Balatro tips and strategies

[SirFozzie]

I love Balatro. It's CRACK. I've beat white stakes with several, and red stakes with a couple, and thoughts

Ante 1: Even with Green Deck, where you get paid for discards remaining, don't play any hand that A) Doesn't have at least 4 cards (and almost definitely flush/straight/Full House is the way to go). With 300, 450 and 600 in the first ante, you really want to blitz those in as few cards as possible to start the money train running

Early Antes: When you use a "convert 3 cards into a suit" tarot card, pay more attention to the suit than the number. Flush decks get a LOT better when it's 16/10/13/13 instead of 14/12/13/13, it also gives you targets to get rid of.

If you get one or two +multiplier jokers early, save money instead of filling things out more with things that don't fully synergize with your jokers/deck idea

If you run Green Deck especially, Delayed Gratification will be the equivalent of attaching a supercharger to your money engine.

early on, it's an auto skip if they offer a polychrome or a Holographic Joker, and it's just about always a good idea to skip if you get a negative joker.. Same with "All cards in the next shop are free to start". Don't forget you can sell cards you have no use for from that free shop, you just have to take them in your hand first (so, for example,. if you have Hanged Man, but no card targets, grab it, don't use it, and immediately sell it)

Fibonacci is a run winner.

And something you probably already know, but just in case... you can reorder your hand and your jokers to maximize your score (always do +Multipliers before x Multipliers, for example, same with things like Fibonacci before a card that multiplies the multiplier.

edit: I'm going to use this section for further thoughts:

On playing card hands, it's better to skip them instead of taking something that doesn't have a modifier, unless you're going for something like "I need 10 aces for this hand to work). They just take up room in your deck.

If you want to try everything without having to unlock it, create a second profile, switch to it, and click "Unlock everything" in the profile. You won't be able to get steam achievements while using that profile, but it will let you try out all the jokers, and all the deck types without having to unlock them.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Just got my first back to back wins, so I'm pleased with myself atm :)

Question (since this feels like it could turn into a general tips thread too):
Is there somewhere that explains some of the achievements/stats stuff? For example, what exactly IS a "joker sticker"? I have 1 now ... but I have no clue how I got it

edit to add: And yes to the "reorder deck (or jokers) to maximize benefit". I'm getting better about that but it still requires some practice to turn it into reflex

[Bobble]

When you Play a hand that is less than 5 cards (ex: three-of-a-kind), you can throw in junk cards to get rid of them.

[JonInMiddleGA]

When you Play a hand that is less than 5 cards (ex: three-of-a-kind), you can throw in junk cards to get rid of them.

Right, it's like having extra discard opportunities basically.

[SirFozzie]

cards that are supressed still count for hand ranking, they'll just not count for chips and any special abilities from jokers and tarot cards on them. (useful, if you say, you have the card that gives you x3 multiplier if you play a hand of the same type as you did previously that round.

[Bobble]

Early Antes: When you use a "convert 3 cards into a suit" tarot card, pay more attention to the suit than the number. Flush decks get a LOT better when it's 16/10/13/13 instead of 14/12/13/13, it also gives you targets to get rid of.


Finobacci and a flush deck is awesome. Any tips on having a flush deck playing against a boss blind that negates that suit? That's always my worst fear.

[SirFozzie]

There's someone out there with a video where he ends up with a score that needs E72 Exponential Notation to show up (just for comparison, a Million Million is only E12).

How? By ending a run with 28 cards, which all of them are the king of hearts. Some of which have planet seals (which feeds his multiplier through a card that gives +0.1 multiplier per planet card you play) , some of which has retrigger seals.

This, combined with the plasma deck (which averages out chips and multiplier before doing score caluclation, which can make a difference, compare 100 x 1 vs 50.5 x 50.5)

Balatro Science: Introduction to Infinity (1.0.0h) - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCcj4Agqm2A&t=0s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEsegOW8MCY&t=0s

[thesloppy]

Some of the boss blinds are so much harder than others. Like the one where you get zero discards, or only a single hand, versus the one where you have to play five cards to score.

[Lathum]

OK. What is this?

[thesloppy]

It's a message board dedicated to an old football video game where old losers gather to get mad at each other, but that's not important right now.

[Toddzilla]

Some of the boss blinds are so much harder than others. Like the one where you get zero discards, or only a single hand, versus the one where you have to play five cards to score.The one that selects a card you must play has killed me so many times :banghead:

[thesloppy]

The one that selects a card you must play has killed me so many times :banghead:


There is a 99.9% chance that you know this, but just in case: you can discard that selected card too.



I just had a run with the joker that pays on held face cards 50% of the time, and then I teamed that up with the joker that makes all cards considered face cards and I thought I was hot shit for like 5 seconds and immediately ran into the boss blind with all face cards drawn face down. :(

[BYU 14]

Some of the boss blinds are so much harder than others. Like the one where you get zero discards, or only a single hand, versus the one where you have to play five cards to score.

Man, I had a set up that considered all cards face cards, +4 face card multiplier, and some other X multipliers. Boss blind was all Face cards are de-buffed. So I sold the Joker that turned all cards into face cards, but it destroyed the whole synergy of my deck and I got stomped.

[JonInMiddleGA]

There is a 99.9% chance that you know this, but just in case: you can discard that selected card too.

But for those who are just dipping into the game, be aware that discarding the forced card will result in a different card being forced in the hand.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Talking about synergies for wins, I hit a great one tonight and picked up a victory with it

Jokers for: All Clubs +4, All Spades +4, and Jokers/Spades (and Hearts/Diamonds) being interchangeable

So a 5 card flush of any black suit triggers 5x(4x+4x), so a 40 multiplier from the hand. Paired with "most played hand adds mult for each use" joker, and several holo/foil jokers acquired along the way, I think I was usually somewhere in the 200-250 multiplier range by the end stages.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Ooh, also

Splash joker "Every played card counts in scoring"

Yes, any bonus effects (chips, mults, whatever) DO count even if those cards are not part of the hand you're playing (i.e. one pair, you still get the effects of the other three cards too)

[SirFozzie]

at some point, stop stacking +multipliers and go to xMultipliers (Polychrome, the one that boosts per blind skip, etcetera). you'll get your muitiplyers much higher

[Toddzilla]

If anyone cares, here is a cool seed: JVGS56W9

look for dna, vampire, a blueprint, and astronaut and try to fill your hand with only one card rank.

