Phantasy Star Online 2: Casino Blacknyack Guide

Blacknyack is heavily based on the popular Blackjack card game, so if you’ve played it before skip to the last part of this section.

For those who haven’t played before, Blackjack really only has a few simple rules that need to be understood

• Players bet before the game begins and are dealt two cards. The first card is known by everybody, the rest are kept hidden
• Cards have values to them. 2-10 are self explanatory, J/Q/K (face cards) are also 10, and Aces are either 1 or 11 depending on what benefits the hand more
• The goal is to have a higher hand than the dealer without going over 21
• Each round you can repeatedly Hit and draw a new card or Stay and keep what you have
• On the first turn you can Double Down, doubling your bet however you Hit once and are forced to Stay after that
• You cannot Hit or Double Down at 21 (Blackjack) or higher (Bust)
• If you beat the dealer you get twice what you bet, if you draw you get your money back
• If you win with 21 exactly you get a bonus (here it’s 3x instead of 1.5x)
• The dealer plays after all players are done and is forced to Hit until their cards equal at least 17

It’s a lot of words but the game is super simple, just play a round or two and you’ll get it.
So what’s different in Blacknyack?

• The dealer is an idiot and will occasionally Hit when they don’t have to
• If you get 5 cards without Busting, your hand will beat even a 21. You also get 5x your bet
• There are SP cards mixed in whose value changes. When a player draws one, it’s turned face up and a 0-4 dice is rolled. Whatever value is rolled increases the shared value of all SP cards by that amount
• If your hand has 3 SP cards without Busting it beats everything, even 5-card hands
• The reward for winning with a given number of SP cards is 1x, 3x, and 50x your bet. I’ve yet to see a report of 4 SP cards, just one is rare enough
• Multiplayer games sometimes have a Purrsuit Bonus, where the player with the highest winning hand gets a bonus of 6x their bet

This is a pretty standard Blackjack chart. To find what you should do, first check if your hand is Soft and has two possible values due to an ace. If it does use the lower table with the higher number, otherwise use the top table. Next use your hand value to choose the row and the dealer’s shown card to choose the column. The intersection lists the best action in your situation.

Normally Blackjack has a house edge and you’ll bleed money, but the dealer makes some pretty awful decisions. You’ll also make a bit extra from 5-card and SP-card bonuses. Overall this strategy is pretty safe for building up your coins

However Blacknyack isn’t Blackjack, if only there were a better strategy…

Forget you were playing Blackjack, it’s now a weird Poker variant where High Card hands belong in the trash. Every hand you’re aiming for 21, 5-cards, or maybe 3-SPs once in a blue moon. The only time you’ll hold is when it’s a truly dumb idea to hit, like at 19 or 20. If you’ve got four cards in your hand the chances are too good to not get that bonus.

Don’t try this unless you’ve got a few thousand coins sitting around. This strategy makes more in the long run but you’ll see a lot of hands lost before the bonuses start saving you

This chart was developed with help from software-2’s card counting program[github.com] as a Monte Carlo simulation, so thanks to them! For any given situation we look at the raw profitability of hitting vs staying, not even considering Double Downs. Turns out the bonus for 5-cards is just too good to pass up.