Hey players! This is a quick guide to some of the deeper mechanics of Balatro. If you've played a few games already and you're looking to finally beat Ante 8, you're in the right place.


You have a limited number of discards and you always draw up to a full hand after playing. Extra cards played don't negatively impact your chip score, so play your four-of-a-kind aces with that spare 2 to get rid of it.


10, J, Q, and K are each worth 10 chips, while A is worth 11. Since your late-game score comes from multiplicative bonuses, scoring 7s and 8s in there really starts to take away from the chips you earn. Low cards also make it harder for you to draw into the big scores: you can't play A-high straights, high full houses, and high four-of-a-kinds if you keep getting cards below 10.

Jokers: Trading Card will let you destroy one card per round. Thinning your deck by destroying low cards makes it easier for you to draw a hand of only high cards. DNA lets you clone one card per round, which helps you pad your deck with high cards.

Tarot: The Hanged Man destroys up to 2 cards, Death lets you turn a low card into a high card, and The Tower lets you turn a low card into a Stone Card for bonus chips in non-5-card plays. Hanged Man is particularly useful during gameplay to assemble a dream hand.


The difficulty curve of this game ramps up quickly, and if you aren't able to multiply your score up quickly, you'll be out in the cold. Winning runs generally have all five of the following: +mult, Xmult, chips, planets, tarot. If you lack +mult or chips, your Xmult won't have enough base value to multiply; without Xmult, you simply won't score enough in later antes; without planets, your base hand values will be very poor; and without tarot, your deck will be poorly optimized for drawing high straights.


You need a combo of +mult, Xmult, and chips. Keep an eye on what your jokers are giving your plays, then add the opposite effects to your cards. For example, if your jokers are all +mult and Xmult, try to focus on using The Hierophant to add bonus chips to your cards.


Balatro gives you various opportunities to completely switch your playstyle. If a joker worked at the start of the game and now it's just not cashing out for you, spend some time rerolling in the shop to try and find a replacement. Selling a joker isn't a waste of money if you replace it with something better – it just means your strategy has changed.


It's easy to fall behind by not paying attention to how many chips you're scoring per round or how much money you're cashing out. When you play hands, keep a mental note of how much each hand makes. This will let you do some basic estimation of whether you're good or struggling.

If the boss is 36,000 chips, your straights currently score about 12,000, and your pairs score around 2,500, then you know that you'll probably need 3-5 hands to beat the blind – you should immediately start trying to boost your score.

Also keep an eye on how much you're cashing out per round.


If your benchmark performance is excellent – for example, you're winning blinds with one or two hands – then you have room to breathe. It's a great time to save money until your interest is maxed out.


Discards are extremely valuable, so try to conserve them if you have a hand or two to spare. When you draw a 3-4-5-6-7 straight, play it – even if it doesn't score ideally, it earns you a decent number of chips, saves you a discard, and lets you cycle five better cards into your hand.


If you've bought the shop out of all the booster packs and vouchers, and you're already maxing out the interest, spend some money to reroll the shop offerings. Unspent money doesn't do you any good – finding rare jokers does.


Tags give you a benefit for skipping a blind and its associated cash out and shop phases. The Speed, Handy, and Garbage blinds can award you more cash than playing the blind is worth, especially late in your run.


The major benefits of tarot cards are that they can improve your draw by making bad cards better or removing bad cards entirely. If you have lots of powerful cards in your deck, then you're more likely to be able to use Death to turn a garbage card into a great one.


When buying in the shop, start with standard card boosters, in case they come with modified high cards. If you open a tarot booster second, you may draw that card and be able to duplicate it or improve it further.


The Sun, The Moon, The Star, and The World each convert three selected cards to a specific suit. If you keep these in your inventory, you can instantly turn a straight you are about to play into a straight flush.


Remember that you can view your run details to see the hands you play most at any time. When you are buying planets, don't waste your time improving hands you don't play – focus on the two or three hands you play consistently.

Hope this helps! Let me know what tips you've discovered in the comments!