How Do I Increase Build Variety?

[DumbassofDojima]

I'm not very far in Balatro (still unlocking the decks, meaning I haven't raised the stakes yet), but I've run into an issue where I feel like there is low build variety in terms of what hands feel worth building. I lean heavily towards Straights and Flushes as I find them to be high value hands while still being pretty reliable to acquire in each round.

My issue is that I'd like to build runs around playing other hands, it's just that the celestial cards don't scale up the other hands as well, or the hands become much trickier to play like full houses, four of a kinds, three of kinds, etc. It seems to me that those hands require buying playing card packs to stack a deck and increase your odds of getting them, whereas I can reliably go for a straight or flush build with less investment. Other hands like a pair or two pair, while easy enough to play, don't pay out that well.

Maybe part of my hang up here is that I find it really enjoyable to play all five cards with the Straights and Flushes, so they feel both easy to build around and fun to play while also providing big payouts. I like the early game a lot because each hand feels valuable so there is more variety in what I play, but as a run goes longer, I basically have to commit to building one or two hand types because of the celestial card upgrades and high value blinds.

Any tips or suggestions for how to pursue other builds would be appreciated as I do enjoy the game, but am finding it to be a tad repetitive due to the balancing.

[Saws n Sins]

Builds is more what jokers you have and stuff like that. You build your jokers around what you're trying to go for. You can make a build where you can win every single round just by playing high card

If you love going for straights and flushes there is a joker that lets you skip numbers on a straight and a joker that lets you make flushes with only 4

[DumbassofDojima]

Originally posted by Saws n Sins:

Builds is more what jokers you have and stuff like that. You build your jokers around what you're trying to go for. You can make a build where you can win every single round just by playing high card

If you love going for straights and flushes there is a joker that lets you skip numbers on a straight and a joker that lets you make flushes with only 4

Maybe part of my issue is Joker variety then. I think I only have around half of them, which I assumed related to unlocks, but there are quite a few I think just haven't shown up yet.

[Twelvefield]

Well, there is Two Pair, which is arguably the most powerful. It's easier to build, and there's several Jokers that support it, plus Celestials.

Really, it's the Jokers that run the game: "Balatro" is Latin for Joker. So if you want to see more variety, it's the Jokers you will need.

That, and the various decks will have you building a wider variety of hands, you're pretty much forced to. The issue with Straight and Flush is that you almost always need five cards. In the upper realms of the game, that runs through too much of the deck, and it's hard to make those builds. Builds with fewer cards can be easier to make. It's possible to go nuts with just High Card.

Balatro is more about Jokers and less about Poker. Once you shed your Poker bias, the game becomes easier to understand and you start to develop more strategies. Still, I find I make mostly the same builds over and over again: mostly Two Pair, Straight and Flush. The nature of the beast.

[RazzberryMocha]

Celestial cards are not necessary to make a good build, as they are mainly just sources of chips or flat mult and could be cut out by jokers. If you get good enough jokers to provide chips, flat mult, and X mult you could one shot the final boss blind with any hand, even a high card. Certain hand types are going to be open to different strategies/jokers though, each with their own pros and cons.
As for how to build into certain hand types, the answer will always be tarot cards and card packs. Building into four of a kind seems daunting until halfway through the run you've added a few of a specific card from packs, used tarots like death and strength to get more copies, and removed some unnecessary cards with hanged man.

[kone]

High Card/Pair builds focus more on the jokers you have. It helps to have jokers that cover the lack of chips/mult at the start and throughout the run with the poor planet scaling. The hand's inherent ability to best utilise in-hand mechanics like steels, gold cards and blue seals push this hand to be the most dynamic in finding better jokers, switching to better hands or manipulating your deck more.

Three of a Kind/Full House are not played commonly for a reason and that's because it takes a lot of effort to make them consistent, and funnily enough not very much more effort to make it into a strong and explosive Four of a Kind build.

Two Pair is a mediocre hand type that scales and scores poorly, but does benefit from how common it can be while drawing/discarding, It has one incredible joker in Spare Trousers which is the only reason I ever run this hand type for.

Straight Flush is a joke. There's a whatever possible chance you can run into a build that supports it but you can just... run Straights and it'll be more consistent. It's an overkill type of hand and there's secret unlockable hands that are even better at doing that.

[Mechromancer]

If you want to build towards 5 card hands, You can focus on eliminating low cards. The tarot cards Tower and Hanged Man can be used on lower ranked cards. This makes pairing up and straights more common. Plus you have higher scoring cards. When buying standard packs, choose only face cards and aces.

Along with that there is the Strength tarot card that can convert your kings into aces or your queens into kings. When the Death tarot card comes up use it to turn your low cards such as 2s and 3s into face cards.

All in all, modify your deck into making five of a kinds possible with 10 thru Ace. Also keep in mind that a smaller deck is more predictable.

[malogoss]

I'd say it's pretty normal to like flushes when starting out. If you are happy with them, keep playing them, I don't see a problem. With straights it's a little bit different, because you are more likely to get screwed by bad draws. If you give the game opportunities to give you bad draws, it's bound to happen. And that's the main problem with straight build. You're almost never fully safe.

Then if you keep playing, when you hit green or purple stakes, the game changes. Suddenly, flushes don't scale fast enough, or getting one less discard makes them awkward, and makes straights even more awkward.

And there's no way around it. We learn the game at low stakes, there's no other option. We get better but at the same time, we gain bad habits that we'll later have to get rid of to keep a decent chance of beating higher stakes.

Not saying Flush and Straight are useless later on. Anything can win. But if you're able to win with Pair and with Flush House too, then your average results will be that much better.

The breaking point might be from black to blue stake. -1 discard hurts straights a lot. Then from blue to purple, flushes scaling feels very slow. Until then, enjoy whatever hand type you enjoy!