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[bender]

Purchased this game this week, I got my first win after 3 runs. Now though, I'm still going for two pairs level up all the time. Is it me or I'm missing something?

Any hand type can be viable (even high card) and the RNG can punish your favorite hand types (no repeat hand types this round, setting your money to $0 if you play your favorite hand type, etc.). It's natural to find favorite strategies and try to repeat them but that gets more difficult as you unlock more items which increases the RNG pool. All Jokers have their uses as do Tarot, Spectral and Planet Cards.

As much as Challenge Mode sapped some of my love for the game and will to live, it did teach me a lot about the games mechanics that I wasn't engaging with before.

 

[Mercador]

Hm, not sure I have challenges unlocked?

 

[Bridges]

Hm, not sure I have challenges unlocked?

I think you have to have won with a certain amount of different decks (5 or 10?) before challenges unlocked. I have them but the ones I've tried have been no fun. I feel way too restricted but I'm sure I'd be better at the game if I powered through them.

 

[Chiggs]

This thread is making me want to buy this game. Sounds like it's a winner.

 

[NoobSmog]

As much as Challenge Mode sapped some of my love for the game and will to live, it did teach me a lot about the games mechanics that I wasn't engaging with before.

Can second this. The challenges actually seem like kind of an advanced tutorial more than anything.

 

[Mercador]

I think you have to have won with a certain amount of different decks (5 or 10?) before challenges unlocked. I have them but the ones I've tried have been no fun. I feel way too restricted but I'm sure I'd be better at the game if I powered through them.

Yeah I need a victory with 5 decks to unlock those.

 

[MudoSkills]

I only just started playing around with challenges after hitting a bit of a wall progressing through different stakes with the decks. The 'Rich get Richer' one was pretty easy and I managed the 6th challenge that unlocks when you beat one on my first go.

I want to know what the other rules are with the Jokerless challenge. It must give you more money/access to buff cards otherwise it would surely be completely impossible? You can do the first ante with no jokers and a standard deck with a but of luck on the draws, but after that you'd be screwed.

 

[GermanZepp]

Not sure how much you have played but some quick tips.

1) Make sure you read the jokers fully. I felt really stupid as I didn't realize this until about 10+ hours in, but some jokers give you times multiple (xMult) and some give you plus mult.

2) To piggyback off of point one, you can move the jokers around. You can also do this before AND during a round. Some builds can get wacky which require you to have to move jokers around constantly for max efficiency. But typically, make sure flat mult and added chip jokers are first and xMult jokers are last in your build.

3) You mention "boosting" pair and straight. I'm assuming you mean the celestial packs? Builds leveling them up are def viable with certain jokers but in my experience, arcana packs/ Tarot cards are stronger and if given the choice of celestial or arcana, I would go arcana more than not (but again, it really does matter in your build). Specifically, steel and glass cards are REALLY strong as you get to higher antes.

Thanks man. The order of the jokers. This was the thing. I beat the red, blue, yellow and green decks. Currently playing o black. Awesome game

 

[StreetsofBeige]

For you guys talking joker sequence, it should go like this from left to right. This is how I do it, although it may make no difference as long as the X Multipliers are at the far right.

- Any joker not related to chips or multipliers
- Chip only
- Multipliers that have chip and +
- Multipliers that are + only
- Multipliers that are X only

There are other nuances though like some jokers duplicating or having an ability if situated left or right of remaining jokers. But in general, go with the above.

 

[jshackles]

For you guys talking joker sequence, it should go like this from left to right. This is how I do it, although it may make no difference as long as the X Multipliers are at the far right.

- Any joker not related to chips or multipliers
- Chip only
- Multipliers that have chip and +
- Multipliers that are + only
- Multipliers that are X only

There are other nuances though like some jokers duplicating or having an ability if situated left or right of remaining jokers. But in general, go with the above.

Good rule of thumb. I'd also add that Jokers that MAKE money should be placed to the left of Jokers that USE money. For example, make sure that Jokers like the Business Card, the Golden Ticket, Reserved Parking, or the Rough Gem are put to the left of something like Bootstraps.

 

[GermanZepp]

For you guys talking joker sequence, it should go like this from left to right. This is how I do it, although it may make no difference as long as the X Multipliers are at the far right.

