Summary
Enhancements inBalatroare powerful boons that can be bestowed upon individual cards in your deck. For the most part, these are imparted by using Tarotor Spectral cards, or they can be found inside booster packs purchased from the store. These enhancements can help to power up your deck in a variety of ways, from increasing your Mult to altering suits to generating cash.
Some of these are more universally useful than others, although this will depend onthe particular strategyyou’re most comfortable with. While these might not be the most powerful tools at your disposal, they can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
8Glass Card
x4 Mult, One-In-Four Chance To Be Destroyed
While most of the card enhancements in Balatro are flat upgrades, the Glass Card is something of a double-edged sword. That is, however, unless you plan on making the most of its secondary effect.
Multiplying Mult is nice in and of itself, but this card cannot be fully relied upon as it has a one-in-four chance of being destroyed upon use. That might seem like a harsh penalty unless you think of it as a way to get rid of unwanted cards while also giving them a use, as long as they remain in your deck.
7Gold Card
$3 If Card Is Held At End Of Round
More money is almost always a nice thing to have in Balatro. The more money you have, the more options you’ll have when shopping at the store between antes and building your deck. Almost everything costs some amount of money in Balatro, from Jokers to booster packs.
As long as you don’t use Gold Cards, you’ll gain more money per round. They are best used on cards you don’t plan on playing as part of your hand.
6Stone Card
+50 Chips, No Rank Or Suit
The Stone Card is, more or less, a filler card. It has no rank or suit and, therefore, cannot be used in building specific hands such as Straights and Flushes, among others. The Stone Card adds value to your hand without disrupting a played combo, assuming there is room in said hand for extra cards.
Throwing away cards in this manner is a form of discarding unwanted chaff, but with the Stone Card, you’ll at least be adding a few extra chips along the way.
5Steel Card
x1.5 Mult While In Hand
As long you don’t play a Steel Card, you’ll continue to reap the rewards. It might not seem like much, but x1.5 Mult can go a long way toward building huge combos, especially when it’s stacking on other modifiers that successively build Mult.
This effect can lead to great rewards, as it multiplies Mult already built toward. As with the Gold Card, you’ll generally want to be putting this on cards you don’t plan on playing, as playing the card will rid you of the effect.
4Lucky Card
One In Five Chance For +20 Mult, One In 15 Chance For $20
At the end of the day, any given run in Balatro will depend to some degree on luck. That is the very nature of roguelikes, if notcard gamesin general. What cards you find, what enhancements you gain, and what obstacles you face are, effectively, up to the luck of the draw.
With the Lucky Card, you’re able to take some of that luck for yourself. A one-in-15 chance for $20 might not seem like a lot, but a one-in-five chance for +20 Mult is just frequent enough to make a difference.
3Bonus Card
+30 Chips
Chips may not seem as exciting as Mult, but they are nevertheless an equally important factor in building giant combos. The more Chips you have, after all, the greater the bounty your generated Mult will multiply.
If your hand lacks Chips, then even a high amount of Mult won’t affect much in the first place. In this sense, a small amount of Chips can go a long way. Even a few Bonus cards can tip the balance in your favor, taking a hand from a measly amount to a staggering one.
2Wild Card
Usable As Any Suit
The more versatile your cards are, the better, and it’s hard to make your cards more versatile than by using the Wild Card. These allow them to be played as any of the four suits, meaning they are equally effective alongside any given suit when building Flushes or Straight Flushes.
Be warned, as any Boss Blind that debuffs any given suit will also affect these cards, meaning that too many of these can end up being a burden in very specific situations. In all others, they remain useful.
1Mult Card
+4 Mult
Jokers, hands, andPlanetcards: so much of Balatro relies upon building Mult. Enhancing cards in your deck with the Mult effect guarantees that you will be getting the most out of your precious turns, and cards that build Mult generally work well together no matter their effect.
A good hand in Balatro can be identified by how long it takes to calculate the amount of Mult that is going into your combo. The higher the number goes, the better the odds.
