Balatro is a poker-inspired roguelike deck builder about gaining jokers and other supporting items to win the game all made by one person named LocalThunk!
Balatro is like I said, a poker-inspired game where the point of the game is to get the highest amount of points to beat ‘blinds’ the way you defeat these blinds is by making poker hands to add up to your chip counter white your mult counter changes depending on the poker hand OR jokers that give mult, (the mult times your chips is equal the points you get).
The gameplay loop looks something like this:
You hop into the first blind, a ‘small blind.’ you then are given 8 sets of cards (the 8 set of card limit can be changed with jokers) you then have the option of discarding a set of cards for a better poker hand or try and make do with the set of cards in front of you. After playing poker hands (and gaining a certain amount of chips from each card) and winning the blind you’re then given some money for winning the round and are sent into the shop where you can buy jokers as well as Astral space packs, spectral packs, tarot packs or a 10 dollar voucher. After buying the bare necessities you then continue to the next blind (a medium blind) and you do that 3 times for each ante (a set of 3 blinds) until you reach ante 9.
You see there are many different features of poker, and I will go more in depth as well as give my own personal opinion on these varying topics.
Poker hands are a feature of Balatro that I’ve stated before; they all go in the same way as poker hands. If you happen to not know them, I’ll list a few here right now:
High card, where you play only one card; pair is where you have a pair of the same number (suit doesn’t matter). Two pair where you have, well, two pairs. Three of a kind, where you have three cards that have the same number. Straights are where you play five cards that go down in number for each card (2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Flushes are where you play a hand, and five cards have the same suit. Full houses are when you have a three-of-a-kind and a pair played in the same hand. Straight flushes, which you need to have straight, but all of them be in the same suit, and finally, a SECRET poker hand. Which isn’t featured in the poker hands list in the game called a ‘royal flush’ which you have a straight flush but all the cards in the straight flush are the highest numbered cards (ace, king, queen, jack and a 10).
After reading all that you got to thing “wow you must use a lot of hands in one round” which to that I say: you never really use all of these hands, it’s only like 1 main hand you use for most of the round, unless you’re in a pinch or you make do with the first 8 card hand you do for the round. There may be cards to boost you on picking different hands but the most reliable hand I’ve found is a Flush as it scales well in the later rounds.
Speaking of scaling, each poker hand has a level. They all start with level 0 but if you buy space cards from Celestial packs or blue seals from Spectral cards, which level up the desired hand by the Mult and chips and are a great resource in the early stages as you’re able to beat blinds in a single hand although they start to fall off near end game.
Jokers are a key experience of Balatro and an important resource into winning blinds.
There are varied amounts of Jokers (there are about 150 jokers! You start with 105, and there are 45 unlockable). Because there are so many different jokers, I’ll list down fan-made joker types which usually simplify the joke numbers of Jokers (there are about 150 jokers! You start with 105, and there are 45 unlockable). Because there are so many different jokers, I’ll list fan-made joker types, which usually simplify them by giving them categories. There are also rarities for the jokers, giving them categories. There are also rarities for the jokers, which gives them a lower chance of being found.
The first type of joker are Economy Jokers, they always in some way help you gain money. Some jokers actually give you more Mult depending on the amount of money you have so it’s always nice to have a big sum of dollars.
Second type of jokers are the plus Mult jokers in which they give you a certain amount of additional Mults and can be handy on some occasions.
Third type of jokers are the TIMES multipliers which times the joker’s Mults with the Mults you have, in which case additional Mults and times Mults are very handy to have one on one.
The fourth type of jokers are the additional CHIPS joker, being very much different to the additional Mults, in which they give additional chips! There aren’t multiplication chips like multiplication Mults in the game currently writing this article, but I hope they come soon!
The fifth type of jokers are the re-trigger jokers, which are VERY powerful and they, well, retrigger the card again allowing for any additional or times Mults to be played again if it affects cards being played.
