Balatro: You can move the fucking jokers? - The Something Awful Forums

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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Balatro: You can move the fucking jokers?

quiggy: Aug 7, 2010; [in Russian] Oof.

Mesadoram posted:

Does the order of the jokers on top matter at all?

Yes, they go off left to right. For jokers that say something like "all Spades give +4 Mult" you don't have to worry about it, but any joker that directly gives you 2x Mult or whatever you should put at the end. Doubling Mult is more effective when you have more Mult to double, obviously.

Incidentally the same applies to playing cards. Make sure your glass cards are on the right!

# ? Mar 2, 2024 22:21

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# ? May 13, 2024 06:48

Lugubrious: Jul 2, 2004

Mesadoram posted:

Does the order of the jokers on top matter at all?

You generally want your jokers that multiply the multiplier all the way to the right, because jokers generally activate left to right and you want your mult as high as possible before it gets multiplied. Some stuff complicates this, like Ancient Joker applying when the card scores instead of when jokers activate (which is after the cards score), but it's a good rule of thumb.

# ? Mar 2, 2024 22:23

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

Mesadoram posted:

Does the order of the jokers on top matter at all?

Everything triggers from left to right.

+Chips and +Modifiers should go on the left. Doesn't matter what order.
XModifiers should ALWAYS go on the right

There's some advanced trickery you can do once you start unlocking Jokers that do things like copy other abilities or trigger other effects, but the above is basically how you should set things up.

# ? Mar 2, 2024 22:23

Mesadoram: Nov 4, 2009; Serious Business

quiggy posted:

Yes, they go off left to right. For jokers that say something like "all Spades give +4 Mult" you don't have to worry about it, but any joker that directly gives you 2x Mult or whatever you should put at the end. Doubling Mult is more effective when you have more Mult to double, obviously.

Incidentally the same applies to playing cards. Make sure your glass cards are on the right!

Lugubrious posted:

You generally want your jokers that multiply the multiplier all the way to the right, because jokers generally activate left to right and you want your mult as high as possible before it gets multiplied. Some stuff complicates this, like Ancient Joker applying when the card scores instead of when jokers activate (which is after the cards score), but it's a good rule of thumb.

Infinitum posted:

Everything triggers from left to right.

+Chips and +Modifiers should go on the left. Doesn't matter what order.
XModifiers should ALWAYS go on the right

There's some advanced trickery you can do once you start unlocking Jokers that copy other abilities, but the above is basically how you should set thongs up.

Thank you for the info! Glad to see there is more depth to the game than it appears.

Also, the music in this game is incredible.

# ? Mar 2, 2024 22:24

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Aggro posted:

Extremely stupid question. How the hell do you build a deck that works that isn�t a Flush deck?

The only way I�ve been able to make deep runs is getting lucky with the Spectral Card that converts a bunch of cards to one suit or other tools that thin the deck. Some well placed Red tokens and multi cards, and flushes score well.

But I can�t see how people are managing to win decks designed around like, two pair. What am I missing?

Start focusing on getting duplicates of a few ranks. Mainly decide if you want to focus on face, ace or some other card depending on luck. It's a lot easier to get 2, 3, or even 5 of a kind (or just a full house) if you have eight eights in your deck. Especially if you're pruning ranks you don't want or like.

In short, a lot of Death, Hanged Man maybe some Strength cards from the Tarot pack, and some lucky Sigil, Incantation and Cryptid cards from the Spectral packs. If you have some ways of generating any of these it becomes a lot easier. Especially if you're duplicating a card that was already enhanced.

# ? Mar 2, 2024 22:32

Quantum of Phallus: Dec 27, 2010

Mesadoram posted:

Also, the music in this game is incredible.

Check this poo poo out:

https://cohost.org/plumpan/post/4775485-me-having-grown-up

# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:06

mystes: May 31, 2006

I wish there was more of the music. I would probably buy that as a dlc.

# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:18

Serperoth: Feb 21, 2013

Aggro posted:

Extremely stupid question. How the hell do you build a deck that works that isn�t a Flush deck?

The only way I�ve been able to make deep runs is getting lucky with the Spectral Card that converts a bunch of cards to one suit or other tools that thin the deck. Some well placed Red tokens and multi cards, and flushes score well.

But I can�t see how people are managing to win decks designed around like, two pair. What am I missing?

I just had a run (that I won, first in a decent few hours :toot:

:toot:

) that did just that (on white stake, but still).

