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Balatrois arogue-like deck builderbased on the popular card game — Poker. Winning a run inBalatrorequires beating progressively increasing boss blinds, all the way up toAnte 8, by playing powerful poker hands and using bonus cards. These bonus cards enhance your deck, allowing you to score additional points by means of multipliers and surpass seemingly impossible boss blinds.
If you’verecently started playingBalatroand are having a difficult time understanding what it takes to win a run, this guide shouldhelp you understand the fundamentalsand set you on the course to a quick victory in the next few runs.
Play More Runs To Unlock Powerful Joker Cards
Jokers Help Increase The Score Played Poker Hands
Jokers are the lifeblood of a poker hand inBalatro, allowing you to stack up additional chips or multiplier on the base hand score. The game features a total of150 joker cards, each offering unique bonuses that cater to specific playstyles.The more Joker cards you unlock, the higher your chance of achieving victory goes up.
Jokers are unlocked when purchasing them from the shop orclaiming them from Buffoon packs. However, some of the most powerful Jokers can only be unlocked upon meeting certain requirements like reaching a specific Ante,playing a certain hand, or scoring a specific number of chips.
Use Booster Packs To Improve Your Poker Hand And Deck
Booster Packs Offer Opportunities To Enhance Poker Hands & Joker Cards
Just like Joker cards, Booster Packs are usable bonus items thatimprove your deck during a run, upgrade poker hands, and unlock joker cards. There are a total of32 Booster PacksinBalatro, categorized into the following:
Whenever you’re in the shop, make sure to purchase booster packs to improve your deck and raise your chances of emerging victorious.
Play Easy, But Powerful Hands
Some Hands Are More Likely To For Strong Arrangements Than Even The Most Powerful Hands
While the Straight Flush hand-type is the most powerful hand in Poker, it isn’t a hand that can be arranged in every single run easily,unless you have powerful jokers and strategy. However, if you resort to playing hands like Flush, Full-House, and Three-Of-A-Kind, you’re chances of arranging them are much better than a Four-Of-A-Kind or Straight Flush.
Moreover, upgrading hands like Flushes, Straights, and Full-Houses with Celestial Packsallow you to score more with these hands. So, it’s recommended to stick to this strategy if you want to increase your chances of winning a run in Balatro.
Use Glass, Lucky & Polychrome Cards
Increase Your Score Multiplier With These Cards
InBalatro, certain card variants are more powerful than some of the poker hands. These bonus cards allow you to add to your score multiplier.
Polychrome Jokers can greatly boost your chances of winning in Balatro by applying a 1.5x multiplier to your hand score.
Start The Run On A Strong Foot
Reroll The Game To Shuffle Blind Skip Rewards
Each time you start a new run inBalatro, the gamerandomizes the rewards you can earn upon skipping a blind. Blind skipping is arisk and reward mechanicinBalatrothat rewards you with powerful Joker cards, Booster Packs, and money, butraises the stakes of a boss blind by limiting your economy and deck enhancement potential.
The risk of skipping blinds in the early game isn’t too high, and re-rolling a new game can potentially let you start the run with Rare, Holographic or Polychrome Jokers, allowing you to tailor your deck and strategize for mid and late game Antes.
Seek Out Negative Jokers
Adds +1 Joker Slot
As mentioned earlier,Joker cards are the lifeblood of a run inBalatro, and there is a limit to how many Jokers you can have in the Joker slots — the usual number is 5 cards for early decks. However,Balatroalso features a special edition of Joker, called theNegatives. These Joker cards do not take up any space in your Joker slots, allowing you to hold as many as you can acquire, in addition to regular Joker cards. The more Jokers you have in possession, thehigher are your chances of raising the chips and multiplier.
Purchase Vouchers To Guide Post-Blind Rewards
Influence Content & Variants Of Joker Cards, Booster Packs, And Playable Hands
Vouchers are powerful items that enhance your run in several ways, includingincreasing the playable hand and discard amount, influencing Booster Pack rewards, and improving the economy. Vouchers cycle after every boss blind, so you don’t necessarily have to prioritize purchasing them over Joker cards and Booster Packs.
WithVouchersyou can influence how often a specific type of Booster Pack appears in the Shop,allowing you to tailor your playstyle and enhance your preferred poker hands, and ultimately scoring big as a result.
Understand Joker Placement Order
Incorrect Joker Card Placements Can Impact Overall Hand Score
Unless you’re mathematically inclined, you wouldn’t realizethat Joker order plays a huge role in determining the scoring potentialityof a poker hand inBalatro.
InBalatro, Joker cards are always processed from left to right. For example,if you have a Joker with a x3 multiplier on the left and another with a +4 multiplier on the right, the game will first apply the x3 multiplier to the base score, then add the +4. This order results in a lower final score compared to having the x3 Joker on the right. So, ensure that Jokers that multiply the score are placed on the right, and Jokers that add to the multiplier are on the left.
Let’s understand this impact with an example:
As you’re able to see, it’s extremely important to order your Jokers strategically to maximize your score.