- Any joker not related to chips or multipliers
- Chip only
- Multipliers that have chip and +
- Multipliers that are + only
- Multipliers that are X only

There are other nuances though like some jokers duplicating or having an ability if situated left or right of remaining jokers. But in general, go with the above.

Yes I'm playing it like this.

 

[MudoSkills]

Orange stakes can fuck off.

 

[NoobSmog]

Jokerless challenge actually made me quit the game and start up dragon's dogma 2, lol. That challenge just feels like it relies sooo much on luck.

 

[MudoSkills]

Beat Orange Stake with a very traditional, easily repeatable build.

 

[TropicanaTwista]

FINALLY the update hit PS5 today. No more level 0 from the arm!!!

 

[nashman]

Quick tip for plasma deck. Thats one of the later unlockable ones that balances chips and multiplier.

So let's say your hand traditionally scores 40 x 6 = 240 pts

It will make it 23 x 23 = 529 pts, where it's (40+6)/2 * by that again.

So what you want to do is load up more on lots of high scoring blue chip scoring cards and jokers that do +50 or +80 chips etc.... because splitting that /2 gets you more points calculations than picking a card that is x10 multiplier /2.

Thanks, just unlocked plasma and it had me a bit confused

 

[CloudShiner]

FINALLY the update hit PS5 today. No more level 0 from the arm!!!

Yeah fuck that boss. At least this gives you a better chance if you get it early in the run

 

[TropicanaTwista]

Finally beat a gold stake deck. Got pretty lucky, got Midas mask and Vampire by the end of ante 2. By the time I hit ante 8, my vampire was at a x19 mult.

Having jumped around a trying a lot, the blue deck seems like the easiest. You get the extra hand which can help if you are playing pair/high card builds to keep you alive and if you try something else or are just able to beat hands in a turn or two, you end up getting an extra dollar due to the extra hand. May not seem like much, but that shit adds up in the higher stakes when all the packs are expensive as hell near the end.

 

[Salmon]

65 hours in...and FFVII Rebirth, FFXVI, Dragon's Dogma 2 and Unicorn Overlord are all collecting dust! I HATE this game!

 

[CloudShiner]

65 hours in...and FFVII Rebirth, FFXVI, Dragon's Dogma 2 and Unicorn Overlord are all collecting dust! I HATE this game!

haha same here. what a game.

and the only other game that gave me this kind of addiction in recent times? Stardew Valley....which, fortunately or unfortunately for me, is due the 1.6 update on console sometime very soon. That'll be another hundred hours gone on the new farm.

 

[RaptorGTA]

God i suck at this game.

But I love it

 

[MudoSkills]

Finally beat gold stake. Picked up Madness early and it completely carried me, got all the eternal cards on the way but definitely not an optimal strategy.

 

[Yamisan]

I just found this game's 1-hour full version trial on PSN last night, and its amazing. I'm bad at power, but it doesn't seem to matter too much thanks to the game telling you what kind of hand you're building.

 

[Raphael]

You can bloody move the jokers?! Seems I have been accidently playing hard mode all this time...

 

[Codiox]

You can bloody move the jokers?! Seems I have been accidently playing hard mode all this time...

What? Why should I do that?

 

[Bridges]

What? Why should I do that?

Pretty good strategy explanation here:

For you guys talking joker sequence, it should go like this from left to right. This is how I do it, although it may make no difference as long as the X Multipliers are at the far right.

- Any joker not related to chips or multipliers
- Chip only
- Multipliers that have chip and +
- Multipliers that are + only
- Multipliers that are X only

There are other nuances though like some jokers duplicating or having an ability if situated left or right of remaining jokers. But in general, go with the above.

You want to use any jokers that add chips first so that when the jokers multiply they are multiplying by the largest amount possible. Also sometimes a joker will be impacted by order like "gain multiplier for every joker to the left of this card" or "duplicate the ability of the joker to the right of this card" and things like that.

Sometimes placement won't matter but a lot of times you can get a much more potent sequence of abilities by playing with the order. It can be the difference between winning and losing a blind sometimes.