[Lathum]

OK. Downloaded and checking it out.

So when does a run "end?"

For example Slay the Spire has 3 levels, final level has a boss. Defeat the boss, game over.

[SirFozzie]

When you finish ante (round) 8, the run is officially "Won" (for game stat purposes), but you can play endless mode if you have a deck with nice synergy to see how far you can go. The #'s keep escalating very quickly (the switchover from Ante 10 to Ante 11 is the "Casual Kill Screen", as it takes 7x the points from the Ante 10 boss to the Ante 11 Small Blind.

I actually saw FOFC alumni Pumpy Tudors playing it on twitch the other day

[JonInMiddleGA]

Got my 4th different deck win (one more to go to unlock Challenges) with a pretty sweet synergy that fed into my playstyle

+0.1xMult for each Tarot card played AND +0.1xMult for each Planet card played. By the end I has 4.0x Mult and around 3.0x Mult both firing.

First half of the run was fed by the +20mult if played hand has 3 cards, so I fed planets into 3 of a Kind.

Okay, fine, having Mister Bones _and_ Disable boss blind gave me a certain degree of agression in the final ante altough as it turned out I didn't even need them for the win

[Lauriaferge27]

When playing a hand with fewer than 5 cards (e.g., three-of-a-kind), you have interactive plinko online version (https://plnkgame.com) the option to discard additional cards, known as junk cards, to eliminate them from your hand.

[Lathum]

Can someone explain interest?

[Bobble]

Can someone explain interest?

For every $5 that you have saved up before the deal, you get $1 after the round, maxed out at gaining $5. Of course, pretty much every aspect of that is mod-able by jokers or vouchers.

[Lathum]

Thanks

Just took my first run with a red deck. I was up to level 14 with two pair then used cards to try and get as many kings as I could.

This game is really fun.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Finally got challenges unlocked today.

Not the most scintillating stuff, I'll probably stick with trying to win with more decks instead of falling into the challenge thing any time soon.

-------
As an aside, I saw a note somewhere that said first week sales had topped 250k units. And in addition to NorthernLion (who has been playing for weeks), I've seen both Quill18 and Vormithrax doing LP videos this week.

[SirFozzie]

northernlion did some really good videos and is chill

[thesloppy]

Some extremely basic strategerizing from me: after ante 4 or 5 it's time to ditch any jokers focused on making money/cards/anything else and focus all your jokers on scoring.

[JonInMiddleGA]

northernlion did some really good videos and is chill

He's really how I came across the game a few weeks ago.

My son uses various gamer channels as background noise while he sleeps, NLion being one of those. That led him to Balatro, which in turn led me to it.

[thesloppy]

A very specific tip: if you get the joker that allows 4-card straights or flushes you can fill in 4-card straights with pairs of any of the cards within the straight, and all 5 cards will get scored.. E.g. 4-5-6-6-7

[QuikSand]

Ok, bought it. first 30m run was unexciting, but I'm taking it on faith that I will eventually get into this.

See you back here in a while.

[Lathum]

Ok, bought it. first 30m run was unexciting, but I'm taking it on faith that I will eventually get into this.

See you back here in a while.

I was the same and now my wife and I just had lunch and she said "you playing that game again?"

I also just learned a lesson. If you play a boss where you have to play 5 cards if you play less it doesn't say, screw you you can't do that, it discards them. Cost me the match when I tried to play 4 aces

[Toddzilla]

northernlion did some really good videos and is chillI get so frustrated watching him play, holy shit. I know he's streaming and that's priority 1, but he misses so many obvious plays and then cries because he doesn't understand why he failed. Maybe he looks to his chat too much to get tips mid-game, but I quit watching him play Balatro altogether it was just too stressful.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I get so frustrated watching him play, holy shit. I know he's streaming and that's priority 1, but he misses so many obvious plays and then cries because he doesn't understand why he failed. Maybe he looks to his chat too much to get tips mid-game, but I quit watching him play Balatro altogether it was just too stressful.

That's a theme with a lot of streamers I think.

Quill18 drives me half batty with that sort of thing in general, FeedbackGaming is terrible about that with HOI stuff.

[Bobble]

I need a mod that pre-calculates my score before I submit my hand. I'd burn some more discards trying to get gold cards or cards with seals that pay out when held, if I knew whether this hand was going to put me over the top.

[Toddzilla]

I need a mod that pre-calculates my score before I submit my hand. I'd burn some more discards trying to get gold cards or cards with seals that pay out when held, if I knew whether this hand was going to put me over the top.hxxps://github.com/jie65535/awesome-balatro

[SirFozzie]

Good article on this kind of thing (tips and tricks)

https://www.pcgamer.com/balatro-tips/

[SirFozzie]

Just cleared the "Casual Kill Screen" 7.2 million for the first time!!!!

How? Most of it was the unholy trinity of Jokers. One that makes face cards gold, one that makes every card treated like a face card, and Vampire, which eats certain types of enhancements to make its multiplier go up. I probably could have gone a couple more hands of it, but they take up 3 jokers to do so, so I was worried I may not keep up).

But even with probably breaking up the infinite combo a bit too early, the Vampire was giving me a x12.6 MULTIPLIER.

Then, to top it off, I got the joker that gives a x3 modifier on the very last hand of the round. Lucky as heck, but I'll take it :)

edit: I actually made it through that whole ante, but it just makes me give more respect to those who post scores higher than there are number of atoms in the universe...

[bhlloy]

Just lost my first decent run because I played a four card seven high instead of discarding it. Oops.

Fun game but like most rogue likes not sure it will hold much interest long term. Still well worth the money and most innovative indie game I’ve played in a while.

[thesloppy]

Just cleared the "Casual Kill Screen" 7.2 million for the first time!!!!

.


Niiiice! I still haven't really been close.

