Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 12 hours ago
Never playing the black deck again.
Balatro is a poker-themed roguelike deck-building video game, with the aim being to beat all rounds, known as "Antes", by scoring enough points and improving their deck with various joker cards, each with their own passive effects. Each Ante has three rounds, called "Blinds": a "Small Blind", a "Big Blind" and a "Boss Blind"; each blind has a target score to beat, which the player must reach by playing poker hands from a deck, having a set amount of hands and discards at their disposal. While the Small and Big Blinds can be skipped, which in turn can lead to various effects, the Boss Blind cannot, meaning that beating the Boss Blind is mandatory to advance to the next Ante. Each Boss Blind has its own unique challenge: for example, the Verdant Leaf, the demo's final Boss Blind, prevents all cards from being counted in scoring until the player removes a joker from their inventory, while The Eye disallows the use of a hand played previously during its Blind.
Once a Blind has been defeated, the player gets income depending on how many hands they have left as well as interest before being able to access the shop, where they may purchase various types of cards: Jokers allow the player to increase the value of their hands, usually by increasing the red multiplier under certain circumstances; Arcanas, themed around the major arcana of a standard tarot deck, can be stored for later use and used during a Blind: Planets increase the scoring value of a certain hand; Vouchers, which are one-time purchases and restock after defeating a Boss Blind, affect various aspects of the game, like the player's available hands and discards or the price of Jokers and Card Packs in the shop.
Never playing the black deck again.
Balatro is a poker-themed roguelike deck-building video game, with the aim being to beat all rounds, known as "Antes", by scoring enough points and improving their deck with various joker cards, each with their own passive effects. Each Ante has three rounds, called "Blinds": a "Small Blind", a "Big Blind" and a "Boss Blind"; each blind has a target score to beat, which the player must reach by playing poker hands from a deck, having a set amount of hands and discards at their disposal. While the Small and Big Blinds can be skipped, which in turn can lead to various effects, the Boss Blind cannot, meaning that beating the Boss Blind is mandatory to advance to the next Ante. Each Boss Blind has its own unique challenge: for example, the Verdant Leaf, the demo's final Boss Blind, prevents all cards from being counted in scoring until the player removes a joker from their inventory, while The Eye disallows the use of a hand played previously during its Blind.
Once a Blind has been defeated, the player gets income depending on how many hands they have left as well as interest before being able to access the shop, where they may purchase various types of cards: Jokers allow the player to increase the value of their hands, usually by increasing the red multiplier under certain circumstances; Arcanas, themed around the major arcana of a standard tarot deck, can be stored for later use and used during a Blind: Planets increase the scoring value of a certain hand; Vouchers, which are one-time purchases and restock after defeating a Boss Blind, affect various aspects of the game, like the player's available hands and discards or the price of Jokers and Card Packs in the shop.
