"Balatro" - The King of Deckbuilding Games Quiz

Answer: Poker

In "Balatro" players form hands similar to poker. The hands have different values based on the difficulty level to make that particular hand. Ignoring any jokers or upgrades, a hand submitted as a high card will score much less than a hand submitted as a straight flush.

Answer: Boss Blind

Each ante in "Balatro" consists of three rounds: Small Blind, Big Blind and Boss Blind. The first two rounds can be either played or skipped. Sometimes depending on the tag that is awarded for skipping a blind (i.e. doubling your money up to $40) it may be beneficial to skip the Small and/or Big Blind.

However, if a blind is skipped then you also may forfeit seeing good items to purchase in the shop. After the Big Blind is defeated or skipped comes the Boss Blind. At the start of each ante the player can see what the upcoming Boss Blind will be in case a strategy change is needed.

Many times while playing "Balatro" I have been utilizing a strategy prioritizing a certain suit only to see that the upcoming Boss Blind is to 'debuff' (not score) that particular suit.

Other devious Boss Blind challenges include 'The Ox' (playing your most played hand type resets your money to $0) and 'The Needle' (play only one hand).

Answer: Chips

In "Balatro" chips are awarded based on the cards that are submitted. Numbered cards 2-10 are awarded their face value, an ace is awarded 11 and the face cards (jacks, kings and queens) are awarded 10 chips. Each particular hand has a base amount of chips that are awarded (i.e. a Level 1 flush is 35 chips) which are added to the chip value as well. Before any final joker effects, the chip value is then multiplied by the Mult factor to obtain a value for the hand.

Answer: Burglar

At the start of a round a player has a certain number of discards available (usually three or four) depending on what deck is selected. If the Burglar joker is utilized then a player will not have any discards available. Since $1+ is usually awarded after a round is completed, this joker can be very useful to build a bankroll.

However, unless easy hands like high card and pair are being submitted, it can be a difficult joker to navigate with if you are utilizing a straight or flush build strategy.

The Burglar joker is considered an 'uncommon' type and it is one that I typically avoid.

Answer: Cavendish

The Gros Michel and Cavendish jokers both have an icon of a banana and they are both considered common jokers meaning that they can be purchased directly from the shop and they show up regularly. The Gros Michel joker is available from the beginning and it adds +15 Mult to a hand but it has a 1 in 6 chance of being destroyed at the end of the round. If this joker is destroyed then the Cavendish joker is in the rotation of available jokers. Typically in each shop there are 1-2 jokers directly available and jokers can also be purchased from Buffoon packs.

The difference between a (+)Mult and a (X)Mult joker can be huge toward the endgame of "Balatro". As an example, consider that through your hand you have accumulated 100 Mult. The Gros Michel joker will add +15 Mult to this total for 115 Mult.

However, the Cavendish joker will multiply X3 to the 100 Mult to create a total of 300 Mult. After about the fifth ante I generally try to accumulate jokers that only have an (X)Mult factor.

Answer: Jupiter

When a Jupiter planet card is utilized it adds +2 Mult and +15 chips to the base value of a scored flush hand. Upgrading certain hand types like a flush can be difficult because when a planet pack is opened only a certain amount of upgrades will appear.

This risk can be mitigated by obtaining the Telescope voucher in the shop which will always provide your most played hand type in planet packs. Utilizing the Telescope voucher and Jupiter planet cards, I have been able to upgrade flush to Level 30 which makes defeating blinds significantly easier.

Other planetary upgrades are Pluto for high card, Mercury for pair, Uranus for two pair, Venus for three of a kind, Saturn for straight, Earth for full house, Mars for four of a kind and Neptune for straight flush.

In addition to the standard poker hands, "Balatro" also allows for the following poker hands that can be upgraded with planet cards: five of a kind (Planet X), flush house (Ceres) and flush five (Eris).

Answer: Steel

When playing "Balatro" I will almost exclusively go for steel and glass cards as these provide an (X) Mult factor. Particularly, steel cards will provide a 1.5(X) Mult factor when held in hand. You typically have eight cards available at a time from which to make a hand. Since at most you are able to submit five cards to make a hand you will be left with 3+ cards when a hand is submitted. If those remaining cards are steel cards then whatever Mult has been obtained before any final joker effects will be significantly increased by a factor of 1.5(X) per steel card. Steel cards used in tandem with glass cards ((2X) factor when played) can create tremendous hand scores. My best submitted "Balatro" hand included four glass cards with two steel cards in hand with some powerful jokers for a value of more than 11,000,000,000.

Answer: Tarot cards

There are more than 20 Tarot cards available in "Balatro". These card types are typically purchased directly from the shop or through Tarot packs. Some jokers will also create tarot cards. My favorites are Justice (enhances 1 card into a glass card), The Chariot (enhances 1 card into a steel card) and Temperance (gives the total sell value of all current jokers up to $50).

Answer: False

After a player defeats the Boss Blind of ante 8, the option is provided to continue the run and play the endless mode. I have gotten to ante 12 before which has an insane Boss Blind of 1,200,000,000 to defeat (at purple stake or higher). However, with certain versions of the game like PlayStation 5, it is beneficial to play past ante 8 in order to unlock certain jokers and get trophies that are not easily obtained or even available before ante 8.

Answer: Erractic deck

The Erratic deck becomes available once a run is won on another deck on the orange stake difficulty. The Erratic deck is one of my favorites because it will typically have one suit overrepresented with 16+ cards (instead of the usual 13 per suit) making flush builds easier.

In addition to the 15 decks in the main gameplay mode, there also 20 challenge decks available in the challenge mode with unique stipulations.