holy mother of god this game Balatro goes fucking hard

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379780/Balatro/

it's friday, bruv. treat yoself.

It said download a demo but I can't find a demo anywhere and I can't understand what the fuck is going on from watching videos.

i was curious about it til i saw how ugly and difficult to parse it was

Tyranthraxus posted...

It said download a demo but I can't find a demo anywhere and I can't understand what the fuck is going on from watching videos.

It's basically poker plus Rogue-like

You make poker hands to get points and need to get above a certain number of points in a certain number of rounds to advance to the next stage. Every three stages there's a boss with a special restriction. You get money for a variety of conditions after each stage that you can use in a shop to buy booster packs that contain either more regular cards but with special effects like bonus points if you use it, planet cards that give certain types of hands like three of a kind a bonus multiplier on the amount of points they're worth, and Joker cards which have a variety of field effects.

The goal is to get the right combination of Joker and planet cards so that instead of getting like 100 points for three of a kind you get 100,000.

Because you don't have control over what the shop has between rounds, each game basically forces you to start to bias your play style towards specific cards or hands to take advantage of all the bonus multipliers you've collected. So maybe one game you get the most points for playing all hearts so you try and build flushes, and then in another game you get a bunch of bonuses to two pair so you focus on that and you don't really care what suit the cards are.

So like is that it? Every round is a single hand of poker and either I have enough points or I don't?

Tyranthraxus posted...

So like is that it? Every round is a single hand of poker and either I have enough points or I don't?

Every round is usually three hands or more, although some bosses will have crazy restrictions like you can only play one hand. You also get a number of discards you can use if you need to hunt for certain specific cards for your hand, and there are single-use cards you can pick up in the shop that will do something like change all the cards in your hand to the same suit. Unlike something like Texas hold'em, instead of getting two cards you get a whole big pile and whichever cards you used are replaced before the next hand. You can also get modifiers that make your hand size bigger and things like that.

Having described the whole game, I'm also not really that big of a fan. I enjoy playing poker online sometimes and have fun with the psychology of betting against other people, so this sort of offline pseudo poker style of game just does nothing for me.

I've seen a few people on my Steam friend list playing it. Eh, I don't like card games though.

I hear a lot of good talk about the game but tbh nothing seems interesting enough to get me to bite. It feels kinda like a solitaire game with a bunch of weird extra steps.

Tyranthraxus posted...

I hear a lot of good talk about the game but tbh nothing seems interesting enough to get me to bite. It feels kinda like a solitaire game with a bunch of weird extra steps.

I think it's mostly for people who really really love the discovery aspect of Rogue like games. The moment to moment gameplay is kind of boring and the core mechanics basically railroad you into trying to play very specific hands so you're not even really putting much thought into it outside of optimizing your build. However, if you like stumbling upon a cool item with a weird effect that makes you reconsider how you're playing the game multiple times in a run, this game does a pretty good job of that. Each visit to the shop presents you with like a dozen different decision points that make it feel a lot less random. For now, in the early days of the game, it definitely feels like there's a lot of room for player expression and how you choose to build up your deck, but I suspect this is one of those things where eventually people will find the optimal route and the last bit of fun will have been squeezed out of the game.

GotY so far

Tyranthraxus posted...

I hear a lot of good talk about the game but tbh nothing seems interesting enough to get me to bite. It feels kinda like a solitaire game with a bunch of weird extra steps.

its fun as hell. its amazing how much mileage they get out of something as simple as playing poker. what that post leaves out is there are a bunch of cards called jokers that power up certain hands or cards and let you create combos, stuff that upgrades cards in your deck to give them extra properties, and a bunch of other weird stuff.

the simplicity of it just being based around poker hands honestly makes it more interesting because you have a very easy to understand baseline, from which you can very easily put together strategies to make your combo multipliers go nuts.

i cant stand most card based roguelikes. they all play the same way revolving around destroying cards in your deck to leave you only with certain powerful stuff, and i rarely like the rpg aesthetic. this is way more straightforward and fun.

Joelypoely posted...

