Balatro (poker-inspired roguelike deckbuilder) sells 250k in first 72 hours on sale
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Thread: Balatro (poker-inspired roguelike deckbuilder) sells 250k in first 72 hours on sale
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DonDonDonPata
Bridge Burn Man
I saw this last night and was tempted to pick it up. Instantly reminded me of Luck Be A Landlord which also seems like a simple, dumb game (I mean.... it is....) until you get hooked on it.
Thing is... I already have plenty of "roguelike deckbuilders" with way more time invested into them. Monster Train, Ascension, Slay the Spire, Banners of Ruin, Vault of the Void, Roguebook, the list trails on for awhile if I'm being honest.
Thing is... I already have plenty of "roguelike deckbuilders" with way more time invested into them. Monster Train, Ascension, Slay the Spire, Banners of Ruin, Vault of the Void, Roguebook, the list trails on for awhile if I'm being honest.
If I see one more goddamned roguelike game, I'm gonna lose it. /s
DonDonDonPata
Bridge Burn Man
why? Roguelikes are cool. The style might be overused but it's really no different than 'skill trees' (RTS genre) or 'experience' (RPG genre) being slapped onto everything.
That's it, it's overused to hell. Admittedly I don't especially enjoy the concept in the first place, I don't like the idea of forcefully replaying a game (call it what you want, it's still replaying), so I could be biased here, but it really feels like these are getting pumped like no tomorrow.
Like, I find a cool looking indie game on Steam but when I click on it it's another damn roguelike.
I think the difference between this and other overused ideas is this one really doesn't feel like it can sustain a whole corner by itself among other genres. It's not as deep as say souls like or other popular subgenres. But again, this could be my potential bias making this claim.
skeem
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This has an hour's trial available on playstation. I'm very familiar with poker hands and the game managed to get me interested in how I can maximise each hand. And marrying that with how to bump my scores and multipliers. I'm still thinking about it now after playing the game a few hours back!
So yeah, I'm buying in
Thanks @Bullet Club for the thread!
So yeah, I'm buying in
Thanks @Bullet Club for the thread!
The game is great, for anyone on the fence about it. I've got about 25 hours on it since last Sunday. It's very moreish.
DonDonDonPata
Bridge Burn Man
maybe I'm fond of 'em because I love replaying games with a "system" to learn. Whether it's a traditional game with NG+ or a nuanced combat system or a good RPG, I love that stuff. I'd rather replay a great game 10 times than play and beat 10 new games.
I also grew up obsessing over traditional roguelikes with the whole permadeath / gradual progress thing. Most modern roguelikes don't have a strong similarity to "real" roguelikes but that's probably a big part of it for me, too.
I love replaying great games too. Keyword here is forcing me to replay, I'd replay games when I feel like it, not when the game tells me you have to to progress or whatever.
For reference here's a few roguelikes that I do enjoy, with reasons:
Hades, probably the only roguelike in existense where the roguelike elements exist organically within the game's story and vision, this is the first one that doesn't feel they wanted to make a roguelike loop game for the sake of it, but a byproduct of what they were set out to do.
Into the Breach: even though I only finished this game once and haven't played it since, the short duration of runs makes this one more appealing to me to jump back to compared to other games, I know other games don't have long runs either but something about this one's chess like gameplay makes it more inviting to fire it up any time than other, usually action games for me.
Freelancer mode in HITMAN: this is similar to Hades in that they made the mode feel as organic as possible to fit within the game's vision, if the genre wasn't trendy I would say this is what the devs were going to do regardless when you think about what 47 is left to do next after the end of H3.
Risk of Rain 2: for some reason this is considered a roguelike, I personally see it as s traditional round based game, but I like that one too.
Other roguelikes in my library I haven't played yet are Vampire Survivors and Inscryption. So I do like some of the games, I just wish indie devs would focus on doing something else other than turning every game under the sun into a roguelike, I know that's not how it happens but this is what it feels like.
skeem
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For those of you who are playing, what are your strategies?
I think I may have to bump up the difficulty after playing for a bit today. It feels very easy to get pairs in the game. Especially with the discard option, 90% of the time you find a way to get 2x pairs in one hand. Pairs aren't great, but it is quite simple to get 2x pairs up to level 7-8. And have jokers that level up over the antes for every pair you make and others which will X2 your score for pairs at the end of each hand. So if becomes quite simple to score 35-45k per hand and beat the game.
I'm hoping the game opens up some. I haven't unlocked higher difficulties but I did beat the game a few times today using the above strategy. Most stages can be cleared with 1-2 discards and playing one hand with 2 pairs.
I have plenty of jokers to still unlock, but I guess I am concerned if I'll even need to? I'm hoping the game has a way in which it will open up and mix things up a little bit. Can anybody confirm that?
