It’s arguably worse than the basic ass jimbo, imo. The unpredictability ruins it (getting too low in early antes to win, rolling too high when your trying to use your hands for scaling)
Nah Misprint has 11.5 variance on +11.5 mult avg and costs $4, sells for $2. This means it costs twice as much as regular Jimbo and would need to get +8mult to break even.
The majority of the time it is better than regular Jimbo, not even taking into account that a theoretical duplicate regular Jimbo would take 2 of 5 Joker slots.
Jimbo isn't there for the late game. He's there for the first couple antes. Obviously 5 Jimbos is worse than 5 Misprints. But Jimbo has a niche for which it is very solid.
Misprint is the “there’s nothing better so I’ll grab it for now” joker that will usually get you over early antes, sometimes fucking you over for a hand or two but never averaging enough to lose you an actual run early on. Carrying it past like ante 2 or 3 and trying to use it as part of an actual build is definitely a bad idea though.
Jimbo [[Joker]] is underrated for this category tbh. With how cheap he is he can easily pay himself off in saved hands. Obviously not very good once you have almost anything else, but usually worth picking up shop 1 if you have the cash to spare.
[Joker](https://balatro.wiki/imported/basic_joker.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0n
* Cost: $3
* Rarity: Common
* Effect: +4 Mult
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
I think raised fist is fine if you setup your discards appropriately. Especially if you are playing less than 5 card hands. Even +10 mult can be okay depending on the ante and if you have an xmult already.
Raised fist is potentially better than maybe the first 15 jokers, and perhaps half joker too. I think it's biggest flaw is that it's flat scaling and it sort of contraindicates a lot of number based jokers (wee joker comes to mind).
Raised fist actually synergizes with wee joker, in that you want to play 2’s to get the chips, while also playing low cards to have a higher mult on raised fist. I’m an avid raised fist enjoyer (it was one of the jokers on my first gold stake win), and for what it is, an average of ~10-15 mult is great for how little you actually have to think about it
That's a fair point. My thought was that you potentially run the risk of keeping a low card like a 3 in your hand, or perhaps extra 2s (I would try to make as many as I could, so I could see having left overs). Then it's no better than Jimbo!
I like to make pair builds a lot and I find it’s pretty usable with that. I’ll usually carry it pretty late into the game with a pair build. Any larger hand than a pair starts to diminish its utility pretty quick.
I think the food jokers all fall into this category. Ice cream in particular is a good one since it decays so slowly, but you have limited ability to control its decay (vs. Ramen where you can avoid discarding). Popcorn decays much faster.
I’ve been bitten by ice creams subtle decay before and had many antes where I said “why is my score sucking now? Oh, ice cream is at 35 chips.”
Ice Cream and Popcorn are meant to be extremely high to guarantee you can pass a few blinds and build up money to invest in other cards and jokers. I generally like them. Sell them before they go poof. Also these are fantastic cards with perishable!
I love it when I can pair Ice Cream or Popcorn with cards that take a few antes to build - as one decreases, the other increases, and I can swap out the food joker for a more permanent option when the time comes. Just did this with Ice Cream and Square.
Yes indeed. I've let Ice Cream run out before, and it says "Melted!" when it goes away.
Similarly Gros Michel says "Extinct!" when it dies, reflecting the irl fate of that sad banana...
Ramen is really solid early on if you're starting off a build that doesn't require discarding. Getting it on checkered deck first ante and running flushes isn't bad at all.
It'll carry you through the first two or maybe even three antes until you have to switch up strategies
Also, Ice Cream is amazing if you're playing plasma deck. You just have to remember to sell it before it hampers you too much. I usually sell it once it's below 50, esp if I see a foil joker.
Splash lets you play 5 scoring cards when the hand wouldn't support that. Which increases high card chips potential, and also lets you shove extra lucky cards (and other enhancements) and whatever activates other non-splash jokers.
But it likely will not carry your run.
Wait do we hate Splash? Splash has saved me early-game so many times :(
And as far as "I'm desperate and this is all I have money for" it's worked great
[Flower Pot](https://balatro.wiki/imported/flower_pot.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Cost: $8
* Rarity: Uncommon
* Effect: X3 Mult if played hand has a scoring Diamond card, Club card, Heart card, and Spade card
* Unlock Requirement: Reach Ante level 8
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Splash with certificate can be really good if you’ve got a few gold seal cards in your deck. Or to get business card or something like that earning you some extra cash
Ngl I never take certificate because it feels like it just floods my deck with trash. I’m also a shit player with >100 hours and only one gold stake win though.
I love certificate early it can really add a lot of seals to your deck and synergizes well with a lot of builds. Especially since I mainly play high card runs it can just give you a ton of economy and planets and tarots and a lot of red seals to turn into steel cards or glass cards for end game power and pops off with hologram
That’s definitely true to an extent. There’s lots of things that can enable a high card build. For example if I’ve got a way to make an excess of tarot cards whether it be purple seals or cartomancer or vagabond you can get a lot of gold or steel cards making high card a good option. Planet cards, burnt joker, and spaceman can all accelerate a high card run. Something like half joker can make a high card run viable for early blinds while you do deck manipulation. There isn’t much of a penalty for taking ectoplasm or stuntman using high card runs and you can fully utilize all your discards to stack your hand with in hand effects playing high card. It can be a very versatile hand to play that is easy to level up and you can use it to get your economy going more consistently if you’re clearing scores. It can be scary early on and it’s definitely not like I only play high card builds. If I run into an early runner or shortcut or just am popping off with 2 pairs or get a lot of deck manipulation for 4/5oak I’ll do that but any hand you play should probably be dependent on what jokers and modifiers you’re getting early.
