How to win Kessel Sabacc in Star Wars Outlaws
Plus, some handy Kessel Sabacc tips and tricks.
With an expansive open-world in Star Wars Outlaws, you can sometimes feel a little overwhelmed with choice. But, there's respite to be found in a new variation of sabacc for the Star Wars universe, the minigame Kessel Sabacc. It's essentially a pairs game with similarities to blackjack and poker, but acquiring the right pair is a little more complicated.
You'll come across Kessel Sabacc tables across Star Wars Outlaws with players waiting for you to dive into a game - and hopefully, win some Credits. You'll need Credits to buy yourself a spot at the table, but once you're in, there's plenty to learn and strategies to try out to earn yourself some sweet rewards.
Below, we've got everything you need to know on how to win Kessel Sabacc in Star Wars Outlaws, including general instructions on how to play Kessel Sabacc, and Kessel Sabacc tips and tricks.
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How to play Kessel Sabacc in Star Wars Outlaws
After buying a spot at a Kessel Sabacc table, you will be dealt two cards for your hand, one from each family - Sand and Blood - with values going from one to six. You also get four chips, which you can invest during your turn in order to improve your hand. The ultimate goal is to get a pair, a Sabacc hand. The closer your pair is to zero, the higher the chance you have of winning.
Each round, you get three turns to either draw or stand. To draw, means to take a new face-down card or retrieve the most recently discarded card from either deck , by spending one of your four chips. To stand means you choose to miss a turn and save a chip, if you're happy with your hand. The more chips you have at the end, with the best hand, wins the content of the chips pot. The game ends when only one player has chips left.
There's a couple of cards hiding within each family that have special purposes. A Sylop will take the value of the other card in your hand during the reveal phase at the end of the game, forming a pair and a Sabacc. Holding two Sylops is the ultimate sabacc hand. An Imposter card will allow a dice throw during the reveal phase, if held in your hand. You'll take a card of the value of one of the two die thrown - which is risky, but could pay off.
You also have the opportunity to play three Shift Tokens during your game. Each Shift Token can be played once in the game, and only at the beginning of your turn, before you decide to draw or stand. They have different game modifiers that can be extremely damaging to other players e.g. the 'Embargo' Shift Token, where the next player must stand out their next turn, or 'Free Draw', where you can pick up a card without paying a chip, or general tariff, where all other players are taxed one chip. You start with eight Shift Tokens, and there's up to 16 available to find, as you explore the world.
How to win Kessel Sabacc in Star Wars Outlaws
To win Kessel Sabacc in Star Wars Outlaws, you ideally need to get a Sabacc hand of the lowest value between one and six. A Sabaac hand is a pair of numbers, which can be obtained by having two of the same number, one number with a Sylop card, or one number with an Imposter card (and you pick a matching number from the dice throw).
If two or more players have a Sabacc hand by the end of the round, it's the player with the best pair closest to zero that wins, i.e. a pair of ones will beat a pair of fours.
If no one has Sabacc, then it falls to the player with the lowest value difference between cards to take the victory. Two or more players can be winners in case of a tie.
If you don't win, it's not just the chips you spend that you'll lose, as there's an Imperial Tax. This means, if you lose with a sabacc hand, you lose another chip, and if you lose with a non-sabacc hand, you lose chips equal to the difference between your cards. Say you're holding a one and a four by the end, you'll lose an additional three chips on top of whatever you spent drawing cards during the round.
With chips at stake, you'll want to use our additional tips below to win Kessel Sabacc.
Kessel Sabacc tips and tricks
To help you win more games, here's some Star Wars Outlaws Kessel Sabacc tips and tricks:
- You're better off chasing a sabacc hand with the lowest value card in your pair to start with, e.g. if you have a four and a two, drop the four to chase a lower value and hope that luck is on your side.
- During each turn of Kessel Sabaac, you have an opportunity to pick up the last discarded card from each family. This means you can see what the previous player put down, which gives you insight into what they're not trying to hold in their hand. If it's a low value card, chances are they possess lower, so you might want to hedge your bets chasing a low sabacc, or holding onto anything you have that is lower.
- You can also place your hopes in a hand as early as you like, which will save you chips. If you're lucky enough to have sabacc early on, then it's a no-brainer, but you could also hold onto a two and three because the difference is one and they're low cards. Of course, draw if you've got a wide range between your cards like a one and a six, until you buy something better.
- You can also bluff more chips from your opponents if you have a very strong hand, like sabacc or two Sylops. If you stand, your opponents may be less likely to invest because they already know you're going to win.
- Other than luck and a bit of skill, you also have the opportunity to send Nix to do some sneaky recon on other players. To learn more about that, check out our guide on how to cheat Kessel Sabacc.
Good luck playing Kessel Sabaac!