Top 10 Balatro Jokers
Balatro has been my hyperfixation this past year. It's a deck-building game that's like poker, but the objective is to play cards and score as many points as possible.
One of the most notable mechanics in the game is Jokers. These are cards that assist you in unique ways during the game. This can include multiplying your score, giving you free consumables, and more.
Since there are no Balatro themed lists on this website, this might as well be the first.
-
Blueprint
A joker that copies the joker to the right. Need I say more?
It has the potential to make powerful synergies such as multiple retriggers with Hanging Chad, endless negative consumables with Perkeo, and doubling the money you get with Mail-In Rebate. You unlock this joker by beating Ante 8.
-
DNA
Creates a copy of the first played card if it's the only one contained in hand.
By making multiple copies of one card, this joker can insanely synergize with scaling jokers (Hologram and Steel Joker) and jokers that trigger cards with held-in-hand abilities (Baron and Reserved Parking).
-
Mime
Retriggers cards with held-in-hand abilities.
The most notable synergy you can create with this joker is with Baron when it triggers Steel Kings with Red Seals. It's also one of the few strategies that can get you to nanienf, the highest possible score you can get in the game.
-
Baron
King cards held in hand add X1.5 mult to your score.
If your Kings have steel enhancements and red seals, the cards will give you X3 mult and retrigger. If you have Mime, these elusive cards will retrigger twice and ultimately get you to nanienf.
-
Perkeo
The most unique legendary joker you can get. Its function is to create a negative copy of a random consumable held in your hand. These negative consumables have slightly higher sell values and can be used in a pinch without running out of your regular ones.
Some of the best consumable synergies with Perkeo include:
- Wheel of Fortune: When you create multiple negative ones, there is a chance one of them will add Polychrome to your jokers.
- Cryptid: You can create infinite duplicates of your favorite cards. Good for cards with held-in-hand abilities.
- The Fool: You can create multiple copies of your favorite last-used consumables.
- Temperance and The Hermit: Infinite money glitches, especially with Temperance giving you the combined sell values of your jokers.
- Judgement: By creating multiple copies of these cards, you can hope one of them is a good quality joker.
- Wrath: Same as Judgement, except the jokers are Rare and it sets your money to zero.
- Any planet card: The best synergy you can do with this joker. With negative planet cards, not only do you have infinite cards to level up your best played poker hands, but with the Observatory voucher, the negative planet cards award X1.5 mult if the played poker hands match the planet cards in your hand.
-
Hanging Chad
This joker was inspired by the 2000 United States presidential election where the final results were put on hold after a voting machine in Florida couldn't separate the piece of paper being held by the ballot sheet.
Likewise, Hanging Chad retriggers the first scored card twice, and for a retriggering card with a common rarity, it's actually quite solid. Most other retrigger jokers are uncommon and only work in certain circumstances (Dusk working on the final round, and Sock and Buskin only targeting face cards).
This joker is the only one of its kind that retriggers one card more than once. If you have Photograph, you get the elusive Photochad synergy, where you can get X6 mult from a single face card.
-
Brainstorm
Same thing as Blueprint, only it copies the abilities of the leftmost joker.
The only drawback is that if you want to copy jokers that give X mult, you have to put them before your + mult jokers, which limits score scaling potential. It's mainly meant for jokers that retrigger cards or give free items, like Hanging Chad or Certificate.
Despite the drawbacks, Brainstorm is pretty nice to have along with Blueprint, and with both jokers, you can trigger another one's ability three times.
-
Triboulet
Another awesome legendary joker to have. This one gives X2 mult to every scored King and Queen, making it a more powerful Photograph.
However, it only works with Kings and Queens, so it doesn't synergize with cards that became face cards through Pareidolia.
-
Rocket
This is by far the best economy joker in the whole game. Rocket gives you $2 at the end of a round, but that's not all.
The payout increases by $1 when a boss blind is defeated, so if you get this joker early on and are 20 antes in, you will always have enough money for consumables, vouchers, and jokers.
-
Chicot
A legendary joker that disables the effects of a boss blind.
This means if you have a face card build about to be victimized by The Plant or have your cards disabled by Verdant Leaf, disabling the boss blind's effects makes these issues a thing of the past. Although the lack of challenges can get tiring after a while.