hanging Chad and Mime. It's very important to be able to retrigger cards held in hand, so prioritize that, but if you can squeeze in something to retrigger played cards, this will be even easier

Recommended strategy:

• It probably goes without saying, but your runs should be on White Stakes

• Arguably the biggest benefit of the Plasma Deck is that you don't need very much joker support in the early Antes to one-shot the blinds. You need to actively exploit this fact by grabbing your first 1-2 jokers that are enough to last you a while, and then immediately turn your attention and economy towards hunting for the key requirements for the achievement, described below:

• In my experience, your #1 priority is getting a Steel Card with a Red Seal as early as possible in the run. You need to prioritize opportunities to get a card with a Red Seal, either via the Deja Vu Spectral card or finding one in a Standard Pack

• The reason it's important to craft this card early is because you will simply exhaust too many resources chasing this goal past Ante 4 or so, which are necessary to spend in other areas such as searching for key jokers and investing in Tarot Cards to manipulate your deck (ideally, primarily duplicating the Steel + Red Seal card you already have to build the dupes early and often). Therefore, I recommend evaluating your build around the end of Ante 4 to decide whether you're better off restarting vs. wasting time

• In case you aren't aware, a Red Seal on a Steel card that is held in-hand (not played) causes a retrigger of the Steel Card 1.5x multiplicative effect. In other words, Red Seal doesn't only retrigger the cards you actively play - it also retriggers the in-hand xMult bonus. This mechanism is the central tenet that makes extremely high chip score totals possible

• I recommend trying your best to make your Steel + Red Seal card a King, as it provides the most flexibility for jokers that can retrigger it. The exception MIGHT be if you pull the Hack Joker early, which retriggers 2/3/4/5s - my closest run before unlocking the achievement was a 77MM chip hand based around Hack + Fibonacci

• Assuming you've got your Steel + Red Seal card before Ante 4-ish, you now have 3 next objectives to turn your focus towards. In order of priority, they are: 1) Use Death or Cryptid to make as many copies of the Steel + Red Seal card as humanly possible; 2) Use Hanging Man or Spectral cards to thin your deck to make the Steel + Red Seal card show up as often as possible (both in-round as well as on the Tarot pack selection screen); and 3) Further improve your deck by adding additional Steel and Glass cards when you're not able to roll the required Tarot cards to achieve the other two objectives

• One of the biggest challenges here is that, despite being so laser-focused on deck manipulation to achieve all of the above, you still need in parallel to set up a joker stack that has a chance to make the whole thing work. An additional layer is that, as mentioned, Plasma Deck jokers need to evolve from chip-focused in the first half to mainly xMult in the second half, meaning your joker stack will evolve throughout the run

• Unless you are very lucky with the ability to duplicate your Steel + Red Seal card a ton early on (and maybe regardless), you will need aggressive xMult. On my 100MM hand, I had a polychrome Hanging Chad, a Constellation Joker scaled to 7X, and a Drivers License (3X). For this reason, it's probably best to target an xMult joker that scales, since you will desperately need those other joker slots for other things

• I believe Constellation Joker is probably the ideal joker for this goal, as the very thing that scales it is usage of Planet Cards, which themselves linearly scale your score totals. This has a natural elegant efficiency that allows you to improve on two important fronts simultaneously

• The final thing not yet mentioned is the actual hand you should build your run around. Based on my experimentation, I believe the best hands to build around for 100,000K are 1) High Card, and 2) Flush - in that order

• My 77MM run, which was my closest attempt on the path to victory, was a low card Flush build that naturally evolved because I had an early Tarot pack that only offered World, Moon, or Sun. This was more difficult and ultimately screwed me because I ended up having to play Steel cards in my hand due to needing to complete the flush and not thinning my deck enough by late game

• High Card was ultimately what did it for me - in parallel with my Steel + Red Seal King duplication efforts, I was able to get a Red Seal on a Glass King by mid-game, and was successful in creating about 4-5 copies of it by late game. I would discard aggressively as soon as I started a blind until I had at least 1 Glass + Red Seal King, plus a whole bunch of the Steel + Red Seal Kings in my hand. I also was able to afford Paintbrush which opened the possibility of an extra Steel + Red Seal King hitting my hand. From there, I would play the Glass + Red Seal King as my High Card, which was by this point very highly leveled in synergy with Constellation

• Because I had Mime Joker, which retriggers card held in-hand abilities, and Hanging Chad, which retriggers the actual played High Card, the combination of retriggers, Red Seals (which are another independent retrigger), and xMult got me to 123MM in one hand at Ante 8 and unlocked the achievement

Conclusion:

You will definitely need a fair bit of luck for all the pieces to fall into place that allow you to make 100MM hands reliably.

The bad RNG that is most likely to doom your runs will be 1) Not getting your Steel + Red Seal card early enough; 2) Not finding Death early and/or often enough to meaningfully duplicate the card at the scale required; and 3) Not pulling jokers that can take you where you need to go (especially aggressive xMult jokers that can scale, like Hologram or Constellation).

For this reason, as mentioned above, I recommend taking an honest look at your build at the end of Ante 4 to evaluate whether you want to continue or whether your time is better spent restarting. While it is possible that those miracle pulls are waiting right around the corner, the amount of things that have to go right in just a few short Antes make it usually worth simply restarting.

Good luck, and I hope this was helpful for other players looking to improve their skills and unlock this achievement.