Balatro: You can keep jokers in place by clicking and holding on them.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Balatro: You can keep jokers in place by clicking and holding on them.

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Tonetta: Jul 9, 2013; look mother look at ME MOTHER MOTHER I AM A HOMESTIXK NOW

**methodically removes and eats own clothes*

canyoneer posted:

It's hard to pick a "worst joker", because everything is situational. There are a handful of jokers that are solid candidates for it, because I am never happy to see them. Most of them have to do with Straights, because those are difficult to build a good strategy around.

Seance gets a pass because although it's a really rare trigger (Straight Flush), Spectral cards can be very powerful.
Runner is hard to get pumped up to useful levels.
Superposition? Create a tarot card if the hand contains an straight and an ace? I am never happy to see that one.

it's supernova. supernova's the worst. you will never, ever get a meaningful amount of multi out of it before the blinds scale well beyond its' reach. all the other jokers that require you to waste hands or discards to take advantage of them have effects that persist beyond their sale. it costs 3 more monies than just a flat 4 multi joker. it's a total noob trap joker

e:

Popete posted:

Obelisk stinks because although it can be a decently powerful joker it's just not fun to manage.

I was happy to clear the Monolith challenge.

the way obelisk is meant to be used is that you start off with something like flush or full house (not high card) and then after you pick up monolith & have like 20 or so of another hand, you pivot into 5 of a kind or flush house or flush 5. you wouldn't really want to use planet cards in early rounds outside of getting like 1-2 levels and instead focus on getting powerful early game & hand defining jokers. pretty much all my decks fit that sort of formula anyways, so I'm happy to take monolith for the mid-late game before most the pieces to a lucky cat build or constellation with multiple copy jokers, etc.

Tonetta fucked around with this message at 03:49 on May 15, 2024

# ? May 15, 2024 03:30

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# ? Jun 2, 2024 02:25

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

canyoneer posted:

It's hard to pick a "worst joker", because everything is situational. There are a handful of jokers that are solid candidates for it, because I am never happy to see them. Most of them have to do with Straights, because those are difficult to build a good strategy around.

Seance gets a pass because although it's a really rare trigger (Straight Flush), Spectral cards can be very powerful.
Runner is hard to get pumped up to useful levels.
Superposition? Create a tarot card if the hand contains an straight and an ace? I am never happy to see that one.

It's obviously splash. It takes up an entire Joker slot so that at best you can proc five score effects on enhanced cards. Like at least superposition gives you tarot cards which can be used to continually improve your deck

# ? May 15, 2024 03:36

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

Tonetta posted:

it's supernova. supernova's the worst. you will never, ever get a meaningful amount of multi out of it before the blinds scale well beyond its' reach. all the other jokers that require you to waste hands or discards to take advantage of them have effects that persist beyond their sale. it costs 3 more monies than just a flat 4 multi joker. it's a total noob trap joker

I get where you're coming from in the respect that it is a noob trap, because you can delude yourself into thinking it's like green Joker or ride the bus, but at least with a high card run It can do some decent work. And with some blue seals? That can go places

# ? May 15, 2024 03:38

War Wizard: Jan 4, 2007

The worst was a straight flush locked to-do list.

# ? May 15, 2024 03:44

doos: Jan 1, 2015

A couple days ago I wanted to get in a game before bed, and the shop after ante 1 small blind offered Obelisk and Neptune. Got a good night's sleep after that.

# ? May 15, 2024 03:47

Mandoric: Mar 15, 2003

Supernova can hit around 30 mult if you have a focused concept, that alone puts it well above the replacement value of things like average Misprint roll or Swashbuckler/Abstract. It's thoroughly mediocre, able to slot into an xmult build but not able to carry.

# ? May 15, 2024 03:47

Tonetta: Jul 9, 2013; look mother look at ME MOTHER MOTHER I AM A HOMESTIXK NOW

**methodically removes and eats own clothes*

Tea Party Crasher posted:

I get where you're coming from in the respect that it is a noob trap, because you can delude yourself into thinking it's like green Joker or ride the bus, but at least with a high card run It can do some decent work. And with some blue seals? That can go places

I'm a high card build shamer

# ? May 15, 2024 03:52

Jay Rust: Sep 27, 2011

Tea Party Crasher posted:

It's obviously splash. It takes up an entire Joker slot so that at best you can proc five score effects on enhanced cards. Like at least superposition gives you tarot cards which can be used to continually improve your deck

idk, it�s got synergies with lots of jokers that care about cards being played to trigger special effects

# ? May 15, 2024 04:16

MJeff: Jun 2, 2011; THE LIAR

Supernova is extremely consistent base mult and if you're just playing the same hand every time, it's a lot less fussy that Green Joker or Ride the Bus (although in the optimal use case for Supernova, you're not discarding much anyway). It's quickly becoming one of the Jokers I'm very happy to see early game because I know it'll buy me a LOT of time to figure the rest of my run out.

