The best Jokers in Balatro: 16 Jokers you’ll need for a Gold Stake run

digitaltrends.com:

Table of Contents Burnt Joker (Uncommon) Stuntman (Uncommon) Square Joker (Common) Castle (Uncommon) Ride the Bus (Common) Supernova (Common) Green Joker (Common) Gros Michel (Common) Mystic Summit (Common) Blackboard (Uncommon) Card Sharp (Uncommon) Ramen (Uncommon) Baseball Card (Rare) Acrobat (Uncommon) Burglar (Uncommon) Blueprint (Rare)

Balatro, during the early stakes — the game’s version of difficulty settings — is an addictive, immaculately designed roguelike experience.

Once you start runs on Purple Stake and higher though, Balatro can become a frustrating struggle to keep up with the ridiculously high score requirements. Adding to the challenge are the Jokers that can arrive in the Shop debuffed, immortal, or with a rental sticker that requires players to spend extra money in order to keep them. It’s no wonder many Balatro players can feel like their Gold Stake attempts run out of steam without an absolutely perfect start.

For the completionists, there’s hope. Have you considered the small but mighty High Card and Pair strategy? Sure, these hands aren’t as flashy, but they require no setup, which is huge during the higher antes where your number of hands and discards are at a premium. There’s a High Card in every hand after all. I like the Abandoned Deck for this strategy because of its consistency, but each of the 15 decks are viable and come with their own unique built-in perks.

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The game plan for Gold Stake is pretty simple. Play High Cards and Pairs, buy Steel Card upgrades when available, and focus on building a star lineup of Jokers that will be your primary method of stacking Chips and Mults. You’ll need at least one good +Chip Joker, one or two +Mult Jokers, and the remaining slots filled out with xMult Jokers.

Here are the Jokers that, when paired with that basic strategy, helped me earn my first wins on the dreaded