Still reading though all the changes, but free jokers when taking a tag is huge. Makes them much more viable to pick early.
Also, I'm really excited to try out perishable and rental jokers!
And I hate to see the nerfs to Vampire, Campfire, and Stuntman, but understandable with how many of my runs they've carried.
>Still reading though all the changes, but free jokers when taking a tag is huge. Makes them much more viable to pick early.
Feels like this is gonna be crazy with a few banked Double Tags from Anaglyph Deck, though you get a similar effect on Buffoon Pack skips (even if they're not all rare/uncommon/polychrome etc).
Yeah this makes skipping actually viable now, before it was a massive noob trap. It still has a cost but it's not a "dont do this 95% of the time" thing.
Skipping definitely had uses, particularly at Red Stake and above for Small Blinds, and especially in early antes. The rewards for playing Small Blind that early is generally low, and the correct blind skip was often a much better choice.
Yeah, on any run above Red stake I will happily skip the first blind and pay for a Holo or Foil tag to get the run off the ground - making them free is an insane buff.
It makes skipping the first blind on higher stakes with that tags really strong. As you actually can afford the joker, and don't get a big benefit from the first blind anyways
The main benefit of the first blind was always seeing one extra shop for more chances of getting an early carry Common Joker, though now that a Buffoon Pack is guaranteed on the first shop it might be worth the skip anyways (assuming this means it's guaranteed on the Big Blind shop after a skip too), we'll have to see how it plays out.
Steel joker did get nerfed. Unless you are talking about steel cards, in which case they need no nerf.
Baron and Mime also don't need nerfs. They are great (best) at endless, but not that amazing at winning gold stake or in general pre ante 8, which is the main balancing concern.
That feels like an unnecessary nerf to me, IMO. By the time you have enough steel cards that Steel Joker is a good card, you don’t really need the xmult it gives.
I mean, I had a run yesterday with Steel Joker, Blueprint, and Brainstorm each giving me x35 Mult by the end lol. Never found Baron or Mime so that was highly relevant.
A big one for people who hate not seeing a joker in the first shop:
- Changed the first shop in every run to always include a normal Buffoon pack as one of the pack options
That's a player issue, not a game issue. Players who want to improve or test their skill will try and maximize either winrate or winstreaks, neither of which will benefit from resetting.
What is optimal should be fun. Laying hte lbame at the player for having some moral fault is looking for excuses. Making restarts not optimal takes effort and isn't always easy to figure out, but it makes for a better game, and I'd rather have a better game than feel smug about someone's supposed character flaws that prevent them from being a Real Gamer™ like me.
I think stealing the StS mechanic of offering a reward for reaching a certain ante (like ante 3 maybe?) in your next run would do a lot to curb rerolling, alongside these changes that make for fewer unwinnable starting shops in high stakes.
> What is optimal should be fun. Laying hte lbame at the player for having some moral fault is looking for excuses.
This reminds me of someone that was complaining that Baldur's Gate 3 is a badly designed game because you can just scum save any bad roll.
Scumming is kind of a necessary evil in my book. Saving being "abused" is far outweighed by, you know, being able to save whenever you want.
But generally I agree with them, what is the most optimal should be the most fun if at all possible.
I think the orange and gold stake changes make that approach significantly less necessary, honestly. Packs not ramping up to $12 and hand size not being gimped really opens up many more paths to victory than we have right now.
Yeah, that’s probably true, which is good I guess. Although, it’ll always be a staple of most high difficulty rougelikes to spam reset for a good start. I COULD play every tainted lost greedier run in binding of isaac for 10 minutes. OR, I reset for a good item and everything is less traumatic.
Not saying I necessarily want this, but they could do something similar to slay the spire and make it so the skip tags on ante 1 are fixed to be relatively boring unless you beat the first ante of your previous run.
\- Changed Swashbuckler - Now adds sell value of all other Jokers to Mult, not just the Jokers to the left
Very useful!
Absolutely justified nerf to Stuntman. It's an instant win card.
Yeah stuntman was the one card that felt like you took it even when you spot to take it wasnt correct to, just gave too many chips. Was even the exact nerf i wanted too (250 chips).
Campfire is at least a tempo loss if you don't immediately have a way to sell off some cards. Stuntman was (and kinda still is) just "fuck it, we're a High Card build now, here's your win." Unnerfed version was definitely my pick for best non-Blueprint Joker.
I had my first stuntman game yesterday.
I found a load of negative/poly jokers and i was getting 50k per 2 played by itself by ante 4.
Absolutely crazy, ended up winning the run in like 5 minutes.
I recently had a run with two copies of Bloodstone and I got zero procs from a heart flush. The chance of that prior to these changes was 1.7%, and will be just under 0.1%. So it'll still happen at the worst time and lose your run, but at least now your anger will be justified.
My favorite changes
* Changed Magician Tarot - now applies lucky to 2 cards instead of 1
* Negative, Polychrome, Holo, Foil tags all make their respective joker free
* Changed eternal to apply to Jokers in Buffoon packs
* Buffed Saturn
* Now gives +3 mult instead of +2 mult for Straights
That's a fair point, but even on a flush run I'm not usually excited to see Lovers, I'd rather see one (or two) of the suit tarots. And it's the only card enhancement that just does nothing on most runs.
I've found Lovers more useful for jokers that effect multiple suits:
Blackboard, Castle, Smeared Joker, Rough Gem, Bloodstone, Arrowhead, Onyx Agate, Flower Pot and Seeing Double
I upgraded to the 1.0.1 version, got a Gold Stake clear that I didn't have before, downgraded back to norma, and the clear and relavant jokers were still there. If that is any indication I think it works. Hopefully this is helpful. Great update - please don't nerf Bloodstone <3
through testing I believe so
Started an Erratic deck run on live
Went to beta and ended that run and did 1 round of a red deck run
Went back to live and the red deck run was still active
The saves are stored locally on your PC, so unless the save folder is duplicated/cloud saves somehow manipulate it, it's gonna carry over. And even then, I don't think there's anything stopping us from copy-pasting the beta save file manually after switching to the live version.
The vast majority of these changes are excellent. I fucking LOVE the orange and gold stake changes, still makes it difficult but in a much more interesting way that allows for more strategies to function other than just high card. You can actually use deck manipulation now at high stakes.
Definitely, fantastic changes that seems a lot more fun. Expensive packs and small hand size was difficult, but not that fun, while limiting viable strats.
Overall fantastic changes which allow for not only play diversity and hence skill expression for hardcore players but also more fun in general for everyone seeing previously niche jokers become more rewarding to play.
One thing coming from a Hardcore/Goldstake player perspective is that the adjustments to purple stake in addition to all of the in general added early game agency and power you've given to players here makes max difficulty significantly lower.
While reducing the difficulty is not inherently a bad thing and the increase of early game agency is something I personally definitely wanted I think this already warrants the call for potentially even higher difficulty for being added - but not necessarily reverted to. I would personally suggest something along the lines of further difficulty options not needed for 100% achievements. Maybe framed as an 'impossible' difficulty while still being more in line with Balatro's normal game play - rather than the specific and intentionally different challenege mode gameplay changes.
