Balatro tips and strategies

[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]

Originally Posted by AlexB

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?lis...5CYp1YhgTDt59u

[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]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

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]

Originally Posted by 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?

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]

Originally Posted by 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?

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]

Originally Posted by 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?

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

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]

Originally Posted by Lathum

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]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

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 5 cards, such as three-of-a-kind, you can discard additional cards, known as junk cards, to complete the hand.

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by Lathum

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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/enter...eo-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)