this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
46 points (100.0% liked)

Balatro

1221 readers
35 users here now

Welcome to Balatro Lemmy and Mbin Community.

This community is for the game Balatro, which is developed by LocalThunk and published by Playstack. For more Balatro conversation, please head to the stickied FAQ and check out the official Discord channel. Also make sure you read our rules before posting.

Rules:


Official Links

Unofficial Links

founded 11 months ago
MODERATORS
 

I legitimately was afraid of getting this guy my first few runs because loosing all discards sounds scary. But +3 hands is actually awesome if you dont have any active synergies with discards going on.

Unused hands contribute money at the end of round. You can burn trash cards on a 'junk hand' which effectively acts like a discard that still gives you points. Having no discards with a positive effect preemptively invalidates the effects of a nasty boss blind.

If you run out of discards but have hands you can still maybe win. If you have all discards but no hands you lost. taps forehead

The only cons I'm thinking is the discard synergyzing cards like... The one that gives you money for each unused discard?? Thats all I can think of. What do you think?

top 16 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I will say that no discards means you can never use purple seals. If you suddenly get access to them, or already have a few of them in your deck, you will lose out in a handful of tarot cards you could've got by discarding them throughout your run. ~~It will also suck for The Needle if you aren't prepared (i.e. explicitly going for a high card / pair run where it doesn't matter much what cards you play) for the single hand you have.~~ But yeah, if you're focusing lower tier hands and have a less useful joker to replace with this one, it could absolutely pull some weight with extra economy and score for a while.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The Needle gets neutralised by Burglar. You get 4 hands.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Wait seriously? That's crazy, I assume that's a bug? Either way thanks for that info, I would've never tried that on purpose.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

No, it's just the order of operation. The boss effect applies before the joker.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago

Also, he absolutely wrecks both the Needle and the Water bosses. And has insane synergy with Blueprint/Brainstorm.

The real negative synergies I'd name are jokers like the Castle or the Burned joker, which provide very good scaling for discard value.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Also the boss blind where you lose 1$ per hand played, but otherwise yes it's a fun joker

Edit: wait no it's per card played

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

If you have telescope voucher get ready to have high card be your most played hand

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The upsides of hands:

  • get 1 $ per unused hand
  • get 1 $ per used hand with the Handy Tag
  • fish for lucky card trigger
  • Vagabond and green joker like them
  • Don't fear the water.

The downsides:

  • Ox, Fish, Eye, Psychic, Mouth, Pillar & Needle are significantly worse without Discards
  • I think there are way more jokers and seals that work with Discards than Hands
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This joker is a direct counter to The Needle. The Needle takes away your hands before the bonus hands get added, so you get 4 hands.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Didn't know that! But by all means, that doesn't make sense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I just learned the other day that burglar synergizes with blueprint and brainstorm, so 10 hands per round is perfectly doable

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

+3 hands instead of discards works especially well with Splash, which counts all cards towards your score regardless of whether or not they actually score for your chosen hand. I end up sending random cards through just to keep the hand shifting faster, and those extra points add up quickly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Blackboard doesn't synergize with this card, which is a fairly powerful joker if you find it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Blackboard is completely unaffected? That's the x3 for black cards in hand, yes?

If you have 3 more hands and lose the standard of 3 discards, you just use your hands like you would any discard and even in the worst case where you intend to play a red card, you still make more point than if you had discarded?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Yeah, it only triggers if your deck is spades and clubs, any hearts/diamonds cause it to not work. It's manageable in some playthroughs, but it really depends on your strategy and how many hearts/diamonds you have in your hand.

It can be risky if you are counting on blackboard to trigger and only have one hand / no repeat hand/one card selected bosses.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Nobody mentioned Hook?

Absolutely horrible joker for that boss in my opinion. Prime reason I wouldn't get an eternal one