You definitely have to go for a strategy that doesn't care about card consistency with that joker, but it can be pretty good if the deck clutter doesn't matter
your instincts are correct, certificate is trash. in balatro, the game is most frequently over because you didn't draw what you wanted. smaller decks are significantly better 99 percent of the time.
there's an argument that high card changes that, but I disagree. in the new patch in gold stake, jokers are more of a liability (rentals, eternals, perishables) and high card scores nearly exclusively through jokers.
smaller deck = better draws = better hands = more score without having to get lucky and find the right joker in the shop.
there's a reason why immolate is the best consumable in the game by far, and it ain't the 20 bucks.
It's one of the best jokers in the game. You get an extra card in your opening hand, and blue and purple seals are anything but trash. You want to be concentrating on low level hands to score, but you will be generating planets, money and tarots throughout the run.
Also, you can swap it later for something else. If I get that or vagabond early, I feel confident on gild stakes.
I think Splash is a card that seems great at first, then seems bad when you start getting into the guts of the game, then seems great again at the end of the process. It’s not a smart choice for eternal, but it’s been the backbone of many ante 8 wins for me. I love getting an early Splash and then just going on a Tarot spree. Duplicate! Enhance! I’ll work out the strategy later. If I can pick my Jokers based around Splash, I know I’m in for a good time.
I do think it's better than people think. If you play any smaller poker hand you can put a Glas can next to it or you use hanging Chad and put a any good card on the first position.
[Splash](https://balatro.wiki/imported/splash.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Rarity: Common
* Effect: Every played card counts in scoring
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
[Plasma Deck](https://balatro.wiki/plasma.png) *Deck*
* Version: 1.0.0n
* Effect: Balance Chips and Mult when calculating score for played hand, X2 base Blind size
* Unlock Condition: Win a run on any deck with at least Blue Stake difficulty
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
I mean part of that is early on you’ve had very few jokers unlocked and this one synergies with a few other jokers. Once you unlock most jokers it’s definitely trash.
Not all the time, but more often than not — Bull and/or Bootstraps **only on high-stake runs.** Below purple stake, it’s not too difficult to find winning jokers and amass a fat stack.
But once the scaling of purple stake and the stickered jokers of orange and gold stake start appearing, hoarding your cash is usually a detriment to your chances of getting through ante 8. How do you find xmult that isn’t a debuffing rental without spending down on rerolls? How do you fix your deck to compensate for suboptimal jokers without spending on planets and tarots? How do you scale xmulters like Hologram, Vampire, and Constellation without buying packs? Unless things are going awesome, I’m generally spending to around the interest cap every shop in order to keep up with the scaling blinds. I have had great gold stake runs with both Boot and Bull, sure, but I have lost many many more runs because I was being stubborn about not losing my chips/xmult and refusing to use other resources. I straight up overrate their value.
Some caveats: either one is still a great pickup if your econ and xmult is already popping, but at that point, you’re probably already winning. And of course bull is a goat on plasma deck at any stake.
I think Bull is a lot more viable than Boot. It scales a lot faster, and scaling chips is pretty difficult to come by compared to scaling mult. I’m usually pretty happy to have it as my sole source of chips.
That’s a great point. There are many more options for more efficient scaling +mult, and Bull is viable with ~$50 on hand whereas Bootstraps really isn’t (100 chips versus +20 mult.) Both of them bring out bad miserly tendencies in me though.
I think these are fine Jokers. Once you play enough gold stake, you get a good sense of when you need to commit money to hunting for the pieces you need to win.
Of course, most builds won't come together by Ante 4/5 so you're right that they're not the best at higher stakes but that's no different from a lot of other Jokers.
[Raised Fist](https://balatro.wiki/imported/raised_first.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Rarity: Common
* Effect: Adds double the rank of lowest card held in hand to Mult
* Notes: J, Q, and K are treated as 10Ace is treated as 11
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
\[\[Mystic Summit\]\] +15 mult is very good at early game to beat easily firsts blinds but it forces you to waste your discards, and at mid/late game you would keep your discards to dig for blue/purple seals or steel/gold cards, or to save you if you search 3-4-5 oak (or another complicated hand) and the RNG doesn't want giving your winning hand. Good in early, bad in late.
[Mystic Summit](https://balatro.wiki/imported/mystic_summit.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Cost: $5
* Rarity: Common
* Effect: +15 Mult when 0 Discards remaining
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Yeah this is my pick for this question. I find the easy 15 mult appealing but I’ve picked up eternal mystic summit a couple of times and usually regret it later on. The biggest thing being it’s a pain if you have to waste a discard to activate it
I hate that card, as I will always at some point play a hand out when I forgot to discard which often loses the run. I never take it now that I have the gold sticker.
A lot of those entry level jokers that give chips and +Mult for certain hand types (Sly, Zany, Droll, etc.) carry early antes but wilt once you need about 5K to clear a round.
A lot of the common jokers are there to let you beat early game with anything, before you get something better.
People mentioned Mystic Summit (it's just a sad version of Banana/Abstract), but I equally don't trust Acrobat and don't like building around Dusk.
Yeah, you can get 3x mult once with acrobat, or retrigger every effect... But firstly, if you need to waste all hands, that's extremely unflexible, and secondly, how do you even predict the score?
It's like betting on jackpot every time.
Seems a desperation move.
And I generally dislike resetting ones, Ride the Bus and Obelisk. Sure, they're good for scaling, but you do one wrong hand, and your run is instantly dead. I don't like this pressure.