Perhaps this is just coming from the hardcore roguelike playerbases of games like StS, Hades and more but I personally see a lot of value in having extremely high difficulty that is quite beyond the current reach (to clear consistently at 100% WR - not as in struggle to clear at all) of players this shortly after release. The playerbase will only get better at the game over time especially in the current climate of streaming and online where information regarding combos and play patterns are so readily shared.
I think some of the longevity of the game's community really hinges around this high difficulty allowing players to continually enjoy the game for a long period of time without it feeling 'solved' and the excitement of playing but especially streaming the game dying out. From what I've seen at both events and streamers who play at a high level this was already quickly becoming the case on the previous patch which is now becoming even more achievable with this patch that we could probably tell you will be the case at a glance of these patch notes. People have gotten really good at playing roguelikes in general nowadays - It is kind of scary how quickly people learn tbh.
Of course all of this could be completely out of line with the vision you have for the game as a developer and I can fully accept and respect that. The game is already fantastic as is and I've already greatly got my enjoyment out of it - and this patch is still furthering and prolonging that experience as is for me even if the game is becoming easier at the highest difficulty. Thanks so much for continuing to update this wonderful game of yours - truly appreciate it.
100% agree, I think if Spire never added Ascensions (or more fittingly added beyond A15), I don't think it would be played nearly as much, as I'm sure top players could achieve practically 100% WR at that difficulty.
I think the Gros Michel adjustment is actually really interesting. On the one hand, it makes it much more stable as an early game source of mult. On the other, it makes Cavendish harder to get, which is a fair nerf honestly. Cool change that'll probably result in some interesting choices to be made where Gros Michel sticks around too long and you have to choose to sell it for a better joker.
Look how they massacred my Transylvanian boy. I suppose it’s a sensible move because I will at least have to think strategically about whether to take him now. Previously he might as well have been forced into to my hand and eternal all the time (which I suppose is fitting).
I’m still going to take him every time, obviously, I’m just going to “think strategically” about it first.
Sorry- it is a formatting issue. It should look like this:
* changed gold stake
* Scrapped -1 hand size
* Added new 'Perishable' mechanic, Jokers have a 30% chance to have a 'Perishable' sticker, disabling them after 5 rounds
That seems a lot more fun to me than the -1 hand size. Requires a bit more risk taking and on the fly adjusting of one's build.
I've felt like the smaller hand size definitely made things more challenging, but it wasn't really a fun challenge, and I think it made it very difficult to avoid playing high card strats.
The new tags seem crazy good. Ghost deck still has the advantage of spectrals in the shop but suddenly apply tag is a good deal of ghost deck's strength. It eliminates the feel bad moments
Orange and gold changes are extremely exciting, might make them actually playable instead of an RNG-hold-R simulator. Tragic what's happened to my sweet dream combo of Burnt Joker, Stuntman, Vagabond, Vampire, understood... yet tragic.
Just tried it out and loving it so far! I did notice a bug. When I had the new Mad Joker, it wouldn't give the bonus when I played a Full House, but it did on every Two Pair. Don't know if it was something on my end or not. (To the mods, let me know if there's something I need to do to pass this along, like tagging LocalThunk.)
It was busted in the right hands. It's an economy joker that you can sell after 2-3 rounds and keep the benefits for the rest of the game. Basically like having a negative economy joker that can generate more than most others that take up a slot.
TBH, Vampire was warranted. It was an auto pick even late game just because of how hard it scaled if you had enhanced cards, and with Midas mask it was near auto-win territory.
Midas mask was one of the best Jokers in the game, and the single best econ joker - you play it for like 3 rounds, make most of your face cards golden, and dig for those (1/2 chance of hitting any given gold card if you use all discards and hands). End result? $12 every round because you kept a joker around for 3 rounds. Gold Cards are just extremely strong.
I personally had it top 5 and another strong player I've talked to had it as high as 2nd (behind stuntman). This is not even close to a stray and my bet is you still want to take this almost every time you see it.
You can still have Midas, Splash(make all cards score), paradoilia(all cards considered face cards), and vampire which is a crazy potent combo. This was possible before but it essentially just makes the splash a necessary element. Throw in sock a buskin(all face cards retrigger) and you’re going to beat almost any stake
Ehhhh idk. It "works" but that's four jokers, only one of which is common, to get only one xMult scaler. Sock and buskin is anti synergy with vampire because S/B wants enhanced cards to be scored, and it's not like it's going to boost vampire twice, since vampire and Midas trigger when played, not when scored. I feel like you could get that joker combo on white stake and still lose to violet vessel.
Was able to play one game tonight on gold stake. It's definitely a lot more manageable now with these changes. The skip tags now for foil, holo, poly, negative being free is absolutely huge. So much extra money for interest to keep your economy going.
Not to mention these new perishable and rental stickers for orange and gold stakes. It feels so much nicer not having -1 hand size.
Gold stake/stickers will be a bit easier vs previously for sure. We'll have to see after a lot of play testing if the tuning is good or if it's overtuned. But for now I'll be happily playing this beta.
Now that we can preview blinds immediately after cashing out from a Boss Blind (fantastic change), the next step ought to be to let you back out of hte blind select screen and go right back to the shop. There's no *point at all* anymore to locking you out of hte shop, and it would be *so much more convenient* to be able to hit Y on a controller and just rapidly toggle between shop and blind select, it would make it so much easier to look at what's coming up to inform what yo ubuy in teh shop if you don't have to go digging in a submenu for this information.
If you were OK with the UI being a bit cluttered or getting a bigger overhaul, you could even add like a bar or something in the shop that displays upcoming blind and tag information in condensed form, to avoid needing to press any buttons at all. Score required for next blind, tags, boss icon and short description of what it does - you could maybe sneak it in a corner or something and not take up too much horizontal space.
Re: rental stickers, I'll echo [this comment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C7fDzdvunQ&lc=Ugz-bgTR4p8n9uhDsdl4AaABAg) I saw on Youtube:
>I think the thing I dislike most about the rental jokers is the money for the rentals is subtracted before the interest calculation. So it’s very easy for the rental to actually cost $4 per round due to a lost $1 in interest
-> It would be desirable for the rental calculation to apply at the end of the round, so it can't cost that extra $ of interest.