[JonInMiddleGA]

So yeah I, uh, did a thing.

The first gaming video / Let's Play video I've ever done that sees the light of day.

2.5 hours of me doing way more talking about Balatro than actual playing Balatro. I mean waaaaay more talking than playing.

In hindsight I don't love it, as time passes I suspect I'll cringe at the sight and sound of this but I'm putting it out there anyway. If nothing else in hopes that it will inspire me to do better in a future release.

Balatro Play (hours 1-2) - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw6Ef_kF-VI&t=6823s)

edit to add: 2nd video with better playing to 'splaining ratio
Balatro Play (hours 3-4) - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP5ZOb1b8rg&t)

[Arles]

This game is great. I usually go for the flush deck and got the joker that allows a flush or straight with just 4 cards. My first flush play I had 4 spades and was tossing a club to clear my hand. The Hand was:
A-2-4-5 (Spades) and a 3 of clubs. It ended up giving me a straight flush since my hand was a straight (A-5) and four were clubs. Pretty cool feature with that Joker.

[SirFozzie]

the nice thing is that let's say you had A-2-3-4 of a suit. ANY card you put in the fifth slot will make it a straight flush, since you have a straight AND a flush (with four fingers joker that is)

[Umbrella]

Also, the shortcut joker let's you skip a number in a straight. But I didn't realize until recently you can skip multiple iterations of 1. So you could have a 2-4-6-8-10 straight with that card, which makes it much more powerful than I originally interpreted.

And while on the subject of straights, I feel that hand size is critical for this. For me, it is worth giving up a discard or a played hand to increase it while playing a straight deck. I've beaten ante 8 a few times with straights, although I haven't been able to get past 10 with this strategy.

My best run, which got me to ante 12, was surprisingly a 2 pair deck. I don't remember my exact joker combo, but I know I had the trousers, the block (play exactly 4 cards), and the combo where every card is a face card along with the one that turns all face cards into gold. Add a vampire to suck away my mass gold, and this one added up quickly. I know I had another negative joker in there, but don't remember what my 6th one was.

ETA: And in case you didn't know, if you buy 10 of the blank vouchers, you unlock a voucher which gives you an extra joker slot. I don't know what happens if you keep buying them after it is unlocked though.

[SirFozzie]

The blank voucher is a prerequisite for the voucher that gives the extra joker slot.

[Lathum]

For whatever reason this game churns through my battery

[thesloppy]

Also, the shortcut joker let's you skip a number in a straight. But I didn't realize until recently you can skip multiple iterations of 1. So you could have a 2-4-6-8-10 straight with that card, which makes it much more powerful than I originally interpreted.

And while on the subject of straights, I feel that hand size is critical for this. For me, it is worth giving up a discard or a played hand to increase it while playing a straight deck. I've beaten ante 8 a few times with straights, although I haven't been able to get past 10 with this strategy.


I've had a few good runs with straight strategy too. Seems like there may be 1-2 more straight focused jokers relative to other hands...I like the one that gains +10 chips for every straight.

[thesloppy]

I've had a few good runs with straight strategy too. Seems like there may be 1-2 more straight focused jokers relative to other hands...I like the one that gains +10 chips for every straight.

After literally a week of trying I finally just beat black stakes, with a straight deck and the above joker

[QuikSand]

Just played my 4th or 5th game and the first where I "felt it." Got a couple flush-themed jokers, and started to get real money, and sorta threw it around at all the things just to see what they did. Narrow loss in round 19, now I am looking forward to playing again, for the first time.

[QuikSand]

First win. Got lots of “face card” synergy and a deck of mostly spades. Easy wins down the stretch.

[AlexB]

Bought this last night and spent a few hours on it. It is addictive!

Finally won a game, largely using the two pair joker and boosted two pair multiplier, along with with the joker that multiplies by the most common hand, plus improving straights & flushes, which meant that I could build the multipliers and get good returns with relatively basic hands (two pair) and then hit big with straights & flushes.

This was on the deck that pays for each unused hand and discard, which seemed to be slightly easier as you could really use the shop in the early stages

Edit: didn’t realise about the reordering of the jokers though: that is a good tip!

[thesloppy]

Edit: didn’t realise about the reordering of the jokers though: that is a good tip!


It took me far too long to realize that you can reorganize the order of your hand as well, for cases in which bonuses are triggered according to card order, or first card scored.

[JonInMiddleGA]

fwiw, I'm up to about 15 hours (give or take) of plays posted. Unedited, just raw footage of me playing & talking about it as I go.

Slow paced, though after the first video I do pick it up some. Far from anybody's metagamer or expert, just a regular guy kinda thing.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLms3vS3gimidQuW35tR5CYp1YhgTDt59u

[QuikSand]

Okay, so the method to promoting flushes seems clear and intuitive enough.

If you’re trying to play straights, you… do what, more or less? I know there are jokers to buff up points for straights, etc… but how does one make straights a far higher percentage play? Just unlocked the “Abandoned Deck” without face cards and that seems like one big move that direction (fewer ranks makes five in a row less odd)… but what else can you do to generate lots more straights?

[thesloppy]

but what else can you do to generate lots more straights?


There are a couple of particular jokers (which may need to be unlocked) that help in that regard. One lets you make flushes and straights with 4 cards and the other allows you to make straights with cards that are 1 or 2 ranks apart (eg 2-4-6-7-8 becomes a valid straight)

[QuikSand]

right, that's all I can think of, other than eliminating the lower ranked cards to compress the number of ranks out there

seems like there are far fewer powerful tools for straights than flushes

[thesloppy]

I have been trying to beat the different stakes and eventually ended up using the green deck pretty much exclusively for all of the later stakes, and I can't see why I should/would switch. Which decks do y'all favor?

[JonInMiddleGA]

I have been trying to beat the different stakes and eventually ended up using the green deck pretty much exclusively for all of the later stakes, and I can't see why I should/would switch. Which decks do y'all favor?

I don't know 'em by color off the top of my head but I'm most comfortable with the +1 hand deck, maybe the Spectral one where you start off with Hex (odd since I'm not a big Spectral guy), and honestly felt like no face cards was one of the easier decks to beat, being mostly a matter of getting the right synergy going.