The sixth type of jokers on this list are the effect jokers in which they apply a certain effect and don’t give chips, Mults or are able to retrigger cards. Some examples are Four fingers which make it, so straights and flushes are able to be played with 4 cards or Pareidolia which make it, so all cards are considered face cards which are awesome to use with cards that times Mult or add Mult if the card is a face card.
The seventh type of jokers are a little strange; they both give chips and Mult in the same joker. These may sound good on paper but the downsides aren’t generally worth it and a fun fact is there are only two cards that do this; they are Walkie Talkie, which gives you +10 chips and +4 Mult if the card is a 10 or a 4 and Scholar which gives you +20 chips and +4 Mult if the card is an Ace. These may seem good but jokers that depend on 1 type of card (and stick to that type) don’t give a lot and aren’t generally good to die for in the early game. Although you can sort of shape your run around them in the early-mid game, why do that when there are better cards that give more depending on the card? A good example is Baron, which gives you x1.5 for each KING LEFT OVER IN YOUR HAND WHEN PLAYING A POKER HAND!! Why spend so much time trying to get a Scholar to build if Barons are infinitely times better?
After naming all of these cards, I usually go for the times Mults and sometimes the additional Mults. Although the only additional Mult cards that I get are the SCALING jokers, that’s right! Poker hands aren’t the only thing that scales in this game! Although joker scaling and poker hand scaling are VERY different. Jokers only scale if that’s what the joker does, something like Supernova, which gives you additional Mults depending on how many times they played poker hand has been played, which scales VERY quickly, or the Hiker, which when cards are played, gives every played card +5, additional chips when scored. You see now it’s VERY different from poker hands!
Another thing I want to touch up on when it comes to jokers AND cards in general are:
Card Modifiers are another rare feature of Balatro in which cards may do different things when applied! There are Multiple versions of Editions, Enhancements and seals, Editions and Enhancements both generally give the same thing being that they give the card an extra special ability like extra chips or times 1.5 Mults. There are multiple versions of these effects and SO MANY OF THEM! So many, in fact, that I don’t think I’d be able to name all of them! You’ll just have to see for yourself. Although I will spill how to GET these card modifiers!
Enhancements are only for playing cards and not for jokers but can be found with the help of jokers that give you the editioned cards, Tarot cards that give the selected cards the effects and standard packs that have a chance of giving you some of the editions.
Editions can also be found with Tarots; Standards, however, cannot be made with jokes, but they can be given to jokers!
Seals are a special case here as they can only be given from spectral packs and (in the very rare scenario) Standard packs and only can be given to playing cards. Seals are VERY different from Enhancements and Effects for example a red seal can re-trigger a card or a purple seal makes it so if the playing card with the purple seal is discarded it gains you a Tarot card
All of these enhancements and effects are extremely useful! Especially if you can duplicate the playing cards in the late game, as you can take advantage of Baron and have a bunch of kings with red seals, thus doubling the effect of Baron for each king. Another thing about Editions I want to touch up here is this one, which is an EXTREMELY GOOD Edition. When applied to a playing card, it turns it into a Steel card; if the steel card is the left-over card in the hand when playing a poker hand, it gives x1.5 once. See how broken that is?
Another ANOTHER Edition here that affects jokers which is making them NEGATIVE! Negative Jokers make it so you can break that pesky Joker limit by one thus allowing you to have multiple negative cards without needing to worry about the limit! However, these only affect NEGATIVE cards with the edition, if you have 1 negative card in your joker slot and it’s all filled up that doesn’t mean you can chuck in an infinite number of jokers! Be warned!
Consumable cards are a feature of Balatro that can only be used once and grants either a specified playing card a certain card modifier, levels up a poker hand or grants a playing card a stamp. There are three consumable types currently in the game and those types being Tarot cards, Planet Cards and Spectral cards. Most of the time consumable cards are contained in booster packs which cost a varied amount of money to open, but when opened give a certain amount of cards depending on the pack, some of these packs can be a: Normal pack ($4) which gives you the choice of one consumable picked from a set of three consumables, a jumbo ($6) pack where you have the option of one of five consumable cards to pick from and finally the mega pack ($8) where you can choose two of up to five consumables, each consumable card having their name of the pack: Arcana packs hold Tarots, Celestial packs hold spaces and Spectral packs hold, you guessed it! Spectral cards! One thing I’d like to mention here is that you’re able to unpack non-consumable cards from packs, some being jokers from buffoon packs and playing cards with card modifiers in Standard packs.