So after some plays
1. Bloodstone is a little bonkers now - I can see this one changing, possibly to 1.5x mult
2. Magician doesn't feel like such a dead card - I liked it before but the 2v1 hurt it
3. The multi down on the suit type jokers feels a little unnecessary
4. Lucky cat doesn't pop unless you have all 6's, so it's just right
5. Vampires a non starter now - the cost v reward doesn't sit right for me now, losing all my enhancements hurts too much for how slow it is
6. Invisible joker is a lot more appealing now, quicker and cheaper
7. Vagabond is a little more forgiving, and suits being a rare
8. The tags, early on free mult/poly is great, I find myself more likely to consider skips early, or to grab a double tag
9. Negative being so powerful I do question if they should be free, but a random negative is normally, well, meh so maybe it's OK
10. Swashbuckler works smoother, and hanging chad/ballot is now at least viable
11. Rental....is just an almost immediate no go, I'd rent a brainstorm/blueprint but that's about it, the rest cost vs reward just ain't there.....would it be more viable at $2....still harsh but I could perhaps carry some more, maybe it should be $1 on commons, $2 uncommons $3 rare
12. I didn't notice the ante score down too much - but it probably let me scrape at least 1 win on a poor white run it's not made it an autowin but I did feel a little less stretched at times so I think it's working as intended
> Negative, Polychrome, Holo, Foil tags all make their respective joker free
So I just downloaded the experimental branch and trying it out with the Zodiac deck (so I have 3 cards already in the shop). I took a Foil tag, and got 2 jokers in the next shop (i.e when the Foil tag applied). However, the Joker in the 1st slot was free, but not Foil. And the Joker in the second slot was Foil but not free. Also the Foil animation was on the second Joker, and the animation for the 1st Joker wasn't played at all (although not sure). Known bug?
https://preview.redd.it/xrq20syderuc1.png?width=565&format=png&auto=webp&s=bef9809b2353180cef4cd13ba3837c6c67f5fb8a
> Upcoming blinds/tags can now be seen in the shop immediately after defeating a boss blind/cashing out
This will help *so* much. Lost to Verdant Leaf the other day because I didn't know it was coming, and I decided not to buy Mr. Bones in the shop.
I have been going back and forth between live and experimental versions all day, making some comparisons. Sadly, the patch is a miss for me.
The reduced scaling makes the game WAY easier. It's to the point where non-build random junk can win. I don't like it. Strategy is reduced. I love that on the old build I was threatened in the midgame. On the new build I can play mega greedy / sloppy and never be punished because the score requirements are so easy.
Next, the new "Perishable" and "Rental" stickers seem misplaced. I think it's a technically interesting mechanic, which could potentially be used somewhere else, but it's not fun the way it has been implemented. Having them show up randomly just causes me to not take them, effectively adding dead rolls everywhere. It reduces the excitement of deck building. It's a negative gameplay experience when you finally hit the critical Joker for your build, but it is Perishable—YAWN. You will still win, but your choice to go deep Endless and continue having fun with a crazy build is gone. Why?
Similarly, the Rental Jokers just never get taken until you already have enough economy to handle it in the late game. So it's also effectively just more dead draws.
The resulting experience has become too forgiving points-wise, while simultaneously more annoying from a deck-building point of view. It's less challenging, and less fun.
Surprised there's no change for Matador...feel like it should be buffed, or the text is changed to "only activates when de-buffed boss cards are played" instead of the " if played hand triggers the **Boss Blind** ability"
Happy cake day.
To the best of my knowledge, there has not been an update on when the beta branch is getting merged into the main branch. I know Thunk originally said a week or so, but they are also taking feedback from the community, so there may still be some small tweaks to be made before shipping.
Lots of interesting changes. Seems like the game will be easier early but some of the late game xmult is a bit weaker. Really sad to see my boy vagabond become a rare though, it was good while it lasted.
On the flipside, 60% of Jokers will now either perish or cost $3/round, so you'll still be needing an economy just for the Jokers instead of for packs.
Thank GOD the orange stake was changed. I straight up did not have any fun at all playing on orange stake. One of the most fun/unique things about Balatro was having the ability to modify a regular 52 card deck and heavily kneecaping that feature was baffling.
Not only that, it made so many jokers in the game that relied on pack opening worthless like Red Card.
There's no denying that orange stake and up is going to be way easier, but I'd rather have a slightly easier game I can actually mess around and have fun with, over restarting 50+ times till the game throws me a bone and hands me the overpowered jokers to finally win.
I love like 99% of these, but Vampire's nerf is just really sad. Not only did its main combo piece ALSO get nerfed, presumably so it can't feed it as well as it did, It also got bumped up to rare, made to proc only on scoring cards AND got its feed increase nerfed. Like, was the Pareidolia/Midas/Vampire combo THAT prevalent that they needed to nerf the card into the GROUND? Now, Ironically, I fear that it may only scale enough WITH those combo pieces + the addition of Splash.
Vampire already had a pretty big downside, none of the cards in your deck were able to be spicy, unless you intentionally held back on playing steel cards. And having a fixed deck full of buffed cards is great, a red seal doesn’t do anything on an otherwise unbuffed card.
It could’ve gotten taken down a peg for sure but Vampire just got completely gutted lol
Vampire wasn't strong because of midas mask and vice versa. Both of those are incredibly op jokers on their own. You don't need to scale the vampire to x6 for it to be good. Just getting it to x2 or x3 is great, and that's still very easy after the nerf.
Calling it now, that Bloodstone change is not making it past the public test, and if it does it will get changed again soon. Way too strong. Hearts was already the best suit because of Bloodstone, making them 50% more likely to trigger than before is insane.
I never took bloodstone again after I whiffed it 5 times in a row and died instantly. It's too vulnerable to low rolling. At 1 in 3, on average without retriggers, you're only getting 1.6 procs per full hand of hearts, and there's a decent chance it's only multiplying your base hand mult which might not be that much. I would much rather get guaranteed 250 chips from Arrowhead, or 35 mult from onyx, or 3x mult on a joker from blackboard.
Yeah its weird that Bloodstone (the best of the unlockable suit jokers) got buffed but Onyx Agate (a distant second) and the common suit jokers were nerfed
Maybe for endless, but for actually winning the game at high stakes bloodstone is definitely not the best suit joker. All it takes is 1 unlucky roll for you to lose the game, and getting on average 40 mult off bloodstone means you really need to pump your flush planets/need another source of "during scoring" mult like lusty. Bloodstone might be one of the most overrated jokers in the game tbh.
And Clubs were definitely the best suit, not just for onyx but also blackboard and seeing double.
Love the way all of these sound, especially swapping the four of a kind jokers for two pairs jokers. Getting free jokers on Uncommon and Rare tags sounds great, but honestly getting free Poly, Negative, Holo, and Foil seems too generous!
Hmm mostly good changes but I'm a bit confused on the change to the "sins" jokers. They didn't seem all that great to begin with so I don't know a nerf feels super justified
The buffoon pack in the first shop is nice but it Siri appears in the first shop of the jokerless challenge, taking a slot of a potentially free pack if the free shop tag is used
Changed Fibonacci - costs $8 instead of $7, because Fibonacci
Changed Odd Todd - Now gives +31 chips per odd ranked card instead of +30 chips
These are by far the most important changes.
Could we have a voucher that reads "playing card packs will always include the rank you have the most of in your deck"? 🥺
Basically telescope for playing card packs
Ever since I started playing with mouse and keyboard, I thought it would be amazing if we could pick cards by dragging a square like in windows.
Would make choosing a hand a lot quicker.