I got a Straight joker early on, so I used that to help out a bit while I progressed, and developed a build around that. My main multiplier was Spare Trousers, so I focused on two pairs and full houses, and I picked up Constellation, and I was picking up every Planet and pack I could find. Cartomancer gave me free Tarots, which I used to manipulate into some easier pairs. Baseball Card was a blessing too, and I just accidentally stumbled into Driver's License, so I was hitting big numbers off of just two pairs, but couldn't make it past Small Blind of Ante 11.

What worked for me was finding something that scaled, and focusing towards it, and keeping up with money. Once you break past the $25, you get $5 in interest every round, which helps, and I was able to pick up every non-joker from shops without much worry. Sure, I wasn't going to pass up something Negative, but once I had an engine going, I could focus on my deck, which cards I had more/fewer of (including an Ouija which gave me a bunch of Queens), so by the end I was discarding for As, Qs, 10s, and 8s. Couldn't filter too much, and hand size went down to six, which didn't help, but I was taking all the opportunities I could to edit my deck after I got going.

# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:32

Color Printer: May 9, 2011; You get used to it. I don't
even see the code. All I see
is Ipecac, Scapular, Polyphemus...

come on, man. it's ante 7. don't do me like this

# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:36

Color Printer: May 9, 2011; You get used to it. I don't
even see the code. All I see
is Ipecac, Scapular, Polyphemus...

once the antes start scaling faster on higher stakes, there are some bosses that if they show up in later antes and they hard counter your deck, you are loving dead the instant you enter the ante. there is no way you can pivot without ridiculous luck. it is so frustrating lmao

# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:41

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

Am I alone in thinking ancient Joker is kind of lame? Maybe I just haven't built the right deck for it, but multiplying upon scoring instead of after my other multipliers proc is pretty weak sauce in my experience.

I'll give it another shot on a checkerboard deck though, because Castle oscillated between spades and hearts then, so ancient Joker would probably do the same. Plus then I could upgrade flush a couple of times, and have a higher base multiplier for it to apply to

# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:49

LifeLynx: Feb 27, 2001; Dang so this is like looking over his shoulder in real-time; Grimey Drawer

Color Printer posted:

once the antes start scaling faster on higher stakes, there are some bosses that if they show up in later antes and they hard counter your deck, you are loving dead the instant you enter the ante. there is no way you can pivot without ridiculous luck. it is so frustrating lmao

Yeah there's no avoiding it. I keep getting the "all cards count as face cards" and build face card synergy that then falls apart against a couple of the bosses. I don't know what solution I'd offer if I was developing the game.

You're the guy who did the Isaac videos aren't you? Those were helpful back when I was playing Flash Isaac.

# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:50

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Mesadoram posted:

Does the order of the jokers on top matter at all?

New thread title

# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:51

Kuros: Sep 13, 2010; Oh look, the consequences of my prior actions are finally catching up to me.

LifeLynx posted:

Yeah there's no avoiding it. I keep getting the "all cards count as face cards" and build face card synergy that then falls apart against a couple of the bosses. I don't know what solution I'd offer if I was developing the game.

You're the guy who did the Isaac videos aren't you? Those were helpful back when I was playing Flash Isaac.

There's vouchers that allow you to reroll a boss or a couple of jokers that ignore bosses.

# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:56

Trillhouse: Dec 31, 2000

Tea Party Crasher posted:

Am I alone in thinking ancient Joker is kind of lame? Maybe I just haven't built the right deck for it, but multiplying upon scoring instead of after my other multipliers proc is pretty weak sauce in my experience.

I'll give it another shot on a checkerboard deck though, because Castle oscillated between spades and hearts then, so ancient Joker would probably do the same. Plus then I could upgrade flush a couple of times, and have a higher base multiplier for it to apply to

nah ancient joker sucks

# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:59

Squiggle: Sep 29, 2002; I don't think she likes the special sauce, Rick.

You can move the loving jokers?

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:05

mystes: May 31, 2006

Squiggle posted:

You can move the loving jokers?

make this one the thread title imo

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:05

Relyssa: Jul 29, 2012

Squiggle posted:

You can move the loving jokers?

mystes posted:

make this one the thread title imo

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:09

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Squiggle posted:

You can move the loving jokers?

Lmao

Please and thank you

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:10

the holy poopacy: May 16, 2009; hey! check this out; Fun Shoe

Tea Party Crasher posted:

Am I alone in thinking ancient Joker is kind of lame? Maybe I just haven't built the right deck for it, but multiplying upon scoring instead of after my other multipliers proc is pretty weak sauce in my experience.

