Balatro - A poker deck building roguelike

spronk

spronk

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Yeah I think its worth getting especially if its on a sale or whatever. I had some PS Stars expiring and you can't convert it to PSN wallet money anymore but they have Balatro for 1750 points so I picked it up a month ago. Its $20 on switch digital and always on sale on steam. I own it on steam too for my deck but bounced off it hard, but enjoy playing it on PS5.

I don't find it super addictive tbh, I play basically 1 game every 2-3 days and have fun but have zero desire to play more. Maybe I just don't have an addictive personality cuz I find it weird people who say they can't stop playing this game. I haven't won a game though (gotten to ante 8) so maybe it gets more addictive the bigger scores you get, I still haven't gotten an "amazing" joker set.

Its twisted poker with extra rules, its fun but I honestly prefer real poker. Still, I'd say its probably better than 90% of mobile/tablet gaming if you just need to kill some time. I have heard the new Pokemon TCG is very addictive too

The sole author seems like a very cool dude, the game blew up BIG for him this year and he posted on reddit last night thanking everyone for the GOTY award nominations and also humbly recommend 4-5 other indie games that were released this year that he loves. Amazing success story, this dude has made millions from a game thats like 250 megabytes lol Meanwhile my Stalker 2 install/update is 125 gigs...

 
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Aazrael

Aazrael

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After playing it a bit I can understand why people like it.

Had the craziest run going and then the phone shutdown due to 0% battery... Damn, lost track of time...
 
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Chersk

Chersk

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spronk said:
Yeah I think its worth getting especially if its on a sale or whatever. I had some PS Stars expiring and you can't convert it to PSN wallet money anymore but they have Balatro for 1750 points so I picked it up a month ago. Its $20 on switch digital and always on sale on steam. I own it on steam too for my deck but bounced off it hard, but enjoy playing it on PS5.

I don't find it super addictive tbh, I play basically 1 game every 2-3 days and have fun but have zero desire to play more. Maybe I just don't have an addictive personality cuz I find it weird people who say they can't stop playing this game. I haven't won a game though (gotten to ante 8) so maybe it gets more addictive the bigger scores you get, I still haven't gotten an "amazing" joker set.

Its twisted poker with extra rules, its fun but I honestly prefer real poker. Still, I'd say its probably better than 90% of mobile/tablet gaming if you just need to kill some time. I have heard the new Pokemon TCG is very addictive too

The sole author seems like a very cool dude, the game blew up BIG for him this year and he posted on reddit last night thanking everyone for the GOTY award nominations and also humbly recommend 4-5 other indie games that were released this year that he loves. Amazing success story, this dude has made millions from a game thats like 250 megabytes lol Meanwhile my Stalker 2 install/update is 125 gigs...

Click to expand...

The beautiful thing about game development is you can hit a homerun like this and make millions. It's like winning the lottery except you deserve it. Good for him.
 
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Aazrael

Aazrael

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Any tips on what to aim for? I got stuck doing pairs and 3 of a kind a while but found a video that suggested doing flush and straits instead. Worked pretty good but having bad luck with Jokers kinda fizzle a run.

I did understand you need to be careful with $$$ at the start and aim for $25 for some interest.
 
spronk

spronk

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ive heard if you wanna git gud at this game go watch balatro university, sounds like homework to me so i just keep fucking playing like a retard and crash and burn whenever i have to score like 1,000,000

yesterday i accidently threw away instead of play a royal flush, i was really proud of that moron moment

 
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faille

faille

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Flushes are insanely powerful.
Getting stuff that changes cards suits and what not, means you can go on deep runs
 
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meStevo

meStevo

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Yeah, this is crack.

Had this up to +90 once I finished my first successful run, as I missed out on my first endless blind by like 1200, lol.

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Chimney

Chimney

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Bought last night and played for a few hours. Like Slay the Spire but with more math.

