The first Ante in Balatro should be easy to beat through simple strategies, but you need to be on your toes afterward. Knowing how to get high scores is essential to successful runs as score requirements climb. We’ve brainstormed our own tips for what you should be doing each run.
How to Win in Balatro
These tips don’t quite work from a fresh start of the game, so you might have to go through a couple of runs to get the basic stuff unlocked. There’s nothing that should take all that long, though.
Deck Choice
Though there are trophies for winning with every deck, it’s best to focus on only one at a time. The best deck choices are Red or Blue due to getting either another Discard or another Hand. I prefer Blue Deck, as the safety net of an additional hand is helpful.
Tags
I don’t recommend skipping Blinds for tags. Some sound very good, but you’re missing out on earning money you will always need. Taking them on Ante 2 or higher is better if you truly want the tag offered. This is because missing out on early multiplier increases could sink a run at the start.
Jokers
You’ll want to focus on Jokers that give a flat multiplier rather than it being conditional on hand size, suit, or value. The best one of these is Misprint. Even though the multiplier is random, you could get anywhere from 0 to 23, which makes a huge difference. Plus, it’s a common rarity, so that makes it more likely to pop up on runs.
Otherwise, aim for something like Supernova, as it will increase the multiplier every time you reuse a hand. If you pull a lot of Two Pairs or normal Pairs, it will still pay off.
Celestial Cards
I know it is natural to want to select the Celestial cards for higher types of hands, but that’s not the best idea at first. Instead, you’ll want to go with the basic hand upgrades given by Mercury or Uranus, as those will be the most common hand types overall. If you are ever entirely stuck with only a pair to work with, you’ll definitely be grateful that you’re getting more for it.
Playing Cards
Honestly, you can goof with your deck of cards however you want, as they don’t overly factor into things in the grand scheme. Mult cards are especially good, but it means just as much if you focus on adding traits that help you earn money.
Vouchers
For the most part, vouchers aren’t worth your money unless you have a killer combo that is raking it in. These can be largely ignored. However, it would be wise to buy the Grabber. It gives you an extra hand per round, just like the blue deck. This is an excellent way to hedge your bets against any future bosses with particularly nasty effects.
In order to reach high scores in Balatro, you’ll need to incorporate all of these things in different ways to succeed in a run, but the randomization means things will likely never be perfect. Hopefully, this puts you on the right path, and you can tell us all about your success in the comments.
