Balatro Tips and Strategies (Add Your Own)

[Zed Clampet]

Ive been looking around and it seems like we've stumbled onto a well trodden debate in the Balatro community over whether Straights or Full House is better. I'm not any kind of statistician or mathematician to get into working out all the actual probabilities, so I'll just keep playing by my feelies

If the only decent Jokers available early on focus on Straights or Flushes then I do try to go that way, the problem is that I just havent had as consistant success with that. Thats obviously at least partly a me problem due to some choices that Im making somewhere, so I'll try some of your tips next time I'm into a Straight build.

Anyway I didnt mean I would always try and level all of the hands I mentioned, I would usually focus on one whichever one of them is most viable based on Jokers and other stuff that appears, and then later on Full House once theres a lot of duplicate cards. If I pull a planet card pack that doesnt have one of my main hands Ill just get whatever is most useful there. I play a bit differently to you in that I hardly ever focus hard on Pair or High Card out of those options, its usually 2 Pair or 3 of a Kind, because the Pair Jokers also work for both of those and they score higher due to having more cards in them.

I almost always have Splash, the joker that lets you count every card you put out, so having more cards in them really kind of works against me because I can play the pair and then put 3 enhanced cards with it and get bigger scores.

I have decided that the only way to play endless is to have Splash (see above) Mime, which retriggers the abilities of played cards, and to also have Blueprint, which will copy Mime and do it all over again. Then as many positive and negative Xmulti jokers as you can get.

As usual, I haven't read anything about making builds, so there are probably other ways.

I just played endless with a great set of xMulti jokers and Splash, and it wasn't enough. I had 2 x2's and an x4, I also had a joker that gave something like 52 multi for pairs. It did fine but wasn't enough when the blinds hit 10plus million. I also didn't have a good coin joker, which is pretty important.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I almost always have Splash, the joker that lets you count every card you put out, so having more cards in them really kind of works against me because I can play the pair and then put 3 enhanced cards with it and get bigger scores.

I have decided that the only way to play endless is to have Splash (see above) Mime, which retriggers the abilities of played cards, and to also have Blueprint, which will copy Mime and do it all over again. Then as many positive and negative Xmulti jokers as you can get.

As usual, I haven't read anything about making builds, so there are probably other ways.

I just played endless with a great set of xMulti jokers and Splash, and it wasn't enough. I had 2 x2's and an x4, I also had a joker that gave something like 52 multi for pairs. It did fine but wasn't enough when the blinds hit 10plus million. I also didn't have a good coin joker, which is pretty important.

Yea I never looked up anything before this, then out of interest trying to find out how to make Straights work better I found some threads debating the pros and cons of Full House vs Straight.

Have you got to the Eternal Jokers yet?

 

[Zed Clampet]

Yea I never looked up anything before this, then out of interest trying to find out how to make Straights work better I found some threads debating the pros and cons of Full House vs Straight.

Have you got to the Eternal Jokers yet?

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(sorry, I meant to do strike-through on what I wrote, but it got deleted instead)
EDIT: I didn't understand what Eternal Jokers are. They are only eternal during your current run. I thought you carried them with you from run to run. They aren't nearly as interesting as I thought.

I'm not sure why there's a debate of Full House vs Straights. You can't play the game trying to get either one (except for the occasional stroke of good luck)unless you have the two straight jokers. Then you can get straights very nearly every single time (I'm not exaggerating. I've done this several times, and I may have failed to get a Straight once or twice the whole game). There's nothing similar for Full House, so you are going to have to fall back on Pair almost every single round. Or you can sometimes fall back on Two Pair, which dilutes your leveling efforts and makes everything worse.

But here's the thing, if you are only trying to win Green or White Stake decks (which is how the game is most fun), it doesn't really matter. As long as you have a rational, coherent plan that works with the jokers you've picked up, you should win pretty much every game. If you aren't, then there's something wrong with your plan.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Have you got to the Eternal Jokers yet?

Okay, I played the Black Deck with the Eternal Jokers, but while it offered me a bunch of them, there weren't any that I wanted. That's kind of a shame because when you complete the game, it creates a new file called "unlock_notify" which I'm guessing gets rid of your permanent jokers when you start a new game. I'm also guessing that if you delete this file you get to keep them. Now you know I have to try it.

The game went well. Other than the Eternal Jokers, it had the changes from the previous decks included--no money on small blinds and higher antes. At least I assume that's what it was doing. I know the antes were higher, but I didn't pay attention to see if the small blinds were paying out. Anyway, there's no point in continuing this in endless mode, so I'll just go start a new game somewhere I haven't unlocked.

 

[Zed Clampet]

OKAY! This is really happening. I am not anti-RNG. I'm not one of those persons who plays XCOM and complains bitterly about the game being broken because they missed a couple of high percentage shots. But this is what has happened to me in Balatro.

