Quasar is a game played in the casino at Flux. It resembles pazaak from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The player must add random numbers (between certain values) to the score. The object of Quasar is to get the total to twenty, or as close as possible without going over. There are three types of Quasar machine with low, medium and high risk and appropriate payouts.
Strategy
Quasar is one of the few games where the casino actually makes a loss if played correctly. The expected return is quite easy to calculate, since there are only three options to choose from every step. The following table illustrates the expected return of each action. As you can see, you win about 15-20% of your bet on average.
| N | Best | Stop | 1-8 | 4-7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 244.61 | 0.00 | 238.50 | 244.61 |
| 2 | 238.44 | 0.00 | 236.40 | 238.44 |
| 3 | 235.73 | 0.00 | 235.73 | 232.06 |
| 4 | 237.23 | 0.00 | 237.23 | 226.87 |
| 5 | 242.82 | 0.00 | 242.82 | 229.85 |
| 6 | 247.19 | 0.00 | 241.60 | 247.19 |
| 7 | 251.15 | 0.00 | 232.09 | 251.15 |
| 8 | 237.30 | 0.00 | 220.39 | 237.30 |
| 9 | 218.13 | 0.00 | 218.13 | 210.94 |
| 10 | 221.67 | 0.00 | 221.67 | 189.06 |
| 11 | 230.37 | 0.00 | 230.37 | 192.19 |
| 12 | 249.22 | 0.00 | 249.22 | 223.44 |
| 13 | 287.50 | 0.00 | 213.28 | 287.50 |
| 14 | 237.50 | 0.00 | 183.59 | 237.50 |
| 15 | 175.00 | 50.00 | 161.72 | 175.00 |
| 16 | 143.75 | 100.00 | 143.75 | 100.00 |
| 17 | 200.00 | 200.00 | 118.75 | 0.00 |
| 18 | 250.00 | 250.00 | 87.50 | 0.00 |
| 19 | 300.00 | 300.00 | 50.00 | 0.00 |
| 20 | 400.00 | 400.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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“This mission just got a lot more complicated.” — Spoilers for Mass Effect follow. |
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Schells was developing a system to cheat on Quasar by using a device to record wins and losses. His device slightly increased the chance of winning, but got him thrown out for cheating.
Commander Shepard discovered that someone was using a Quasar machine to funnel credits through the system. After Shepard and the squad traced the signal from relay to relay through the Citadel, they found the 'person' responsible was a rogue AI in the back of the Emporium.