Hey everyone! I'm super happy to announce that the first meaty balance patch for Balatro is now live for everyone! Thank you so much to everyone in the community that gave feedback during the public experimental beta. If you have been a beta tester, this version is functionally identical to 1.0.1e - but here are all the changes made to the game since 1.0.0n: - Updated version of Love2D (the engine) - this fixes an issue on Windows and Steam Deck causing poor/stuttery performance for some...
Lots of great changes here! The standouts for me are:
Changed Rare tag - Now makes the rare joker free
Negative, Polychrome, Holo, Foil tags all make their respective joker free
Changed Orange Stake - Scrapped increasing pack cost
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 the first shop in every run to always include a normal Buffoon pack as one of the pack options
Those and reducing the requirements for the early blinds definitely stand out to me, yeah. Reducing the early blinds is a very good change - I think most of my early losses aren’t necessarily because I’ve played badly, but rather because it’s too early in the run to have found something to build around or to put any combos together. This change makes you less beholden to RNG in the early game, and also allows you to think a little more about your endgame strategy rather than focusing on surviving right now.
What I think is a bigger early game changer than blinds (at higher stakes mostly) is guaranteed jokers, and free jokers from tags. In orange+ I found rare joker tags impossible to take on ante 1 because you can’t usually afford it and sometimes you can’t pay for uncommons too. It was easy to get unlucky and not have a joker by ante 2 which can make clearing the small blind tricky. Now with buffoon pack guaranteed and more tags giving a free joker I think you’ll more reliably have 1 or 2 going into ante 2
Blue Seals are now strategically viable - I helped a friend through a Spare Trousers run yesterday, when she had a few blue seal cards that we were able to retain at the end of a round and get a pair of upgrades to two pair, or full house once those became easier to obtain.
Also, the change to 8-ball has been a very welcome addition (I enjoyed it with the new Hanging Chad buff).
It’s crazy good on mobile as well. Given that you have to create an unofficial port to play it on mobile it’s not strictly speaking well optimized - it drains your battery like mad - but it’s the best thing I’ve played on my phone since Slay the Spire.
I tried it and refunded it. It did not work for my brain. I’m glad they’re seeing such success and it’s clearly a terrific idea, but man, it just made me feel bad.
I couldn’t ever make the engine work. It just never clicked for me. So everyone talks about how exciting big numbers could be, but I never got big numbers. I just keep struggling and dying over and over again.
Ah ok, yeah you need to have some luck at the start. Once you unlock more decks it gets easier. And every once in a while it just clicks and numbers go up!
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Any clue how long it will take Switch players to get this patch?
However long it usually takes Nintendo to approve updates. Dev said approximately a week or two
Lots of great changes here! The standouts for me are:
And of course:
Those and reducing the requirements for the early blinds definitely stand out to me, yeah. Reducing the early blinds is a very good change - I think most of my early losses aren’t necessarily because I’ve played badly, but rather because it’s too early in the run to have found something to build around or to put any combos together. This change makes you less beholden to RNG in the early game, and also allows you to think a little more about your endgame strategy rather than focusing on surviving right now.
What I think is a bigger early game changer than blinds (at higher stakes mostly) is guaranteed jokers, and free jokers from tags. In orange+ I found rare joker tags impossible to take on ante 1 because you can’t usually afford it and sometimes you can’t pay for uncommons too. It was easy to get unlucky and not have a joker by ante 2 which can make clearing the small blind tricky. Now with buffoon pack guaranteed and more tags giving a free joker I think you’ll more reliably have 1 or 2 going into ante 2
Pretty beefy patch notes! I’m happy it’s being supported with such gusto!
Props to nerfing fibbinochi, because it really is better this way.
Small Promotion [email protected] :)
Joined. Hoping to teach me how to beat a run. 😤
Focus on the jokers, NOT the hands. You can easily win the first few stakes with a high card build.
Also remember that cards are scored left-to-right, so chip jokers on the left, mult jokers on the right.
Card Sharp is a very powerful early joker, imo.
Actually, chip jokers can be wherever. The important thing is that any +Mult jokers are to the left of your xMult jokers.
This is correct, +chips and +multi order doesn’t matter. Xmulti order DOES matter.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll apply it to my next run.
Higher difficulty stakes are more interesting now as you keep the same hand size
After 9 hours of gameplay, I still suck at the game. Although, I am having fun with it. Addicted to having just 1 more run.
after a while you get to the point where you have to play on gold stake because winning every run gets boring.
lol
The nerfs to vampire and campfire (bars) hurt, but they make sense. On the other hand (heh), blue seals actually feel worth it now.
The free uncommon/rare/enhanced jokers are huge too.
Blue Seals are now strategically viable - I helped a friend through a Spare Trousers run yesterday, when she had a few blue seal cards that we were able to retain at the end of a round and get a pair of upgrades to two pair, or full house once those became easier to obtain.
Also, the change to 8-ball has been a very welcome addition (I enjoyed it with the new Hanging Chad buff).
This is such a great steam deck game to play casually while watching TV or something, horribly addictive too.
It’s crazy good on mobile as well. Given that you have to create an unofficial port to play it on mobile it’s not strictly speaking well optimized - it drains your battery like mad - but it’s the best thing I’ve played on my phone since Slay the Spire.
I tried it and refunded it. It did not work for my brain. I’m glad they’re seeing such success and it’s clearly a terrific idea, but man, it just made me feel bad.
Bad? In what sense?
I couldn’t ever make the engine work. It just never clicked for me. So everyone talks about how exciting big numbers could be, but I never got big numbers. I just keep struggling and dying over and over again.
Ah ok, yeah you need to have some luck at the start. Once you unlock more decks it gets easier. And every once in a while it just clicks and numbers go up!
Be careful to not balance the fun out of the game.