There are cards you get that say you have a 1 in 4 chance of improving a joker. During 56 hours of play, I have used countless of these. I haven't kept track of the number, so I'm just going to say it was about two per hour (mostly because it was making me angry). When it doesn't work, the word "nope" briefly appears on the screen. So out of 100 times I've used this card, I've seen "nope" 98 times.

The odds of this happening are 0.000000176% (maybe, I'm struggling to remember how to do this, but I'm confident this is in the ballpark).

Meanwhile, my glass cards have a 1 in 4 chance to break after usage, and the last 50 are breaking at a 68% rate. I kept track of them in a spreadsheet.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

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(sorry, I meant to do strike-through on what I wrote, but it got deleted instead)
EDIT: I didn't understand what Eternal Jokers are. They are only eternal during your current run. I thought you carried them with you from run to run. They aren't nearly as interesting as I thought.

They definitely make the game harder at later levels.

I'm not sure why there's a debate of Full House vs Straights. You can't play the game trying to get either one (except for the occasional stroke of good luck)unless you have the two straight jokers. Then you can get straights very nearly every single time (I'm not exaggerating. I've done this several times, and I may have failed to get a Straight once or twice the whole game). There's nothing similar for Full House, so you are going to have to fall back on Pair almost every single round. Or you can sometimes fall back on Two Pair, which dilutes your leveling efforts and makes everything worse.

Early on you get offered Shortcut or Spare Trousers, what are you taking? I have mostly avoided playing straights as much as possible because I dont feel theyre as consistent as Full House at beating Ante 8 at whatever difficulty I'm playing at. Not saying thats correct but thats how its seemed to me.

But here's the thing, if you are only trying to win Green or White Stake decks (which is how the game is most fun), it doesn't really matter. As long as you have a rational, coherent plan that works with the jokers you've picked up, you should win pretty much every game. If you aren't, then there's something wrong with your plan.

The dev said he believes every game on White Stake is winnable, I assume he means on every deck. I dont know, the Black deck is tough at any difficulty at least for me.

OKAY! This is really happening. I am not anti-RNG. I'm not one of those persons who plays XCOM and complains bitterly about the game being broken because they missed a couple of high percentage shots. But this is what has happened to me in Balatro.

There are cards you get that say you have a 1 in 4 chance of improving a joker. During 56 hours of play, I have used countless of these. I haven't kept track of the number, so I'm just going to say it was about two per hour (mostly because it was making me angry). When it doesn't work, the word "nope" briefly appears on the screen. So out of 100 times I've used this card, I've seen "nope" 98 times.

The odds of this happening are 0.000000176% (maybe, I'm struggling to remember how to do this, but I'm confident this is in the ballpark).

Meanwhile, my glass cards have a 1 in 4 chance to break after usage, and the last 50 are breaking at a 68% rate. I kept track of them in a spreadsheet.

Lol. Thats one of the reasons I dont like using Glass cards, especially if your repeating them theyre almost guaranteed to break. I'd rather make them Lucky or + multi or chips.

 

[Zed Clampet]

They definitely make the game harder at later levels.

I don't know anything about the later levels, but they make the game more difficult as soon as they are introduced. I love switching out jokers.

Early on you get offered Shortcut or Spare Trousers, what are you taking? I have mostly avoided playing straights as much as possible because I dont feel theyre as consistent as Full House at beating Ante 8 at whatever difficulty I'm playing at. Not saying thats correct but thats how its seemed to me.

No question, I'd take Spare Trousers. But if I had a choice between Spare Trousers and Supernova, I'd take Supernova and forget the Two Pairs unless I had one of the decks that helps you make pairs.

The dev said he believes every game on White Stake is winnable, I assume he means on every deck. I dont know, the Black deck is tough at any difficulty at least for me.

If you are playing Black deck and early on the game is giving you lemons for jokers, it could be tough. You are going to have to try to make Full House, Flush and Straights or better just to survive.

Lol. Thats one of the reasons I dont like using Glass cards, especially if your repeating them theyre almost guaranteed to break. I'd rather make them Lucky or + multi or chips.

They are annoying, but I usually pick them up when they are extra cards (as opposed to changing one of my cards into a glass card)

I got a special card during my last run. It was a five of hearts. I had the joker that gave me plus multi for hearts, and this five of hearts gave an addition plus 4 multi and it had a bonus action of being triggered 3 times. I can't remember which deck this is, but it isn't conducive to getting planet cards, and I didn't get anything else to help level them anyway, so having this 5 in play helped a lot. I was actually able to duplicate it thanks to a tarot card, and it was good enough to help me win the round.