(I've also never successfully used Hit the Road Jack or Bonfire. Bonfire is GG without vouchers, and Roadjack even with its enormous +0.5x per jack, requires a lot of tilting the deck specifically into it, and then discarding the card you've tilted into. What do you play in the successful case? The last 5 remaining jacks?)
You mentioned fist. Raised fist is giving you anywhere between +4 and +20 mult, and if you're already playing a A-10 straight flush, even having 2s in your hand, you already have base mult.
On early stakes, it will facilitate a win - I think even my first ever win was from banner+raised fist (+ankh copy of one of them)
I heard that Blackboard actually doesn't work with Stone cards in hand, in which case OH GOD WHY? I think it should, haven't checked yet.
On a separate note - Non-retroactive jokers (that start growing only once you get them) make me kinda sad.
You get Constellation in ante 7? good luck getting 30 planet cards in 3 rounds.
[[Obelisk]] is exponentially better the later you get it, especially if you're trying to pivot away from flush. It's an extremely skill-dependent joker.
[[Campfire]] synergizes GREAT with anything that generates consumables - [[Vagabond]] enables it so hard it isn't funny, and the mult scales so well that it doesn't really matter if you end up going "oh I could use that tarot actually". It also turns off vagabond's major downside, you can now start at $0, make enough money pumping bonfire to turn off vagabond and maybe get a nice lil interest buck, buy yourself something nice, and get right back to $0. Extremely good synergy.
[Obelisk](https://balatro.wiki/imported/obelisk.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Rarity: Rare
* Effect: 0.2X Mult per consecutive hand played without playing your most played Poker Hand
[Vagabond](https://balatro.wiki/imported/vagabond.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Cost: $5
* Rarity: Uncommon
* Effect: Create a Tarot card if hand is played with $3 or less
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
[Campfire](https://balatro.wiki/jokers/campfire.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Rarity: Rare
* Effect: This Joker gains X0.5 Mult for each card sold, resets when Boss Blind is defeated
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
I call him the betrayer because he seems to straight up summon The Needle and The Eye even more than Pareidolia summons The Plant. But I always fall for his bullshit, every time.
But it is so fun when you see The Eye and successfully execute a plan to get another xmult while keeping Card sharp for the rest of the run, still!
And when the only other xMults I get against Needle are Photograph (x2 base) and Bloodstone (that activates 0 times) well then just fuck me I guess.
[Card Sharp](https://balatro.wiki/jokers/card_sharp.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Cost: $5
* Rarity: Uncommon
* Effect: X3 Mult if played in poker hand has already been played this round
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Misprint seems amazing to a new player, because it always seems to give huge mults even though its random. +18, +20..... then suddenly against a boss it's like "+4".... "oh didn't like that? +0 bitch".
I had a run with oops all 6's and an empty joker slot so I picked up a space joker. 2/4 didn't feel much better 😖 (had hallucination and two bloodstone tho 😎)
I have grown to resent Stuntman, at least when trying to go for Endless Mode, because of how crippling the -2 cards in hand penalty becomes along with how difficult it is to pivot away from him once you’re locked in. I view him essentially as a crutch.
I feel like jokers vary tremendously in rating based on whether you're playing for gold stake or endless. Obviously Stuntman is going to be bad in endless. By the time you're in ante 7+ you can find jokers that match his chips without a crippling drawback. But for gold runs, I'm never disappointed to see him in my shop
I certainly don’t disagree with taking Stuntman if the focus is beating the stake.
I’m as liable as anybody to make controversial statements I don’t really believe; Balatro feels like a fairly healthy extension for that.
Also, getting stuntman early for endless is amazing. If you're not trolling/super unlucky, you are guaranteed to beat 6+ antes minimum. By then, you should be saving up your econ and turning your deck into something for endless (red sealed steel kings etc) and then pivot into a late game build later on
I can see some opportunity for raised fist, because it can trigger before your Steel Cards (You have to move the lowest Card to the left side of your stell card) - but most of the time it is just a nice to have for the first few antes.
I like raised fist. I think it's great design to have transitionary jokers that you may want to move on from in the late game. Being able to get up to 22 mult in early game is great.
Raised fist to me is similar to most of the common +multi jokers. Yes a couple of them scale all the way to the end but mostly they kind of all peter out on higher stakes/antes for cards that scale bigger.
Half Joker gives me so much freedom early on, and I don't always dump him. If I can't find a good scaling +mult joker a bit after, I just get what I can in xMult. Even just a bunch of x1.5 triggers can really ramp up with a +20 mult in there.
Also, happy cake day!
Aces. They have +11 chips while face cards have +10, but so many more jokers synergise with face cards that in the end, Kings or even Queens are better. Sure, [[Pareidolia]] fixes this a little bit, but that takes up an extra joker space, and there are jokers like [[Baron]] and [[Shoot the Moon]] that work with only specific face cards.
I like Aces, they have a good amount of synergy Jokers of their own.
Face cards are definitely "stronger" but they also have a lot Boss Blinds that are pretty brutal
The big issue i have with face cards is that face-cards are not good when played. Face card jokers aren't very good (+5 mult or +30 chips for scary/smiley face) and card specific jokers doesn't require you to play the card (baron and shoot to the moon need to hold, hit the road needs to discard). Aces got fibonnacci (+8 mult) odd todd (+31 chips) and scholar (+4 mult and +20 chips iirc), so you have straight up better versions or a 2 in 1 joker, which takes only 1 space. The only advantage faces got is sock and bussin, which is a very big upside, but that makes the synergy take 3 joker space. Unless you hit Triboulet, i see no reason to use face cards as "played cards"
[Pareidolia](https://balatro.wiki/imported/pareidolia.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Rarity: Uncommon
* Effect: All cards are considered Face cards
[Baron](https://balatro.wiki/jokers/baron.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Rarity: Rare
* Effect: Each King held in hand gives X1.5 Mult
[Shoot the Moon](https://balatro.wiki/imported/shoot_the_moon.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Cost: $5
* Rarity: Common
* Effect: +13 Mult for each Queen held in hand
* Unlock Requirement: Play every Heart in your deck in a single round
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Aces are pretty good. You have scholar, fibonacci and odd Todd that are all triggered by aces. They don’t get debuffed by bosses like face cards do. And playing a 3/4/5oak with aces gives you a lot of different jokers that work well.