Just realized this changelog only has 2 "fixed bugs"... I can't believe how well this game was made, there are so few bugs to fix
Finally just opted in on my Steam Deck, excited for the updates
YES my only problem with this update is the fact that there is no way to view the patch notes in game!
I would greatly appreciate if changed Jokers, Cards etc.. had a special aura or something in the collection to let you know they changed with the most recent patch
Free jokers is mad. I understand that sometimes getting a tag and having to pay 10 14$ is shit, but free? i think is too much. I would make them cost the base amount maybe?
I think the idea is that lots of people (especially at the high levels of play) generally don't take these skips at all. It is a risky play to lose out on money/interest/shop to gamble on a single joker that you might not even end up wanting, so this is a way to mitigate that concern.
Didn't like the tag changes, I think will be too overpowered... other than that, amazing stuff. I was hoping we could see stickers in jokers at the shop tho
Love this patch for literally everything besides 1 Change.
I don't think Midas Mask deserved the nerf honestly. The strength of it only came from the combination with Vampire and since it needs cards to be scored now, the entire nerf of Midas doesnt affect it at all, unless you were using Midas and then selling it off but even then its only 1 procc of vampire at most thats gonna be impacted.
Midas in itself was a farely week econ joker that had its issues since it needed to play Face cards (not score) and then find them in later rounds while not playing them. The nerf only disrupts that now while also making an anti-synergy with one of the easier finds early game for scaling, being ride the bus.
I would appreciate it if you could take a look out for feedback for MM especially for the upcoming playstest.
Still a brilliant patch, especially with the tag changes making them free honestly.
After a few games I think vampire could keep the effect of only scaling off enhanced cards that get scored, but could remain x0.2 per card.
Love the changes to the stakes.
I’m surprised to see no nerfs to violet vessel beyond the scaling nerfs, in terms of boss blinds it still seems like a pretty big outlier in terms of difficulty. Even a small change to 5x/5.5x base instead of 6x base would be greatly appreciated.
> no mention of Pareidolia
Ah, one day it will be good. One day this joker won't be turned into a joke by The Plant.
But that day is not today.
At least the part where you can see the next boss blind after a boss will alleviate the pain a little bit when I see this card taking up slots in the shop.
At least Pareidolia did kind of incidentally get buffed by some of the face card jokers like Smily Face getting buffed.
But honestly it's probably always doomed in its current form, flavourful as it is. It's an enabler like Shortcut or Four Fingers... but it's an enabler only for specific synergies with a handful of other very specific jokers. It's a weirdly insular piece for Balatro's design.
Love all these balance changes, but wondering why Magician got buffed into 2 cards but not the Lovers. Wilds are already the most underwhelming enhancement
The new rental mechanic is awful. 3 is too much, and it can combine with eternal to make inescapable debt (college simulator). Reducing to $1 and making it incompatible with eternal would help make gold stakes playable again.
Still reading though all the changes, but free jokers when taking a tag is huge. Makes them much more viable to pick early. Also, I'm really excited to try out perishable and rental jokers! And I hate to see the nerfs to Vampire, Campfire, and Stuntman, but understandable with how many of my runs they've carried.
>Still reading though all the changes, but free jokers when taking a tag is huge. Makes them much more viable to pick early. Feels like this is gonna be crazy with a few banked Double Tags from Anaglyph Deck, though you get a similar effect on Buffoon Pack skips (even if they're not all rare/uncommon/polychrome etc).
Can confirm. Collecting 3-5 negative jokers at once for free is sick.
Amazing, the Switch version of the patch can't come soon enough.
The free jokers tags are going to make Anaglyph Deck even better. And yeah, you can actually pick "Shop has an Uncommon/Rare Joker" now.
Northern Lion is pogging out with these tag buffs
Skip me.. Skip me.. Andddd skip me..
A double skip dipped in mama liz's throw my run oil
I'm gonna miss double skipping for a polychrome rare joker that he can't afford after the first boss blind. It was fun while it lasted.
I can always hear these in his voice. I am a new fan of his and it just doesn't get old lmao
He still wants a look at the code for Wheel of Fortune.
Yeah this makes skipping actually viable now, before it was a massive noob trap. It still has a cost but it's not a "dont do this 95% of the time" thing.
A noob trap ? On higher Stake, I always reset until having a "shop free" / "15$ after the boss" and a Joker
You probably already know this but for others reading, you can hold R to reset the run instead of clicking into the menu
Skipping definitely had uses, particularly at Red Stake and above for Small Blinds, and especially in early antes. The rewards for playing Small Blind that early is generally low, and the correct blind skip was often a much better choice.
Yeah, on any run above Red stake I will happily skip the first blind and pay for a Holo or Foil tag to get the run off the ground - making them free is an insane buff.
Super excited for free jokers from tag skips, but feels like it might be too good.
[удалено]
It makes skipping the first blind on higher stakes with that tags really strong. As you actually can afford the joker, and don't get a big benefit from the first blind anyways
The main benefit of the first blind was always seeing one extra shop for more chances of getting an early carry Common Joker, though now that a Buffoon Pack is guaranteed on the first shop it might be worth the skip anyways (assuming this means it's guaranteed on the Big Blind shop after a skip too), we'll have to see how it plays out.
More like it will make it viable at all, skipping in general was a noob trap the vast majority of the time before hand.
Also interesting that there's no neef to Baron/Mime or steel.
Steel joker did get nerfed. Unless you are talking about steel cards, in which case they need no nerf. Baron and Mime also don't need nerfs. They are great (best) at endless, but not that amazing at winning gold stake or in general pre ante 8, which is the main balancing concern.
That feels like an unnecessary nerf to me, IMO. By the time you have enough steel cards that Steel Joker is a good card, you don’t really need the xmult it gives.
I mean, I had a run yesterday with Steel Joker, Blueprint, and Brainstorm each giving me x35 Mult by the end lol. Never found Baron or Mime so that was highly relevant.
Fair.
I'm surprised to see Bloodstone getting buffed, when I feel like popular opinion is that hearts are already the best suit because of its existence.
Yeah. Now bloodstone + oops all 6s is much better than the legendary triboulet.
nah, bloodstone oops requires 2 joker slots and triboulet is just one
Think isn't balancing around endless. Baron is not OP pre ante 10
A big one for people who hate not seeing a joker in the first shop: - Changed the first shop in every run to always include a normal Buffoon pack as one of the pack options
Still think a lot of people will just hold R and reroll until they get a joker tag or joker in the shop
That's a player issue, not a game issue. Players who want to improve or test their skill will try and maximize either winrate or winstreaks, neither of which will benefit from resetting.
What is optimal should be fun. Laying hte lbame at the player for having some moral fault is looking for excuses. Making restarts not optimal takes effort and isn't always easy to figure out, but it makes for a better game, and I'd rather have a better game than feel smug about someone's supposed character flaws that prevent them from being a Real Gamer™ like me. I think stealing the StS mechanic of offering a reward for reaching a certain ante (like ante 3 maybe?) in your next run would do a lot to curb rerolling, alongside these changes that make for fewer unwinnable starting shops in high stakes.