WhatEvil posted:

I feel like the game needs some fundamental changes tbh.

It's poo poo that you can see the same crappy joker that doesn't fit your build 3, 4 times in shops/packs over the course of your game. In most other deckbuilders stuff like jokers (in StS it would be artifacts) only shows up once. You get one chance to take it, then it's gone.

I think Balatro needs to either:

Make it so that once you've sold a card, it either doesn't show up again or has a greatly reduced chance of showing up again.

OR

Give a "banish" option where instead of selling a card, you can ditch it, get no money for it, and it doesn't come up again.

Or something like that.

I feel like too much of the game is just about rerolling until you get good joker luck. With Slay the Spire, good players can do A20 Heart runs (the hardest run in the game) and get like, 7/10 runs to a win, because there's usually *something* you can build on if you know what you're doing. With Balatro, there's too much of the bad kind of luck that's not fun to interact with.

Stuff I wish Balatro had, besides a banish option.
- A "lock" option that holds stuff you want in the shop.
- A "harvest" feature where I can rip effects off of something and transplant it to something else, cards in my deck or jokers, whatever.
- Seeing the available hands I can play with the cards I have.
- Seeing the odds of what hands I'll draw if I make X, Y or Z move.
- And, yes, seeing what your fuckin' score will be before you play a hand.

But, Balatro's never gonna be that game, so, it's just gonna be a Hold R simulator at higher levels. Whatever.

# ? May 15, 2024 04:31

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

The ability to lock cards could be an interesting tarot card

# ? May 15, 2024 05:13

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

but tea party crasher, all of the tarot cards are taken, I can hear you saying. my answer is simple, just make that the new lover's ability because who cares about wildcards

# ? May 15, 2024 05:15

Mao Zedong Thot: Oct 16, 2008

Jay Rust posted:

losing my mind trying to unlock the 100,000,000 joker, closest i've come is 75mil

same

# ? May 15, 2024 05:19

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

I don't hate Supernova. It feels like those piddly little +3 mult for suit jokers. Better than an empty slot and does plenty of good work until you can sell it for something better.

# ? May 15, 2024 06:09

Popete: Oct 6, 2009; This will make sure you don't suggest to the KDz
That he should grow greens instead of crushing on MCs; Grimey Drawer

Supernova just got me thru Cruelty challenge, spamming pairs got it up to the 30s by the end.

# ? May 15, 2024 06:42

GoutPatrol: Oct 17, 2009; *Stupid Babby*

Supernova like Ride the Bus can work if you get it early and can stick to a clear strategy moving forward after that. But relying on it too much also means you lose the ability to pivot to a better long term strategy - you can't pivot into flush fives or five of a kind later.

# ? May 15, 2024 07:09

Scholtz: Aug 24, 2007; Zorchin' some Flemoids

The worst joker is Joker and it's not even close. A piddly amount of mult and no scaling or rewards.

AND that dude's an rear end in a top hat.

# ? May 15, 2024 09:06

Quantum of Phallus: Dec 27, 2010

He's cheap and you can feed him to the Knife :black101:

# ? May 15, 2024 09:15

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

If you're about to aim insults at my boy Jim you better hold em, Tex. No alterations to your play, or gotchas, or resets. If you've got a Xmult then every +mult counts! He is a great addition to your shelf of clowns.

# ? May 15, 2024 09:44

doos: Jan 1, 2015

If I'm on ante 7 or 8, and I see a Negative tag, it's going to give me Stencil Joker, I just know it.

# ? May 15, 2024 13:10

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

Scholtz posted:

The worst joker is Joker and it's not even close. A piddly amount of mult and no scaling or rewards.

AND that dude's an rear end in a top hat.

Honestly I would rather have Joker over something like jolly Joker.

# ? May 15, 2024 17:09

MJeff: Jun 2, 2011; THE LIAR

Joker can get you through the first ante just fine which can mean a couple extra bucks, I guess, but if he was my only option, I would just restart.

I would take Jolly Joker over Joker but I think I would take Joker over the three of a kind guy.

# ? May 15, 2024 17:44

Harlock: Jan 15, 2006; Tap "A" to drink!!!

I'm not a big fan of Jokers that reset like Campfire or Hit the Road, but that's just a personal thing.

# ? May 15, 2024 17:55

Arzaac: Jan 2, 2020

Literally just take Joker, he costs $2 and sells for $1. No he's not fantastic but early game you're starving for mult and the opportunity cost for taking him is basically nonexistent.

