How to get a good run?

[CrescentMouse]

I'm not even able to get to ante 2 consistently, most runs i end up losing by first boss blind. I never seem to get good jokers and I know I'm bad but do I have to be like an amazing player to beat first boss consistently?

[malogoss]

Here's some tips:

Don't skip blinds, just don't. Defeat them instead. That's more money, more shops visited, more chances of finding nice jokers, etc.

To be consistent at defeating the first boss easily, you need to buy at least one scoring joker before facing it. If you see one in a shop, buy it. If the best option is a buffoon pack, buy it, and pick scoring jokers. I'd recommend a +mult joker first, if given the choice. Else a +chip joker.

When you are facing blinds, go for higher scoring hands. If you already have 3 of a kind in hand, use discards and go for a full house. If you have 3-4 cards of the same suit, discard and go for a flush. You'll need less hands, gain extra money for the remaining hands, and have an easier time. This is so true, you should always try to defeat the first small blind in a single hand. Two hands at worst. When facing the boss, same idea. With the scoring joker you bought, you should aim at defeating it with 1 or 2 hands only.

Defeating the first boss should be a formality. Apply the previous tips and things will change a lot, promised.

[Moray Eel]

Good skip tags like polychrome/1.5X multipliers, $25 after clearing a boss, or mega arcane packs can enable a lot of runs if taken early. You can also unlock the Throwback joker by starting a run, going back to the main menu, and continuing it. Throwback gets +0.5X multiplier per skip, and getting that early usually means a pretty smooth and fast run.

Universally good combos to look out for include stuff like swashbuckler+egg for more guaranteed multipliers at the end of a round, trousers for more scaling off two pairs and full houses, blue joker+marble joker for more cards=more chips. Supernova's also okay if you just spam the same hand again, which is best with consistent and easy hands like high card or pairs.

But ultimately, you'll just have to try, try, and try some more until the random number generator cooperates and gives you a godly run.

[ulzgoroth]

What hands are you trying to play?

I need to check, but I think on white chip beating the first boss should be pretty achievable without using any actual Balatro Stuff and just playing good-scoring base hands. Like, flush or full house or straight good, not pair/two pair.

But if you want to crush the first ante boss like it's nothing, try to pick up a mult increasing joker in the first or second shop. Those are common, so the chances are quite good, and so long as you pick one that you'll be able to activate it should be more than enough.



EDIT: Confirmed - you can beat Ante 1 that way. I don't advise it, because unless you're luckier (or maybe better) than me, you'll lose considerable early-game money by needing to play more hands than you really want to, setting you up unfavorably for the rest of the run. Preferably, get a joker - a useful planet or even a playing card upgrade tarot could also help a lot.

[Elijah Esther 🎆]

Look for common flat mult jokers like Even Steven. They will skyrocket you through your first Antes.

[Konebred]

Your first few antes just need high scoring hands. Use your discards to chase full houses, straights and flushes for your first hand. Take scoring jokers first, add an economic joker that gives you money to buy some packs. Good noob jokers combos are Hanging chad with Scholar and/or fibonacci. Stack aces in your decks, Take all the steel cards you come across and remove cards that dont help.

[Pinhead Larry]

malogoss の投稿を引用：

Here's some tips:

Don't skip blinds, just don't. Defeat them instead. That's more money, more shops visited, more chances of finding nice jokers, etc.

To be consistent at defeating the first boss easily, you need to buy at least one scoring joker before facing it. If you see one in a shop, buy it. If the best option is a buffoon pack, buy it, and pick scoring jokers. I'd recommend a +mult joker first, if given the choice. Else a +chip joker.

When you are facing blinds, go for higher scoring hands. If you already have 3 of a kind in hand, use discards and go for a full house. If you have 3-4 cards of the same suit, discard and go for a flush. You'll need less hands, gain extra money for the remaining hands, and have an easier time. This is so true, you should always try to defeat the first small blind in a single hand. Two hands at worst. When facing the boss, same idea. With the scoring joker you bought, you should aim at defeating it with 1 or 2 hands only.

Defeating the first boss should be a formality. Apply the previous tips and things will change a lot, promised.

Oof, first point is not a good idea. Absolutely skip blinds if it gives you something you could use unless you're deep into a run and have a way to boost money generation that could get you more.

Everything else is good though.

