Tabletop gaming and Star Wars go hand in hand, and way back to the very beginning of the saga; in the first film released in 1977, Chewbacca and C-3PO are shown playing a sort of holographic chess game named Dejarik on board the Millennium Falcon. Talking of which, the origins of Han Solo’s ownership of the Millennium Falcon itself are tied into a card game, with Han Solo having won his iconic freighter in a game of Sabacc, from another legendary scoundrel: Lando Calrissian.
The creators of Star Wars show, The Bad Batch, even created a new and fully playable (for real!) card game called Balaans, for a one off episode; you can check out further information on that here.
Card games in Star Wars video games have also had their own, rather long, history. Who could forget whiling away countless hours in classic RPG, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, playing the addictive card game, Pazaak, for example?
Now, there’s a new game-within-a-game to become obsessed over, and it’s just one of many that you’ll find in UbiSoft’s open world, underworld adventure, Star Wars: Outlaws. Amongst betting on races and trying to spot a shuffled card as it flits around a grid at high speed (along with numerous simple, old school arcade games), you’ll find the game of Kessel Sabacc, a new variant of the game that’s infamous across the Star Wars universe, being played in numerous locations across the various planets and settlements of Star Wars: Outlaws.
Though it can seem pretty complicated and overwhelmed at first, it’s actually pretty straightforward to play Kessel Sabbac; not to mention very addictive once you start winning special rewards and credits. So how do you play Kessel Sabacc? Let’s find out!
Where To Play Kessel Sabacc In Star Wars Outlaws
In Star Wars Outlaws, you’ll be exploring the seedier underbelly of the universe. A lot. So where, in the various hives of scum and villainy, will you be able to play Kessel Sabacc?
Spend some time wandering around the dimly lit districts on each planet, and you’ll easily happen upon a cantina (or two!). Within these establishments, you’ll find a variety of gambling games; to play Sabacc, you’ll need to find a table such as the one pictured above (which is, itself, found on Mirogana). There will generally, but not always, be three people around a dealer droid, with a green, rotating table surface. Approach the table and sit down to begin playing!
Starting A Game Of Kessel Sabbac
When you begin your game of Kessel Sabbac, you’ll be presented with a screen (shown above) that’ll give you some important information; your opponents, the cheats you have available, the rewards you’ll earn for winning, the buy-in cost for the game and your current credit balance (Kay’s Wallet).
Your cheats can be deployed during a game, but do be careful about using them; in the image above, the cheat available is Nix, who you can send to look at an opponent’s cards. If you get caught doing this, however, you can get in serious trouble, so be warned!
In the image above, you can see that there’s a special reward for winning at this game of Kessel Sabacc; you can get a special deck of Shift Tokens. We’ll explain Shift Tokens shortly, but everything else is pretty self-explanatory; as long as you have the credits to pay to play, you can accept and start the game!
How To Win A Game Of Kessel Sabacc
To win a game of Kessel Sabbac, you need to get the lowest score; a score of zero is a Sabacc. You’ll have two cards in your hand, and the highest number is subtracted from the lower to get your total. If the two cards have the same number, you’ll have a Sabacc. The lower the number of the two cards, the better the hand.
So if you have two cards with the number and symbol for 3, as in the image above, that’s a Sabacc, but won’t beat a Sabacc made with two 2s, or two 1 cards.
If you win the round, you take all of the chips you invested back into your stash, but other players are taxed an amount of chips that’s equal to the difference between their card values. Playing a 1 and a 2 card will mean a difference of 1 between card values, so the taxed amount in that example would be 1 chip.
Players are out of the game if they lose all of their chips at the end of a round, which can’t be recovered (unless you use a specific token to gain chips). That includes you, so keep an eye on your chips at all times!
Playing A Round Of Kessel Sabacc
On each round, you’ll have two cards in your hand. You have three turns, and on each turn you can choose to Stand, therefore sticking with the cards you have, or you can Draw. If you Draw, you pay the fee with your credits, then choose a stack to draw from.
As you can see in the image above, there are two different colours of card; these are known as Sand (on the left) and Blood (on the right). The cards available to draw are in four spaces; a face up Sand card on the left, then the Sand deck to draw from next to that. In the third stack is the Blood deck, then fourth is a face up Blood card.
When you choose the Draw option, you can pick from any of these stacks, with the aim of making the lowest pair of numbers you can in your hand. So, again looking at the image above, you’ll see that the hand is a Sand 6 and a Blood 1. In that situation, the smartest move would likely be to draw from the Sand deck, in the hope of getting a 1. There is a face up Sand card, but this is an Impostor card, which we’ll come to shortly.
The cards in each deck are numbered 1 to 6, with accompanying symbols to identify them, as you can see above. There are three of each numbered card in each deck, plus Impostor and Sylop cards in each deck too.
Impostor Cards
The Blood card shown in the image above is an Impostor card; there are three of these in each deck. If you have an Impostor card in your hand at the end of the round, you roll two dice and choose a value to assign to it. Though this is risky, it could lead to you rolling the exact number you need to make a Sabacc!
The dice are six sided, and each side has one symbol, representing the numbers 1 to 6. So there’s a 1 in 6 chance that you’ll roll the number you need per die, which can often be well worth the risk. If you have two Impostor cards, as in the image above, you’ll roll two dice per Impostor card to get your final card values.
Sylop Cards
There’s only one Sylop card per deck, but they’re a great card to have. They take the value of the other card in your hand, so if you have a 1, the Sylop card will also be a 1!
You can see what a Sylop card looks like in the image above. Interestingly, two Sylop cards in hand makes an unbeatable hand, known as a Pure Sabacc; this is the strongest hand in Kessel Sabacc overall (two 1 cards makes a Prime Sabacc, which can only be beaten by a Pure Sabacc!).
Shift Tokens
Along with your cards, you can also select Shift Tokens to be played prior to Standing or Drawing on each turn. However, note that each of these Shift Tokens, which can tax other players (to make them lose chips), recover chips for you or avoid the draw fee, for example (along with many other effects), can only be used once each per game of Kessel Sabacc.
You start with just three of these, so you’ll take those into each game of Kessel Sabacc at the outset; you’ll soon find more Shift Tokens, however, which allows you to build a ‘deck’ of three tokens each time you play Kessel Sabacc.
Other Games To Play In Star Wars Outlaws
There’s lots of different games that can be played in the various seedy establishments of Star Wars Outlaws. Though arcade games, such as a shoot ’em up and a sort-of endless runner, for example, can be played, these will only get you bragging rights from high scores.
You’ll find ways to gamble and, hopefully, win credits other than playing Kessel Sabbac, such as betting on races (which is surprisingly in-depth, allowing you to study the form of the racing creatures before placing your credits on your chosen racer) or the ‘find the symbol’ game that is played using the terminals in the above image.
Whatever you play to pass the time and earn yourselves some credits in Star Wars Outlaws, good luck, and may the Force be with you!