I'll give it another shot on a checkerboard deck though, because Castle oscillated between spades and hearts then, so ancient Joker would probably do the same. Plus then I could upgrade flush a couple of times, and have a higher base multiplier for it to apply to

If you have a flush and a way to retrigger every card that's 57x your base multiplier. If you have a level 1 flush that's over 200 multiplier right there, at level 3 flush you get about 450 multiplier. It only really shines in very specific decks but when it does it's goooood.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:14

monochromagic: Jun 17, 2023

Squiggle posted:

You can move the loving jokers?

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:18

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Tea Party Crasher posted:

Am I alone in thinking ancient Joker is kind of lame? Maybe I just haven't built the right deck for it, but multiplying upon scoring instead of after my other multipliers proc is pretty weak sauce in my experience.

I'll give it another shot on a checkerboard deck though, because Castle oscillated between spades and hearts then, so ancient Joker would probably do the same. Plus then I could upgrade flush a couple of times, and have a higher base multiplier for it to apply to

Ancient Joker is one of those jokers that if it sucks or is awesome entirely depends on how your brain works. I've watched a streamer who loves it. Meanwhile I have a hard time shifting gears to look for a new set every time. Same issue I have with Castle or To Do List.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:19

quiggy: Aug 7, 2010; [in Russian] Oof.

mystes posted:

make this one the thread title imo

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:25

GoutPatrol: Oct 17, 2009; *Stupid Babby*

Well always feels great to try my first challenge and pick up the Swashbuckler in Ante 1 and then accidently sell it in ante 7 and click to next round because you're on autopilot

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:25

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

Squiggle posted:

You can move the loving jokers?

Gonna blow your mind further

:siren:

:siren:

Hold R to instantly start a new game with the same deck + stakes

:siren:

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:28

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Infinitum posted:

Gonna blow your mind further

Hold R to instantly start a new game with the same deck + stakes

Yeah that one blew my mind when I found out about it. Super nice.

Not sure what the bind for it is on the Switch version (or if it exists) but it's super nice on my computer.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:33

woke kaczynski: Jan 23, 2015; How do you do, fellow antifa?; Fun Shoe

Tea Party Crasher posted:

Am I alone in thinking ancient Joker is kind of lame? Maybe I just haven't built the right deck for it, but multiplying upon scoring instead of after my other multipliers proc is pretty weak sauce in my experience.

I'll give it another shot on a checkerboard deck though, because Castle oscillated between spades and hearts then, so ancient Joker would probably do the same. Plus then I could upgrade flush a couple of times, and have a higher base multiplier for it to apply to

From what I recall it would switch between all four suits even on a checkerboard deck, which bummed me out because I figured it would be the best possible use case. Dunno if I'm misremembering or they updated it, though.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:33

Pipski: Apr 18, 2004

Aggro posted:

Extremely stupid question. How the hell do you build a deck that works that isn’t a Flush deck?

If you get the joker that ranks up the first discarded hand each round, High Card gets potent fast, especially if you add more through planet cards.

(Well, maybe not 'fast' but eventually.)

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:39

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

Squiggle posted:

You can move the loving jokers?

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:39

Squiggle: Sep 29, 2002; I don't think she likes the special sauce, Rick.

Oh lol whoops in my defense I'm playing on the Steam Deck and there's no UI indication you could move them at all. It's a much more natural realization playing with a mouse, where I did it by accident within like 20 seconds

EDIT: YOU CAN MOVE THE CARDS IN YOUR HAND?

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:40

Jossar: Apr 2, 2018; Current status: Angry about subs

Tea Party Crasher posted:

Am I alone in thinking ancient Joker is kind of lame? Maybe I just haven't built the right deck for it, but multiplying upon scoring instead of after my other multipliers proc is pretty weak sauce in my experience.

I'll give it another shot on a checkerboard deck though, because Castle oscillated between spades and hearts then, so ancient Joker would probably do the same. Plus then I could upgrade flush a couple of times, and have a higher base multiplier for it to apply to

If you have an all-wild deck for some reason, it does good work. More practical use case is the Smeared Joker.

Squiggle posted:

EDIT: YOU CAN MOVE THE CARDS IN YOUR HAND?

Also yeah, this always trips me up more than moving the Jokers does.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:41

Relyssa: Jul 29, 2012

Alkydere posted:

Yeah that one blew my mind when I found out about it. Super nice.

Not sure what the bind for it is on the Switch version (or if it exists) but it's super nice on my computer.