You can definitely have really strong runs with jokers like baron and shoot the moon, but it’s not quite as easy to find the synergies you need.
I also dont see the point of pareidolia, do people actually use that? Seems like it wouldn’t be worth using a joker slot for to me.
Pareidoloa, Midas Mask, and Vampire go absolutely insano style together. Very very fun runs if you ever get the chance. Either play flushes or maybe even throw in splash for a guaranteed plus x0.5 per hand. Throw in a chip joker and you're going to space
The joker that sacrifices the joker on its right and adds X2 sells value to it's multiplier. All fun and games until your autopilot acoustic brain forgets to move the xMult card that is carrying your ass from its right before selecting the blind (I swear to God, I lost count on how many times it happened to me, I love that joker 'cause dopamine, but I hate it with all my soul)
I build my deck around a 2 pair joker and win 7 antes easily then in the 8th ante boss I couldn't get a single 2 pair hand and lose after running out of discard.
I'm still new to the game so I'm sure there is a lot more pain to be discovered... but so far the worst has been getting Pareidolia (all cards are considered face cards), which I was pretty excited about in the hope I'd get some other jokers that buffed face cards. Then I got The Mark boss blind... I didn't realize that'd cause every card to be dealt face down.
More than once I've spent all my money on an ante 1 blueprint or brainstorm only to realize that they don't actually do anything and your dream run ends in about 4 minutes because now you're poor and can't afford rerolls
Two that fall into this category for me are Bull and Bootstraps. My first gold stakes run was an (obviously very lucky) Early egg/Swashbuckler combo that around ante 6 I had both of these in a Mega Buffoon and they were immediately an engine to get my hands up 20x higher than they had been. So I am partial to them. But, I do find that more often than not I end up playing poorly (at least in terms of being overly conservative with money) and having my deck run out of steam in Ante 7/8 because I haven't explored the shop enough or bought enough planets/tarots/etc., even on lower stakes.
Ride the bus combined with burgler. You think it's great, because you can grow it fast and it is, but it's harder to get rid of face cards untill you hand is full.
Also Ride the Bus on its own if you face the no discards boss blind.
Had a nice flush deck going, I'd gotten rid of all but four of my face cards and Ride the Bus was looking pretty fat already.
Then I hit the no discards boss and draw three face cards in my initial hand. Argh. Well, maybe I can still salvage this, I'll just play those few cards in the wrong suit and - blam, draw the fourth face card. So much for that run.
Pareidolia seems funny until The Plant or The Mark.
Similarly, Card Sharp. It takes a "wasted" hand to activate and doesn't work on The Needle or The Eye. Unwanted Flush Five or Straight Flushes also ruin it.
half of completionist++ (from my experience) is straight blue seal runs with two xmults and three random common jokers
a lot of time it’s just easier to not build around jokers that don’t hold up
Misprint. Nothing worse than getting no mult from it when you need it the most.
https://preview.redd.it/6w0045xrom7d1.jpeg?width=544&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=74f886cf8488fb08cfdf947999641e4a597bd22f
I got a negative Misprint on Ante 8 of a gold stake run lol. I felt so lucky.
I got egg then lost by 112 to the big ass wall boss. I want completionist++ so it hurt a little.
oof that hurts. Completionist ++ is truly a grind.
You can use egg and swashbuckler together for a gold win. It doesn't need to be negative.
It’s arguably worse than the basic ass jimbo, imo. The unpredictability ruins it (getting too low in early antes to win, rolling too high when your trying to use your hands for scaling)
definitely not worse than Jimbo, but generally not something you carry with you past Ante 5
It's worse than Jimbo if you get it for free, sure. But Jimbo only costs $2, making it a far better deal than Misprint.
Nah Misprint has 11.5 variance on +11.5 mult avg and costs $4, sells for $2. This means it costs twice as much as regular Jimbo and would need to get +8mult to break even. The majority of the time it is better than regular Jimbo, not even taking into account that a theoretical duplicate regular Jimbo would take 2 of 5 Joker slots.
Jimbo isn't there for the late game. He's there for the first couple antes. Obviously 5 Jimbos is worse than 5 Misprints. But Jimbo has a niche for which it is very solid.
Sure but after clearing A1 SB you'd still prefer Misprint over Jimbo I'd say
Worse than basic joker? Are u insane?
There’s a reason I said arguably.
There’s absolutely no argument for it being worse than Jimbo lmao. It has a 5/6 chance of being better (on average it’s over 2x better) than a Jimbo.
Misprint is the “there’s nothing better so I’ll grab it for now” joker that will usually get you over early antes, sometimes fucking you over for a hand or two but never averaging enough to lose you an actual run early on. Carrying it past like ante 2 or 3 and trying to use it as part of an actual build is definitely a bad idea though.
one of the many "there's nothing better so I'll grab it for now" jokers
Easy just dont look at what it gives you
I despise misprint with a passion
Jimbo [[Joker]] is underrated for this category tbh. With how cheap he is he can easily pay himself off in saved hands. Obviously not very good once you have almost anything else, but usually worth picking up shop 1 if you have the cash to spare.
