Balatro

Balatro

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X-hog Feb 23, 2024 @ 8:33am
I'm honestly at a loss at how to win a run
After 8 hours, having tried several builds and decks, I can only ever get up to Ante 7 at the most. Certainly doesn't help there being 2 bosses that are just instant run killers unless you manage to get an OP build to steamroll them.

What is the best first deck and build to get at least one winning round in?
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Showing 1-15 of 31 comments
shadax Feb 23, 2024 @ 8:46am 
I have the most consistent wins with Yellow Deck so far. The early cash flow helps to get a build going earlier.

Are you arranging your hand and jokers when you encounter xMult?

Keep in mind there are Chips, +Mult, and xMult. Once I started focusing on adding xMult last, and actually moving my the cards in the hand I'm setting up to *play*, i.e. not cards that will be left in my hand, my high score went from a few hundred thousand to millions.

For example if I play a flush containing a face card, and I have the joker that adds xMult, I'll drag the face card to the end of my flush so it applies it last, even though the hand itself is still a flush, the order of the flush mattered immensely.

Check out this reddit post for more tips:

https://www.reddit.com/r/balatro/comments/1aw1t7z/general_tips_and_advice/
X-hog Feb 23, 2024 @ 8:52am 
Originally posted by shadax:
I have the most consistent wins with Yellow Deck so far. The early cash flow helps to get a build going earlier.

Are you arranging your hand and jokers when you encounter xMult?

Keep in mind there are Chips, +Mult, and xMult. Once I started focusing on adding xMult last, and actually moving my the cards in the hand I'm setting up to *play*, i.e. not cards that will be left in my hand, my high score went from a few hundred thousand to millions.

For example if I play a flush containing a face card, and I have the joker that adds xMult, I'll drag the face card to the end of my flush so it applies it last, even though the hand itself is still a flush, the order of the flush mattered immensely.

Check out this reddit post for more tips:

https://www.reddit.com/r/balatro/comments/1aw1t7z/general_tips_and_advice/

I'm baffled by how arranging cards makes any difference
I am focusing on boosting jokers, especially with xMulti and even trying to go for a flush build, I can never get a huge number like I want because there are they way too many variables, even for this being a roguelike.
steven Feb 23, 2024 @ 9:04am 
After 8 hours, i did Ante 10 (not more, decks was not enough powerful) 5 times with 5 different decks.
Never forced reroll my run. Maybe RNG was with me or not

Focus on X Mult or + Mult and Joker synergizing with your cards. Organize your Jokers to maximize the Multipliers (from left to right)
Do some Flush or Straight, by far the easiest combo. Focus on one planet or two.
Don't reroll (except if you have lot of money to spend)
Try to skip blinds if it gives good tags (see if it's you can reach the total of the next blind with your current deck before skipping !)
Destroy or convert some cards (diamond to spades, gold cards, polychrome...) to maximize your combos : having less of a suit will benefits your 3 others or having more of the same rank will help
Don't use all your discard on your first hand (except if you have only pair or high card) or you will be screwed for the 2-3 next hand praying RnJesus gives you good cards.
ugafan Feb 23, 2024 @ 9:16am 
I'm baffled by how arranging cards makes any difference

I'll give you an example. Let's say you start at 100. You have a 2x multiplier, and +10 multiplier

100 x 2 = 200
200 + 10 = 210

But if you changed the order

100 + 10 = 110
110 x 2 = 220
you are probably making one of these mistakes

incorrectly evaluating more complex jokers or jokers that don't directly affect your score.

neglecting planet cards.

not using tarots well like only using them in packs and not to enable specific hands as a consumable.

not buying spectrals or vouchers. never skipping for good tags.

joker build needs 3 factors to get over the hump of ante 8 - chip generation, flat multiplier value, x multiplier. people probably ignore chips the most if i had to guess.
Huey Feb 23, 2024 @ 9:48am 
I don't think there is any 'best deck', considering a run is determined by the RNG of the jokers and other cards you find. You have to be creative and adapt to what fate provides, which is why this game is so incredibly fun.

I won my first run tonight and I won it using a strange build that I made based on what I was given. Using the green deck I got a joker early on that rewards you for not using your discards by giving you more cash. Then I got more jokers with various cash bonuses, and other jokers that stack your chips rather than mults. So by ante 8 I was getting from 500 to 1k just in chips alone, then the little amount of mults I had carried it over. The final ante was the needle so I saved all my cash leading up to it.
X-hog Feb 23, 2024 @ 9:51am 
Even after taking all the advice, I'm still not going past Ante 7. I know it's a meme to say this but the amount of RNG is holding me back from the synergies I'm trying to make and I seriously don't get how big numbers are being made. Am I just the unluckiest person playing this game?
Huey Feb 23, 2024 @ 9:53am 
Originally posted by X-hog:
Even after taking all the advice, I'm still not going past Ante 7. I know it's a meme to say this but the amount of RNG is holding me back from the synergies I'm trying to make and I seriously don't get how big numbers are being made. Am I just the unluckiest person playing this game?
You're playing a roguelike. RNG is literally the game mechanic. It's like complaining about RNG in Dungeons and Dragons.
Excellion Feb 23, 2024 @ 9:55am 
My third run got me to the ante 10 boss with this specific deck at the end of the run:

Jokers
Banner: +40 chips for each remaining discard.
Space Joker: 1 in 4 change to upgrade poker hand.
Jolly Joker: +8 Mult if hand contains a pair.
Half Joker: +20 Mult if hand contains 3 cards or less
Misprint: + Random Mult.
Card Sharp: 3x Mult if hand has already been played this round.

