Obtaining Spade cheat cards for cheating in blackjack

[Edward Edgemenace]

Ahoy!

I've just read most of the other threads in this sub-forum. Very nice guide on blackjack, but I disagree with the 490 vs. 500 and the double down seems to never work (guarantees dealer will suddenly cheat) in my experience, anyhow.

Anyway,

I have hit a wall. My lvl 40 pirate only recently started playing the card games seriously. (In the past, I had just played the bare minimum for the various quests.) So "Edward Edgemenace" has 525 cheat cards.

The problem?

They are almost no spades in all those cheat cards. Five are low spades, 520 are hearts, diamonds or clubs.

I'm trying, for the sake of completeness, to get them all. The only times I've gotten spades, are from Black Mack quests, but the last few dozen times I've done his dumb quest, they've been hearts/diamonds/clubs. And his quest is annoyingly time-consuming. My level 40 player, hunting level one gravediggers? Ugh - make me run back and forth for a minute, why? For another stupid nine of clubs? Arrr!

Help!

Anyone know how to get spades?

[Swash]

i dont know what enemies did ya usually train on vterans and officers work usually

[Chris]

Yes spades are REALLY rare my 39 pirate has maybe 6 or less. but i have like 3 of every other card lol. There is no definate way to get a spade card its random and luck.

[Dr. Zeppers]

Chris nailed it when it comes to the spade explanation, no need to go any further on that.

Originally Posted by Edward Edgemenace

I've just read most of the other threads in this sub-forum. Very nice guide on blackjack, but I disagree with the 490 vs. 500 and the double down seems to never work (guarantees dealer will suddenly cheat) in my experience, anyhow.

Having played a bit of the game in Vegas (without cheat cards... rats!!!) probably helps. hehe Not sure of course, what 100% of your tactics were, but I never double down if the dealer is showing a 10/face card. Seldom double down if they are showing an 8 or better for that matter. If the dealer is showing a middle card, like a 4-7 then I "swap" out a card to get "11", and double down. Works for me at least 2/3rds the time. I'll often do the swap irregardless of the dealers hand, but only double down if the likelyhood of the dealer hitting 20 or 21 is not good (when showing mid range cards like 3-7, which also tend to turn into BUST hands).

The old saying is ALWAYS true: There is no such thing as a sure bet.

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by Swash

i dont know what enemies did ya usually train on vterans and officers work usually

I learned about the various glitches after level 40. So grenades and staff I leveled up "normally" the hard way on Kingshead. I helped countless people get their grenades.

Less than 1% of the cheat cards I got were spades. And what, about 5% of officers/veterans even have cards. 13 X 100 = 1,300. 1,300 x 20 = 26,000. So, I should kill 26,000 more veterans and officers? Even with the invisible & invincible KH glitch, AND scripting to automate hack, slash, cleave, flourish, thrust, sweep, that is a month of continuous running, at six veterans per minute. They didn't honestly mean for them to be THAT rare, did they?

I'd like to know what happens to the cards that get swapped out. When I replace a two of spades with an ace of hearts, why don't I get to keep that two of spades in my inventory? At least then, I could go lose a lot playing "2 gold piece ante" blackjack and get the cards I want (assuming I had a bunch of cards to begin with.)

[icemage]

How do u know which are cheat cards and why do u need spades?

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by icemage

How do u know which are cheat cards and why do u need spades?

Typing "U" will tell you how many total you have. Playing blackjack and attempting to swap a card will identify which ones you have.

Why spades? Just for completeness.

[Edward Edgemenace]

Update:

I'm not sure why, but this is bugging me more and more. I grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil, to jot down the apparent frequency of treasures and cards. After the 1st 500 kills (all sorts of different things on different islands - don't ask) I've found that "plunder" is awarded very close to 10% of the time. Cards are awarded very nearly 2% of the time.

Of the eight cheat cards I got this evening, FIVE of them were spades. Four of those were 2 of spades, one was a 3 of spades.

I am beginning to suspect that the spades themselves have extra code, to increase their relative rarity. I suspect that code is broken, resulting in 99% of spades being 2 or 3. (I have 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 and 10 of spades. The others I'm pretty sure I got from "Black Mack" quests in Rowdy Rooster on Port Royal.)

I also noticed that attacking only French Undead on Isla Cangrejos, got me ZERO treasures and zero cards. I assume the same happens for Spanish undead on Cutthroat. Once I noticed the pattern, I did another 50 French undead - still zero.


Well, paper and pencil in hand, I'll head back to Kingshead now...

[MacIronhawk]

Originally Posted by Chris

Yes spades are REALLY rare my 39 pirate has maybe 6 or less. but i have like 3 of every other card lol. There is no definate way to get a spade card its random and luck.

Really?
They're rare?
I'm missing no cards from spades or any cards for that matter.
In fact i keep getting mroe and more of them.
So instead of just one certain card i'll have two without it showing me when I use them to cheat. (But I hardly ever cheat.)

[icemage]

Is there even a difference with spades and the rest?

[MacIronhawk]

Originally Posted by icemage

Is there even a difference with spades and the rest?

The only difference is that of the name and weather or not there are a few spades that you can use to get a full house.
I have had 4 spades that were all mixed up but if you counted them in order and you had one more you could have a full house.
Oh that was the best 2k I ever won.
Other than getting a better had with the 1/4 chance of spades and teh card names themselves there is no difference.

You can use all the same cards and why spades are more rare than the other
cards are beyond me.

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by MacIronhawk

Really?
They're rare?
I'm missing no cards from spades or any cards for that matter.
In fact i keep getting mroe and more of them.
So instead of just one certain card i'll have two without it showing me when I use them to cheat. (But I hardly ever cheat.)

Give me a screen-shot please, of your 2GP blackjack hand, ready to swap a card with a spade.

Update: today, I got the Jack of spades and the four of spades from Black Mack. I am very pleasantly stunned.

[Dr. Zeppers]

Id want to see a screen of anyone claiming to have all the spades as well.

I have 5 pirates, all play blackjack for gold, all have had 100's of cheat cards, each of them that had 100's of cheat cards never had spades over a "3". With the exception of 1 or 2 face cards, and an occasional ace i'd gotten fighting stumps or EITC assassins.

Spades are definately a rare commodity in the cheat cards. This subject has been brought up before, and came to a similar conclusion regarding the rarity of spade cards. It cannot just be coincidence.

I have read of a few that said they had full decks, this was the guy that was on the leaderboard for killing enemies .. like forever.. so maybe he did exactly what Ed mentioned played constantly for a month.. hehe

[Chris]

Yea i too want a full deck of cards and im willing to fight off some assassins for them!

[Edward Edgemenace]

Update: Again, from a "Black Mack" mini-quest, I got another spade. Less than 1/2 from himi are spades, but they are rarely 2s or 3s (that I get ALL THE TIME from elsewhere.)

As far as I know, automating kills in Kingshead won't do the trick (invincible or not) because kills seem to only give 2s and 3s (spades.)

I've now got 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ___, 9, T, J, ___, ___, ___. Only missing 8, Q, K, and A.

From a slightly larger sample size: About 10% of kills result in a "plunder" drop. About 3% of kills result in a "cheat card" drop.

Update: Wow, four spades in the last 24 hours...just got the king!