(For a similar reason, just take Credit Card if you have the space, it costs $1 and sells for $1 so even if you never use it you have lost nothing)

# ? May 15, 2024 17:57

MJeff: Jun 2, 2011; THE LIAR

Pre-nerf Campfire was worth it. When your econ gets humming, it's pretty straightforward and pretty fun to just feed it tons of consumables.

Hit The Road is one of the more annoying meta-scaling jokers and I tend to avoid it outside of Abandoned Deck.

# ? May 15, 2024 17:57

WarpedLichen: Aug 14, 2008

Arzaac posted:

Literally just take Joker, he costs $2 and sells for $1. No he's not fantastic but early game you're starving for mult and the opportunity cost for taking him is basically nonexistent.

(For a similar reason, just take Credit Card if you have the space, it costs $1 and sells for $1 so even if you never use it you have lost nothing)

This is mostly true unless you're at an interest threshold then they could cost $1 more.

# ? May 15, 2024 18:05

Popete: Oct 6, 2009; This will make sure you don't suggest to the KDz
That he should grow greens instead of crushing on MCs; Grimey Drawer

Joker is still useful if you get it as a late run negative which is more than can be said for a number of other jokers.

# ? May 15, 2024 18:11

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Campfire and Hiker go well together. Hiker was one I didn't really like until I created a deck around destroying cards. Having very few meant I played the same cards a lot and they grew a high value. That granted tons of chips, which were multed by Campfire!

# ? May 15, 2024 18:13

Jay Rust: Sep 27, 2011

Tea Party Crasher posted:

but tea party crasher, all of the tarot cards are taken, I can hear you saying. my answer is simple, just make that the new lover's ability because who cares about wildcards

Make it a spectral card. Boom

# ? May 15, 2024 18:23

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

Hit the road is awesome. The punishment for a misplay is worse than green joker, but I find its condition easier to play around. Sometimes you really need those discards, meanwhile if you build correctly it's pretty easy to avoid face cards.

# ? May 15, 2024 18:53

Tonetta: Jul 9, 2013; look mother look at ME MOTHER MOTHER I AM A HOMESTIXK NOW

**methodically removes and eats own clothes*

joker is in the better half of all jokers, imo. costs 2, sells for 1, no ramp, no hand restrictions, no feelbads tossing it when you find an ankh or 5th joker that leans into your current build.

# ? May 15, 2024 18:54

MJeff: Jun 2, 2011; THE LIAR

Oh I just conflated Hit the Road and Ride the Buss lmao.

Hit the Road issss pretty good. It's something you can build around and make super consistent.

# ? May 15, 2024 19:16

Tarezax: Sep 12, 2009; MORT cancels dance: interrupted by MORT

I feel like Hit the Road (get xMult for Jacks discarded this round) can be good but you really want to fill your deck with Jacks and/or have a lot of discards.

# ? May 15, 2024 19:20

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

MJeff posted:

Oh I just conflated Hit the Road and Ride the Buss lmao.

Hit the Road issss pretty good. It's something you can build around and make super consistent.

For what it's worth I did too lol

# ? May 15, 2024 19:39

DaveWoo: Aug 14, 2004; Fun Shoe

I feel like Hit the Road requires a bit too much effort for the benefit it gives. If it reset at the end of every ante instead, that'd make it much more usable.

# ? May 15, 2024 20:29

Chadzok: Apr 25, 2002

Hit the Road is why, given a clean deck and free choice for an ante 1 pack 1 seal, the first purple is going on a Jack. Reds go on Kings (Baron) and Blues on Queens (Shoot the Moon). No?

# ? May 15, 2024 22:53

Tea Party Crasher: Sep 3, 2012

Chadzok posted:

Hit the Road is why, given a clean deck and free choice for an ante 1 pack 1 seal, the first purple is going on a Jack. Reds go on Kings (Baron) and Blues on Queens (Shoot the Moon). No?

Interesting, usually I put red seals on queens for the re triggers. what you are saying makes a lot of sense though

# ? May 15, 2024 22:59

Sarcastro: Dec 28, 2000; Elite member of the Grammar Nazi Squad that

Funny enough, I have this open while playing on the other screen, and just now trying to get the "never have more than 4 jokers" unlock, late in the game I got, in rapid succession, Shoot the Moon, Hit the Road, and then Triboulet. So my order of play became extremely simple: stick to Flushes, discard Jacks, hold Queens, play Kings. (edit: got the W, although a surprise Verdant Leaf almost hosed me in Ante 8 because I didn't look ahead.)(edit 2: Jesus, turned into a hell of a run - immediately after winning 8, got an Ankh, so double Triboulet, then a polychrome Sock & Buskin, then a foil Seltzer bottle, and it was off into the lands of scientific notation for the next few rounds until I hilariously crashed into the "disable all face cards" boss.)

Sarcastro fucked around with this message at 04:15 on May 16, 2024

# ? May 16, 2024 03:46