The entire game is about RNG manipulation. Try to see what sort of cards you have in your deck and build around it's strengths so that any combos and multipliers/chip boosting effects trigger as easily and as often as possible.

I won my first run by using tarot cards and booster packs to load my deck with as many aces with as many foil and chroma and seal boosts as possible on said aces. Since I had such a high chance of getting multiple aces in a given hand draw, I used celestial cards to boost 3 + 4 of a kinds as much as possible, and fished for jokers that gave me boosts based off having aces or playing aces, and also got lucky finding a joker that received a stacking chip multiplier every time I used a planetary card and by ante 4 I was able to get chip scores of 60k+ in a single hand.

Mitigate bad hands, build for hands that pop as big and as often as possible.

[Twelvefield]

malogoss の投稿を引用：

Here's some tips:

Don't skip blinds, just don't. Defeat them instead. That's more money, more shops visited, more chances of finding nice jokers, etc.

Syzygy の投稿を引用：

Oof, first point is not a good idea. Absolutely skip blinds if it gives you something you could use unless you're deep into a run and have a way to boost money generation that could get you more.

See, I agree with both of you. Up to the first Boss blind, it's not great to skip blinds, but there are a few I would do it for:

1) Only in the first blind, I would *consider* a double-your-money tag, simply because there's a really good chance you won't double your money playing out the first blind.

2) Skip if it's something that guarantees you an uncommon/foil/holographic joker. You definitely need scoring jokers.

The very first Boss blind is kind of a formality, but on the other hand if it's played poorly you can get hurt in the later antes.

Another point is that Balatro poker tends to go through the deck quickly. So does regular poker, but with Balatro you get all the cards. Basic card-counting will help you decide which hands you can reliably try for. Unlike regular poker, there are no hidden cards* (either down cards or cards held by your opponents, which properly remain hidden if they fold), and that makes counting a lot easier. Thank your lucky stars the dev didn't get the idea to use a casino Baccarat deck.

*Unless you get a Boss blind that hides them. Chances are, you won't go through the whole deck, though. You want to win those with a single hand, if possible.

[ulzgoroth]

Twelvefield の投稿を引用：

malogoss の投稿を引用：

Here's some tips:

Don't skip blinds, just don't. Defeat them instead. That's more money, more shops visited, more chances of finding nice jokers, etc.

Syzygy の投稿を引用：

Oof, first point is not a good idea. Absolutely skip blinds if it gives you something you could use unless you're deep into a run and have a way to boost money generation that could get you more.

See, I agree with both of you. Up to the first Boss blind, it's not great to skip blinds, but there are a few I would do it for:

1) Only in the first blind, I would *consider* a double-your-money tag, simply because there's a really good chance you won't double your money playing out the first blind.

2) Skip if it's something that guarantees you an uncommon/foil/holographic joker. You definitely need scoring jokers.

On the first blind you certainly should double your money on white chip. On red or higher where the $3 basic small blind reward is gone, that's a whole other story, but not a story the OP needs at this point.

I would not skip for most joker tags, because the thing is there's no guarantee the joker that gets hit will be any use to you. Polychrome or on rare occasion holographic I would consider, because those edition effects could make a blank card into something that might be worth a joker slot. Similarly Negative I would consider because almost any negative joker offers some benefit. (These may be worse on higher chips where jokers get perishable/eternal stickers, but that again doesn't matter for the OP.)

I would definitely consider taking the '$25 on beating the boss' tag in ante 1. Though that's another thing that obviously won't help the OP beat the ante 1 boss!

[☆~ twiggy ~☆]

tip that's gotten me up to ante 8, focus on building up one set hand you can do consistently and buy celestial cards to buff them, but at least try and have something in the back pocket in case you're hit with a boss blind that nullifies that
if you're able to only get high cards, build pluto up and get the multi's off that, and vice versa.
you're able to find plenty of guides on the reddit too, many a helping hand there

[sympouk]

dont be afraid to discard cards...... and pick jokers wisely......

[Xaelon]

Winning in Balatro is 100% about game knowledge.

It's going to be difficult to win until you develop some understanding of how everything fits together. Just keep doing runs and you'll eventually know what option is best. That's the game in a nutshell: knowing what options will give you the best shot at a win.

When it comes to the first ante it's not always worth skipping the blinds. If it's the free $25 or powerful free jokers (Polychrome, negative, etc) I'll consider skipping the blinds because those tags might set me up for the rest of the run IF I can beat boss 1.