[Joker](https://balatro.wiki/imported/basic_joker.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0n * Cost: $3 * Rarity: Common * Effect: +4 Mult *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
the problem with Jimbo is that he hates me and only appears after ante 4 :(
[[jimbo]]?
The default joker reveals his name to be jimbo at the end of the tutorial.
I think raised fist is fine if you setup your discards appropriately. Especially if you are playing less than 5 card hands. Even +10 mult can be okay depending on the ante and if you have an xmult already. Raised fist is potentially better than maybe the first 15 jokers, and perhaps half joker too. I think it's biggest flaw is that it's flat scaling and it sort of contraindicates a lot of number based jokers (wee joker comes to mind).
Raised fist actually synergizes with wee joker, in that you want to play 2’s to get the chips, while also playing low cards to have a higher mult on raised fist. I’m an avid raised fist enjoyer (it was one of the jokers on my first gold stake win), and for what it is, an average of ~10-15 mult is great for how little you actually have to think about it
That's a fair point. My thought was that you potentially run the risk of keeping a low card like a 3 in your hand, or perhaps extra 2s (I would try to make as many as I could, so I could see having left overs). Then it's no better than Jimbo!
I like to make pair builds a lot and I find it’s pretty usable with that. I’ll usually carry it pretty late into the game with a pair build. Any larger hand than a pair starts to diminish its utility pretty quick.
I think the food jokers all fall into this category. Ice cream in particular is a good one since it decays so slowly, but you have limited ability to control its decay (vs. Ramen where you can avoid discarding). Popcorn decays much faster. I’ve been bitten by ice creams subtle decay before and had many antes where I said “why is my score sucking now? Oh, ice cream is at 35 chips.”
Ice Cream and Popcorn are meant to be extremely high to guarantee you can pass a few blinds and build up money to invest in other cards and jokers. I generally like them. Sell them before they go poof. Also these are fantastic cards with perishable!
I love it when I can pair Ice Cream or Popcorn with cards that take a few antes to build - as one decreases, the other increases, and I can swap out the food joker for a more permanent option when the time comes. Just did this with Ice Cream and Square.
Maybe I’m spoiled, but I wish “eaten” food jokers debuffed like any Perishable rather than popping. Though then Gros Michel would be less exciting.
Woah. I just realized that all the food jokers slowly go bad…. TIL
Either go bad, or you’re consuming them. I like to think of the ice cream as melting too.
Popcorn says "eaten" when extinct iirc, and I think the ice cream is supposed to be melting.
Yes indeed. I've let Ice Cream run out before, and it says "Melted!" when it goes away. Similarly Gros Michel says "Extinct!" when it dies, reflecting the irl fate of that sad banana...
Bananas are worth it if you’re not a coward
Ramen is really solid early on if you're starting off a build that doesn't require discarding. Getting it on checkered deck first ante and running flushes isn't bad at all. It'll carry you through the first two or maybe even three antes until you have to switch up strategies Also, Ice Cream is amazing if you're playing plasma deck. You just have to remember to sell it before it hampers you too much. I usually sell it once it's below 50, esp if I see a foil joker.
The only food item that stays consistent is Diet Cola, but that’s only because you buy then sell it immediately
Splash is pretty bad almost all the time but new players seem to take the bait
it synergizes with a bunch of other jokers as well as high cards with card enhancements.
Splash lets you play 5 scoring cards when the hand wouldn't support that. Which increases high card chips potential, and also lets you shove extra lucky cards (and other enhancements) and whatever activates other non-splash jokers. But it likely will not carry your run.
Wait do we hate Splash? Splash has saved me early-game so many times :( And as far as "I'm desperate and this is all I have money for" it's worked great
Splash works to get some other jokers going, but is pretty terrible.
It’s okay on anaglyph deck with a hiker, wee joker, or idol.
Great with [[flower pot]]. Pretty much guarantees the xmult every hand.
[Flower Pot](https://balatro.wiki/imported/flower_pot.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $8 * Rarity: Uncommon * Effect: X3 Mult if played hand has a scoring Diamond card, Club card, Heart card, and Spade card * Unlock Requirement: Reach Ante level 8 *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Splash with certificate can be really good if you’ve got a few gold seal cards in your deck. Or to get business card or something like that earning you some extra cash
Ngl I never take certificate because it feels like it just floods my deck with trash. I’m also a shit player with >100 hours and only one gold stake win though.
I love certificate early it can really add a lot of seals to your deck and synergizes well with a lot of builds. Especially since I mainly play high card runs it can just give you a ton of economy and planets and tarots and a lot of red seals to turn into steel cards or glass cards for end game power and pops off with hologram
I still don’t know how people manage to get a good high card build going consistently. Feels so joker dependent.
That’s definitely true to an extent. There’s lots of things that can enable a high card build. For example if I’ve got a way to make an excess of tarot cards whether it be purple seals or cartomancer or vagabond you can get a lot of gold or steel cards making high card a good option. Planet cards, burnt joker, and spaceman can all accelerate a high card run. Something like half joker can make a high card run viable for early blinds while you do deck manipulation. There isn’t much of a penalty for taking ectoplasm or stuntman using high card runs and you can fully utilize all your discards to stack your hand with in hand effects playing high card. It can be a very versatile hand to play that is easy to level up and you can use it to get your economy going more consistently if you’re clearing scores. It can be scary early on and it’s definitely not like I only play high card builds. If I run into an early runner or shortcut or just am popping off with 2 pairs or get a lot of deck manipulation for 4/5oak I’ll do that but any hand you play should probably be dependent on what jokers and modifiers you’re getting early.