Great on Steamdeck and will probably be my new time waster while couch gaming away from the PC and pretending to be social with the woman.
 
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Aazrael

Aazrael

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I won a second game yesterday. Used the Spades and Heart Deck and went all in with Flush again.

Will try a win with the first Deck now to continue unlocking stuff.
 
Djay

Djay

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I've done all of the standard decks except Black. Losing a hand each round is killer. After that, it just seems like luck in which boss blinds come up and maybe getting the Joker that negates a death/failure.

It took a lot of games to unlock enough good cards and figure out strategies to get those first few wins, though. Not sure I'll grind up through the different antes. It's fun and I'd rather have this win GOTY than anything else nominated, probably.
 
Vorph

Vorph

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Anyone who wants this on Switch and likes collecting physical carts, this is on sale at Best Buy for $20. Yeah, it's more expensive than buying digital, but pretty much no one else even has it in stock at all, and Switch carts of good games that are produced in small quantities tend to increase in value once they all run out.
 
Chimney

Chimney

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So 10 hours in now I've won with most of the decks on the beginning stake and a few on the next tier.

I am kind of torn on the game play loop as from what I can tell there are about 20-30 jokers that can guarantee you the multiplier needed to hit the high six figure/million+/game breaking score hands. The rest just kind of exist and are barely good enough to beat the lower level stakes. Playing around specific non joker cards (tarot/planet/variable deck mutations) seems to be a recipe for mediocrity as they look good early on (tempo based), but fall off hard in the 4-6 ante range.

This is a pretty big departure from a lot of rogue like and/or deck building games that I play(ed) where you can pretty much guarantee yourself a very high win chance through specific actions despite dealing with RNG as well. It makes me want to stop runs midway when I know failure chance is high and restart to get a better seed which feels bad.

Gonna keep grinding though as there are still a lot of stakes/challenges to beat and a bunch more unlocks so maybe my opinion will sway later that this emergent gameplay style has more to it than I believe.
 
Aazrael

Aazrael

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I usally fail bad at ante 6. Not sure how to improve or if its just bad luck.
 
Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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Been playing on iPhone while at mother in laws with family for early Thanksgiving. It is fun but I’m pretty terrible. Lots to unlock and it feels like things are starting to come together, but like Aazrael Aazrael at Ante 6 I just have no chance. Also, there are some brutal bosses that are run killers even if I try to plan my jokers / deck.

I’m relying heavily on +multi, bonus to hands already played, and planets since I do a lot of straights, flushes, and 2 of a kind. Don’t think I ever buy any of the Buffoon, Arcana, or Standard packs so I’m definitely overlooking a lot of opportunities.

Fun time waster. Was $10 on iPhone and mobile implementation works just fine. No complaints.
 
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sleevedraw

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Intrinsic said:
Been playing on iPhone while at mother in laws with family for early Thanksgiving. It is fun but I’m pretty terrible. Lots to unlock and it feels like things are starting to come together, but like Aazrael Aazrael at Ante 6 I just have no chance. Also, there are some brutal bosses that are run killers even if I try to plan my jokers / deck.

I’m relying heavily on +multi, bonus to hands already played, and planets since I do a lot of straights, flushes, and 2 of a kind. Don’t think I ever buy any of the Buffoon, Arcana, or Standard packs so I’m definitely overlooking a lot of opportunities.

Fun time waster. Was $10 on iPhone and mobile implementation works just fine. No complaints.
Click to expand...

For booster packs, Red Card is great if you get it early and have good cash flow to keep buying boosters (early Rocket or Business Card with Pareidolia), especially if it's comboed with a good Xm (multiply the multiplier) card like Throwback (although somewhat risky because more skips = less booster packs) or Cavendish.
 
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Aazrael

Aazrael

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I got two wins and trying to win with the red Deck right now. But not going well. I think I need to be able to reroll Boss Blinds because last time I lost due to having only 1 hand to play.
 
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