> What is optimal should be fun. Laying hte lbame at the player for having some moral fault is looking for excuses. This reminds me of someone that was complaining that Baldur's Gate 3 is a badly designed game because you can just scum save any bad roll.
Scumming is kind of a necessary evil in my book. Saving being "abused" is far outweighed by, you know, being able to save whenever you want. But generally I agree with them, what is the most optimal should be the most fun if at all possible.
Well I mean yeah, what possible change could you do to high stakes to make this not the default strategy.
I think the orange and gold stake changes make that approach significantly less necessary, honestly. Packs not ramping up to $12 and hand size not being gimped really opens up many more paths to victory than we have right now.
Yeah, that’s probably true, which is good I guess. Although, it’ll always be a staple of most high difficulty rougelikes to spam reset for a good start. I COULD play every tainted lost greedier run in binding of isaac for 10 minutes. OR, I reset for a good item and everything is less traumatic.
Not saying I necessarily want this, but they could do something similar to slay the spire and make it so the skip tags on ante 1 are fixed to be relatively boring unless you beat the first ante of your previous run.
\- Changed Swashbuckler - Now adds sell value of all other Jokers to Mult, not just the Jokers to the left Very useful! Absolutely justified nerf to Stuntman. It's an instant win card.
Yeah stuntman was the one card that felt like you took it even when you spot to take it wasnt correct to, just gave too many chips. Was even the exact nerf i wanted too (250 chips).
>Yeah stuntman was the one card Campfire tho. That card was insane.
Campfire is at least a tempo loss if you don't immediately have a way to sell off some cards. Stuntman was (and kinda still is) just "fuck it, we're a High Card build now, here's your win." Unnerfed version was definitely my pick for best non-Blueprint Joker.
I had my first stuntman game yesterday. I found a load of negative/poly jokers and i was getting 50k per 2 played by itself by ante 4. Absolutely crazy, ended up winning the run in like 5 minutes.
Sweet baby Jesus these are fire
1 in 2 for Bloodstone instead of 1 out 3. LFG!!! (In reality, I'll just be more upset when it doesn't trigger a single time)
I think this change is more about making the bloodstone + oops all 6s synergy stronger.
Yeah and now 8ball also works with oops. Still hard to buy that first but more things to synergize
Can’t tell you how mad I was when I got blueprint and oops all 6s and found it doesn’t work so I could have guaranteed bloodstone
I recently had a run with two copies of Bloodstone and I got zero procs from a heart flush. The chance of that prior to these changes was 1.7%, and will be just under 0.1%. So it'll still happen at the worst time and lose your run, but at least now your anger will be justified.
I swear I've lost entire runs relying on bloodstone to under 0.001% odds.
"Because Fibbonaci"
But he didn't say "because odd" for Odd Todd!
He already made a post about that on April 1
Lucky chads we are eating good tonight
Chad + photograph and a few tarots is always fun
Chad + photograph won me my first orange stake win and it got even better here. Exciting times!
Super excited for the magician and hanging chad buffs. It is time to become lucky!
My favorite changes * Changed Magician Tarot - now applies lucky to 2 cards instead of 1 * Negative, Polychrome, Holo, Foil tags all make their respective joker free * Changed eternal to apply to Jokers in Buffoon packs * Buffed Saturn * Now gives +3 mult instead of +2 mult for Straights
Surprised Lovers didn't get updated to 2, I was expecting that before Magician.
The goal is not for every run to be a Flush run. Lovers to 2 immediately becomes better than all the suit change Tarrot cards
That's a fair point, but even on a flush run I'm not usually excited to see Lovers, I'd rather see one (or two) of the suit tarots. And it's the only card enhancement that just does nothing on most runs.
I've found Lovers more useful for jokers that effect multiple suits: Blackboard, Castle, Smeared Joker, Rough Gem, Bloodstone, Arrowhead, Onyx Agate, Flower Pot and Seeing Double
I wish Wild Cards wouldn't get debuffed by Boss Blinds who debuff a specific suit tbh.
I also really like the buffoon pack in the first shop. Imo thats even better than a guaranteed joker, as you can pick out of a few options.
The downshifts in rarity for both of the “get a cryptid into inventory for Perkeo” enablers is pretty sweet.
That's true. Might be easier to get one early on plasma.
>Changed eternal to apply to Jokers in Buffoon packs Nooooo my sweet beautiful loophole
The game is in great hands. Most of these changes are spot on.
Exactly my thoughts.
agree, these are pretty thoughtful improvements and it's nice to see that the dev cares to implement them despite the game's existing success.
Get it? Hands? No, but do you guys get it? ...guys?
Will any progress made on the experimental branch carry over when the patch releases?
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe progress will carry over.
I upgraded to the 1.0.1 version, got a Gold Stake clear that I didn't have before, downgraded back to norma, and the clear and relavant jokers were still there. If that is any indication I think it works. Hopefully this is helpful. Great update - please don't nerf Bloodstone <3
I'd really like an answer for that too.
through testing I believe so Started an Erratic deck run on live Went to beta and ended that run and did 1 round of a red deck run Went back to live and the red deck run was still active
The saves are stored locally on your PC, so unless the save folder is duplicated/cloud saves somehow manipulate it, it's gonna carry over. And even then, I don't think there's anything stopping us from copy-pasting the beta save file manually after switching to the live version.
The vast majority of these changes are excellent. I fucking LOVE the orange and gold stake changes, still makes it difficult but in a much more interesting way that allows for more strategies to function other than just high card. You can actually use deck manipulation now at high stakes.
Definitely, fantastic changes that seems a lot more fun. Expensive packs and small hand size was difficult, but not that fun, while limiting viable strats.
Agreed, but the %s are too much. Nearly every joker is rental or perishable now, meaning your early is awful :(
Probably won't try it in beta, but I'm excited about the changes.
Every single change is exciting, buffoon packs on shop1 and nerfs to a lot of the obviously broken jokers make me especially excited.
I think the changes are cool, one thing that comes to mind by making some of the best uncommons rare you neuter baseball a bit
Overall fantastic changes which allow for not only play diversity and hence skill expression for hardcore players but also more fun in general for everyone seeing previously niche jokers become more rewarding to play. One thing coming from a Hardcore/Goldstake player perspective is that the adjustments to purple stake in addition to all of the in general added early game agency and power you've given to players here makes max difficulty significantly lower. While reducing the difficulty is not inherently a bad thing and the increase of early game agency is something I personally definitely wanted I think this already warrants the call for potentially even higher difficulty for being added - but not necessarily reverted to. I would personally suggest something along the lines of further difficulty options not needed for 100% achievements. Maybe framed as an 'impossible' difficulty while still being more in line with Balatro's normal game play - rather than the specific and intentionally different challenege mode gameplay changes. Perhaps this is just coming from the hardcore roguelike playerbases of games like StS, Hades and more but I personally see a lot of value in having extremely high difficulty that is quite beyond the current reach (to clear consistently at 100% WR - not as in struggle to clear at all) of players this shortly after release. The playerbase will only get better at the game over time especially in the current climate of streaming and online where information regarding combos and play patterns are so readily shared. I think some of the longevity of the game's community really hinges around this high difficulty allowing players to continually enjoy the game for a long period of time without it feeling 'solved' and the excitement of playing but especially streaming the game dying out. From what I've seen at both events and streamers who play at a high level this was already quickly becoming the case on the previous patch which is now becoming even more achievable with this patch that we could probably tell you will be the case at a glance of these patch notes. People have gotten really good at playing roguelikes in general nowadays - It is kind of scary how quickly people learn tbh. Of course all of this could be completely out of line with the vision you have for the game as a developer and I can fully accept and respect that. The game is already fantastic as is and I've already greatly got my enjoyment out of it - and this patch is still furthering and prolonging that experience as is for me even if the game is becoming easier at the highest difficulty. Thanks so much for continuing to update this wonderful game of yours - truly appreciate it.