GotY so far

agreed

MarcyWarcy posted...

what that post leaves out is there are a bunch of cards called jokers

That's another thing I don't understand, are these jokers actually part of your deck or are they just always around? What even is your deck? Is it just French cards or do other things go in there? Like can I build a deck entirely of diamonds or do I have to just use the 52 and modify it during play with jokers?

Tyranthraxus posted...

That's another thing I don't understand, are these jokers actually part of your deck or are they just always around? What even is your deck? Is it just French cards or do other things go in there? Like can I build a deck entirely of diamonds or do I have to just use the 52 and modify it during play with jokers?

You can hold up to 5 or 6 at a time and they act as permanent upgrades across your entire run. Every time you play a hand the game looks at all your jokers to determine what your bonuses are. You can sell them in the shop if you find a better ones, but jokers basically drive the entire game. The shop will usually sell a couple jokers to pick from or you can buy a "booster pack" with a random assortment of jokers. They have different rarities and effects, so carefully planning for which jokers synergize with your deck is key. Similarly, those "planet cards" give your hands multipliers, too. So you may have a run where you get 10x more points for 3 of a kind than you would a full house.

So you might play a straight, and your first joker gives you like... 10 bonus points per heart, and your second joker gives you a x2 multiplier if you play face cards, and your third might double your multiplier if you're playing more than 4 cards. Then because it's a straight your multiplier is further increased based on the "level" that hand is at which is increased using said planet cards. So you play a hand, it adds up the total point value and the total bonus multiplier, and then combines the two to determine how many points the hand you just played is worth. Your very first hand will get you like... 100 points. The "endgame" is combining effects to get like a million points per hand.

IIRC your deck is always just regular playing cards at the start of a run, but not necessarily just 52 and individual cards can have all sorts of additional bonuses or effects. So if you get an early joker that gives a bonus to hearts, you can open card boosters to try and get more cards with hearts or use booster card abilities to do things like turn a bunch of your existing cards into different cards permanently (letting you select a bunch of non-hearts and turn them into hearts). The deck you draw from carries over between rounds, but how you modify it plays into your strategy.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f087a68a.jpg

That's how you play poker. Different variations have different rules for how you make the 5-card hand, but they all rely on these exact hands. It's all based on statistics, and well-balanced so the more valuable hands are rarer. If you are just learning, pay attention to the rank of 3oak vs 2-pair. 3oak is actually stronger! Also a flush is stronger than a straight (most people assume it would be the inverse).

Tyranthraxus posted...

That's another thing I don't understand, are these jokers actually part of your deck or are they just always around? What even is your deck? Is it just French cards or do other things go in there? Like can I build a deck entirely of diamonds or do I have to just use the 52 and modify it during play with jokers?

The jokers are big buffs, like major items you'd find in a roguelike.

You start with a standard poker deck (52 cards) but can add and remove cards, as well as add buffs to cards (like enchanting an item). You might slap a "red seal" on your Ace of Clubs, now your Ace of Clubs will trigger twice in scoring!

Scoring is like Tony Hawk (and that's a good thing)

You have "chips" which are points. Every normal card gives it's value. Buffs can give cards crazy +30 chips and stuff.

Then you have "mult" which is a multiplier.

Finally, "XMULT" which multiplies the multiplier (and so you should score these cards last if possible, which it always is for the most part).

To do really well you need to raise all three of these stats, using jokers that synergize and smart shopping between rounds.

I just won my last run, for example with a joker that counted all black cards as one suit, as well as all red cards. So I could make a flush with hearts+diamonds or spades+clubs. It was awesome!

I had another card that added MULT for the number of times I had played that type of poker hand, so every hand I played a flush and every hand it increased by +1.

My XMULT card got slightly stronger everytime I added a card to my deck. I had like X8 by the end, which was insane. I added any card I could find, and so I had like 80 cards by the end.

Finally I used my other slots for okay card that mostly just gave "chips" so that when everything was multiplied it would be a big number.