One IMPORTANT topic I want to touch upon as well as the consumable card limit. Fun fact, you’re able to buy Consumable cards straight from the shop! Tarot cards like ‘The Fool’, which duplicates your last used tarot card after the fool is used (the fool can’t be duplicated), are insanely powerful as you can get two hermits in a row to be practically first in the money gain!
Something sad I want to talk about, too, is the consumable limit. Consumable cards are bought straight from the shop, or if the fool has been used, the duplicated card goes to your consumable slot. It will end up in its slot, on the right of the joker’s slot. The BAD thing about consumables is the TWO CARD CONSUMABLE LIMIT!! This is outrageous! I know you can max it out to 3 if you buy a voucher like Crystal Ball but… I’m just not a big fan of it… although I can see WHY! Wouldn’t want someone with a bajillion consumable cards in their consumable slot!
After all this, I’d name what all of these consumables do but just like card modifiers and jokers, you’ll just have to see for yourself! But I can give a general description of what most of them do!
Most tarot cards give specific card modifiers to 1/2 playing cards. However, some Tarot cards do something different, for example, the hermit doubles your current balance of money but caps at 20, which is VERY good!
All of the space cards from the Celestial packs give space cards that level up a poker hand depending on what the card’s description is.
Some spectral cards do give stamps to specified playing cards, but a lot of other spectral cards do different things too, sort of acting like the ‘effect jokers’ but for playing cards. Some examples are Ankh, which duplicates one joker but deletes all the other non-duplicated jokers, and Immolate, which makes you destroy 5 random cards for 20 dollars.
Consumable cards are very important and a key feature of Balatro, and what I and many other million Balatro players use! Spectral packs here being the best as one type of spectral card, also known as Cryptid, duplicated a selected card TWICE?! Dude, combining that with Baron, that’s, like, one of the best consumables in the game! Too bad spectral packs are rarer than all the other cards because they only have one version of each type of booster pack, but on the upside, a lot of the other consumable cards are still very useful! Tarots can provide exceptional benefits and are one of the two ways to get modified cards! And as I had stated before, space cards are a menace in the early game!
One way to effectively get these Booster packs and consumables is to go to…
The Shop is another key feature of Balatro, making it so you can buy consumables, jokers and vouchers. The prices you get vary depending on the item, such as rare jokers or mega consumable packs. The shop can also re-roll jokers and consumables for a price of about 5 coins (it scales up by 1 for each re-roll), but you can’t reroll packs or vouchers. There is not a lot to talk about the shop itself as the items are WAY WAY more interesting, but you can occasionally rig the re-rolls that being econ jokers, which can give you a lot of money to reroll, and Chaos the clown, is a joker, that gives you one free reroll per shop you enter into a shop. Another thing to touch upon is the jokers that give you a buff WHEN you reroll; one example is the Flash card which gives you +2 Mult per re-roll in the shop, which can be MEAN with Chaos the Clown! My whole opinion with re-rolling is that you don’t tend to do it till you’re in the late game, as that is when you reach A LOT of dollars due to the scaling of econ jokers.
We’ve been talking a lot about what’s IN the shop but what about before? I’m talking about the reward money AFTER beating a blind! The money you gain after defeating a blind is a whole 4 (or higher) dollars and usually the number of hands you have left after defeating the blind, at the amount of 5s you have in your money which is called interest, you gain 1 dollar for each 5 in your currency and each leftover hand. However, there is an interest cap of 5, so you can only gain 5 dollars from interest even if you have over 25 dollars. However, there is one way to break this and it’s through a voucher called Seed Money which raises the cap to an extra 5 bucks so you can now gain 10 dollars!! The day is saved!
and actually, speaking of Vouchers…
Vouchers are purely shop-based items, and a new voucher is changed per ante you go through. They cost 10 dollars and can be really good run helpers! One example is Crystal Ball, which gives you +1 to your consumable slot, which is, like I said before, pretty insane.