On my prior-to-recording profile I think I've beaten at least one deck up to the 2nd? 3rd? color but have mostly tried to work my way across them evenly (not going to 3 until I've beaten all the unlocked decks on 2, etc).

[QuikSand]

I have been trying to beat the different stakes and eventually ended up using the green deck pretty much exclusively for all of the later stakes, and I can't see why I should/would switch. Which decks do y'all favor?

I'm still a relative newbie, but that's by far my favorite setup.

[SirFozzie]

One other thing, card location can matter even in your hand after you play cards. For example, if you have raised fist (+double the rank of your lowest card to multiplier), and any steel cards in your hand, you want to put the steel cards AFTER the card that's going to be used for raised fist

[Umbrella]

Localthunk (the developer) has mentioned in a recent interview that he's working on an update which is going to change some of the joker effects. I'm hearing that nerfing flushes and buffing straights are on the menu.

One joker I would like to see is the one that uses an ace in a straight. I'm hearing rumors that card could be buffed to allow a straight to wrap around the ace, so Q-K-A-2-3 would be a straight. I'm hoping it's true since I think that joker is pretty weak.

Another thing I learned is about the idol joker. It's the one where it doubles the multiplier if you play a specific card, like the 8 of diamonds. I never use this one, because it seems too random to use faithfully. However, the card it chooses is always in your deck, and proportional to how many of the specific cards are in your deck. For example, if you have a deck, and half of the cards are ace of spades, half the time the idol will pick ace of spades as the multiplier. In certain decks, this card can be very powerful. If you can get a flush five going with that, you just got a x32 multiplier!

[Umbrella]

Something else I just discovered. If you have the 4 finger joker (flushes and straights can be made with 4 cards), this card is more powerful than I originally thought. For example, if you have 4-5-7-8 of clubs, you have a flush. If you add a 6 of diamonds, this makes a straight, so four fingers counts this hand as a straight flush.

I discovered this by accident, and it took me a while to figure out why my 4 handed flush with an extra card to throw away was counting as a straight flush. I immediately changed my strategy and went all in on straight flushes.

[Umbrella]

I have been trying to beat the different stakes and eventually ended up using the green deck pretty much exclusively for all of the later stakes, and I can't see why I should/would switch. Which decks do y'all favor?

For me, green deck is one of my least favorite. My strategy generally relies on interest generated. I generally like all the decks, as they each give a slightly (or majorly) different playstyle.

Red - Discards are huge. The more I play, the more I realize the value of discards, especially in the early game. Playing a deck for more difficult hands like straights or 4 of a kinds, you need the extra discards.

Blue - The biggest upside for me is the extra dollar each round from having an extra hand. I'm generally trying to 1 or 2 shot each round, so that's the value of the extra hand to me.

Yellow - Having the extra $10 to get the economy going early is huge. In reality, you get an extra $12 to start because of interest. Great to start off on a good note.

Green - The first deck that forces a slight playstyle change. Certain jokers and vouchers are obsolete. Since you can't gain interest, no need to hoard money as much, and works great with the vagabond joker. I also like to have a money generating joker early with this deck.

Black - I think this is the toughest deck. Losing that extra hand is super painful early on, and the extra joker slot doesn't really become useful until ante 4 or later. This deck is about early survival.

Magic - Good for flush builds. If I can get one of the tarot cards to convert to a suit, you've just converted 9 cards instead of 3.

Nebula - This one is kinda meh for me. The lost consumable slot seems to always hit me at a real inappropriate time. If you can get your deck setup for a specific hand type early, it's not bad, but this deck isn't my favorite.

Ghost - I like spectral cards early, as sometimes they can help define my deck. Later on, there's too much RNG for them to be reliable.

Abandoned - This one is fun. Great for straights and 3/4 of a kinds. Ride the Bus is free chips with this deck.

Checkered - Hard to have anything but a flush strategy. Be careful of a boss that disables hearts or spades, but usually a pretty easy deck to win with.

Zodiac - Less jokers, more planets and tarot. Not much difference in how I play this one than the other decks.

Painted - This one is fun too. The extra hand size is great, although the late game is tough with the -1 joker. Winning on this deck will automatically unlock the invisible joker if you haven't already. I've had a lot of success with this one. The spectral which makes a joker negative still has a plus benefit on this deck.

Anaglyph - I don't think I've figured out how to play this one well. I know there is potential for giant scores on this one, but I never seem to be able to get the double tag to work properly.

Plasma - This deck is OP. Big scores are easy.

I still haven't unlocked the erratic deck yet, but that one looks fun.

[AlexB]

Just beginning to get a better handle on it - best game yet where got to the Boss on level 10, and got hands over 0.5m for the first time

I love the joker that mimics the joker to the right - had a x4 multiplier by lvl 10, so x8 helps!

[thesloppy]

The X3 for three-of-a-kind joker seems pretty OP compared to the other similar cards.

[AlexB]

Found the Baseball Joker today. Me likey.

(Effectively turns all uncommon jokers into Polychrome x1.5 on the offchance others haven’t seen it)

[Umbrella]

Anybody try the new beta version yet? Most of the changes look like the game will be a little easier, especially at the higher stakes. I like the introduction of the rental and perishable jokers. And the complaints about straights being too difficult to use have been addressed. Here's the patch notes (sorry for the long post):

Updated version of Love2D - this fixed an issue on Windows and Steam Deck causing poor/stuttery performance for some players

Added toggle for 'Reduced Motion', removing the swirly background and gyrating card motion

Changed default fallback tarot from Fool to Strength (when all tarots are on screen)

Changed Gold Stake random seeds - now ensures that the first Legendary Joker on that seed is a Joker that you have not won with on Gold Stake (For Completionist++ hunting)

Changed ante scaling in white stake:
Ante 3: 2800 -> 2000
Ante 4: 6000 -> 5000

Changed ante scaling in green stake:
Ante 2: 1000 -> 900
Ante 3: 3200 -> 2400
Ante 4: 9000 -> 7000

