Just like in poker, winning runs in Balatro can come down to knowledge and luck. While I can’t help you pull the perfect cards from your deck at the right time, I can provide you with six tips for improving your knowledge and preparing for tougher Blinds in Balatro.

Tips for Balatro Players

These six Balatro tips will have you finessing even the toughest Boss Blinds before you know it!

Understanding Editions, Enhancements, and Seals

Every card in your deck starts as normal cards. By opening Standard Packs and using Tarot and Spectral Cards, some cards in your deck will be given Seals, Enhancements, and Special Editions. Understanding these three variations will help you both build and use your deck properly, especially since each playing card can have one of each variation.

When giving cards Seals, keep in mind how those Seals are used. If there is a high-earning card with a multiplier on it, you’ll want to give that a Red Seal. Cards that remain in your hand, like Gold Cards, should be given the Blue Seal. The Gold Seals can be more freely placed on any card you play, while the Purple Seal is best placed on cards that have no value to you. Also, remember that you’re able to use a card with a Seal in any way, but it will only give you the Seal’s effect if used as designated.

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The three Editions for both playing and Joker Cards are Foil, Holographic, and Polychrome Cards.

The last variation, the Negative Edition, allows players to hold an extra Joker Card for every Negative Joker Card.

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From top to bottom and left to right, these enhancements are:

Special Edition Joker Cards can be bought directly from the Shop or created using cards like the Wheel of Fortune Tarot Card. Certain Tags can increase the odds of finding Special Edition Jokers in the shop, which leads me to my next tip.

Depending on your money, the Tag, and the Boss Blind ahead of you, it may end up being more worthwhile to skip the Blind in exchange for the Tag.

There are a total of 30 Boss Blinds, each with its own difficulties to overcome. Checking it from the start will help you set your deck up to defeat it.

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Buying unknown cards is crucial for the game because it allows you to unlock more Joker Cards. If you look at the locked Joker Cards, this is seen most notably in two cards. One of them can only be unlocked by purchasing every Tarot Card, while the other needs you to buy every Planet Card. Additionally, buying these cards will help you learn how they all work by making you use them directly.

This screen contains three tabs. The first shows the Poker Hands you’ve played so far in this run, the second shows you the Blinds in your current ante, and the third shows you any Vouchers you’ve purchased in this run. We’ll focus here on the first tab. It consists of four sections.

For more Balatro, check out ourHow does ante work in Balatroguide here on Pro Game Guides.