Balatro

Getting Riff-Raff as my first joker activates all my dopamine receptors.

• Updated version of Love2D (the engine) - this fixes an issue on Windows and Steam Deck causing poor/stuttery performance for some players

• Added VC++ 2022 redistributable as an installation requirement

• General performance improvements

• Added toggle for 'Reduced Motion', removing the swirly background, gyrating card motion, much of the 'juice' in the game

• Changed default fallback tarot from Fool to Strength (when all tarots are on screen)

• Banned top-up tag and Antimatter on Jokerless Challenge

• Changed Gold Stake random seeds - now ensures that the first Legendary Joker on that seed is a Joker that you have not won with on Gold Stake (For Completionist++ hunting)

• Changed ante scaling in white stake:

  • Ante 3: 2800 -> 2000
  • Ante 4: 6000 -> 5000

• Changed ante scaling in green stake:

  • Ante 2: 1000 -> 900
  • Ante 3: 3200 -> 2600
  • Ante 4: 9000 -> 8000
  • Ante 5: 18000 -> 20000
  • Ante 6: 32000 -> 36000
  • Ante 7: 56000 -> 60000
  • Ante 8: 90000 -> 100000

• Changed ante scaling in purple stake:

  • Ante 2: 1200 -> 1000
  • Ante 3: 3600 -> 3200
  • Ante 4: 10000 -> 9000
  • Ante 6: 50000 -> 60000
  • Ante 7: 90000 -> 110000
  • Ante 8: 180000 -> 200000

• Changed Orange Stake

  • Scrapped increasing pack cost
  • Added new 'Perishable' mechanic, Jokers have a 30% chance to have a 'Perishable' sticker, disabling them after 5 rounds

• Changed Gold Stake

  • Scrapped -1 hand size
  • Added new 'Rental' mechanic, Jokers have a 30% chance to have a 'Rental' sticker (stacks with eternal/perishable), making them cost $1 up front and $3 every round

• Changed eternal to apply to Jokers in Buffoon packs

• Changed Eternal/Rental/Perishable sticker location to be in the top left corner

• Made some non-retroactive scaling Jokers incompatible with 'Perishable' (Ceremonial Dagger, Glass Joker, Hologram, Ride the Bus, runner, constellation, green joker, red card, madness, square joker, vampire, rocket, obelisk, lucky cat, flash card, spare trousers, castle, wee)

• Changed the first shop in every run to always include a normal Buffoon pack as one of the pack options

• Upcoming blinds/tags can now be seen in the shop immediately after defeating a boss blind/cashing out

• Some Blinds are now be banned on challenge runs - banned Crimson Heart, Verdant Leaf and Amber Acorn on 'Jokerless' - banned Verdant Leaf on 'Typecast' - banned Verdant Leaf on 'Non-Perishable' - banned The Plant on 'Mad World'

• Buffed Saturn

  • Now gives +3 mult instead of +2 mult for Straights

• Buffed Neptune

  • Now gives +4 mult instead of +3 mult for Straight Flush

• Buffed Eris

  • Now gives +50 chips instead of +40 chips for Flush Five

• Buffed Ceres

  • Now gives +4 mult instead of +3 mult for Flush House

• Square Joker now has a square sprite

• Blue Joker sprite was fixed (2 out of place blue pixels)

• Changed Uncommon tag - Now makes the uncommon joker free

• Changed Rare tag - Now makes the rare joker free

• Negative, Polychrome, Holo, Foil tags all make their respective joker free

• Changed Investment to give $25 instead of $15

• Changed 8 Ball - scrapped old effect, new effect -> 1 in 4 chance to spawn a tarot when any played 8 is scored

• Changed Blue Seal - now creates the planet card of the final poker hand played during the round

• Changed both Mad and Clever Joker - scrapped 'contains 4 of a kind' effect, now applies instead to any hand that contains a 'Two Pair'

• Changed Yorick - scrapped old effect, new effect -> gains X1 mult every 23 cards discarded (starts at X1)