Changed ante scaling in purple stake:
Ante 2: 1200 -> 1000
Ante 3: 3600 -> 3000
Ante 4: 10000 -> 8000
Ante 5: 25000 -> 22000

Changed Orange Stake:
Scrapped increasing pack cost
Added new 'Perishable' mechanic, Jokers have a 30% chance to have a 'Perishable' sticker, disabling them after 5 rounds

Changed Gold Stake:
Scrapped -1 hand size
Added new 'Rental' mechanic, Jokers have a 30% chance to have a 'Rental' sticker (stacks with eternal/perishable), making them cost $1 up front and $3 every round

Changed eternal to apply to Jokers in Buffoon packs

Changed the first shop in every run to always include a normal Buffoon pack as one of the pack options

Upcoming blinds/tags can now be seen in the shop immediately after defeating a boss blind/cashing out

Some Blinds are now be banned on challenge runs - banned Crimson Heart, Verdant Leaf and Amber Acorn on 'Jokerless' - banned Verdant Leaf on 'Typecast' - banned Verdant Leaf on 'Non-Perishable' - banned The Plant on 'Mad World'

Buffed Saturn:
Now gives +3 mult instead of +2 mult for Straights

Buffed Neptune:
Now gives +4 mult instead of +3 mult for Straight Flush

Buffed Eris:
Now gives +50 chips instead of +40 chips for Flush Five

Buffed Ceres:
Now gives +4 mult instead of +3 mult for Flush House

Changed Uncommon tag - Now makes the uncommon joker free

Changed Rare tag - Now makes the rare joker free

Negative, Polychrome, Holo, Foil tags all make their respective joker free

Changed Investment to give $25 instead of $15

Changed 8 Ball - scrapped old effect, new effect -> 1 in 4 chance to spawn a tarot when any played 8 is scored

Changed Blue Seal - now creates the planet card of the final poker hand played during the round

Changed both Mad and Clever Joker - scrapped 'contains 4 of a kind' effect, now applies instead to any hand that contains a 'Two Pair'

Changed Yorick - scrapped old effect, new effect -> gains X1 mult every 23 cards discarded (starts at X1)

Changed Magician Tarot - now applies lucky to 2 cards instead of 1

Changed Midas Mask - now only applies Gold enhancement to scoring face cards, costs $7 was $6

Changed Vampire:
now only removes enhancement from scoring cards
gives X0.1 mult per enhancement instead of X0.2 mult
Rare instead of Uncommon

Changed Madness - now only applies on small/big blinds, not on boss blind selection

Changed To Do list - poker hand no longer changes on payout, always changes at end of round (won't get stuck on Straight Flush)

Changed description of Shortcut to include a more apt example (10 8 6 5 3)

Changed Ancient Joker - the selected suit is no longer able to repeat between rounds

Changed Swashbuckler - Now adds sell value of all other Jokers to Mult, not just the Jokers to the left

Changed Hanging Chad - Now retriggers the first played card 2 times instead of once

Changed Flower Pot - Now includes the base suit of debuffed cards when determining if it will trigger

Changed Bootstraps to include current mult bonus in description

Changed all 4 Sinful Jokers (one for each suit) - they now each give +3 mult per suit instead of +4 mult

Changed Banner - now gives +30 chips per remaining discard instead of +40 chips

Changed Fibonacci - costs $8 instead of $7, because Fibonacci

Changed Steel Joker - Now gives X0.2 mult per Steel card in full deck instead of X0.25 mult

Changed Odd Todd - Now gives +31 chips per odd ranked card instead of +30 chips

Changed Sixth Sense - Now uncommon and $6, was rare

Changed Hiker - Now gives +5 chips to every scoring card played instead of +4 chips

Changed Gros Michel - Now has a 1 in 6 chance to go extinct instead of 1 in 4

Changed Seance - Now uncommon and $6, was rare and $7

Changed Riff-Raff - Now $6, was $4

Changed Vagabond:
Rare, was uncommon
$8, was $6
Applies when you have $4 or less, was $3 or less

Changed Cloud 9 - Now $7, was $6

Changed Mail-In Rebate - Now $5 was $3

Changed Reserved Parking - Now common, was uncommon

Changed Lucky Cat - Now gains X0.25 per lucky proc, was X0.2

Changed Trading card - Now costs $6, was $5

Changed Campfire - Now gains X0.25 per card sold, was X0.5

Changed Smily Face - Now give +5 mult per face card, was +4 mult

Changed Golden Ticket - Now payes out $4 per gold card played, was $3

Changed Bloodstone - Now has a 1 in 2 chance to proc, was 1 in 3

Changed Onyx Agate - Now gives +7 mult per club card, was +8 mult

Changed Glass Joker - Now gives X0.75 mult per glass card destroyed, was X0.5 mult

Changed Stuntman - Now gives +250 Chips, was +300

Changed Invisible Joker - Now requires 2 rounds and costs $8, was 3 rounds and $10

Changed Burnt Joker - Now is rare, was uncommon

Changed wording on most scaling jokers to refer to 'this joker'

Fixed bug where opening a booster pack with hand size of 0 was unskippable

Fixed bug where the card generated by 'Certificate' was not being debuffed by the boss

[Fidatelo]

It's too bad if they are making it easier, I personally find the difficulty to be almost perfect. I'm kind of hoping I can either delay/ignore the update or maybe I'll just get to a good "I'm ok being done with this" place before it drops just in case I don't care for the changes.

[QuikSand]

I'm enough of a newb to hold off on any criticisms on the easy/hard realignments. As of now, I am finding it too tempting to play flush decks in most setups, and that feels like a signal to twist some dials here and there.

[Umbrella]

I haven't played the new beta yet, so I'm holding off judgement, but my initial gut feeling is that it might be a little easier, but not drastically. I think most people were never skipping blinds, so now with the free jokers, there's more incentives to do that.

Also, I've heard from some of my friends that are REALLY good at the game is that the gold stakes aren't fun since it is extremely RNG dependent. I think the new rental/perishable jokers are trying to combat that. Some of the really powerful jokers got nerfed a little, so hopefully the balance is still reasonable. I'm a little sad that the vampire joker got nerfed so hard, since many of my big runs had him in my deck, but I can agree that he was maybe a little TOO powerful.

