Balatro

Balatro is a roguelike deck builder inspired by poker. In each run, players form valid poker hands and use Joker cards to build synergies, with the aim of earning enough chips to beat a series of blinds. Progress leads to a boss blind and a final ante, and players uncover hidden bonus hands and decks along the way. Choices made during a run, including which cards to pick up, which to discard and which Jokers to take, can change how the run unfolds.

The game includes a campaign mode with 8 difficulty levels, as well as challenge runs and seeded runs. Players can draw on several types of items: Decks, Jokers, Tarot cards, Planet cards, Spectral cards and Vouchers. The game contains 150 Jokers with unique abilities, and each Joker has 5 potential variants that add further abilities. There are 15 Decks with distinct modifiers to choose from at the start of a run, 22 Tarot card variants that can enhance regular playing cards, and 11 Planet cards that level up poker hands. 32 Voucher cards provide permanent buffs for the current run.

New cards and secrets are discovered over successive runs, which adds to the player’s collection. A stats screen lets players review details such as their best hands and most used Jokers. Visually, the game uses hand-crafted pixel art with a CRT fuzz effect and a psychedelic style, and it is accompanied by a synthwave soundtrack.