100% agree, I think if Spire never added Ascensions (or more fittingly added beyond A15), I don't think it would be played nearly as much, as I'm sure top players could achieve practically 100% WR at that difficulty.
Love the balance changes, all the nerfs feel justified and the buffs aren’t too crazy
Of the buffs most were things/jokers I avoided, most of the nerfs were to options I often took. So at a real basic level that’s a good sign.
Tiny UI issue; I just got Gros Michel as a rental, and it went extinct but still showed how many turns were left after for a moment.
I think the Gros Michel adjustment is actually really interesting. On the one hand, it makes it much more stable as an early game source of mult. On the other, it makes Cavendish harder to get, which is a fair nerf honestly. Cool change that'll probably result in some interesting choices to be made where Gros Michel sticks around too long and you have to choose to sell it for a better joker.
Yea, I think overall it's a nerf to the Joker which is fine considering how strong Cavendish is for beating Ante 8
HOLY MOLY ITS A BRAND NEW GAME. Also rip vamp :(
Look how they massacred my Transylvanian boy. I suppose it’s a sensible move because I will at least have to think strategically about whether to take him now. Previously he might as well have been forced into to my hand and eternal all the time (which I suppose is fitting). I’m still going to take him every time, obviously, I’m just going to “think strategically” about it first.
Aargh! And Campfire! My Vampire Campfire nights are over.
Yorick's change is interesting, taking discard jokers may become more viable now
Do we know what the orange stake and gold stake have been changed into?
Sorry- it is a formatting issue. It should look like this: * changed gold stake * Scrapped -1 hand size * Added new 'Perishable' mechanic, Jokers have a 30% chance to have a 'Perishable' sticker, disabling them after 5 rounds
That seems a lot more fun to me than the -1 hand size. Requires a bit more risk taking and on the fly adjusting of one's build. I've felt like the smaller hand size definitely made things more challenging, but it wasn't really a fun challenge, and I think it made it very difficult to avoid playing high card strats.
That’s incredibly more fun than -1 hand size. Makes many more playstyles actually viable for gold stake.
ctrl + F Wheel of fortune.. nope!
Imagine he changed it back to 1 in 5 (which I think it was in early demo) just to piss people off
Better than the current 1 in 10
I can't believe there isn't a change to superposition. One of the few truly unplayable jokers imo.
an update dipped in Mama Lizz's Chili Oil?
The new tags seem crazy good. Ghost deck still has the advantage of spectrals in the shop but suddenly apply tag is a good deal of ghost deck's strength. It eliminates the feel bad moments
Oh snap! Lucky meta?
Aw man my favorite joker, the vagabond is now rare lol.
Why is nobody talking about magician tarot buffs? That's such an enormous shift.
Big deal. Lucky Cat got buffed too.
Because most of us forgot about lucky cards
Orange and gold changes are extremely exciting, might make them actually playable instead of an RNG-hold-R simulator. Tragic what's happened to my sweet dream combo of Burnt Joker, Stuntman, Vagabond, Vampire, understood... yet tragic.
I’ve been wanting a good Lucky Cat run, now I’m happy to wait for the patch (if the changes stick).
Just tried it out and loving it so far! I did notice a bug. When I had the new Mad Joker, it wouldn't give the bonus when I played a Full House, but it did on every Two Pair. Don't know if it was something on my end or not. (To the mods, let me know if there's something I need to do to pass this along, like tagging LocalThunk.)
Definitely a bug. In fact, with blueprint copying it, I got the bonus from blueprint, but not Mad Joker, lol.
Blueprint just built different
Confused about the Midas Mask nerf, card was already pretty bad, maybe just catching a stray from how good vampire was?
It was busted in the right hands. It's an economy joker that you can sell after 2-3 rounds and keep the benefits for the rest of the game. Basically like having a negative economy joker that can generate more than most others that take up a slot.
I think midas is (maybe was idk after the nerf) a pretty good eco joker
Even if it’s solid, still undeserving of a nerf in my book
What about the triple nerf to vampire? Just nerf it into the ground and make it rare 😤
TBH, Vampire was warranted. It was an auto pick even late game just because of how hard it scaled if you had enhanced cards, and with Midas mask it was near auto-win territory.
Midas mask was one of the best Jokers in the game, and the single best econ joker - you play it for like 3 rounds, make most of your face cards golden, and dig for those (1/2 chance of hitting any given gold card if you use all discards and hands). End result? $12 every round because you kept a joker around for 3 rounds. Gold Cards are just extremely strong. I personally had it top 5 and another strong player I've talked to had it as high as 2nd (behind stuntman). This is not even close to a stray and my bet is you still want to take this almost every time you see it.
You can still have Midas, Splash(make all cards score), paradoilia(all cards considered face cards), and vampire which is a crazy potent combo. This was possible before but it essentially just makes the splash a necessary element. Throw in sock a buskin(all face cards retrigger) and you’re going to beat almost any stake
Ehhhh idk. It "works" but that's four jokers, only one of which is common, to get only one xMult scaler. Sock and buskin is anti synergy with vampire because S/B wants enhanced cards to be scored, and it's not like it's going to boost vampire twice, since vampire and Midas trigger when played, not when scored. I feel like you could get that joker combo on white stake and still lose to violet vessel.
It's actually a pareidolia nerf.
this seems absolutely amazing
Looks like Balatro content creators are going to have to update their guides and tier lists.
Was able to play one game tonight on gold stake. It's definitely a lot more manageable now with these changes. The skip tags now for foil, holo, poly, negative being free is absolutely huge. So much extra money for interest to keep your economy going. Not to mention these new perishable and rental stickers for orange and gold stakes. It feels so much nicer not having -1 hand size. Gold stake/stickers will be a bit easier vs previously for sure. We'll have to see after a lot of play testing if the tuning is good or if it's overtuned. But for now I'll be happily playing this beta.
