Summary
The developer behindBalatrochanged the value of a Joker card in the game to rack up an inconceivably large score. One of 2024’s surprise indie hits,Balatrotook the gaming world by storm when it was released earlier this year. Combining card gameplay with a roguelike progression system,Balatrohas players hooked as they grow their card collections and march toward higher scores.
As a Poker-based card game,Balatrotasks players with scoring Poker hands such as flushes, straights, and pairs to earn enough chips and multipliers to beat the target blind and move on to the next round.What makesBalatrounique, though, is its collection of 150 Joker cards, each with their own fun twists and parameters that can be utilized by players to maximize the scores of their played Poker hands. Add to that the Tarot, Planet, and Spectral cards, which can add special properties to players' decks, and it’s easy to see howBalatrohas players hooked.
Over the past week, a viral tweet by Tyler Glaiel sent waves through the indie dev world, as he challenged developers to multiply a number in ther game’s code by 1,000 to see what happens. The 21 million-view tweet garnered tons of replies from devs posting videos of the chaotic results. The tweet caught the attention of LocalThunk, the developer ofBalatro, who responded with their own video. Local tookBalatro’s Hanging Chad Joker card, which scores the first card of a played hand three times, and multiplied it by 2,000. Combined with a Photograph Joker, which adds x2 Mult to the first scoring face card in the played hand, LocalThunk slapped down a Queen of Diamonds.
What happened next was mind-boggling, as the altered Hanging Chad Joker forced the game to retrigger the Queen and the Photograph Joker 2,000 times, resulting in over 800 Chips and likely several billion Mult. The clip ended before the final score was totaled, so the exact result is unknown, but the video would likely have continued on for another several minutes with a final score possibly reaching into the trillions. Humorously, LocalThunk did this exercise on a Round 1 Small Blind where the target score is a mere 300 chips. Not that it would’ve mattered, but Local could’ve addedeven more ofBalatro’s Joker cardsto the mix to pump the already ridiculous score even higher.
By altering the game, LocalThunk likely put up the highest score ever reached inBalatro. While this massive buff to the Hanging Chad Joker card will never see the light of day in the actual game, arecentBalatroupdatebuffed some of the Joker cards, such as Odd Todd, which gives 31 chips per odd-numbered card scored instead of its original 30. WhetherBalatrowill receive DLC at some point that adds even more fun Joker cards to the mix is unknown.
Balatro
WHERE TO PLAY
Balatro is a poker-inspired roguelike deck builder all about creating powerful synergies and winning big.The poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos.Combine valid poker hands with unique Joker cards in order to create varied synergies and builds. Earn enough chips to beat devious blinds, all while uncovering hidden bonus hands and decks as you progress. You’re going to need every edge you can get in order to reach the boss blind, beat the final ante and secure victory
