Star Wars Outlaws has several mini-games that can give you a break from the brutal outside world and challenging quests. One of the most iconic you’ll find is Sabacc, a card game seen throughout the Star Wars franchise, appearing here as the Kessel Sabacc variant. The ultimate goal is to be the last player with chips in stock, which can be done with luck, strategy, and a bit of cheating. Here’s how to master the game, and hustle your way to riches.
Kessel Sabacc Basics Explained
There are many Kessel Sabacc tables throughout Star Wars Outlaws, all with different buy-in rates and rewards. The first one you’ll come across can be found in Mirogana city.
Before the game begins you’re prompted to pick three Shift Tokens, which are essentially legal cheats that all players bring to the table. Shift Tokens can be won from Sabacc, purchased, found during exploration, and offered as a reward for completing quests.
The Goal of Kessel Sabacc
With Shifts selected, the game begins. The goal is to create a two-card hand of the lowest value, that value calculated by subtracting the value of one card from the other. So if you have a 6 and a 2, your hand value is 4. “Sabacc” is when you have two matching cards, and thus a hand value of 0. Then Sabacc hands are rated against one another based on the value of the cards that creates it—which is to say, a 6 and 6 is the weakest Sabacc, while (with one exception) 1 and 1 is the strongest.
How to make an hand in Kessel Sabacc
At the start of play, each player receives two cards, each card from a separate deck, and a number of chips (the number depends on the table). The more chips available for play, the longer the game. You have three turns per round to spend tokens for draws to try to get a Sabacc hand.
When it’s your turn in a round, you are presented with those four piles. The two central stacks are face-down piles of the two decks (one is orange, the other red), then either side are the discard piles for each. You can pay a token to draw from any of these piles, then discard a card from your hand. You always have to have one card from each deck.
If you like your cards you can stand, which means you’ll pass on your turn with no chips spent.
Special cards in Kessel Sabacc
Each deck has two types of special cards, the Sylop and Imposters.
The Imposter is a card that, at the end of all three rounds, gives you a chance to roll two dice to form your hand. Say you have a 2 and an Imposter, the hope is you can roll a 2 on either of the die, and form Sabacc.
The Sylop is far more powerful, as it’s essentially a Joker, able to act as any card. A Sylop and any other card is automatically Sabacc. The Sylop is especially rare, as there is only one of each in the two decks. Two Sylops give you a Pure Sabacc, the best hand in the game.
Finishing a round
At the end of the round, everyone shows their hands. For those who have an Imposter Card, they’ll roll the two dice and choose one of the numbers to represent their card. The winner of the round gets all their played chips returned, and everyone else is taxed. Anyone who lost with a Sabacc is only taxed one chip, while any non-Sabacc hands are taxed all the chips they’ve played that round.
How To Become A Vessel Sabacc Master
How to Shift things in your favor
Each table’s players are always there, so after you’ve played against a table a few times, you should have a good idea of what sort of Shift Tokens they use. They won’t always play them the same way, but after you’ve got a few Tokens to choose from you can formulate a better strategy around yours and theirs. Say one of them is always playing a Shift that changes the rules so high cards are better than low, you can deliberately play with the likelihood of this in mind.
Games with fewer chips in play are shorter, so make sure you’re using Shift Tokens that help you knock out others faster, or preserve your chips. A Shift Token like General Audit that taxes all players who passed on their turn two chips might not be as useful, since you’ll have to wait for a specific moment to play it.
The Refund Shift Token can be a lifesaver and a game-winner. It refunds two played chips immediately, which can be the difference between a win or loss, especially in games where you’re down to your final chips.
If opponents play Shift Tokens you have yet to discover, they’ll be added to your menu with a hint on where to find one for yourself. It’s worth taking some time to find the ones you like if you intend to play at the harder tables. Plus, more fun quests!
Cheating at Vessel Sabacc
You have a few ways to sway things in your favor every turn. You can play one Shift Token per turn, as can your opponents and, better yet, you can illegally cheat. Your trusty companion Nix can take a peek at all other players’ hands. To successfully cheat without getting caught, you must complete a QTE correctly, or the player will notice and the cheat fails.
The first time a cheat fails, others at the table will become suspicious of you—if you continue to test your luck and fail a few times, they can ban you from that Sabacc table for a while. We won’t spoil them here, but there are other cheats to unlock as you get further in Outlaws that’ll turn Sabacc even further in your favor.
If you cheat with Nix, and see that the rest of the table has way better hands than yours, consider taking the round loss and save your chips as much as possible! It’s better to survive the round with a bad hand and your chips safe, than attempt to correct it when all others at the table are going to move on to the next round with more chips.
Pay attention to the other players’ actions
Like any good card player, you’re going to want to look out for “tells.” Although here they’re less subtle twitches and more full tantrums. If a player slams down a drawn card in annoyance, you can be sure they’re not sitting on a strong hand. If they quietly nod, you can get suspicious they’re happy with their lot. If everyone else is looking very content, and you’re sitting on 6,2, then perhaps cut your losses and save your chips.
You don’t have to put up with the weird symbols
The Sabacc cards aren’t the most visually clear aspect of the game, the main numbers in some other language, and the Arabic numbers in a weird font that makes telling 2 from 5 incredibly frustrating. But head to the Settings, then Gameplay, Minigames, and Kessel Sabacc. In there, select “Simple Numerals” to dispel some of the galactic magic, but have a far easier time seeing what you’re doing.
Whether you are looking to make some extra credits, want to hone your Sabacc skills, or just enjoy mini-games inside of bigger games, Kessel Sabaac can be extremely rewarding and fun. Not to mention it is a main part of the story, so you will need to know the basics at least to get by.
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