I'm curious how long the beta will be in play before a full release. He's said that he is looking for feedback on the changes before he officially releases the patch.

[AlexB]

Got past the level 10 boss for the first time tonight, beaten by level 11 boss, but had multiple hands over 2.5m (first time any hand over 1m)

Ended up with the Cavendish banana, Ramen joker, Ancient Joker (x1.5 for any card of x suit played), joker that mimics the card to the right, and 1st face card = x2.

Added wild cards as much as I could, kept the Tarots that change 3 cards to a suit in the hope one of the two matched the Ancient Joker, and managed to get a wodge of cash to keep the ball rolling.

By far my best run yet.

[thesloppy]

Got past the level 10 boss for the first time tonight, beaten by level 11 boss, but had multiple hands over 2.5m (first time any hand over 1m)

Ended up with the Cavendish banana, Ramen joker, Ancient Joker (x1.5 for any card of x suit played), joker that mimics the card to the right, and 1st face card = x2.

Added wild cards as much as I could, kept the Tarots that change 3 cards to a suit in the hope one of the two matched the Ancient Joker, and managed to get a wodge of cash to keep the ball rolling.

By far my best run yet.


Nice. That cavendish joker is a doozy, I haven't been paying enough attention the few times I've got it, do you have to have the first banana joker get destroyed before that joker becomes available?

[Toddzilla]

Nice. That cavendish joker is a doozy, I haven't been paying enough attention the few times I've got it, do you have to have the first banana joker get destroyed before that joker becomes available?Yes

[Toddzilla]

Got my first nanInf today - double perkeo w/ blueprint was the engine, 100+ Plutos were the fuel

[SirFozzie]

Congrats!

and yes, the Gros Michel has to go extinct (you can't sell it, it has to kill itself, or another joker has to kill it)

[QuikSand]

Still enjoying the game, finally got a satisfying win without flushes, pounding three-queens relentlessly and building a deck to suit. Made it to the Level 10 boss but just couldn't generate the huge chips to keep on.

[Fidatelo]

I win with two-pairs and flushes pretty consistently. Pulled off my first single-pair win last night, dropping a pair of 3's for a million chip hand was pretty fun. I think I've maybe taken straights to the top once. But I've never tried 3-of-a-kind, full-house, or anything harder before. It just seems unattainable.

[AlexB]

One of the spectral cards turns every card in your hand to a random single value: then you can often spam three of a kind, full house, four of a kind and even five of a kind to an easy win

[QuikSand]

I did play one hand where I eventually had the entire deck spades, and a ton of upgraded Js, so I was laying down five flushes and flush houses nearly every hand - got to level 31 with that one.

Played a straights-first deck earlier and it sort of came together, but lost to a perfect boss with no reroll.

[thesloppy]

I have been casually trying to beat purple stakes for like a month now. I 've gotten so close a couple times and then the last boss was the extra-large blind both times, and I had no chance.

[QuikSand]

Got a quirky deck — pairs-focused, then picked up the vampire joker (eats enhancements to gain x0.2) and the add-a-stone-card-every-blind joker… made a risky move and blew it around level 15 but that deck had sweet potential. Now wanna get that vampire going again.

[Fidatelo]

If you get the vampire early it's almost a guaranteed win I find. Just keep buying packs in the shop and take whatever enhanced card is in there and after a few blinds he's at 2x and growing. I think I got him into 5x territory once.

[QuikSand]

I'm now in the mess-with-novel-concepts phase. Got the upgrade-first-hand-discarded joker early, played a "just make pairs" deck, and then got the rare every-uncommon-joker-gives-x1.5 and it was on. Cleared to level 36 by just raking in tens of millions on routine easy-to-make pairs the whole way. Most fun deck yet.

[thesloppy]

Woe, level 36! I still don't think I've made it past 11.

[Lathum]

Nothing worse then being on the final ante where you can only play one hand and clicking play instead of discard...

[rjolley]

Nothing worse then being on the final ante where you can only play one hand and clicking play instead of discard...

I've done that way more than I'd like to admit on various antes.

[AlexB]

Woe, level 36! I still don't think I've made it past 11.

That was my thought too!

[Lauriaferge27]

If you're playing a hand with fewer than Quality Cannabis Seeds Online - Buy Best Weed Strains Now! (https://cannacraftcorner.com) 5 cards, such as three-of-a-kind, you can discard additional cards, known as junk cards, to complete Weed Seeds for Sale - Order Online with Discreet Shipping! (https://pureplantpleasures.com) the hand.

[Umbrella]

Nothing worse then being on the final ante where you can only play one hand and clicking play instead of discard...

I haven't done that, but I've screwed up the one where you have to play five cards more than I care to admit.

[thesloppy]

I have and will continue to lose crucial games based on allllll of those simple mistakes: Pressing play or discard when I mean to press the other, accidentally selling my best jokers, playing less than 5 cards when the screen clearly tells me not to, playing the same hand when the screen clearly tells me not to, etc. etc.

[Fidatelo]

I haven't accidentally sold Jokers yet but I've sold instead of used crucial consumables a number of times now.

[thesloppy]

Oh I forgot pressing 'skip' instead of 'select' to choose a card from a booster pack.



I really need an undo button

[Umbrella]

I have and will continue to lose crucial games based on allllll of those simple mistakes: Pressing play or discard when I mean to press the other, accidentally selling my best jokers, playing less than 5 cards when the screen clearly tells me not to, playing the same hand when the screen clearly tells me not to, etc. etc.

Username fits.

The other one I do misclick whether to skip the blind or play it. I need to focus better.

[Lathum]

I have stared almost always skipping the first two blinds when I start a game. I may struggle to get to 600 in the final ante but if so I just start a new game. The risk/reward is way +EV IMO

[SirFozzie]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/video-games/2024/best-video-games-2024/

Baltro got the lead mention in an article in the Washington Post about the games of 2024

(other games mentioned: FF VII Rebirth, Palworld, Helldivers 2, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Tekken 8, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Unicorn Overlord, and Dragon's Dogma 2)

[SirFozzie]

I am NOT going to buy a Balatro hooded sweatshirt

I am NOT going to buy a Balatro Hooded Sweatshirt.