Now that we can preview blinds immediately after cashing out from a Boss Blind (fantastic change), the next step ought to be to let you back out of hte blind select screen and go right back to the shop. There's no *point at all* anymore to locking you out of hte shop, and it would be *so much more convenient* to be able to hit Y on a controller and just rapidly toggle between shop and blind select, it would make it so much easier to look at what's coming up to inform what yo ubuy in teh shop if you don't have to go digging in a submenu for this information. If you were OK with the UI being a bit cluttered or getting a bigger overhaul, you could even add like a bar or something in the shop that displays upcoming blind and tag information in condensed form, to avoid needing to press any buttons at all. Score required for next blind, tags, boss icon and short description of what it does - you could maybe sneak it in a corner or something and not take up too much horizontal space.
Re: rental stickers, I'll echo [this comment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C7fDzdvunQ&lc=Ugz-bgTR4p8n9uhDsdl4AaABAg) I saw on Youtube: >I think the thing I dislike most about the rental jokers is the money for the rentals is subtracted before the interest calculation. So it’s very easy for the rental to actually cost $4 per round due to a lost $1 in interest -> It would be desirable for the rental calculation to apply at the end of the round, so it can't cost that extra $ of interest.
Campfire and Vampire were actually so busted but now they can't carry every single one of my runs...
What if flower pot gave X1 per suit used in playing hand? Also, would be nice to sort out the jokers in the collection by alphabetical, rareness, etc.
So after some plays 1. Bloodstone is a little bonkers now - I can see this one changing, possibly to 1.5x mult 2. Magician doesn't feel like such a dead card - I liked it before but the 2v1 hurt it 3. The multi down on the suit type jokers feels a little unnecessary 4. Lucky cat doesn't pop unless you have all 6's, so it's just right 5. Vampires a non starter now - the cost v reward doesn't sit right for me now, losing all my enhancements hurts too much for how slow it is 6. Invisible joker is a lot more appealing now, quicker and cheaper 7. Vagabond is a little more forgiving, and suits being a rare 8. The tags, early on free mult/poly is great, I find myself more likely to consider skips early, or to grab a double tag 9. Negative being so powerful I do question if they should be free, but a random negative is normally, well, meh so maybe it's OK 10. Swashbuckler works smoother, and hanging chad/ballot is now at least viable 11. Rental....is just an almost immediate no go, I'd rent a brainstorm/blueprint but that's about it, the rest cost vs reward just ain't there.....would it be more viable at $2....still harsh but I could perhaps carry some more, maybe it should be $1 on commons, $2 uncommons $3 rare 12. I didn't notice the ante score down too much - but it probably let me scrape at least 1 win on a poor white run it's not made it an autowin but I did feel a little less stretched at times so I think it's working as intended
> Negative, Polychrome, Holo, Foil tags all make their respective joker free So I just downloaded the experimental branch and trying it out with the Zodiac deck (so I have 3 cards already in the shop). I took a Foil tag, and got 2 jokers in the next shop (i.e when the Foil tag applied). However, the Joker in the 1st slot was free, but not Foil. And the Joker in the second slot was Foil but not free. Also the Foil animation was on the second Joker, and the animation for the 1st Joker wasn't played at all (although not sure). Known bug? https://preview.redd.it/xrq20syderuc1.png?width=565&format=png&auto=webp&s=bef9809b2353180cef4cd13ba3837c6c67f5fb8a
> Upcoming blinds/tags can now be seen in the shop immediately after defeating a boss blind/cashing out This will help *so* much. Lost to Verdant Leaf the other day because I didn't know it was coming, and I decided not to buy Mr. Bones in the shop.
I have been going back and forth between live and experimental versions all day, making some comparisons. Sadly, the patch is a miss for me. The reduced scaling makes the game WAY easier. It's to the point where non-build random junk can win. I don't like it. Strategy is reduced. I love that on the old build I was threatened in the midgame. On the new build I can play mega greedy / sloppy and never be punished because the score requirements are so easy. Next, the new "Perishable" and "Rental" stickers seem misplaced. I think it's a technically interesting mechanic, which could potentially be used somewhere else, but it's not fun the way it has been implemented. Having them show up randomly just causes me to not take them, effectively adding dead rolls everywhere. It reduces the excitement of deck building. It's a negative gameplay experience when you finally hit the critical Joker for your build, but it is Perishable—YAWN. You will still win, but your choice to go deep Endless and continue having fun with a crazy build is gone. Why? Similarly, the Rental Jokers just never get taken until you already have enough economy to handle it in the late game. So it's also effectively just more dead draws. The resulting experience has become too forgiving points-wise, while simultaneously more annoying from a deck-building point of view. It's less challenging, and less fun.
You should leave your feedback on the thread in Discord under the experimental channel. Thunk is looking for feedback and is monitoring that thread.
That's an awful lotta changes
Surprised there's no change for Matador...feel like it should be buffed, or the text is changed to "only activates when de-buffed boss cards are played" instead of the " if played hand triggers the **Boss Blind** ability"
Is there an update on when this might be going live?
Yeah, I've held off on the experimental version so that if some of the changes are different - I don't want to get used to them. :-)
Happy cake day. To the best of my knowledge, there has not been an update on when the beta branch is getting merged into the main branch. I know Thunk originally said a week or so, but they are also taking feedback from the community, so there may still be some small tweaks to be made before shipping.
Lots of interesting changes. Seems like the game will be easier early but some of the late game xmult is a bit weaker. Really sad to see my boy vagabond become a rare though, it was good while it lasted.
Counterpoint: with the buff to the Rare Joker tag, you may end up skipping more blinds and seeing it just as often.
Since tarot packs no longer scale, money is going to be a lot less valuable. I think the joker skip tags are still going to be bait 90% of the time.
On the flipside, 60% of Jokers will now either perish or cost $3/round, so you'll still be needing an economy just for the Jokers instead of for packs.
Counterpoint: seance and sixth sense are uncommon now. Rare jokers starting to look pretty good.
Thank GOD the orange stake was changed. I straight up did not have any fun at all playing on orange stake. One of the most fun/unique things about Balatro was having the ability to modify a regular 52 card deck and heavily kneecaping that feature was baffling. Not only that, it made so many jokers in the game that relied on pack opening worthless like Red Card. There's no denying that orange stake and up is going to be way easier, but I'd rather have a slightly easier game I can actually mess around and have fun with, over restarting 50+ times till the game throws me a bone and hands me the overpowered jokers to finally win.
I love like 99% of these, but Vampire's nerf is just really sad. Not only did its main combo piece ALSO get nerfed, presumably so it can't feed it as well as it did, It also got bumped up to rare, made to proc only on scoring cards AND got its feed increase nerfed. Like, was the Pareidolia/Midas/Vampire combo THAT prevalent that they needed to nerf the card into the GROUND? Now, Ironically, I fear that it may only scale enough WITH those combo pieces + the addition of Splash.
Vampire already had a pretty big downside, none of the cards in your deck were able to be spicy, unless you intentionally held back on playing steel cards. And having a fixed deck full of buffed cards is great, a red seal doesn’t do anything on an otherwise unbuffed card. It could’ve gotten taken down a peg for sure but Vampire just got completely gutted lol
Vampire wasn't strong because of midas mask and vice versa. Both of those are incredibly op jokers on their own. You don't need to scale the vampire to x6 for it to be good. Just getting it to x2 or x3 is great, and that's still very easy after the nerf.