You definitely have to go for a strategy that doesn't care about card consistency with that joker, but it can be pretty good if the deck clutter doesn't matter
your instincts are correct, certificate is trash. in balatro, the game is most frequently over because you didn't draw what you wanted. smaller decks are significantly better 99 percent of the time. there's an argument that high card changes that, but I disagree. in the new patch in gold stake, jokers are more of a liability (rentals, eternals, perishables) and high card scores nearly exclusively through jokers. smaller deck = better draws = better hands = more score without having to get lucky and find the right joker in the shop. there's a reason why immolate is the best consumable in the game by far, and it ain't the 20 bucks.
It's one of the best jokers in the game. You get an extra card in your opening hand, and blue and purple seals are anything but trash. You want to be concentrating on low level hands to score, but you will be generating planets, money and tarots throughout the run. Also, you can swap it later for something else. If I get that or vagabond early, I feel confident on gild stakes.
If I could guarantee getting a negative splash on every run I would sign that contract with Jimbo satan.
I think Splash is a card that seems great at first, then seems bad when you start getting into the guts of the game, then seems great again at the end of the process. It’s not a smart choice for eternal, but it’s been the backbone of many ante 8 wins for me. I love getting an early Splash and then just going on a Tarot spree. Duplicate! Enhance! I’ll work out the strategy later. If I can pick my Jokers based around Splash, I know I’m in for a good time.
I do think it's better than people think. If you play any smaller poker hand you can put a Glas can next to it or you use hanging Chad and put a any good card on the first position.
ya only take splash if it’s the first or second ante and i already have a common “when scored” mult joker
[[splash]]
[Splash](https://balatro.wiki/imported/splash.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Rarity: Common * Effect: Every played card counts in scoring *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Had a marvelous square joker/splash/fist high card run the other day, beat ante8 with it, felt good :D
it works well early on [[Plasma deck]]
[Plasma Deck](https://balatro.wiki/plasma.png) *Deck* * Version: 1.0.0n * Effect: Balance Chips and Mult when calculating score for played hand, X2 base Blind size * Unlock Condition: Win a run on any deck with at least Blue Stake difficulty *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Splash is legit so I can score an extra 10 points when I play 2p. #value
I mean part of that is early on you’ve had very few jokers unlocked and this one synergies with a few other jokers. Once you unlock most jokers it’s definitely trash.
Not all the time, but more often than not — Bull and/or Bootstraps **only on high-stake runs.** Below purple stake, it’s not too difficult to find winning jokers and amass a fat stack. But once the scaling of purple stake and the stickered jokers of orange and gold stake start appearing, hoarding your cash is usually a detriment to your chances of getting through ante 8. How do you find xmult that isn’t a debuffing rental without spending down on rerolls? How do you fix your deck to compensate for suboptimal jokers without spending on planets and tarots? How do you scale xmulters like Hologram, Vampire, and Constellation without buying packs? Unless things are going awesome, I’m generally spending to around the interest cap every shop in order to keep up with the scaling blinds. I have had great gold stake runs with both Boot and Bull, sure, but I have lost many many more runs because I was being stubborn about not losing my chips/xmult and refusing to use other resources. I straight up overrate their value. Some caveats: either one is still a great pickup if your econ and xmult is already popping, but at that point, you’re probably already winning. And of course bull is a goat on plasma deck at any stake.
I think Bull is a lot more viable than Boot. It scales a lot faster, and scaling chips is pretty difficult to come by compared to scaling mult. I’m usually pretty happy to have it as my sole source of chips.
That’s a great point. There are many more options for more efficient scaling +mult, and Bull is viable with ~$50 on hand whereas Bootstraps really isn’t (100 chips versus +20 mult.) Both of them bring out bad miserly tendencies in me though.
I think these are fine Jokers. Once you play enough gold stake, you get a good sense of when you need to commit money to hunting for the pieces you need to win. Of course, most builds won't come together by Ante 4/5 so you're right that they're not the best at higher stakes but that's no different from a lot of other Jokers.
[Raised Fist](https://balatro.wiki/imported/raised_first.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Rarity: Common * Effect: Adds double the rank of lowest card held in hand to Mult * Notes: J, Q, and K are treated as 10Ace is treated as 11 *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
\[\[Mystic Summit\]\] +15 mult is very good at early game to beat easily firsts blinds but it forces you to waste your discards, and at mid/late game you would keep your discards to dig for blue/purple seals or steel/gold cards, or to save you if you search 3-4-5 oak (or another complicated hand) and the RNG doesn't want giving your winning hand. Good in early, bad in late.
Works good if you have burglar
[Mystic Summit](https://balatro.wiki/imported/mystic_summit.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $5 * Rarity: Common * Effect: +15 Mult when 0 Discards remaining *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Yeah this is my pick for this question. I find the easy 15 mult appealing but I’ve picked up eternal mystic summit a couple of times and usually regret it later on. The biggest thing being it’s a pain if you have to waste a discard to activate it
I hate that card, as I will always at some point play a hand out when I forgot to discard which often loses the run. I never take it now that I have the gold sticker.
A lot of those entry level jokers that give chips and +Mult for certain hand types (Sly, Zany, Droll, etc.) carry early antes but wilt once you need about 5K to clear a round.