• Changed Magician Tarot - now applies lucky to 2 cards instead of 1

• Changed Midas Mask - now only applies Gold enhancement to scoring face cards, costs $7 was $6

• Changed Vampire

  • now only removes enhancement from scoring cards
  • gives X0.1 mult per enhancement instead of X0.2 mult

• Changed Madness - now only applies on small/big blinds, not on boss blind selection

• Changed To Do list - poker hand no longer changes on payout, always changes at end of round (won't get stuck on Straight Flush)

• Changed description of Shortcut to include a more apt example (10 8 6 5 3)

• Changed Ancient Joker - the selected suit is no longer able to repeat between rounds

• Changed Swashbuckler - Now adds sell value of all other Jokers to Mult, not just the Jokers to the left

• Changed Hanging Chad - Now retriggers the first played card 2 times instead of once

• Changed Runner - now starts at +0 chips and gives +15 chips per straight, was +20 and +10 per straight

• Changed Flower Pot - Now includes the base suit of debuffed cards when determining if it will trigger

• Changed Bootstraps to include current mult bonus in description

• Changed all 4 Sinful Jokers (one for each suit) - they now each give +3 mult per suit instead of +4 mult

• Changed Banner - now gives +30 chips per remaining discard instead of +40 chips

• Changed Fibonacci - costs $8 instead of $7, because Fibonacci

• Changed Square Joker - now starts at +0 chips, was +16 chips, now costs $4, was $5

• Changed Wee Joker - now starts at +0 chips, was +10 chips

• Changed Steel Joker - Now gives X0.2 mult per Steel card in full deck instead of X0.25 mult

• Changed Odd Todd - Now gives +31 chips per odd ranked card instead of +30 mult

• Changed Sixth Sense - Now uncommon and $6, was rare

• Changed Hiker - Now gives +5 chips to every scoring card played instead of +4 chips

• Changed Gros Michel - Now has a 1 in 6 chance to go extinct instead of 1 in 4

• Changed Seance - Now uncommon and $6, was rare and $7

• Changed Riff-Raff - Now $6, was $4

• Changed Vagabond

  • Rare, was uncommon
  • $8, was $6
  • Applies when you have $4 or less, was $3 or less

• Changed Cloud 9 - Now $7, was $6

• Changed Mail-In Rebate - Now $5 was $3

• Changed Reserved Parking - Now common, was uncommon

• Changed Lucky Cat - Now gains X0.25 per lucky proc, was X0.2

• Changed Trading card - Now costs $6, was $5

• Changed Campfire - Now gains X0.25 per card sold, was X0.5

• Changed Smily Face - Now give +5 mult per face card, was +4 mult

• Changed Golden Ticket - Now payes out $4 per gold card played, was $3

• Changed Bloodstone - Now has a 1 in 2 chance to proc, was 1 in 3, gives X1.5 mult, was X2 mult

• Changed Onyx Agate - Now gives +7 mult per club card, was +8 mult

• Changed Glass Joker - Now gives X0.75 mult per glass card destroyed, was X0.5 mult

• Changed Stuntman - Now gives +250 Chips, was +300, is now rare, was uncommon, is not $7, was $6

• Changed Invisible Joker - Now requires 2 rounds and costs $8, was 3 rounds and $10

• Changed wording on most scaling jokers to refer to 'this joker'

• Fixed bug where opening a booster pack with hand size of 0 was unskippable

• Fixed bug where the card generated by 'Certificate' was not being debuffed by the boss

• Fixed bug in the rate at which eternal/perishable Jokers were being generated

• Fixed bug where Buffoon Pack could show up in Jokerless challenge

• Fixed bug where debuffed negative Jokers being sold doesn't reduce the number of available joker slots