Robot2600 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f087a68a.jpg

That's how you play poker. Different variations have different rules for how you make the 5-card hand, but they all rely on these exact hands. It's all based on statistics, and well-balanced so the more valuable hands are rarer. If you are just learning, pay attention to the rank of 3oak vs 2-pair. 3oak is actually stronger! Also a flush is stronger than a straight (most people assume it would be the inverse).

In 54 card decks (52+2 jokers) it's possible to make 5 of a kind which is a stronger hand than Royal flush but no serious poker place uses jokers so it's basically just a thing you can do with friends.

also "royal flush" isn't a separate hand than straight flush, it's just the strongest hand.

I haven't gotten a 5oak in Balatro yet, but it's obviously possible. IDK if it's coded into the game or not. One would assume so...

Balatro is "8-card draw." You get 8 card, can discard up to 5 at a time, and try to make hands of 5 (under normal conditions). In terms of poker it's extremely generous. The most popular way to play poker for real, gives you 2 card, no discard, and 5 cards you have to share! so this is much nicer. poker fans should also like it cause you'll get full houses and stuff all the time.

Robot2600 posted...

I haven't gotten a 5oak in Balatro yet, but it's obviously possible. IDK if it's coded into the game or not. One would assume so...

At least in the video they have on the store page you can have 9oak and other impossible & insane hands that don't make even the slightest bit of sense. Like playing 18 holes of golf and coming out at the end with a total score of 17.

>I haven't gotten a 5oak in Balatro yet, but it's obviously possible. IDK if it's coded into the game or not. One would assume so...

Theres three "hidden" hand types: Five of a kind, Flush Five, and Flush House

Tyranthraxus posted...

That's another thing I don't understand, are these jokers actually part of your deck or are they just always around? What even is your deck? Is it just French cards or do other things go in there? Like can I build a deck entirely of diamonds or do I have to just use the 52 and modify it during play with jokers?

Like others said, Jokers are pretty close to finding like an upgrade item in another roguelike. You don't play them, you just have 5 slots you can equip them in.

Your deck itself is by default just a normal playing card deck. But you can add or remove cards (though it's more difficult to remove them than in most games like this) as you play. You find tarot cards that can do things like give a card bonus chips when you play them, or make them a wild card that counts as all suits, etc. You can also find cards already upgraded like that from booster packs you can by as you go.

So yeah, you can add a bunch of extra diamond cards to your deck, or convert them into diamonds. You can also find jokers that specifically give you a bunch of extra points for playing diamonds, so there's incentive to make builds as you go.

My most recent playthrough for example I got a joker that gives you a x4 multiplier every time you play face cards. Then I proceeded to find a joker that gives you +30 chips for every face card, and finally a super powerful joker that multiplies your *total* multiplier every time you play a king and a queen. So for the remainder of the game, I was opening booster packs and only taking face cards, using tarots to upgrade the face cards i already have to give them extra multipliers and chips, occasionally deleting non face cards so I had a better chance of getting them. By the end I was getting almost a million chips every time i was playing just a two pair of kings or queens

Yeah, I've already put like 30 hours into this game lol
Fucking addictive as all hell

I've completed all the decks on standard settings and now I'm working thru them on their harder modes (the green chips I think).

thats awesome!^

i just had my 4th win (on easy stakes, but i just got the game last night).

cleared the red, blue, green, and yellow decks.

my last build was smeared joker again, with banner (+120 chips if i dont discard), the increasingly +1 mult for flushes, a +mult holo flush joker, and a progressive card that gave +1 increasing mult if i play a hand (-1 if i discard). i also had the voucher that gave me jupiter in every celestial pack, and an extra hand voucher.

i had to sell a card on the last boss tho, so i couldn't make it in endless.

gonna try the abandoned deck now it starts with no face cards! so im going to go for straights

died on the 7th boss. the wall :/

blind was 140,000 and i topped 100k at the end of 7th ante (which is usually the points required to win the 8th boss blind) so it still feels like a good run

had:
+40 chips if pair
+8 mult if a pair
supernova (increasing +1 mult for every hand type--i spammed pair)
square joker (SSS tier)
a negative +1 hand joker

then i had even steven, which was awesome, swapped it for the steel multiplier joker, which was even better.

but i couldnt clear the wall.