this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024

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Balatro celebrates 2 million sales, will feature major gameplay update in 2025! (files.catbox.moe)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

54 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The dev says this is one of three big announcements. One could possibly be a release date for the mobile version, but I'm not sure what the third could be.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 3 months ago (4 children)

For anyone interested in game development: Balatro is made with Love2D. Which means the exe you download from steam can be unzipped using just about any zip program (might need to change the file extension from exe to zip) and the whole source code and 2D asset files are available for perusing. Not even obfuscated, full variable names and comments available to inspect as a real world example of a working game that has sold like hotcakes because the end result is good. Let it inspire you, let it teach you :)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

VERY COOL! I have used Love for some simple stuff before but I didn't realize balatro was built in it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Yoooooo awesome! Even source-available games are better than proprietary games.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Oh shit, that's amazing! That could be a real learning opportunity for folks interested in starting game dev like me!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Thus also applies to many games made with Unity as well. It just requires a program like ILSpy to view it all.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Good for them.... Still have yet to win a run.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Generally some good advice is that Balatro is a math game first and foremost so you want to focus on things that raise your score the quickest. So adding chips is ok, adding multiplier is better, and multiplying your total is the best.

For example let's say you are playing straights and you have a 10-6 with level 3 straights. So you'd have:

10+9+8+7+6=40

(40+90)x10=1300

So let's compare how jokers impact that score:

Devious joker: +100 chips if you have a straight

(40+90+100)x10=2300

Crazy joker: +12 mult if you have a straight

(40+90)x(10+12)=2860

The order: x3 mult if you have a straight

(40+90)x(10x3)=3900

You can see those are very big differences! It's also helpful to pay attention to the order of your cards. Generally Balatro cards are scored left to right. The most important thing is to take any card that multiplies any part of your score on the right so you can add as much to the score as possible, then you multiply that number

So in short: multiplier jokers are best, additive multiplier jokers are good, additive chip jokers are ok, and pay attention to the order of your jokers/played cards

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

This is basically correct but i would add sometimes it's better to add chips than to add mult. For example, if your score is something like:

10 x 50 = 500

Adding +50 mult here would give you 10x100=1000 points. Adding +50 chips will give you 60x50=3000 points.

Adding to the lowest of the two numbers improves your score the most. Especially early game, mult is much lower than chips, so you want to improve mult. However once you have some good mult jokers improving chips becomes important. Especially in high card based decks, where you get very few chips from your hand.

If the multiplier jokers come in, the picture can change again. It makes adding mult more valuable because the addition will be multiplied.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

One thing to watch out for though, is that if you focus exclusively on mult, eventually the scale tips and chips become more valuable.

You're always ultimately doing c * m, chips times mult, right? Increasing c by 1 increases your total by...

(c+1)*m - (c*m) = (c + 1 - c) * m = m

And vice versa for increasing m by 1. So, whichever is higher - your total mult or total chips - you should increase the other one. Usually this means increase mult, but building a bit multiplier can quickly make it outpace your chips for some hands.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

some guides :

https://lemmy.world/post/14566253?scrollToComments=true

https://lemm.ee/post/30072319

https://lemm.ee/post/32741928

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (9 children)

Thanks for this! Saving and checking them but.. I'm more a "Look at me playing a game and tell me what I did wrong at the end" kind of player

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

I was going to say "ahh, too bad the Internet isn't really helpful for that method of learning", but with AI who knows, maybe that'll be something your computer can do before too long

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I don't really understand your comment - sorry! - but I've played some games with the plasma deck and I still have to understand how to play exactly with it, I do good-ish at first but after a few rounds/first boss I do so little numbers and I can't win, having someone watching what I do wrong and telling me would be great

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

For plasma specifically I'd focus on high additive chip jokers. While that's normally bad advice, consider how crazy good a card with +50 mult on it would be. Now consider that a +100 chip joker is effectively a +50 chip/+50 mult (I know that's not technically true but I'm illustrating a point). Also eventually you do hit a point of diminishing returns because plasma prevents you from having a super high multiplier or chips, so like every build, total score multipliers are the best

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

The one who played it before me said it was best to get the X multi jokers so I always ignored the + multi ones and even the X multi final score.. I tried but I don't exactly know which ones do that. I should try with what you said and see if it works, thanks! Which poker hand is better with it?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's hard to offer strong heuristics for Balatro because you could theoretically build up to a point where you've got a crazy high multiplier but if your chips are low it doesn't matter.