• Fixed bug where sticker seeding was shared between shop and booster packs

• Added localization to new content in 1.0.1
• Made some non-retroactive scaling Jokers incompatible with 'Perishable' (Ceremonial Dagger, Ride the Bus, runner, constellation, green joker, red card, madness, square joker, vampire, rocket, obelisk, lucky cat, flash card, spare trousers, castle, wee)
  • Removed more motion from the 'reduce motion' mode Changed Runner - now starts at +0 chips and gives +15 chips per straight, was +20 and +10 per straight
• Changed Square Joker - now starts at +0 chips, was +16 chips, now increases by +5 chips, was +4 Changed Bloodstone - now gives X1.5 mult per heart card, was X2 mult
• Changed Wee Joker - now starts at +0 chips, was +10 chips
• Changed Stuntman - now Rare and $7, was Uncommon and $6
• Changed Vampire - now Uncommon and $7, was Rare and $8
• Since the margins are no longer as razor thin on higher stakes, I have also slightly increased ante scaling for mid-late antes:
• Changed ante scaling in green stake:
  • Ante 3: 2400 -> 2600
  • Ante 4: 7000 -> 8000
  • Ante 5: 18000 -> 20000
  • Ante 6: 32000 -> 36000
  • Ante 7: 56000 -> 60000
  • Ante 8: 90000 -> 100000
• Changed ante scaling in purple stake:
  • Ante 3: 3000 -> 3200
  • Ante 4: 8000 -> 9000
  • Ante 5: 22000 -> 25000
  • Ante 6: 50000 -> 60000
  • Ante 7: 90000 -> 110000
  • Ante 8: 180000 -> 200000
• Changed Eternal/Rental/Perishable sticker location to be closer to the top right corner
• Banned top-up tag and Antimatter on Jokerless Challenge
• Fixed a bug where perishable Jokers were still giving their effect when debuffed
• Fixed bug in the rate at which eternal/perishable Jokers were being generated
• Fixed bug where Buffoon Pack could show up in Jokerless challenge

How to get started

To create your own fancy art of Waifu's we are going to need a few things:

1. 7-zip, a free archive extraction tool https://7-zip.org/
2. Image editing software that respects transparancy backgrounds like photoshop or Gimp
3. Very basic image editing skills, which could be supplemented by Youtube. Search for removing backgrounds.
4. Pixel art
5. Coffee

Extracting the necessary files

Navigate to your Balatro local files

Now right click on Balatro.exe and choose to open archive as a 7-zip archive

Go to folder Resources\Textures\2x (*)

Extract all the files to a temporary folder on your desktop where you will them (8BitDeck.png is the main image that we are going to work with, but if you're ambitious you could also alter Joker or Tarot images, and basically any icon in the game)

• Check your settings in Balatro if you are using "Pixal Art Smoothing" if yes choose 2x. If no choose the 1x files Thanks for User R, in the comment section, for pointing this out

Time to start editing

Open 8BitDeck.png and the pixel art file in your image editing software

Remove the background from your own art, select that layer and copy it to the 8BitDeck.png file

You have to delete the original art. Resize your own art in the available space for the each card

This is how it looks like before making any changes

This is what it will look like after removing the original art and placing your own. Use the numbers or letters of the cards to determine the maximum size of your art for each card

Replacing the original deck of cards with your own

Navigate to Balatro's local files and use 7-zip to open Balatro.exe as an archive just like step 1

Now copy your new made deck 8BitDeck.png to folder Resources\Textures\2x, replacing the original file

Close the archive and let's start up Balatro to see if it works. Just start a new run and open your deck preview in the bottom right corner.

(If you're unsure if you got the right file or are going the right direction, just change a color of 1 card from the 8BitDeck.png file and replace the original. Open Balatro and check if the color changed.)

And there we go

Congratulations!

My build was 4 of a kind. Why? You get +3 mult with each mars planet card used and +30 chips. Any lower hand (full house, flush, straight and so on) only gives +2 mult, so you need a lot more of the planet cards in order to achieve a score of 100 000 (and beat the boss blind of ante 8).

Ante 1+2

This build relies heavily on getting a mars planet card during ante 1. If you dont get one, reset the run. Beat ante 1 however you please (flush, full house or straight is pretty consistent).

With a single mars planet card, you get a base score of 90*10 = 900 which is enough to beat all the blinds in ante 2 with a single four of a kind. This DOES require SOME luck, but with a death or strength tarot, it should be pretty achieveable.