I AM NOT going to buy a Balatro hooded sweatshirt..

(I'm probably going to buy a Balatro hooded sweatshirt)

https://twitter.com/BalatroGame/status/1785715156267196514

"If you can't handle me at my Gros Michel, you don't deserve me at my Cavendish".. great one :)

Oh, and patch is out. rebalances stuff.. biggest thing is that when you skip a round to get a foil/holo/polychrome/negative joker, that joker will be free in the shop.

[QuikSand]

Son and I just played a very fun run... my first win with the Plasma Deck (balances chips and mult).

-We hit an early Oija spectral card, turned a whole hand into 9s, then later got the $-for-every-9 joker so it was a huge money deck, settling in around $400 in later stages

-We ended up trashing a lot of lower cards along the way (Joker that trashes your first single-card discard for $3) and eventually had a 21-card deck with 19 nines... do flush five or five-of-a-kind every hand

Made it to level 31 but didn't scale up to huge money... but the number of levels where we had NO trouble at all clearing the ante was basically the whole game, have never had that much latitude to just mess around with discards and such to squeeze max value everywhere because finishing the level was never in doubt (as any single card hand would win, due to chip additions and the Plasma balancing)

[MJ4H]

hi what the hell is balatro? I love Slay the Spire and Spell Rogue. Is it anything like those?

[QuikSand]

yes, it's a rogelink deckbuilder that is loosely built on some poker concepts, and terminology

excellent game, the things you like about Slay the Spire would carry over here, very much so

very well conceived

[SirFozzie]

Forgot to mention the first patch is out. mostly balancing, but the best part is that when you skip a round to get a joker tag (polychrome/foil/negative/Holo), that joker is now free when it pops up.

It will make things SO much more enticing to grab these jokers early.

[BYU 14]

I can't for the life of me figure out what the Double Tap mechanic is and how it triggers. Can anyone point me in the correct direction on this LOL.

[QuikSand]

https://gamerant.com/balatro-what-is-a-tag-double/#:~:text=A%20Double%20Tag%20is%20a,free%20Spectral%20Packs%20in%20Balatro.

[SirFozzie]

I can't for the life of me figure out what the Double Tap mechanic is and how it triggers. Can anyone point me in the correct direction on this LOL.

Double Tag means the next time you skip a round (and get a tag), you get two of them.

So, if you have a double tag, and get say, Polychrome, the next two base jokers you see will be polychrome and Free.

[BYU 14]

That makes sense as to why I couldn't figure it out LOL, I have never skipped a round :)

[QuikSand]

Double Tag means the next time you skip a round (and get a tag), you get two of them.

So, if you have a double tag, and get say, Polychrome, the next two base jokers you see will be polychrome and Free.

Not free

[SirFozzie]

WIth the patch, yes it will be.

https://imgur.com/a/d1LrKtp

[AlexB]

It seems like the patch has made it quite a but easier: winning nearly every time now on 2nd level (i know that’s not a boast, but it wasn’t happening before!)

Also Hologram and Vampire jokers are a great combo

[AlexB]

Just had my best run yet: got on to Ante 12, 25 Rounds, and while I was 260m off getting the 300m needed to win the Small Blind :eek:, I did end with a PB hand score of 12,929,385

[QuikSand]

...still awaiting the patch/update on XBox platform

[QuikSand]

Still trying for my first gold level win. I have tried maybe 5-6 times, just can’t get it to fully click, with the pack costs rising and the short hand.

[QuikSand]

...just posted my first crazy-powered run, scoring into the trillions with a high card setup and a super versatile blueprint joker doubling up the effects of the burnt joker, vagabond, and eventually the steel joker as a scoring-out multiplier.

[Lathum]

I just discovered a flush house. lol

[SirFozzie]

wait till you run into a Flush Five

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm stuck on orange, have been for weeks.

I probably shoulda gotten everything done before the patch and all that temp/rental joker jazz landed.

I still throw a random 30-60 minutes at it but I've probably hit my ceiling I'm afraid. Ah well, was fun while it lasted & wasn't particularly expensive.

[Young Drachma]

Just bought it after a coworker rec'd to me, excited to dive into the FOFC canon about it

I didn't do any searching for anything online last night just did a few hour run before bed and left my screen up because I was around 10 rounds in before I lost. Still getting my bearings, but I'm astounded by how complex and fun it is, games these days don't get made as much anymore it's always DLC and extracting all the things so seeing how much cool stuff built up around a silly card game is rad.

[QuikSand]

I have one deck completed through orange, and am trying to finish the Erratic Deck, which I like a lot (all 52 cards randomly assigned, leading to odd clumps and imbalances, and a lot of full house-ish hands fairly easily).

Definitely am feeling the wisdom of the high card build, though they all tend to look/feel mostly the same - the band of variations is narrower with that specific approach, but it's among the most stable to win at the higher levels, methinks.

[AlexB]

I have one deck completed through orange, and am trying to finish the Erratic Deck, which I like a lot (all 52 cards randomly assigned, leading to odd clumps and imbalances, and a lot of full house-ish hands fairly easily).

Definitely am feeling the wisdom of the high card build, though they all tend to look/feel mostly the same - the band of variations is narrower with that specific approach, but it's among the most stable to win at the higher levels, methinks.

Just unlocked the Erratic deck, and I concur - on first play through it seemed different, made me think a bit more

[QuikSand]

At this point, I have more than gotten my money's worth from this game, so I'm all set.

I am starting to feel a sense of too much familiarity in it, I fear. I have something like 60 total wins, and I think virtually all of them fit into a handful of patterns -- and the difference between landing in a winning pattern or not is definitely based on having "enough" skill/familiarity, but then a sizable share is just up to chance.

