Poker roguelike Balatro is one of the main indie hits of recent months, but beginners can be difficult to understand the intricacies and non-obvious mechanics of the game.
Balatro club has shared some useful walkthrough tips.
Balatro walkthrough tips: how to win in poker roguelike
The right tactics at the beginning
A strong start plays an important role in Balatro. Even if your build obviously won’t hold up in the later stages of the game, early wins will help you accumulate money and resources to change your tactics to more effective ones. That’s why jokers that give short-term bonuses are a favorable choice at first. Gros Michel, Ice Cream, Popcorn and other cards that give chips or multipliers to certain suits and simple combinations.
Money generating jokers are also indispensable. If you spend money from round to round, you won’t have enough resources to build a good build. Try to accumulate $25 in the first few ante: every $5 in the pot by the end of the round earns you $1 in interest, up to a maximum of $5 for $25. In other words, it’s the free money that really helps.
Selecting the right build
It’s usually worth focusing on a single combination in Balatro, and building your entire subsequent strategy around it. Collect jokers that work for that combination, choose the appropriate planet cards, and customize your deck with tarot. There are builds that allow you to collect several different combinations, but focusing on any one tends to offer the path of least resistance.
As for jokers, you always need bonus chips and multipliers for your chosen combination. Usually, multipliers are more advantageous than chips, as they offer a greater benefit when combined with other bonuses. But it is also worth remembering that there are jokers that multiply other multipliers: they exponentially increase the value of combinations.
Try to put together as reliable a build as possible. Don’t pick up every “cool” card to avoid filling your deck with unnecessary trash: use tarot cards regularly to reduce your deck size and discard unnecessary items.
Bonus order
Balatro doesn’t talk about this little thing explicitly, but it’s critical. The order of cards and jokers matters because their effects are performed one after another. It’s usually a good idea to place the X multipliers at the very end, from least to most. In addition, sometimes it makes sense to change the order of the jokers right in the middle of a round.
For example, if you get a Blueprint joker that copies the ability of the next card, you should place it before the joker whose property works at the beginning of the round.
Card Drawing
When choosing cards to discard, think about what combination you want to play. Don’t try to hold more than one option at a time: if you’re looking for cards for two straight or flushes, there’s a good chance you won’t collect any. And remember that you can replace up to five cards per reset – use this opportunity profitably.
You can also get rid of cards by playing them, but this option is only useful if the reset is no longer available.
Strategy
Pay attention to the blinds for each round and build a plan around them. If an upcoming boss is countering your build and you can’t replace it, it’s time to change tactics. Small and big blinds can be skipped: you’ll lose money and the opportunity to store, but you’ll get a pretty powerful bonus.
Finally, vouchers sometimes give great bonuses, but buy them with caution: they are expensive and only useful in the long run.