It is possible to beat boss 1 without any jokers though but it's tough to do. Try and discard until you can play a 5 card hand with mostly face cards. And sometimes you won't draw what you need to win. But that's the risk you take by choosing the tags instead of beating the actual blinds.

You have to ask yourself "Is this tag worth skipping the money I would earn and access to the shop"? If it's some temporary bonus that won't help in a future ante (like rerolling the boss blind or gaining temp handsize) probably not right?

Like even I still lose on boss 1 sometimes if I take both tags, but that's a risk I'm willing to take IF the tags are good enough. And if I lose in Ante 1? Oh well. I only had like 5 minutes invested in that run anyway so who cares. I just hit that "New Run" button and try again.

[Frostea]

Flushes are very strong early game. You will almost never fail playing them for the first couple of antes but you may want to swap to a different strategy as you get further. Flushes won’t carry you as easily as building around pairs, two pairs, and full house will.

What makes building around pairs and two pairs so good is that even if you play a full house it will still technically count as both a pair and a two pair and will trigger any jokers that use them. Even flushes can trigger the same jokers if they have pairs in them. The game is deep but it’s deceptively simple in how it works.

[KondaBuddy (Live)]

CrescentMouse の投稿を引用：

I'm not even able to get to ante 2 consistently, most runs i end up losing by first boss blind. I never seem to get good jokers and I know I'm bad but do I have to be like an amazing player to beat first boss consistently?

Im starting to really think the devs changed the game from when it 1st came out. For example, I have had perfect Joker/Deck combos and Ill start to get bosses and stores that counter me. If I cant spend my money and the bosses literally counter my decks.......thats an algorithm issue not a player issue. I ve had more losses then wins recently as opposed to when game 1st came out. I dont think the game is random anymore....

[malogoss]

The big problem with white stake is that anything works, even bad strategies. Your play can be all over the place and you still win. You have to play poorly in at least 4-5 aspects of the game in order to never win. If you neglect banking interest, you'll still win. If you skip 12 blinds, you'll still win. If you don't prepare for the incoming boss blind, you can still win. If you try to force a build, you can still win easily.

Win on white stake first, then add the skip decision to the equation. Until then just don't skip. You'll never kill a run by not skipping. But you surely can kill a run by skipping.

OP is struggling to reach ante 2 and 3. To tell them that skipping is not a problem is a mean way to sabotage their future runs. The more important thing to be consistent is to visit more shops, to see more jokers (and then your economy lets you buy those jokers, the 2 things go hand in hand). Some of you are telling them "nah, you should skip, you'll get lucky in the few shops you'll visit and you don't really need the extra money that defeating a blind and banking interest generates". That's wild. That person is struggling with the ante 1 boss! Do you want that to change or not?

If there were a magical way to visit 100 shops with $1,000 in bank, everyone would win all their runs. You're telling that person to do what they can to avoid visiting shops and to earn less money. Do you see a problem there?

[KondaBuddy (Live)]

malogoss の投稿を引用：

The big problem with white stake is that anything works, even bad strategies. Your play can be all over the place and you still win. You have to play poorly in at least 4-5 aspects of the game in order to never win. If you neglect banking interest, you'll still win. If you skip 12 blinds, you'll still win. If you don't prepare for the incoming boss blind, you can still win. If you try to force a build, you can still win easily.

Win on white stake first, then add the skip decision to the equation. Until then just don't skip. You'll never kill a run by not skipping. But you surely can kill a run by skipping.

OP is struggling to reach ante 2 and 3. To tell them that skipping is not a problem is a mean way to sabotage their future runs. The more important thing to be consistent is to visit more shops, to see more jokers (and then your economy lets you buy those jokers, the 2 things go hand in hand). Some of you are telling them "nah, you should skip, you'll get lucky in the few shops you'll visit and you don't really need the extra money that defeating a blind and banking interest generates". That's wild. That person is struggling with the ante 1 boss! Do you want that to change or not?

If there were a magical way to visit 100 shops with $1,000 in bank, everyone would win all their runs. You're telling that person to do what they can to avoid visiting shops and to earn less money. Do you see a problem there?

1000 in bank and you insta win, yeah right lol. Ive had plenty of money and still lost, so no lol