I see from YouTube that some people are apparently "modding" the game and creating jokers that I don't have. Maybe that's the frontier for this game -- either eventual DLC from the developer, or a user community that can build upon the game's terrific foundation and do more with it.

So, I kinda miss the game when I am unable to play for a couple of days, but when I clear time and sit down, I am often uninspired in-game. "Oh, yay, I got that [predacted] joker early and so I guess I'll likely win this run," but I don't really feel like I earned it, I just stumbled into the right card/combo at the right time.

I know I am not really optimizing the use of big money in-game, and I reckon there are other areas where I could improve materially with more experience, but... at this point the game feels fairly rote for me. I'm not done, but I might be able to see from here to there.

[QuikSand]

Just unlocked the Erratic deck, and I concur - on first play through it seemed different, made me think a bit more

I have started maybe 10-12 actual runs at the gold level, and right now my cycle is:

-launch Erratic/gold
-look at first two tags, if they are worse than "pretty good" restart
-skip the first two blinds, open up the first boss
-now look at the full deck, and see if it looks interesting
-if it's less than "interesting" then restart
-try to make 600 points with no jokers/help
-if we beat the boss, collect our yield from the tabs and we're off

I just am now looking to spend less time spinning my wheels. If the setup sounds actually interesting to play, or I'm in a quickly advantageous spot... then yeah, I'll set aside an hour to play it out.

I'm sure that ruins some stats it's keeping but I can live with that.

[thesloppy]

That's about where I'm at too. It feels less like playing a game and more just like playing the lottery of the joker draw....which I guess isn't that far off from actual poker.

[Wusel]

Tried playing the challenges? They might give some new play-styles to try out, some are even quite tricky ;)
Other than that I can agree, after ~65hours of playtime I haven't opened the game in a month now. The new patch kind of killed it for me. Not as much fun anymore.
But overall was more than worth my money, looking forward to the next one :)

[Lathum]

That's about where I'm at too. It feels less like playing a game and more just like playing the lottery of the joker draw....which I guess isn't that far off from actual poker.

You couldn't be more wrong about actual poker if you tried.

[thesloppy]

I guess I'll never get into poker heaven.

[Lathum]

I guess I'll never get into poker heaven.

The gates are closed!

( I just detest when people break poker into a game of luck)

[Maple Leafs]

Only seeing this thread now, but this game is the best.

Has anyone been trying the challenges? I've finished 19/20 but am convinced that "Jokerless" is a troll and completely impossible.

[Wusel]

Has anyone been trying the challenges? I've finished 19/20 but am convinced that "Jokerless" is a troll and completely impossible.

20/20 here. It is possible ;)

[Maple Leafs]

Teach me.

[QuikSand]

so... some idle thoughts here, feels like it could be a spark here...

have to imagine the powers-that-be are already mulling this, but how about multi-player Balatro?

ideas I've got:

-set it up like they do with replica bridge -- each person faces the exact same deck with the same sequence of cards in each round, rather than a different random scenario

-timed rounds, with some incentive to be the first to finish

-maybe some/most shop items or rewards are universal, but at least introduce the idea of some items being unique and "auctioned" so only one of the four (?) players gets it... could really change the dimensions of how we think about in-game economy


Man, once you start thinking about it, it feels like this game could really open up. I would love to play online with a few people from this community (I don't get a huge kick out of playing randos online).

[Lathum]

Weird.

I have the joker that allows multiple of cards, jokers, etc....so I have 2 Vampires that gets .1x per removed enhancement, but it is only boosting one of the jokers.

[QuikSand]

...I reckon the first Vampire eats/strips the enchantment/power off the card, and it's no longer enchanted for the second one.

[QuikSand]

Not playing a ton, but I do grab it from time to time... yesterday finally won on Gold with the Anaglyph deck... a high card build alarmingly absent on any of the traditional power jokers that work best with it. Basically got endless Hallucination early (lots of Tarot whole game), then a couple straight mult additions, later got the Constellation, and never got the King-based or Queen-based cards that really help the any-card setup, nor the multipliers like Mime.

Narrow win on Gold, pretty satisfying after quite a number of fails.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm just kinda sad that whenever the update was (months back now I guess) pretty much killed my ability to win organically.

Sure, I could just go find meta guides I guess but {shrug} what's the point?

I regret not beating it through & through before than update happened but thems the breaks I guess.

[thesloppy]

I still suck at this game

[Young Drachma]

I've only played around 50 hours, most of that with an unlocked profile just so I could understand the game better. I can't really listen to youtubers which is where all the good game content is, but I have been reading more lately to get more strategic about how I play.

This is my first-ever run past Ante 5, I'm actually paused now because I want to figure out how to play this round and get through it.

https://i.imgur.com/maqgsYt.png

[Young Drachma]

Dola got my first win.

This was just a really quality seed [PBZAAATV] using the Yellow Deck to run with for whatever reason, but I was mortified I was gonna blow it on Round 20, so I'm glad it worked out.

https://i.imgur.com/a4O151t.png

[Ramzavail]

nice win!

So many messages and no love for the music in this game. It rocks.

[QuikSand]

CARDLIKE | Addicting Games (https://www.addictinggames.com/card/cardlike)

free online ripoff, i guess handy when away from a console/PC with the real thing

[Maple Leafs]

There's a game called Beyond Words that came out this month on various platforms. It's basically Balatro but Scrabble.

I've been playing with it for a week now after a fried recommended it. My impression: It's an almost shameless ripoff of Balatro, to a degree that feels a bit grimey, and also doesn't even really try to capture the same quirky vibe. But the scrabble side of it does open up some interesting possibilities. I've been having fun with it.

Verdict: Good enough to scratch the itch while we wait for Balatro 2.

[QuikSand]

It feels to me like every clever idea in Balatro is something that a normal game-playing dude, like many of us, could have just come up with. In the age of vibe coding and whatnot, why am I not in this line of "work" yet? Like, seriously, I have in my head, but not yet in code, pretty much every element of the horse racing sim that I would want to sink 1,000 hours into... why am I not fired up on Claude making it into a $35 Steam app?

Because I'm a lazy p.o.s.

[Maple Leafs]

So is there a pre-order available for that, or...