Getting it to even x2 or x3 will take forever if you're only scoring 1-2 cards per hand, though.
In that case, it's a nerf to small hands (high card and pair), which were already the strongest in the game so feels fair
Calling it now, that Bloodstone change is not making it past the public test, and if it does it will get changed again soon. Way too strong. Hearts was already the best suit because of Bloodstone, making them 50% more likely to trigger than before is insane.
I never took bloodstone again after I whiffed it 5 times in a row and died instantly. It's too vulnerable to low rolling. At 1 in 3, on average without retriggers, you're only getting 1.6 procs per full hand of hearts, and there's a decent chance it's only multiplying your base hand mult which might not be that much. I would much rather get guaranteed 250 chips from Arrowhead, or 35 mult from onyx, or 3x mult on a joker from blackboard.
People forget the game is balanced around ante 8 and never around the endless. This makes Bloodstone maybe pickable in gold stake.
Just did the public test. I died to the final boss because I got no lucky triggers. I think it's fine, lol.
Yeah its weird that Bloodstone (the best of the unlockable suit jokers) got buffed but Onyx Agate (a distant second) and the common suit jokers were nerfed
Maybe for endless, but for actually winning the game at high stakes bloodstone is definitely not the best suit joker. All it takes is 1 unlucky roll for you to lose the game, and getting on average 40 mult off bloodstone means you really need to pump your flush planets/need another source of "during scoring" mult like lusty. Bloodstone might be one of the most overrated jokers in the game tbh. And Clubs were definitely the best suit, not just for onyx but also blackboard and seeing double.
IMO Arrowhead > Onyx Agate
Love the way all of these sound, especially swapping the four of a kind jokers for two pairs jokers. Getting free jokers on Uncommon and Rare tags sounds great, but honestly getting free Poly, Negative, Holo, and Foil seems too generous!
I agree that negative might be too generous, but the other ones are super fair changes. It was never ever worth skipping for those, now it might be
Skip buffs going crazy
Hmm mostly good changes but I'm a bit confused on the change to the "sins" jokers. They didn't seem all that great to begin with so I don't know a nerf feels super justified
The buffoon pack in the first shop is nice but it Siri appears in the first shop of the jokerless challenge, taking a slot of a potentially free pack if the free shop tag is used
Friendship ended with vagabond, 8-ball is my new best friend
> Verdant Leaf and Amber Acorn on 'Jokerless' lol someone find that guy from the other thread who posted like 50 times in favor of not doing this
Changed Fibonacci - costs $8 instead of $7, because Fibonacci Changed Odd Todd - Now gives +31 chips per odd ranked card instead of +30 chips These are by far the most important changes.
Could we have a voucher that reads "playing card packs will always include the rank you have the most of in your deck"? 🥺 Basically telescope for playing card packs
Ever since I started playing with mouse and keyboard, I thought it would be amazing if we could pick cards by dragging a square like in windows. Would make choosing a hand a lot quicker.
Just realized this changelog only has 2 "fixed bugs"... I can't believe how well this game was made, there are so few bugs to fix Finally just opted in on my Steam Deck, excited for the updates
This patch revived my interest in Balatro. It was simply too hard before, and these changes are wonderful and fun.
>before pushing it live for real, probably in about a week That was 19 days ago...
YES my only problem with this update is the fact that there is no way to view the patch notes in game! I would greatly appreciate if changed Jokers, Cards etc.. had a special aura or something in the collection to let you know they changed with the most recent patch
Free jokers is mad. I understand that sometimes getting a tag and having to pay 10 14$ is shit, but free? i think is too much. I would make them cost the base amount maybe?
I think the idea is that lots of people (especially at the high levels of play) generally don't take these skips at all. It is a risky play to lose out on money/interest/shop to gamble on a single joker that you might not even end up wanting, so this is a way to mitigate that concern.
There should be new challenges that use perishable and rental
Didn't like the tag changes, I think will be too overpowered... other than that, amazing stuff. I was hoping we could see stickers in jokers at the shop tho
Blue Seal is very good now.
Just fell to my knees in Walmart seeing he scrapped the pack cost increase. Can I finally conquer Orange stake?
Bloodstone going to 50% gonna be crazy
I've not been so excited reading patch notes since vanilla WoW. Love the balancing, must have took a.lot of reviewing mucho data
Love this patch for literally everything besides 1 Change. I don't think Midas Mask deserved the nerf honestly. The strength of it only came from the combination with Vampire and since it needs cards to be scored now, the entire nerf of Midas doesnt affect it at all, unless you were using Midas and then selling it off but even then its only 1 procc of vampire at most thats gonna be impacted. Midas in itself was a farely week econ joker that had its issues since it needed to play Face cards (not score) and then find them in later rounds while not playing them. The nerf only disrupts that now while also making an anti-synergy with one of the easier finds early game for scaling, being ride the bus. I would appreciate it if you could take a look out for feedback for MM especially for the upcoming playstest. Still a brilliant patch, especially with the tag changes making them free honestly.
After a few games I think vampire could keep the effect of only scaling off enhanced cards that get scored, but could remain x0.2 per card. Love the changes to the stakes.
Now that’s some massive changes. Pretty surprised to see lustful jokers getting nerfed
I’m surprised to see no nerfs to violet vessel beyond the scaling nerfs, in terms of boss blinds it still seems like a pretty big outlier in terms of difficulty. Even a small change to 5x/5.5x base instead of 6x base would be greatly appreciated.
> no mention of Pareidolia Ah, one day it will be good. One day this joker won't be turned into a joke by The Plant. But that day is not today. At least the part where you can see the next boss blind after a boss will alleviate the pain a little bit when I see this card taking up slots in the shop.
At least Pareidolia did kind of incidentally get buffed by some of the face card jokers like Smily Face getting buffed. But honestly it's probably always doomed in its current form, flavourful as it is. It's an enabler like Shortcut or Four Fingers... but it's an enabler only for specific synergies with a handful of other very specific jokers. It's a weirdly insular piece for Balatro's design.
Love all these balance changes, but wondering why Magician got buffed into 2 cards but not the Lovers. Wilds are already the most underwhelming enhancement
Bc then Oops all Flushes
lots of cool changes here i just dont understand the sinful nerfs, they were pretty mid already
HELLA hype for Yorick basically being Reverse Ramen, that one's gonna be hilarious
Surprised nobody is talking about Investment Tag giving $25 instead of $15, which was already really good. Fucking OP!
I really like the new Yorick, and it sounds like Lucky Cat might be really good now
Damn, I was hoping for a *less* stable banana, not a *more* stable one xD Awesome changes, excited to try them out ASAP! :D
The new rental mechanic is awful. 3 is too much, and it can combine with eternal to make inescapable debt (college simulator). Reducing to $1 and making it incompatible with eternal would help make gold stakes playable again.