Balatro is a game built on lucky breaks, powerful synergies, and a basic understanding of statistics. Knowing when to discard and when to play a hand and the chances of drawing the cards that you need are important parts of the game.
However, an even more important aspect are the Jokers that players obtain during their runs. These powerful modifiers can win you the entire ante or lose you your life savings. The kind of jokers you have is important, but the order of the jokers you have in your deck can have a big impact on your final score.
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Players who love hitting high scores and antes in Balatro can learn how to find tons of unique and powerful seeds in this guide.
Why Does Joker Order Matter in Balatro?
The way the scoring system works in Balatro is the reason that Joker order matters so much in the game. Each hand of poker that players can play has a certain score value, observed as [Chip Value x Mult]. The value of the cards played in the poker hand is added to the chip value (i.e: +10 for face cards and aces, +9 for 9s, +8 for 8s, and so on).
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The mult cannot be changed unless the player upgrades their poker hand using planet cards, gets special playing cards that modify the mult, or has jokers that change the mult value. Additionally, there are certain jokers that simply add X into the mult or the chip value, while there are others that multiply it with the specified amount. Choosing when the mult or chip value gets the multiplicative operation makes a big difference in the final score.
How to Order Jokers in Balatro
Functionally, ordering jokers is quite easy in Balatro. Players can change their position at any point during a run by dragging the jokers with their mouse. However, knowing where each joker goes can be a little complicated.
The general rule of thumb is that jokers that have a multiplicative effect should be placed towards the right side, while those that have an additive effect should be placed to the left.
Players should maximize the base amount of chips or mult before the value gets increased with a multiplication function. Since the game applies joker modifiers left to right, the jokers that add chips or mult should be placed first, while those that multiply the values should be placed later.
Balatro
- Released
- February 20, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- LocalThunk
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Android, iOS
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, Digital Card Game, Roguelike
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