***
I've started skipping blinds when the prize seems good enough.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Welp, I lost a White Stack game. I got to the final boss and it was the increased amount version where you need to score 300,000. There was just no way with my build to score 300k. I spent a fortune rerolling those last two rounds before the boss trying to get a Xmulti joker and just generally find better jokers, but didn't have any luck. Probably the weakest lineup of jokers I've had in awhile. Still, getting the 100k wouldn't have been a problem.

The was with the Abandoned Deck that starts without face cards.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Im away from home so been playing on mobile. Had quite a bit of luck playing straights now, at least on the White stakes as cloud data obvs isnt shared with Switch.

I will say theres been a time or 2 when I had a great build but spent every hand and discard and still couldnt pull a damn straight out to win. Sometimes that has been mitigated by just playing upgraded pairs, as @Zed Clampet suggested. A good amount of the time Pairs ends up being the main scoring hand anyway.

What seemed to help me is to stop loading the deck with as many extra cards as possible like I always do when Im fishing for 2 pair to Full House. Better to cut cards out and enhance the ones that are left, pulling straights seems easier when you trim the face cards and low ones with Hanged Man and Death Tarots.

Havent tried on anything over Red stakes, and those on the easier Blue and Red decks yet, so lets see if I got it now or if its just the easier decks.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Im away from home so been playing on mobile. Had quite a bit of luck playing straights now, at least on the White stakes as cloud data obvs isnt shared with Switch.

I will say theres been a time or 2 when I had a great build but spent every hand and discard and still couldnt pull a damn straight out to win. Sometimes that has been mitigated by just playing upgraded pairs, as @Zed Clampet suggested. A good amount of the time Pairs ends up being the main scoring hand anyway.

What seemed to help me is to stop loading the deck with as many extra cards as possible like I always do when Im fishing for 2 pair to Full House. Better to cut cards out and enhance the ones that are left, pulling straights seems easier when you trim the face cards and low ones with Hanged Man and Death Tarots.

Havent tried on anything over Red stakes, and those on the easier Blue and Red decks yet, so lets see if I got it now or if its just the easier decks.

I'm about to abandon everything over a Pair. The tier I'm playing now only has 2 discards. Lost my last match when I couldn't reroll the worst Boss Blind, which IMO is when everything but your initial cards are upside down. If you have your Pair and High Card built up nicely, you can just pick the first five cards. I, however, had abandoned raising any hands and decided to try to just get as many enhanced cards as possible. That didn't work at all.

Bought one eternal Joker, but I'm too sleepy to remember which one it was. I had a pretty darn good one, though. It picked a suit every round and then any card you played from that suit got x2. Unfortunately, with only two discards, trying to get Flushes of that particular suit was unreliable. Didn't really matter though because my other jokers weren't any good.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Kaamos_Llama With the discard thing (only 2), and I'm not actually sure whether it's every tier 5 run or not, I'm going to have to play more naturally and look for hands that all synergize, Pair, Two Pair, 3 of a Kind, Full House, Four of a Kind. I think that's what you've been doing. I started out doing that, but decided with the large number of cards you drew, etc. that the other would be fun.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Kaamos_Llama I'm not sure why you think Straights are hard to get.

Spoiler: First draw of the game

Also, they were wrong when they thought they could debuff me.

Spoiler: Made decent money on this hand

So I've unlocked the next tier (only on one deck) and it says the antes scale up continuously. That sounds kind of scary.

 

[Zed Clampet]

F*** BALATRO

 

[Frindis]

F*** BALATRO

I played the demo, but comments like these make me want to get the full game

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I played the demo, but comments like these make me want to get the full game

Its worth the price, pretty addictive.

I'm probably out for a bit as I'm home now, but whenever I have a flight coming up I still know what Ill be playing.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I played the demo, but comments like these make me want to get the full game

I definitely recommend it. Except occasionally when I want to kill it.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I'm up to orange decks, the 7th one, and now there are jokers that expire after 5 rounds. So far I'm just refusing to buy them.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I'm struggling with this one. For one thing, having only 2 discards is stopping me from using my original strategy to win each round with the first hand. Second of all, I'm reluctant to buy jokers that expire in 5 turns.

 

[Zed Clampet]

This is just exhausting. I skipped the first blind because everything was going to be free after the next one, and every joker they offered was an expiring joker.

I just sat and looked at it for a moment and then closed it down.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Havent played much on those stakes, was trying to get every deck up more or less equally on the Switch so only the Red Deck is there.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Havent played much on those stakes, was trying to get every deck up more or less equally on the Switch so only the Red Deck is there.

I've got a few decks that are behind. I think I'll take a break from this torture and work on those.

 

[Pifanjr]

How well do you know Balatro's jokers? Try to ace our latest quiz!

Ante up! Let's see if you're a true card sharp or just a flop.

www.pcgamer.com

I got 1/10. I only got the first one right.