I think I may have to bump up the difficulty after playing for a bit today. It feels very easy to get pairs in the game. Especially with the discard option, 90% of the time you find a way to get 2x pairs in one hand. Pairs aren't great, but it is quite simple to get 2x pairs up to level 7-8. And have jokers that level up over the antes for every pair you make and others which will X2 your score for pairs at the end of each hand. So if becomes quite simple to score 35-45k per hand and beat the game.
I'm hoping the game opens up some. I haven't unlocked higher difficulties but I did beat the game a few times today using the above strategy. Most stages can be cleared with 1-2 discards and playing one hand with 2 pairs.
I have plenty of jokers to still unlock, but I guess I am concerned if I'll even need to? I'm hoping the game has a way in which it will open up and mix things up a little bit. Can anybody confirm that?
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Flush, always flush, unless perfect Joker circumstances say otherwise.
skeem
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I can see that actually, now that you say it. I suppose this is why there are items in the shop to change a cards suit etc.
Any idea what kind of scores are possible per turn in the later game when going this route?
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My best hands have been in the millions and have exceeded 12 blind, but I've seen people go further than 12 with some ridiculous Joker combos.
Just look for Jokers that have multiplication vs adding to the multiplier, and back load the jokers that multiple rearranging their order (you may have already known all this)
skeem
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Oh that's perfect news for me. That means I'm just scraping the possibilities with my 40k hands
I just had a bunch of + jokers with a X2 at the end.
You've got quite a lot to see yet. Here's an example of how wacky shit can get.
skeem
Member
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Your replies today helped me to get a nice jump from 40k hands to over 800k hands
skeem
Member
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Still playing.
I'm throwing out some different strats now. Sometimes going for 4 of a kind runs by using a joker that spawns my last used tarot card at the end of a blind. Usually Death so I can switch a low numbered card to a multi king and try to get half a deck of those kings.
Other times I use the same strat but with a tarot to change cards to a particular suit.
I never liked setting the game speed to the maximum last week but it's essential now once you start getting much more than 5 jokers.
I'm trying to find that perfect run and I have 'almost' had it a few times!
I'm throwing out some different strats now. Sometimes going for 4 of a kind runs by using a joker that spawns my last used tarot card at the end of a blind. Usually Death so I can switch a low numbered card to a multi king and try to get half a deck of those kings.
Other times I use the same strat but with a tarot to change cards to a particular suit.
I never liked setting the game speed to the maximum last week but it's essential now once you start getting much more than 5 jokers.
I'm trying to find that perfect run and I have 'almost' had it a few times!
- Platforms
Didn't realize there were challenge runs till like 5 days ago, definitely worth giving a try
Every time I think I have a winning run, I fuck it up.
I got it on switch and I've also had a few moments where I accidentally hit the left trigger and sell my fucking most important joker on accident.
I got it on switch and I've also had a few moments where I accidentally hit the left trigger and sell my fucking most important joker on accident.
skeem
Member
- Platforms
This is me so much that you would think it was a tactic of mine.
In no order -
Not reading the details of a boss blind
Misreading "play one hand" with "play only one type of hand" in the boss blind
Discarding my cards in hope of getting a hand I never find
Playing a hand I mean to discard
Discarding a hand I mean to play
Miscalculating a jokers worth when switching and scoring a lot less as a result
I'm slowly getting my head around how to make use of some of the "not so obvious" jokers and the different tactics they can open up. I only today realised that you can upgrade higher than 10 with the planet cards. So I'm still learning really, after playing a lot this past week.
I've actually stopped playing Baldurs Gate 3 for this! Balatro has become my main game for now. For the past week at least. It is very addictive and a definite "one more try" type of game.
omfg I can say I relate to the entire list, but these are the ones that hurt me so often
I can't tell you how many times I choose cards to play and then hit the wrong button and throw them away, leaving me with the trash I couldn't do anything with.
DonDonDonPata
Bridge Burn Man
I am having a great run. My build is focused on straights and flushes. I get to a boss fight where "previously used cards in this ante can't be used" and suddenly I can't make any straights of flushes. Run over 
Fuck this game. I'm gonna go like 8 more minutes without picking the Switch up for another try.
Fuck this game. I'm gonna go like 8 more minutes without picking the Switch up for another try.
I swear this game plots against you sometimes. I buy the voucher for 'Celestial packs always contain the card for your most played hand' then never seen another celestial pack in the shop for the rest of my run. Bastard.
Still loving it though. It's got the fastest 'fuck this game I'm turning it off' to ' right I'll turn it on and have one more run' turnaround. Usually minutes between. I've almost completed base white chip difficulty on all the decks available for it. Only Nebula deck and Abandoned Deck to do now. Chequered deck was the easiest so far, cleared it on my first attempt. Landed some jokers that gave bonus chips, + mults and x mults for flushes and got the voucher for +1 hand size so I was guaranteed a flush on every deal. Not looking forward to the Abandoned deck.