Really hoping there is one for Switch when I eventually start stake climbing on that too.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:41

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

woke kaczynski posted:

From what I recall it would switch between all four suits even on a checkerboard deck, which bummed me out because I figured it would be the best possible use case. Dunno if I'm misremembering or they updated it, though.

Woof, If it switches between all of them then I don't think I'll go for ancient Joker all that often. * 57 to the multiplier does sound good, but I'm not a big fan of decks where I have to get a lot of ducks in a row like upgrading The flush, then discarding things in order to get a flush of whatever suit it chooses, etc etc

Hologram Joker? Now that's a sexy Joker. Especially if you can get that voucher that lets you buy playing cards directly from the shop

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:42

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

Jossar posted:

If you have an all-wild deck for some reason, it does good work. More practical use case is the Smeared Joker.

Also yeah, this always trips me up more than moving the Jokers does.

I haven't even run into this smeared Joker that y'all are talking about. Curious

Also same, I only remember that is a mechanic once my cards are scoring and I realize I could have organized them better lol

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:44

Relyssa: Jul 29, 2012

Tea Party Crasher posted:

I haven't even run into this smeared Joker that y'all are talking about. Curious

Also same, I only remember that is a mechanic once my cards are scoring and I realize I could have organized them better lol

Need to unlock it by having at least 3 wild cards in your deck at once.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:45

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

Aggro posted:

Extremely stupid question. How the hell do you build a deck that works that isn�t a Flush deck?

The only way I�ve been able to make deep runs is getting lucky with the Spectral Card that converts a bunch of cards to one suit or other tools that thin the deck. Some well placed Red tokens and multi cards, and flushes score well.

But I can�t see how people are managing to win decks designed around like, two pair. What am I missing?

bizarrely enough my last three wins in a row have been two pair decks. Trousers and supernova plus a multiplier card like sharp card can easily take you to the end, especially if you get the telescope voucher and can pump it like crazy. also nice to have square joker

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:46

Infinitum: Jul 30, 2004

Squiggle posted:

EDIT: YOU CAN MOVE THE CARDS IN YOUR HAND?

This ones important for the Hanging Chad joker, which retriggers the FIRST card played.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:49

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Squiggle posted:

EDIT: YOU CAN MOVE THE CARDS IN YOUR HAND?

Yeah a little shuffling with that makes Hanging Chad an absolute Chad as you can make sure a mult or bonus card is always in front to be triggered twice.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:55

Veryslightlymad: Jun 3, 2007; I fight with
my brain
and with an
underlying
hatred of the
Erebonian
Noble Faction

Beat my first Green Stakes today (On the Abandoned Deck, which is fast becoming my favorite) and unlocked black stakes and the Painted Deck. Painted deck feels like it'll be bad for me, the weird guy who actually likes the Black Deck. Black stakes meanwhile.... uh...

OK, I get how the Eternal Jokers could be considered a downside, but given certain spectral cards, I actually feel like there's several situations where it'll work in your favor. It might make Madness actually playable instead of an eventual death trap. So as far as the raised stakes penalties go, this particular level feels almost like a reprieve.

Infinitum posted:

This ones important for the Hanging Chad joker, which retriggers the FIRST card played.

It's also worth noting that:

If the face card that triggers Photograph is retriggered, it retriggers Photograph.

Glass cards and polychrome be put behind all your other guys.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 01:01

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# ? May 13, 2024 06:48

the holy poopacy: May 16, 2009; hey! check this out; Fun Shoe

Aggro posted:

Extremely stupid question. How the hell do you build a deck that works that isn�t a Flush deck?

The only way I�ve been able to make deep runs is getting lucky with the Spectral Card that converts a bunch of cards to one suit or other tools that thin the deck. Some well placed Red tokens and multi cards, and flushes score well.

But I can�t see how people are managing to win decks designed around like, two pair. What am I missing?

You can make decks that aren't built around any particular hand at all. Base hand values and levels are usually pretty small compared to the amount of chips and multiplier you can get from jokers, joker modifiers, card enhancements, etc. There are times when it pays to specialize in a specific hand and sometimes you roll with it because that's what you get, but most of the time it just makes your deck more vulnerable and inconsistent in return for not all that much reward.

Two pair decks in particular get a lot of attention because the main ingredients like spare trousers and square joker still give you full benefit on anything you play, two pair hands just powers them up. You wind up with high base chips and mult and if something somehow stops you from playing two pairs, oh well, you still get that score on anything else.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 01:05

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