Maverick felt earning the Astronomy achievement wasn’t too hard, but also not very self-explanatory. He also looked up info for it when he first started out.
Earning the Astronomy Achievement requires you to discover all Planet Cards. Doing so will also unlock the Astronomer Joker. Some Planet Cards are secret, however, which is why most players get stuck. Let’s study the conditions for this achievement in more detail.
Table of Contents
Discovering All Planet Cards To Earn the Astronomy Achievement
Discovering all Planet Cards means using them at least once. You can spread this out over as many runs as needed. You’ll get most of them through regular gameplay (though you may need to upgrade a few hands you consider useless). There are, however, 3 exceptions. These Planet Cards only have a chance to show up once you play them at least once.
This is easier said than done because:
- The hand types for them are not in your list by default, so you need to either know about them or stumble upon them
- You will not be able to play them without enhancing your deck first, as you will not have all the cards required for them in your starting deck
Secret Planet Cards To Earn the Astronomy Achievement
1. Planet X: Five of a Kind
Enhancing your deck to get the potential for this hand is very easy. You just need to add one extra card to your deck. Getting all 5 cards into one hand is a lot trickier, though, so I recommend getting as many copies as possible instead.
I prefer going for Full Houses while building up towards Five of a Kind. Three of a Kind is rather weak while Four of a Kind takes a while to build up to as well, by which time you may lose a run.
To unlock this card, I prefer playing the Abandoned Deck on the lowest difficulty. As this deck only has 10 x 4 different cards instead of 13 x 4, it’s easier to build up towards Planet X. You will need to add 75 unlocks to your Collection to unlock the Green Deck first, then win a run with it (on any difficulty). This will then unlock the Abandoned Deck.
Alternatively, if you don’t mind some randomness, you can use the Erratic Deck on the lowest difficulty. This deck randomizes the ranks and suits of all your cards, so you’re likely to have a good starting point. It is quite tough to unlock, though, requiring you to beat the game with any deck on the Orange Stake (second highest difficulty).
Apart from the obvious Death Arcana to copy an existing card, Strength is also very handy. In fact, turning any pair into a higher value will give you a very strong start of six copies of the same card.
2. Ceres: Flush House
A Flush House is a Full House that exists out of cards that all have the same suit.
It’s not actually that much tougher than Five of a Kind to pull off if you are using the Checkered deck. This Deck has 26 Hearts and 26 Spades, which means it already has 2 copies of each Heart card and Spade Heart. You can then:
- Change cards within a certain suit (Death and Strength like above, maybe a Cryptid Spectral Card if you’re lucky)
- Get as many cards of one suit (changing a pair to Hearts suddenly gives you 4 copies of that card)
To unlock the Checkered deck, you’ll first need to add 100 items to your Collection through regular gameplay. This will then unlock the Black Deck. Winning a Run with the Black Deck will then unlock the Checkered deck. A win on any difficulty works, so just play on the base difficulty.
Just as with Planet X, you only actually need one extra card to potentially pull off a Flush House, but you’ll want to build up as many copies as possible to do it more reliably. Although it’s a bit counter-intuitive to not go for Flushes with the Checkered deck, I recommend you focus on Full Houses straight away. Just form them with mixed suits until you get a Flush House.
Alternatively, if you have it, you may also try your luck with the Erratic Deck.
3. Eris: Flush Five
A Flush Five is a Five of a Kind of the same suit. It’s the hardest combination to pull off.
Both the Abandoned Deck and the Checkered Deck can work for this:
- The Abandoned Deck has less different cards, making it easier to pull Full Houses
- The Checkered Deck starts out with 2 copies of each card, giving you a head start
- The Erratic Deck can give you a good starting point if you have it unlocked, especially if you’re willing to restart runs to improve your odds
In the end, it’s up to your personal preference. Feel free to give them all a go to see what works well for you.
Note on Black Hole and Royal Flush
- Black Hole is a rare card that has a 0.3% chance to replace any Planet card in a Booster Pack. It however counts as a Spectral Card, so it is not required to unlock the Astronomer Joker.
- Royal Flush does not have its own Planet Card. Its value increases together with the level of Straight Flush (through the Neptune Planet Card)
I Have the Astronomy Achievement but Don’t Have the Astronomer Joker in My Collection?
Before a Joker is added to your collection, it needs to be discovered. Discovering an Unlockable Joker requires two steps. The first one is to meet the unlock conditions, which in this case is earning the Astronomy Achievement. This will give the Joker a chance to show up in the shop going forward. The second step is actually buying the Joker at least once. Only after this will the Joker be added to your collection.
Are the Secret Hands Worth It?
In general and in my opinion, no, not once you have the Astronomy achievement. Let’s have a closer look at their base stats compared to some of the stronger achievable “normal” hands:
Straight: 30*4 = 120 points. Let’s give this a base score of 100% for further comparison.
Full House: 40*4 = 160 points (125%)
Four of a Kind: 60*7 = 420 points (350%)
Five of a Kind: 120*12 = 1440 points (1200%)
Flush House: 140*14 = 1960 points (1633%)
Flush Five: 160*16 = 2560 points (2133%)
Huge jumps for sure, but now let’s have a look at their respective Planet Cards:
Straight: 30*3 = 90 points. Let’s give this a base score of 100% again.
Full House: 25*2 = 50 points (55.56%)
Four of a Kind: 30*3 = 90 points (100%)
Five of a Kind: 35*3 = 105 points (116.67%)
Flush House: 40*4 = 160 points (177.78%)
Flush Five: 50*3 = 150 points (166.67%)
Not as impressive as the base score differences, but still quite a significant difference for some of them, right? The problem is that you will only be able to upgrade the secret hands after you played them at least once that run. Before that, their Planet Cards will not show up.
That means you’re likely to be looking more at something like a level 5-10 “normal” hand vs. a level 1 “secret” hand to start out with:
Straight (Level 7): 210*22 = 4620 points (100%)
Full House (Level 7): 190*16 = 3040 points (65.80%)
Four of a Kind (Level 7): 240*25 = 6000 points (129.87%)
Five of a Kind (Level 1): 120*12 = 1440 points (31.17%)
Flush House (Level 1): 140*14 = 1960 points (42.42%)
Flush Five (Level 1): 160*16 = 2560 points (55.41%)
You may think it is easy enough to clear the gap, but it’s not quite the case. In the time you can take a Secret Hand from level 1 to 7, you could also have taken your main hand from level 7 to 13. Things get even worse if you have the Telescope Voucher (in my opinion the most powerful of all available Vouchers) or the Supernova Joker.
When It Is Worth Going for Secret Hands
Despite generally not advising it, there are some scenarios where it is more interesting to go for Secret Hands:
- If you don’t care about Planet Cards too much (you really should, though!) then their base value is far superior
- If you can pull them off before you are able to upgrade a “normal” poker hand by much
- When you still have a lot of Antes ahead of you to be able to upgrade the Secret Hand
- If you’re playing the Erratic Deck it can be an interesting option to go for rarer hands
- When you are going for some specific Joker Unlocks (such as Hit the Road Jack)
- If you’re trying to go for some specific Achievements.The Astronomy Achievement is the most obvious, but there are others where going for Secret hands can be worth it. If you’re trying to earn the ones for reaching Ante 12 or getting 100 million points in one hand, it can be worth the risk.In this case you’ll want to play risky, trying to get these hands as soon as possible. It will likely lead to quite a few failed runs, but if you do manage to get things going early enough this will give your chances a big boost.