Still loving it though. It's got the fastest 'fuck this game I'm turning it off' to ' right I'll turn it on and have one more run' turnaround. Usually minutes between. I've almost completed base white chip difficulty on all the decks available for it. Only Nebula deck and Abandoned Deck to do now. Chequered deck was the easiest so far, cleared it on my first attempt. Landed some jokers that gave bonus chips, + mults and x mults for flushes and got the voucher for +1 hand size so I was guaranteed a flush on every deal. Not looking forward to the Abandoned deck.
skeem
Member
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I had my best joker set yet and was managing to score around 5mil per hand. Breezed past Ante 10 and 11. Scored 25mil on the Ante 12 small blind.
The small blind for Ante 12 is 300,000,000
The small blind for Ante 12 is 300,000,000
I just beat my first run. I had a build where I kept getting planet cards to buff Pairs, I had a joker that gave me +20 Mult if I played 3 or fewer cards, and a bunch of other compounding jokers. So I mostly just played 2 cards at a time as pairs.
Polished off white difficulty on red, green, yellow, blue, black, magic, ghost, nebula, chequered and abandoned decks. Abandoned wasn't as bad as I thought and I managed it on my second attempt. I then chose chequered for red stake difficulty where you get no reward cash after each round and somehow managed it on my first attempt. Now I gotta do white difficulty on the newly unlocked zodiac deck and then on to red stakes on all available decks. I can see me playing this for quite some time. At £12, this game's a bargain.
I had a joker that gave me a random playing card every round, a joker that increased its X multiplier for every card in the deck above 52, and the Blueprint joker (which copies another joker next to it). Combine that with highly leveled up pairs and jokers for chips, and I was doing like 1.3M points with a single pair.
Balatro Update 1.0.1 Patch Notes
- Updated version of Love2D – this fixed an issue on Windows and Steam Deck causing poor/stuttery performance for some players
- Added toggle for 'Reduced Motion', removing the swirly background and gyrating card motion
- Changed default fallback tarot from Fool to Strength (when all tarots are on screen)
- Changed Gold Stake random seeds – now ensures that the first Legendary Joker on that seed is a Joker that you have not won with on Gold Stake (For Completionist++ hunting)
- Changed ante scaling in white stake:
- Ante 3: 2800 -> 2000
- Ante 4: 6000 -> 5000
- Changed ante scaling in green stake:
- Ante 2: 1000 -> 900
- Ante 3: 3200 -> 2400
- Ante 4: 9000 -> 7000
- Changed ante scaling in purple stake:
- Ante 2: 1200 -> 1000
- Ante 3: 3600 -> 3000
- Ante 4: 10000 -> 8000
- Ante 5: 25000 -> 22000
- Changed Orange Stake
- Scrapped increasing pack cost
- Added new 'Perishable' mechanic, Jokers have a 30% chance to have a 'Perishable' sticker, disabling them after 5 rounds
- Changed Gold Stake
- Scrapped -1 hand size
- Added new 'Rental' mechanic, Jokers have a 30% chance to have a 'Rental' sticker (stacks with eternal/perishable), making them cost $1 up front and $3 every round
- Changed eternal to apply to Jokers in Buffoon packs
- Changed the first shop in every run to always include a normal Buffoon pack as one of the pack options
- Upcoming blinds/tags can now be seen in the shop immediately after defeating a boss blind/cashing out
- Some Blinds are now be banned on challenge runs – banned Crimson Heart, Verdant Leaf and Amber Acorn on 'Jokerless' – banned Verdant Leaf on 'Typecast' – banned Verdant Leaf on 'Non-Perishable' – banned The Plant on 'Mad World'
- Buffed Saturn
- Now gives +3 mult instead of +2 mult for Straights
- Buffed Neptune
- Now gives +4 mult instead of +3 mult for Straight Flush
- Buffed Eris
- Now gives +50 chips instead of +40 chips for Flush Five
- Buffed Ceres
- Now gives +4 mult instead of +3 mult for Flush House
- Changed Uncommon tag – Now makes the uncommon joker free
- Changed Rare tag – Now makes the rare joker free
- Negative, Polychrome, Holo, Foil tags all make their respective joker free
- Changed Investment to give $25 instead of $15
- Changed 8 Ball – scrapped old effect, new effect -> 1 in 4 chance to spawn a tarot when any played 8 is scored
- Changed Blue Seal – now creates the planet card of the final poker hand played during the round
- Changed both Mad and Clever Joker – scrapped 'contains 4 of a kind' effect, now applies instead to any hand that contains a 'Two Pair'
- Changed Yorick – scrapped old effect, new effect -> gains X1 mult every 23 cards discarded (starts at X1)