You never really come across vouchers much. It’s always so anticlimactic buying a voucher, and then the next round, you really see it take effect, with that being less reroll cost or a bigger chance of getting card modifiers.
And vouchers are really important, surprisingly, in the early round, allowing you to shape your run around them! Something like a Paintbrush, which gives you a +1-hand size, is detrimental to a run! Although I’d say they start to slip off in the later rounds, again, the fault being so much money you’re able to throw money at booster packs and jokers. The vast money increase makes vouchers easy thing to buy. You know, no risk for the reward. But I guess the main problem being…Blinds.
Blinds are one of The score required is times one of the base chips for a small blind but times 1.5 for a big blind. The scarier threat about blinds is the Boss Blinds.
There is always one boss blind after a small and big blind, boss blinds can go through a variety of de-buffs making sure you’re not swimming smoothly at all. Two debuff I can name is the Needle which reduces your hand size to one causing you to only play one poker hand you’d hope you get it early so you can wipe out the boss blind if you have good enough jokers to buff you on the way to defeating it. Another Boss blind I’d like to also talk to you about is called The House which makes it so you can’t see the first set of cards have for you to take a gamble and guess the poker cards or use up a discard, I find this Boss Blind very scary as if you have a card with a good effect you don’t know if it’s in the first hand or on the second discard so you’ll have to wing it.
One thing I want to add about discussing blinds is Tags. Tags can be gained from either skipping a small or being blind. Most tags are kind of… Doo Doo to say the least? I mean, who would want one free Celestial pack??? Does anyone want 1 free re-roll in the next shop??? Although the other set of cards are INSANE!! The first joker you see in a shop that becomes negative is like JAW DROPPING!! There isn’t a way to predict the next Jokers in a shop, so it’s a little icky, but if you get a good card in Shop and it becomes negative… You got yourself a sweet deal!
And that is all the features of…
Wait there’s still something left here!
Decks are a feature of Balatro that can spice up your runs! Before you pick a run you usually have to choose a deck to start with, some of these decks can be an extra hand (blue deck), discard (red deck) and 10 dollars at the start of the round (yellow deck!). And there are many more Decks to pick from! Although you only start with 1 deck at the start, that being the red deck and you have to unlock more, the unlock requirements can be to discover 20 new cards to discover 100 new cards!
The decks in Balatro are unique; some decks even encourage you to base your playing cards around a joker. Although all decks can’t be winners though, the black deck removes 1 hand but adds an extra joker slot. That may sound good on paper but unless you get the most jaw-dropping jokers at the start, you’re going to lose with the limited hand size. I guess you could gain an extra hand voucher somewhere, but the chances of getting it first shop are scaringly low, So I usually just try and get some scaling jokers as they work well in the long run, especially on a card that could use a hand.
For me at least I love every deck, it makes runs so different from the last and with the joker, booster packs and boss blinds change it truly makes for a random experience.
And that’s all for the features of Balatro! I left out quite a lot so I wouldn’t spoil anything! I mean you’ve read up to here at this point YOU GOTTA BUY IT!!
For the rest of this article, I will dive deep into my thoughts and opinions, so I hope you’re ready for me to talk nonstop about how great this game is!
The core thing I love about Balatro is how much strategizing there is. Each shop I have to do, like a math equation in my head for thinking about what to do next. Especially when it comes to boss blinds and I don’t have enough jokers to wipe it out in one turn, each discard of cards is nail-biting! And for the Jokers, they’re something special, I’ll tell you! So many jokers each turn you take, some stink, and some are a gift from God!
Now me to play sometimes.
I’m currently on a Balatro hiatus as I haven’t been playing it on my main computer most of the time, but it’s pretty fun to play on my phone or other computer!
After all this, all I have to say is that if you’re looking for a fun, randomized, poker-inspired card game, this is definitely meant for you. Although this may come with the cost of having to memorize everything!