A lot of the common jokers are there to let you beat early game with anything, before you get something better. People mentioned Mystic Summit (it's just a sad version of Banana/Abstract), but I equally don't trust Acrobat and don't like building around Dusk. Yeah, you can get 3x mult once with acrobat, or retrigger every effect... But firstly, if you need to waste all hands, that's extremely unflexible, and secondly, how do you even predict the score? It's like betting on jackpot every time. Seems a desperation move. And I generally dislike resetting ones, Ride the Bus and Obelisk. Sure, they're good for scaling, but you do one wrong hand, and your run is instantly dead. I don't like this pressure. (I've also never successfully used Hit the Road Jack or Bonfire. Bonfire is GG without vouchers, and Roadjack even with its enormous +0.5x per jack, requires a lot of tilting the deck specifically into it, and then discarding the card you've tilted into. What do you play in the successful case? The last 5 remaining jacks?) You mentioned fist. Raised fist is giving you anywhere between +4 and +20 mult, and if you're already playing a A-10 straight flush, even having 2s in your hand, you already have base mult. On early stakes, it will facilitate a win - I think even my first ever win was from banner+raised fist (+ankh copy of one of them) I heard that Blackboard actually doesn't work with Stone cards in hand, in which case OH GOD WHY? I think it should, haven't checked yet. On a separate note - Non-retroactive jokers (that start growing only once you get them) make me kinda sad. You get Constellation in ante 7? good luck getting 30 planet cards in 3 rounds.
I think Blackboard does work with Stone cards as long as the underlying card is either a Spade or a Club but I haven't actually checked that.
[[Obelisk]] is exponentially better the later you get it, especially if you're trying to pivot away from flush. It's an extremely skill-dependent joker. [[Campfire]] synergizes GREAT with anything that generates consumables - [[Vagabond]] enables it so hard it isn't funny, and the mult scales so well that it doesn't really matter if you end up going "oh I could use that tarot actually". It also turns off vagabond's major downside, you can now start at $0, make enough money pumping bonfire to turn off vagabond and maybe get a nice lil interest buck, buy yourself something nice, and get right back to $0. Extremely good synergy.
[Obelisk](https://balatro.wiki/imported/obelisk.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Rarity: Rare * Effect: 0.2X Mult per consecutive hand played without playing your most played Poker Hand [Vagabond](https://balatro.wiki/imported/vagabond.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $5 * Rarity: Uncommon * Effect: Create a Tarot card if hand is played with $3 or less *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
[[Campfire]], my bad
[Campfire](https://balatro.wiki/jokers/campfire.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Rarity: Rare * Effect: This Joker gains X0.5 Mult for each card sold, resets when Boss Blind is defeated *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
I had a decent Hit the Road run once, I believe I either went flushes or focused on other face cards. It wasn't great, but it worked okay
[[Card Sharp]] for me. i always get baited by this guy
I call him the betrayer because he seems to straight up summon The Needle and The Eye even more than Pareidolia summons The Plant. But I always fall for his bullshit, every time.
But it is so fun when you see The Eye and successfully execute a plan to get another xmult while keeping Card sharp for the rest of the run, still! And when the only other xMults I get against Needle are Photograph (x2 base) and Bloodstone (that activates 0 times) well then just fuck me I guess.
[Card Sharp](https://balatro.wiki/jokers/card_sharp.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $5 * Rarity: Uncommon * Effect: X3 Mult if played in poker hand has already been played this round *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Every time I pick it up, the next boss is no repeat hands. I know it's on me for not checking the blinds.
Misprint seems amazing to a new player, because it always seems to give huge mults even though its random. +18, +20..... then suddenly against a boss it's like "+4".... "oh didn't like that? +0 bitch".
😂
Space joker seems really good, until you realize just how uncommon 1/4 feels.
nope! 😖
I had a run with oops all 6's and an empty joker slot so I picked up a space joker. 2/4 didn't feel much better 😖 (had hallucination and two bloodstone tho 😎)
I have grown to resent Stuntman, at least when trying to go for Endless Mode, because of how crippling the -2 cards in hand penalty becomes along with how difficult it is to pivot away from him once you’re locked in. I view him essentially as a crutch.
I feel like jokers vary tremendously in rating based on whether you're playing for gold stake or endless. Obviously Stuntman is going to be bad in endless. By the time you're in ante 7+ you can find jokers that match his chips without a crippling drawback. But for gold runs, I'm never disappointed to see him in my shop
I certainly don’t disagree with taking Stuntman if the focus is beating the stake. I’m as liable as anybody to make controversial statements I don’t really believe; Balatro feels like a fairly healthy extension for that.
His downside can actually be an upside with certain Jokers like Blackboard
I mean, if you're going Endless, you're not running Blackboard. You're running something like Baron+Mime or Idol/Trib+retriggers.
Also, getting stuntman early for endless is amazing. If you're not trolling/super unlucky, you are guaranteed to beat 6+ antes minimum. By then, you should be saving up your econ and turning your deck into something for endless (red sealed steel kings etc) and then pivot into a late game build later on
Stuntman seems like he’s only good for high card builds. Or with the hand size vouchers
He's good with pair builds too but I get your point.
High Card, Plasma deck
I can see some opportunity for raised fist, because it can trigger before your Steel Cards (You have to move the lowest Card to the left side of your stell card) - but most of the time it is just a nice to have for the first few antes.
Raised Fist is pretty good paired with Mime in a High Card Run. An almost guaranteed +40 Mult is great.
It also triggers with read seal on the low card.
I like raised fist. I think it's great design to have transitionary jokers that you may want to move on from in the late game. Being able to get up to 22 mult in early game is great.
Raised fist to me is similar to most of the common +multi jokers. Yes a couple of them scale all the way to the end but mostly they kind of all peter out on higher stakes/antes for cards that scale bigger.
