“Balatro” is a popular poker-themed roguelike game developed by solo game developer LocalThunk and published by Playstack. I was introduced to the game by one of my friends and have been hooked ever since. Since it has recently reached two million sales, I thought I would finally give it a formal review.
The main gameplay of “Balatro” is simple: pick a deck, beat a Blind, visit the shop, and repeat steps two and three until the player eventually loses. With fifteen decks, one hundred and fifty jokers, and seemingly infinite possibilities of how a run can go, the endless playstyles show their beautifully entertaining faces. With no two random seed runs being the same, the addicting replayability is what brings in so many players and keeps them playing.
Of course, my simple explanation of the gameplay dumbs it down so much that it is like I am explaining neuroscience to a toddler. Every run a player does in “Balatro” is radically different from the last because of how in-depth the gameplay becomes.
The first and possibly the simplest decision that the player makes is what deck to use. Every deck has its highs and
lows, from having an extra hand each round to being able to hold another joker during the round in trade for one less hand size. Each deck also differs in which jokers empower the deck’s strengths and make the weaknesses obsolete.
In a run, the player must understand a few simple things; the first of these are chips, mult, hands, and discards. Chips are used to defeat Blinds, who are the main enemies of the game. Playing cards give an amount of chips equal to their value, with face cards giving ten and aces giving eleven. Mult, which stands for multiplier, is how much the current chip amount is multiplied by to get the final chip amount. The more chips gained in one hand, the better. Each Blind will have the needed amount of chips required to beat it. Reach that requirement, and the Blind is beaten.
Hands and discards are quite easy to understand. The hand amount is how many times the player can play a hand of up to five cards in the round. The base amount of hands is four. Discards are how many times the player can discard up to five cards to get that perfect hand they want to play.
Blinds are the main enemies in “Balatro,” with the only other enemy being the player’s luck. There are three Blinds in each set of Blinds, called antes, each of increasing power. The first two are the Small and Big Blinds. These are normal Blinds that can even be skipped for a small buff, called a tag, in place of not gaining money after the now nonexistent fight and not being able to visit the shop. The third Blind in an ante is called the Boss Blind. These are the most powerful Blinds in the game, each having their own specific power. There are two tiers of Boss Blinds: normal and finisher. Finisher Boss Blinds are only seen on ante eight, the final ante of a normal run. They usually have stronger and more devastating effects than normal Boss Blinds.
Jokers are just one of the seven types of items purchasable in the shop. With one hundred and fifty of them, I would be here all day explaining what every single one does, so I will not. Jokers are split into four types: Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Legendary. The first three types are obtainable via direct purchase from the shop, from Buffoon Packs, or even from the effects of other jokers. Riffraff is one such joker that creates other jokers from an effect. When a Blind is selected, it will create up to two common jokers if there are enough joker slots.
Legendary jokers are only obtainable through a special type of Spectral card: the Soul card. This is a rare but powerful card that can appear only in Spectral or Arcana Packs. When selected, it will create one of the five Legendary jokers. These jokers have some of the most powerful effects in the game. Here they are in no specific order:
Canio: Gains x1 mult (multiplier) when a face card is destroyed (starts with x1 mult).
Triboulet: Played kings and queens each give x2 mult when scored.
Yorick: Gains x1 mult every 23 discards used.
Chicot: Disables the effects of every Boss Blind.
Perkeo: Creates a Negative copy of one random consumable card in your possession at the end of the shop.
The next item purchasable in the shop are Booster Packs, often shortened to Packs. Packs will come in one of five flavors: Joker, Tarot, Spectral, Planet, and Standard. Figuring out what each Pack gives is simple. Buffoon Packs give jokers, Arcana Packs give tarot cards, Spectral Packs give spectral cards, Celestial Packs give planet cards and Standard Packs give playing cards that are added to the deck. Each type of Pack has three subtypes: Normal, Jumbo, and Mega. Normal Packs allow players to choose one card between two or three cards depending on what type of Pack it is. Jumbo Packs increase the pool of cards by 1.5x. Finally, Mega Packs allow for two cards to be chosen while keeping the increased selection size.
Planet cards are also purchasable from the shop. They are quite simple to understand. Each planet card levels up a
specific hand by one level, boosting its base chip and mult amounts. One planet card even levels up all the hands by one; its name is Black Hole and it is technically a spectral card, but it acts exactly like a planet card, even being found in Celestial Packs more often than Spectral Packs in my experience.
There are 22 tarot cards in “Balatro,” with each of them having a unique effect. From enhancing cards to giving money to outright destroying playing cards, tarot cards are a core mechanic in the game and are needed in almost every run.
Next up are spectral cards. Spectral cards are like tarot cards with one twist: while they do give good buffs, they take away something in return. For example, the Ectoplasm spectral card gives a random joker the Negative edition, but it also takes away one hand size. The only spectral cards that have seemingly no negative effects are Black Hole and Soul.
Normal playing cards are purchasable through the shop either through Standard Packs or directly after purchasing a certain Voucher. They’ll usually have a random edition and/or seal on them if from a Pack.
The final purchasable items from the shop are Vouchers. Vouchers give a permanent buff to a player’s run, such as allowing for more interest at the end of a round or giving another joker slot. These buffs do come at the hefty price of ten dollars, but this price can be lowered through the purchase of the Clearance Sale Voucher, lowering the price to seven dollars.
Playing cards and jokers can be buffed through the use of editions, which each specially augment the card. There are five editions in “Balatro”: Base, Foil, Holographic, Polychrome, and Negative. The base edition is just the normal card, Foil gives +50 chips upon score or card effect, Holographic gives +10 mult upon score or card effect, Polychrome gives x1.5 mult upon score or card effect, and Negative gives an extra slot. Negative is able to be put on jokers and consumable cards, or planets, tarots, and spectrals. Every card can have only one edition.
Playing cards and joker cards are also able to get seals. Playing cards can have the Red, Blue, Purple, or Gold seal. Red
seals rescore the card. Blue seals give a planet card of the last played hand if the card with the seal is in the player’s hand at the end of the round. Purple seals give a tarot card when the card is discarded. Gold seals give three dollars when the card is scored. Only one seal can be put on a card at a time.
Jokers have a seal-like feature called stickers. They can have the Eternal, Perishable or Rental sticker. Eternal stickers prevent the card from being sold or destroyed, Perishable stickers will destroy the card after five rounds, and Rental stickers lower the initial cost of the joker to one dollar but deduct three dollars from the player’s in-game balance when a Blind is selected. One sticker can be put on a card at a time.
Playing cards have another way to buff them called enhancements. These give varying buffs such as making a card playable as any suit or having a chance to gain twenty dollars. Only one enhancement can be applied to a card at a time.
All of these mechanics perfectly combine to make an addicting and engaging experience for all to enjoy. My ranking of “Balatro” is a perfect 8/8 antes, and its prize is causing me more mental pain as I realize just how bad my luck really is.