Vouchers:
Telescope: Celestial packs always contain the planet for your most played poker hand.

Eventually most of the jokers were foiled or enhanced in some other manner. The entire premise of this build was playing pairs and nothing else the entire game. All of the jokers were active every single hand played, and thanks to Space Joker and Telescope the pair reached level 31 by the time the game ended.

As for results: The first hand earned around 50k chips, and 150k for each subsequent round. Best thing is to be flexible though. I wasn't planning for this build, but ended up just selling jokes and tarrots that did not synergize.
Last edited by Excellion; Feb 23, 2024 @ 9:56am
X-hog Feb 23, 2024 @ 10:29am 
I have noticed how powerful half joker is.

I went with a face flush build where all cards are considered face and can be repeated once plus supernova and spade multiple, even with a good synergy like that, still couldn't break past ante 6 boss. I've been at this for 4 hours straight and I can't get a synergy to work for long.
Huey Feb 23, 2024 @ 10:31am 
I think the issue you're having is you're trying to force a build. You shouldn't do that.
X-hog Feb 23, 2024 @ 10:35am 
Originally posted by Huey:
I think the issue you're having is you're trying to force a build. You shouldn't do that.

Yet not trying to run a build has me losing quicker, believe me I've done both sides, I went to what was working for people after losing consecutively at the beginning.
The Pope Feb 23, 2024 @ 10:39am 
Originally posted by Excellion:
My third run got me to the ante 10 boss with this specific deck at the end of the run:

Jokers
Banner: +40 chips for each remaining discard.
Space Joker: 1 in 4 change to upgrade poker hand.
Jolly Joker: +8 Mult if hand contains a pair.
Half Joker: +20 Mult if hand contains 3 cards or less
Misprint: + Random Mult.
Card Sharp: 3x Mult if hand has already been played this round.

Vouchers:
Telescope: Celestial packs always contain the planet for your most played poker hand.

Eventually most of the jokers were foiled or enhanced in some other manner. The entire premise of this build was playing pairs and nothing else the entire game. All of the jokers were active every single hand played, and thanks to Space Joker and Telescope the pair reached level 31 by the time the game ended.

As for results: The first hand earned around 50k chips, and 150k for each subsequent round. Best thing is to be flexible though. I wasn't planning for this build, but ended up just selling jokes and tarrots that did not synergize.

This is almost the exact setup I had on my first win, the only difference for mine was I didn't have the misprint, I had a holographic Pareidolia that didn't really fit my build (not running any face card synergy) because RNJesus didn't bless me with something that gave me a better fit than the +10 mult from the holo.
Huey Feb 23, 2024 @ 10:40am 
Im telling you, like in any game if chance, you shouldn't try to force the game to accommodate you. Not only is it more fun and rewarding to adapt to chance, but it's also the answer to your question: the optimal build is one that adapts to the run.
SundownKid Feb 23, 2024 @ 10:59am 
Originally posted by X-hog:
Even after taking all the advice, I'm still not going past Ante 7. I know it's a meme to say this but the amount of RNG is holding me back from the synergies I'm trying to make and I seriously don't get how big numbers are being made. Am I just the unluckiest person playing this game?

It's not likely to be luck, in my experience you can compensate for any sort of randomness - at least on the base difficulty. It's generally solely skill at the game.

Here are some suggestions: Focus on upgrading a specific hand type and building your deck around it. You don't want to aim for all hands at once, but focus on getting a particular hand. Some easy ones to focus on are Two Pair or Flush, since they're relatively easy to get. With Half Joker, even getting Pairs can be fairly strong. Straight Flush on the other hand is not fantastic to upgrade since it's so rare and tough to get. Straight/Straight Flush do become easy to get when you have the Shortcut card.

It's possible but rather tough to beat the first boss without any Jokers, but even having one of them helps. Aim to max out your Joker capacity as soon as humanly possible after that.

Heavily favor foil or holographic Jokers over other types. Even if it doesn't synergize with your deck, the bonus effect can still be worth it, especially for holographic ones. You may just have to remake your build around the rare cards you get because they are just that OP.

Try to save up money until your cash flow is self-sustaining unless there is some really insane Joker you need. I.e. don't buy random card packs until you have the money.
Last edited by SundownKid; Feb 23, 2024 @ 11:04am
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Date Posted: Feb 23, 2024 @ 8:33am
Posts: 31