- Changed Magician Tarot – now applies lucky to 2 cards instead of 1
- Changed Midas Mask – now only applies Gold enhancement to scoring face cards, costs $7 was $6
- Changed Vampire
- now only removes enhancement from scoring cards
- gives X0.1 mult per enhancement instead of X0.2 mult
- Rare instead of Uncommon
- Changed Madness – now only applies on small/big blinds, not on boss blind selection
- Changed To Do list – poker hand no longer changes on payout, always changes at end of round (won't get stuck on Straight Flush)
- Changed description of Shortcut to include a more apt example (10 8 6 5 3)
- Changed Ancient Joker – the selected suit is no longer able to repeat between rounds
- Changed Swashbuckler – Now adds sell value of all other Jokers to Mult, not just the Jokers to the left
- Changed Hanging Chad – Now retriggers the first played card 2 times instead of once
- Changed Flower Pot – Now includes the base suit of debuffed cards when determining if it will trigger
- Changed Bootstraps to include current mult bonus in description
- Changed all 4 Sinful Jokers (one for each suit) – they now each give +3 mult per suit instead of +4 mult
- Changed Banner – now gives +30 chips per remaining discard instead of +40 chips
- Changed Fibonacci – costs $8 instead of $7, because Fibonacci
- Changed Steel Joker – Now gives X0.2 mult per Steel card in full deck instead of X0.25 mult
- Changed Odd Todd – Now gives +31 chips per odd ranked card instead of +30 chips
- Changed Sixth Sense – Now uncommon and $6, was rare
- Changed Hiker – Now gives +5 chips to every scoring card played instead of +4 chips
- Changed Gros Michel – Now has a 1 in 6 chance to go extinct instead of 1 in 4
- Changed Seance – Now uncommon and $6, was rare and $7
- Changed Riff-Raff – Now $6, was $4
- Changed Vagabond
- Rare, was uncommon
- $8, was $6
- Applies when you have $4 or less, was $3 or less
- Changed Cloud 9 – Now $7, was $6
- Changed Mail-In Rebate – Now $5 was $3
- Changed Reserved Parking – Now common, was uncommon
- Changed Lucky Cat – Now gains X0.25 per lucky proc, was X0.2
- Changed Trading card – Now costs $6, was $5
- Changed Campfire – Now gains X0.25 per card sold, was X0.5
- Changed Smily Face – Now give +5 mult per face card, was +4 mult
- Changed Golden Ticket – Now payes out $4 per gold card played, was $3
- Changed Bloodstone – Now has a 1 in 2 chance to proc, was 1 in 3
- Changed Onyx Agate – Now gives +7 mult per club card, was +8 mult
- Changed Glass Joker – Now gives X0.75 mult per glass card destroyed, was X0.5 mult
- Changed Stuntman – Now gives +250 Chips, was +300
- Changed Invisible Joker – Now requires 2 rounds and costs $8, was 3 rounds and $10
- Changed Burnt Joker – Now is rare, was uncommon
- Changed wording on most scaling jokers to refer to 'this joker'
- Fixed bug where opening a booster pack with hand size of 0 was unskippable
- Fixed bug where the card generated by 'Certificate' was not being debuffed by the boss
- Platforms
If I had to explain it, best way I can think it permanent upgrades to your innate abilities, like 1 more discard, or 1 more hand to play per blind
skeem
Member
- Platforms
I can't believe they nerfed the Vampire. I only did my first good Vampire build earlier today pre-patch. It didn't work out as well as whatever I posted about in my last entry in the thread. I didn't quite reach the same ante due to a boss blind having face cards face down but it was an interesting run. I had about 6 different X multipliers (3 polychrome jokers, 3 were X multis, 2 were + multis). My vampire card alone was X8 after nerfing all of my bonus and multi cards. The other couple were +50ish multis, I managed to clone the +50 multi joker with a spectral card.
Some tags for skipping blinds are really really good like guaranteed negative/polychrome jokers in the next shop. The double tag joker is how some players end up with a huge amount of jokers because the perk will happen twice. Very handy if you skip blinds on the good tags.
Some tags for skipping blinds are really really good like guaranteed negative/polychrome jokers in the next shop. The double tag joker is how some players end up with a huge amount of jokers because the perk will happen twice. Very handy if you skip blinds on the good tags.
I'm still playing at least 2-3 rounds of Balatro every day. Clocked about 40 hours on it so far.
Yeah I'm at 55+. I can't tell you how many times I had some crappy show running while eating and I reach over and grab the Switch and the game is already running.
Some of the higher stakes are a pain in the ass. And that black deck has been awful for me. I just can't seem to get favorable cards any time I try to beat it.