Balatro is a roguelite deckbuilder based on poker. This is a rare example of a deckbuilder whose gameplay mechanics are genuinely unique, and Balatro deserves to be ranked alongside Slay The Spire and Monster Train as one of the all time best deckbuilders.

This is definitely an essential game for fans of the deckbuilder genre, but its also cheap enough to serve as an entry point for newer players. And even if you’ve never played poker before, the basic gameplay mechanics should be easy to understand.

You start each run with a standard deck of 52 cards, numbered ace to king, belonging to the four suits. You’ll draw 8 cards into your hand and you need to play poker hands (pairs, three or four of a kind, full house, flush, straight) to score points. Each round (which is called a blind) has a points target which you need to earn across multiple hands, and you can discard a few times to make it easier to play valid hands.

Winning a round earns money, which you can spend in the shop after defeating each blind. This is where the game starts to get really crazy and fun. Every run can be different depending on what you buy in the shop.

Booster packs let you add cards to your deck. Planet cards increase the points scored by specific hands. Tarot cards customise your deck by removing cards, changing card values and suits, which will make it easier to play certain hands, and even create impossible hands like a flush house or five of a kind, or you can add special effects which score more points or earn extra money.

Joker cards function like relics in other deckbuilders, and in most runs you’re limited to 5 jokers at a time, but you can usually sell them to free up space for something better. They can change the rules of poker, for example letting you make straights and flushes with 4 cards instead of 5, or letting you make a straight with a gap in the numbers. They can make low value cards (2,3,4,5) score more points than face cards (J,Q,K). They can make specific hands more valuable, or add huge multipliers when certain criteria are fulfilled.

You don’t have to play every blind, you can choose to skip them in exchange for a bonus reward, such as free booster packs or adding special effects to the next shop’s jokers. However, sometimes you might have jokers which increase their score multipliers every time you play a specific hand or discard cards, which benefit from playing every blind to continue making them more powerful.

Every third blind is a boss which has special rules, such as all cards belonging to one suit scoring no points, cards being drawn face down so you don’t know what they are, not letting you discard any cards, or only allowing you to play one type of hand. You’ll need to defeat 8 bosses to win a run, but if you find a specific boss to be too difficult or if it counters your current deck, there are ways to change or disable the boss rules.

While there’s an element of random luck involved, relating to which cards are drawn into your hand, or which jokers appear in the shop, I don’t feel like this is a game where I regularly lose because of RNG. The player has an incredible amount of control over building your deck, to make specific hands easier to play and then increase the value of those hands, although experienced deckbuilder players will likely have an easier time identifying which jokers synergise together to score big points, and which jokers aren’t really worth it because their effects are too situational.

A successful run should take an hour or less depending on how many blinds you skip, and I like that after winning a run you can keep playing in endless mode, just to see how far your current deck can go.

Winning a run also unlocks new decks which have different starting bonuses, such as the checkered deck which has 26 spades and hearts so its really easy to play flushes, as well as adding higher difficulty levels and challenge modes, which increases replayability.

Balatro is a roguelite deckbuilder based on poker. This is a rare example of a deckbuilder whose gameplay mechanics are genuinely unique, and Balatro deserves to be ranked alongside Slay The Spire and Monster Train as one of the all time best deckbuilders. This is definitely an essential game for fans of the deckbuilder genre, but its also cheap enough to serve as an entry point for newer players. And even if you’ve never played poker before, the basic gameplay mechanics should be easy to understand. You start each run with a standard deck of 52 cards, numbered ace to king, belonging to the four suits. You’ll draw 8 cards into your hand and you need to play poker hands (pairs, three or four of a kind, full house, flush, straight) to score points. Each round (which is called a blind) has a points target which you need to earn across multiple hands, and you can discard a few times to make it easier to play valid hands. Winning a round earns money, which you can spend in the shop after defeating each blind. This is where the game starts to get really crazy and fun. Every run can be different depending on what you buy in the shop. Booster packs let you add cards to your deck. Planet cards increase the points scored by specific hands. Tarot cards customise your deck by removing cards, changing card values and suits, which will make it easier to play certain hands, and even create impossible hands like a flush house or five of a kind, or you can add special effects which score more points or earn extra money. Joker cards function like relics in other deckbuilders, and in most runs you’re limited to 5 jokers at a time, but you can usually sell them to free up space for something better. They can change the rules of poker, for example letting you make straights and flushes with 4 cards instead of 5, or letting you make a straight with a gap in the numbers. They can make low value cards (2,3,4,5) score more points than face cards (J,Q,K). They can make specific hands more valuable, or add huge multipliers when certain criteria are fulfilled. You don’t have to play every blind, you can choose to skip them in exchange for a bonus reward, such as free booster packs or adding special effects to the next shop’s jokers. However, sometimes you might have jokers which increase their score multipliers every time you play a specific hand or discard cards, which benefit from playing every blind to continue making them more powerful. Every third blind is a boss which has special rules, such as all cards belonging to one suit scoring no points, cards being drawn face down so you don’t know what they are, not letting you discard any cards, or only allowing you to play one type of hand. You’ll need to defeat 8 bosses to win a run, but if you find a specific boss to be too difficult or if it counters your current deck, there are ways to change or disable the boss rules. While there’s an element of random luck involved, relating to which cards are drawn into your hand, or which jokers appear in the shop, I don’t feel like this is a game where I regularly lose because of RNG. The player has an incredible amount of control over building your deck, to make specific hands easier to play and then increase the value of those hands, although experienced deckbuilder players will likely have an easier time identifying which jokers synergise together to score big points, and which jokers aren’t really worth it because their effects are too situational. A successful run should take an hour or less depending on how many blinds you skip, and I like that after winning a run you can keep playing in endless mode, just to see how far your current deck can go. Winning a run also unlocks new decks which have different starting bonuses, such as the checkered deck which has 26 spades and hearts so its really easy to play flushes, as well as adding higher difficulty levels and challenge modes, which increases replayability.