• Big blind needs 4’s or better.
• Boss needs 8’s or better, or just get a flush in addition to your 4 of a kind.
• An Empress, hierophant, or second mars planet card is enough to disregard the requirements above.

This allows you to save up money while you beat the two first antes. My favourite voucher early on is the x2planet cards in shop voucher, as these are more important early on to build up a nice base mult.

Tarot cards you are looking for are:

• Strength - improve consistency in getting the 4 of a kind
• Death - improve consistency in getting the 4 of a kind
• Empress - improve your mult if you see that your base mult is not enough to clear the blind
• The hanged man - If you see it in the shop, and you have cash: Buy it. Destroy the cards you have the least of in your deck, but try to avoid destroying the cards that are one below the cards you have the most of - we want to strength those.
• The hermit - Duh doi
• The devil - Buy it for 3 gold and use it on a random card before you score your ante winning hand. It costs 3 and gives 3. This is fairly low on the list of priority, but it's strictly a positive gain to your deck. Always spend all of your discards looking for gold cards if you know you have a game winning hand.
• Justice - Glass cards aren't too important early on, but super important later on.
• Chariot - gives a 1.5x to mult. Use it as a boost before playing your game winning hand. as a rule of thumb, 2 steel cards in hand = one glass card in played hand.

Buy the tarots in the shop and use them during the round. Don't get exited and spend them during an arcane pack. 4 of a kind is pretty inconsistent to get early on, but with a death in hand, you only need to get a 3 of a kind. Aces are technically the best, but it doesn't really matter what rank you go for (although i recommend going for 6's or better - see math below). Face cards can be a little sketchy because of the boss that debuffs face cards, but if you happen to have 7 kings in your deck, and 4 of everything else, i would say go for it.

Ante 3:

To beat ante 3, you need 3600 chips for the boss. In the beginning, your 4 of a kind level will vary depending on your luck. Look for specific tarot cards to clear the blinds depending on your level. Achieving 3600 score can be done with a single 4 of a kind at level:

• 5 (with 3’s or better)
• 4 (making one of them a mult card with empress)
• 3 (one of the cards are a glass card, and you need 5’s or better)

Ante 4:

The Boss blind requires a score of 10000.

Here are some ideas on how you can get a score of 10000 in a single 4 of a kind, depending on its level:

• 10 hand will clear this by itself
• 9 6's or better
• 8. two cards are mult cards and cards are is 6's or better
• 7 one card is a glass card

Ante 5+

Do the math on what you will score before leaving the shop. Save deaths in order to improve consistency. Strength should pretty much be useless because you should have already strengthed the cards below the one you have the most of in your deck. Try to focus on making more glass cards of a single rank, and making copies of them with death. Try to not play more glass cards than necessary, because if they break your deck becomes less consistent. The hanged man is great to thin your deck, but deaths are better imo.

Standard packs are nice, and try to get a card with a red seal on it. Make it a glass card and copy them with death. A single red seal glass card should hopefully be enough to clear most blinds. Red seal cards are not strictly necessary, but they help immensely. They are also great to transform into steel cards, and having one in hand is essentially the same as playing an additional (regular) glass card.

Ante 8:

4 of a kind level:

• 11 - 2 glass cards will score over 50k
• 11 - 3 glass cards will score over 100k
• 16 - 2 glass cards will score over 100k

Skipping:

I would often skip blinds if i had leveled up 4 of a kind to level 11 or 16, and KNEW a single 4 of a kind would beat any boss with a couple glass cards (even the ante 8 boss). This is because you have so many glass cards at this point that playing the ante would more often than not decrease the consistency of my deck. Just watch out for the tags that rerolls boss blinds. Play these blinds if the boss blind is easy. (This mistake is why i haven't cleared jokerless twice, huehuehue.

Tl:dr:

Get an early mars card and play 4 of a kind from ante 2 and onwards. Do the math before every round. To get a score of 100k, level up 4 of a kind with mars planet cards to level 11 (hand scored needs 3 glass cards) or level 16 (hand scored needs 2 glass cards).

Original Post by u/Swimming_Security_27