You’ve got a 16, the dealer is sitting there with a face-down card, and taking another hit could send you straight over 21. Normally, you’d have to make a decision and hope for the best. However, in Enchanted Blackjack, you may already know what the dealer is hiding. You could have a deck full of enchanted cards, a Joker that’s gradually improving your winnings, or a spell ready to turn a bad hand into a good one.
Developer drikdrok’s blackjack roguelike launches today on Steam, giving you more than 45 enchantments, boosts, and special Jokers to play around with. You’ll still be hitting, standing, splitting, and doubling down, but the longer you play, the less your deck has to resemble an ordinary pack of cards.
That Deck Isn’t Going to Stay Normal for Long
Every hand starts with the same basic goal. You need to get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over. The difference here is that your winnings can be spent changing the cards you’ll be dealt next time.
The shop lets you buy new cards, enchant the ones you already have, and even copy your best cards to increase your chances of drawing them again. If there’s something in your deck that keeps getting in the way, you can burn it and remove it from circulation. That opens up some interesting possibilities.
Find an enchanted card that’s doing a lot of work for you, and copying it could be a better investment than buying something completely new. Get rid of a few weaker cards and suddenly there’s a better chance of drawing the ones you actually want.
You can also pick up spells and other upgrades that change how your deck behaves, with more than 45 enchantments, boosts, and Jokers available to combine. The idea is to gradually build a deck where the cards are working together, rather than relying on whatever happens to come out next. You’ll still have decisions to make at the table, but you’ll have spent plenty of time making sure those decisions are easier.
The Jokers Have Some Useful Tricks
Jokers are another important part of building your deck, and they don’t behave like ordinary playing cards. They don’t count towards your hand’s total, so drawing one won’t suddenly push you over 21. Instead, each Joker comes with its own ability that can help you win more money or make better decisions.
One can increase the payout from a winning hand, which is handy when you’re trying to earn enough money for another trip to the shop. Another can reveal the dealer’s face-down card, taking away one of the biggest unknowns in blackjack.
Knowing exactly what you’re up against makes deciding whether to hit or stand a much easier job. You won’t have access to every Joker immediately, though. They’re unlocked by completing different challenges at the dealer’s table, giving you something else to work towards while you’re collecting winnings and improving your deck.
With the right Jokers alongside your enchanted cards, you can start putting together combinations that make the next hand much more favourable before the dealer has even finished dealing.
Keep Winning, Keep Changing the Rules
As the stakes rise, you’ll need to keep improving your deck to stay ahead. Money earned from winning hands goes back into buying cards, collecting spells, and making changes to whatever you’ve already built. You may decide to concentrate on increasing payouts, making certain cards easier to draw, or finding ways to get more information about the dealer’s hand.
There’s room to experiment with different approaches, especially when an enchantment or Joker gives you a reason to start building around something you hadn’t considered before.
The game actually began as a 48-hour game jam project before developer drikdrok expanded it into the full release arriving today. What started as a small twist on blackjack now has a collection of deckbuilding tools designed to let you interfere with the odds in all sorts of ways.
Enchanted Blackjack launches today on Steam for PC and Mac, with its enchantments, spells, unlockable Jokers, and rising stakes ready to put your card-playing skills to work.