 

[MudoSkills]

One of the ante 8 boss blinds mixes up the order of your jokers to fuck up your strat - it matters!

 

[RaptorGTA]

You can bloody move the jokers?! Seems I have been accidently playing hard mode all this time...

What. The.

I did not know this

 

[MudoSkills]

Erratic Deck is so fun to play with, shame it's such a hassle to unlock. You basically always start with more than 5 of one of the high value cards, fun gearing the deck however you want when so much of the initial work is done for you.

 

[MudoSkills]

This was a lot of fun, felt so good that the last re-roll got that extra steel card to help push this through.



Just lost on the final boss blind on Gold Stake for erratic deck by about 25k. Fuck.

 

[MudoSkills]

Patch notes are in. Some big changes coming, I have mixed feelings:

- 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

 

[jshackles]

New patch is now live on Steam (after almost a month of beta testing)

I also have mixed feelings just like MudoSkills but it seems most people that played the beta agree that it's a lot more balanced now

 

[MudoSkills]

I might get a 'nope' mug: https://www.playbalatro.com/merch

 

[BennyBlanco]

I think this may end up my GOTY. It’s so good.

 

[Arsic]

I tried both this and STS recently.

STS didn’t gel with me, but this game fuuuuucks.

First session I wanted to play 20 minutes then 4 hours went by.

 

[bender]

Update is out:

 

[HRK69]

It only took my 23 hours to win one run. For some strange reason I always land on 2 pair combo's.

Am I dumb?

 

[MudoSkills]

Use spectral and tarot cards to rig your deck towards higher value hands - four of a kind and full-house are usually good options.

 

[yet_another_alt]

Cheaper if you buy it from PlayAsia compared to Valve. Well, even cheaper from other keysites but PlayAsia is an actual store.

 

[MudoSkills]

See you again when the update hits.

 

[Spukc]

It might be better
And i’m a huge balatro fan

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

I had two runs today that came together beautifully, one on my iPhone on the couch and one tonight on my Pro. One revolved around two pair and the other straights. I got straights leveled up to where they were hitting for like 700 chips a pop before any jokers, it was insane. I'd never been able to crack one million in a hand before even with loads of time on the game across multiple devices and I was hitting 5+ million a hand here. Both runs fell apart eventually because I could never get a negative joker or two to really start multiplying shit like crazy. It seems like the game only offers you negative jokers early on.

Amazing how deep the game is and how you can still find new ways to make a run after hundreds of hours.

 

[MudoSkills]

Has anybody played much of Luck be a Landlord? Has been named as a big influence on Balatro and very recently came out on console - would be keen to hear impressions from fellow Balatro enjoyers.

 

[V1LÆM]

I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere now. My highest score so far is 382 million. I'm lucky to get 2 million now. I see videos of people hitting insane numbers so feel like I'm not playing it right.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong....

Are people doing seeded runs? If so then what seeds should I use? It feels kinda like cheating to me lol. When I've had a good run i'll replay that seed but doesn't help much.

Has anybody played much of Luck be a Landlord? Has been named as a big influence on Balatro and very recently came out on console - would be keen to hear impressions from fellow Balatro enjoyers.

oh god don't recommend more addictive games. Balatro has took over my life

i'll give it a try ...

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

i'll give it a try ...

Famous last words

 

[Ar¢tos]

Has anybody played much of Luck be a Landlord? Has been named as a big influence on Balatro and very recently came out on console - would be keen to hear impressions from fellow Balatro enjoyers.

I just managed to get my life back from Balatro.
I'll think about it after I finish Persona 4... (there is no logic to how I approach my backlog)

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

And it is a Really good game.??

. Seems like piece of dog sh1t

 

[MudoSkills]

And it is a Really good game.??

. Seems like piece of dog sh1t

Is the multi-award winning 5m copy selling game that is the subject of this thread (where people are talking about how much they love it) any good?

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Is the multi-award winning 5m copy selling game that is the subject of this thread (where people are talking about how much they love it) any good?

Wukong sold 25 million copies.

 

[JCK75]

I love this game so much.. but in trying to get the gold stake on all of my decks it becomes clear you just have to keep playing until you get lucky.. skill really plays no role in the upper stakes.