For example let's say you've got a face card 4 of a kind build going with: Pareidolia, Zany, Smiley, Trio, and Family jokers. These give you (respectively) all cards are face cards, +12 mult for 3 of a kind, +20 mult for each hand (all cards are face cards), x3 mult, x4 mult for a total of 384 multiplier! On base 4 of a kind this is

60x([7+12+20]x3x4)=28,080

However if you were to drop smiley face (+5 mult per face) for scary face (+30 chips per face card) which by almost every heuristic is a bad decision your score becomes:

(60+120)x([7+12]x3x4)=41,040

Which is a way bigger score!

So while people can offer general advice like stack high chips on plasma, always go for total score multipliers, etc. sometimes you just have to evaluate your specific build and figure out the best play

Finally outside of decks like abandoned and checkered which are specifically made to get certain hands, there isn't a "best" hand to go for. The highest possible scores I've seen all come from high card builds but most normal players won't get those. I've won two of a kind runs, flush 5 runs, straight runs, flush runs. You just have to evaluate your deck and tarot cards to see your options

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

This is interesting to know since I would love to win at least one game with plasma since people said it the funniest deck but for some reasons I can't get past ante 2/3. I'm going to try to play a game or 2 trying to buy chip jokers and tarots hoping for the best, I do really need to understand better jokers and synergies between them

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

How many hours in? Just curious, I'm bad at it but I got my first win ~16 hours in, are you doing something wrong?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

22.9 hours in...I've gotten close, but no cigar.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

lol. I feel you! My max Ante was 7. Everything after that seems impossible :D

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The most-satisfying part is when you stumble onto the right Joker combination and realize, "Oh snap, I think this is the one."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Conversely the worst is when that happens and a bad boss blind screws your run

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

The worst one I think is the one where you can only play one hand. I hate that one, because in most cases it’s game over for me 😆

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

How long have you been trying.

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

Balatro University has some good guides if you're looking to improve.

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

I believe in you!

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

I've been playing it on mobile for months

https://github.com/blake502/balatro-mobile-maker

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Most people who liked balatro will probably also find dungeons & degenerate gamblers interesting which is coming out tomorrow. It's a similar take on blackjack but with a few other ideas mixed in. I've played the demo and I'm looking forward to the full version

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

So is this a new emerging genre? Poker Like?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm super excited for the mobile version but also worried about my future productivity

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There's a converter on GitHub for it.

It works surprisingly well. I wanted to wait for the official but I have a flight coming up and this is gonna make it awesome.

I can't wait to buy the mobile version and recommend it to all of my friends!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Would be nice to convert my Steam progress.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

#3: Everybody gets laid!

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

Laid off probably...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Because they discovered Balatro.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

I recently got this game, and wow, what a time sucker. FINALLY won my first run yesterday. I've played a fair share of rogue likes, but this one really does feel fresh every game.

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

Played it for some hours, but I don't get the hype tbh. Maybe I'm missing something

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

Hey, maybe it's just not for you. that's okay.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

It's really just poker solitaire with a bunch of math added to flavorful bonus cards, if you're not really into poker, solitaire, or math it isn't going to be the right game for you.

I have a buddy that hates RNG, mostly plays shooter games, he hates poker in all its forms because of the randomness but I feel like learning to deal with probably and chance are really good lessons that apply to broader life.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I think the fun is that every run is unique and trying out new combos and finding one that works is very rewarding.

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

Coming to Xbox with day one game pass? 🤞🤞🤞

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's cheap.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Is it on Xbox?

ETA: oh cool, it is! Still, probably going to wait for it to hit game pass - there's more games on there that I want to play then time to play them, but if balatro gets on there I think it will move to the top of the list.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

It's on almost everything; I got it on Steam, works on my Deck and Mac perfectly. It's really not demanding at all, and will be on mobile platforms soon.

I would be surprised if it went on Game Pass.

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