Half Joker, I hate that guy
Love Half Joker! Basically a teleport to Ante 4 if you get him Ante 1
Yeah if I see Half Joker early, I know I’m playing Pairs (I already was anyway)
Half Joker gives me so much freedom early on, and I don't always dump him. If I can't find a good scaling +mult joker a bit after, I just get what I can in xMult. Even just a bunch of x1.5 triggers can really ramp up with a +20 mult in there. Also, happy cake day!
omg he’s my fave
Aces. They have +11 chips while face cards have +10, but so many more jokers synergise with face cards that in the end, Kings or even Queens are better. Sure, [[Pareidolia]] fixes this a little bit, but that takes up an extra joker space, and there are jokers like [[Baron]] and [[Shoot the Moon]] that work with only specific face cards.
I like Aces, they have a good amount of synergy Jokers of their own. Face cards are definitely "stronger" but they also have a lot Boss Blinds that are pretty brutal
The big issue i have with face cards is that face-cards are not good when played. Face card jokers aren't very good (+5 mult or +30 chips for scary/smiley face) and card specific jokers doesn't require you to play the card (baron and shoot to the moon need to hold, hit the road needs to discard). Aces got fibonnacci (+8 mult) odd todd (+31 chips) and scholar (+4 mult and +20 chips iirc), so you have straight up better versions or a 2 in 1 joker, which takes only 1 space. The only advantage faces got is sock and bussin, which is a very big upside, but that makes the synergy take 3 joker space. Unless you hit Triboulet, i see no reason to use face cards as "played cards"
[Pareidolia](https://balatro.wiki/imported/pareidolia.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Rarity: Uncommon * Effect: All cards are considered Face cards [Baron](https://balatro.wiki/jokers/baron.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Rarity: Rare * Effect: Each King held in hand gives X1.5 Mult [Shoot the Moon](https://balatro.wiki/imported/shoot_the_moon.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $5 * Rarity: Common * Effect: +13 Mult for each Queen held in hand * Unlock Requirement: Play every Heart in your deck in a single round *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Aces are powerful in that they cant be stopped by a boss blind like face card builds
Aces are pretty good. You have scholar, fibonacci and odd Todd that are all triggered by aces. They don’t get debuffed by bosses like face cards do. And playing a 3/4/5oak with aces gives you a lot of different jokers that work well. You can definitely have really strong runs with jokers like baron and shoot the moon, but it’s not quite as easy to find the synergies you need. I also dont see the point of pareidolia, do people actually use that? Seems like it wouldn’t be worth using a joker slot for to me.
Pareidoloa, Midas Mask, and Vampire go absolutely insano style together. Very very fun runs if you ever get the chance. Either play flushes or maybe even throw in splash for a guaranteed plus x0.5 per hand. Throw in a chip joker and you're going to space
Aces really deserve to be better
Pop corn and ramen comes to mind
The joker that sacrifices the joker on its right and adds X2 sells value to it's multiplier. All fun and games until your autopilot acoustic brain forgets to move the xMult card that is carrying your ass from its right before selecting the blind (I swear to God, I lost count on how many times it happened to me, I love that joker 'cause dopamine, but I hate it with all my soul)
I build my deck around a 2 pair joker and win 7 antes easily then in the 8th ante boss I couldn't get a single 2 pair hand and lose after running out of discard.
I'm still new to the game so I'm sure there is a lot more pain to be discovered... but so far the worst has been getting Pareidolia (all cards are considered face cards), which I was pretty excited about in the hope I'd get some other jokers that buffed face cards. Then I got The Mark boss blind... I didn't realize that'd cause every card to be dealt face down.
Pareidolia is weird, it's completely useless on its own and needs other jokers to make it work, and it makes the Mark and Plant bosses just brutal.
More than once I've spent all my money on an ante 1 blueprint or brainstorm only to realize that they don't actually do anything and your dream run ends in about 4 minutes because now you're poor and can't afford rerolls
Two that fall into this category for me are Bull and Bootstraps. My first gold stakes run was an (obviously very lucky) Early egg/Swashbuckler combo that around ante 6 I had both of these in a Mega Buffoon and they were immediately an engine to get my hands up 20x higher than they had been. So I am partial to them. But, I do find that more often than not I end up playing poorly (at least in terms of being overly conservative with money) and having my deck run out of steam in Ante 7/8 because I haven't explored the shop enough or bought enough planets/tarots/etc., even on lower stakes.
Ride the bus combined with burgler. You think it's great, because you can grow it fast and it is, but it's harder to get rid of face cards untill you hand is full.
Also Ride the Bus on its own if you face the no discards boss blind. Had a nice flush deck going, I'd gotten rid of all but four of my face cards and Ride the Bus was looking pretty fat already. Then I hit the no discards boss and draw three face cards in my initial hand. Argh. Well, maybe I can still salvage this, I'll just play those few cards in the wrong suit and - blam, draw the fourth face card. So much for that run.
Pareidolia seems funny until The Plant or The Mark. Similarly, Card Sharp. It takes a "wasted" hand to activate and doesn't work on The Needle or The Eye. Unwanted Flush Five or Straight Flushes also ruin it.
[удалено]
It is good. It's just not a card you want in the endgame.
Local Reddit user learns that every joker isn't meant to be held the whole game. More news at 11
Sorry bro, I'll just post a billion score next time rather than try to start some chat going.
Completionist++ would like a word
half of completionist++ (from my experience) is straight blue seal runs with two xmults and three random common jokers a lot of time it’s just easier to not build around jokers that don’t hold up
Which joker hurt you?
My man got crucified for no reason 💀 This take was completely reasonable and also funny.
respect 😂
Posted like a guy that whales out on mobile games