Balatro Basics 1: Early Ante strategies and tips for higher winrate

Balatro Basics Playlist: • Balatro Basics
Balatro Everyday Playlist: • Balatro Daily ep1: Beg...
Made accessible for beginners but deep enough for more experienced players as well. Learn how to master the early Antes and set yourself up for long term success.
(Version 1.0.0n)

[@EwwHandles]

When I lose it´s a terrible seed that no mortal man could beat, but when I win I am god´s gift to Balatro and no other could do it how I can :)

[@drspectred]

same

[@LucasOliveira-zy6fj]

@@drspectred LOL do you even lose at this point?

[@iplayminecraft2248]

Even during his tutorials he just randomly pulls a brainstorm

[@fkingyeet3725]

my strategy specially for higher stakes is holding R 💀

[@jeezuhskriste5759]

I didn’t know you could do that, ty

[@Dharengo]

For me that's just the button to buy stuff in the shop. What does your R normally do?

[@fkingyeet3725]

@@Dharengoreset the run

[@Dharengo]

@@fkingyeet3725 Does pressing it normally do anything?

[@someaccount5200]

i have a switch, I can't reset the ante

[@Ptcar2009]

I love your pacing and your patience to explain decisions, as well as your willingness to admit that some decisions are mostly based on "feel". It's clear that you have a deep understanding of the game and its nitty details. I've been grinding getting all seals on all decks and your videos have been instrumental in my steps toward being able to complete those runs. Thanks for the immense effort and the consistency in uploading. GO BULLS!

[@drspectred]

Comments like this are what keep me going! I felt we were getting a little in the weeds with the High Stakes runs. For educational purposes, I felt there could be some value going back to the beginning and breaking it all down in a more focused way.

[@twinkiebeyond]

This is an absolutely amazing tutorial. One thing I definitely suggest is watch out for tunnel-visioning on the hand that you want. There were multiple times that flushes were banked on when viable full houses were already achieved.

[@Jack_Hodkinson]

Really neat idea replaying different sections of the game to show different scenarios

[@angelitocastro3297]

i dont even play the game but i still love watching your balatro vids, great content man keep it up 🔥🙌💯

[@leftovernoise]

You should probably play it! It's amazing!

[@awesomeguysuncle]

you gotta play it bro

[@Towney]

huge appreciation for all the insanely info-filled videos you’ve been making. it’s been a huge help in becoming a better player with all the thorough thought and execution explanations. i’ve been going through the balatro daily series slowly and have been really enjoying it.

[@PrimeTerrific]

Exactly what I've been waiting for!!!!

[@sickened7328]

this helped a ton! i was rushing through the early game without knowing how to get a good start but after watching this my runs have been loads better :)

[@bloodykenshiro8218]

Your tutorials are great and a huge help for new or struggling players (like me), so thanks for making them!

[@JoeTheis]

This is an excellent video! And all 2+ hours is filled with good stuff. Really like how you explain your thought process.

[@TheMagicFellow]

Big thanks for this, I look forward to seeing more from you!

[@gearsighted]

I just beat my first run, this video series was a huge help. Keep up the great work!

[@zackkurs9134]

Best channel for this game so happy your videos exist

[@seandever5761]

Thanks so much man your knowledge is greatly appreciated and you are a great teacher!

[@Ashley-sd5xn]

This is the BEST Balatro series!!

[@Will-qq8oz]

“Let me offer you… the banana” is so funny lmao great video!

[@Chunes3]

This helped me understand why stacking lots of +mult doesn't seem to help much and why the first few are critical. Thanks.

[@AverageJohanson]

Finally something a bit more my speed 😅

[@Bodoczky]

Thank you, super useful

[@TheSiddhiDesai]

Immensely helpful video! Thank you so much 💗

[@cwh77]

Straights, in texas hold-em, are easier, but harder than flushes in Balatro - so while the base scoring is representative of poker hands, when upgrading hands straights are favoured. Straights need a buff I think.

[@wellincolin]

After seeing how much econ is worth and how much you value each single hand, I'm feeling weird that Green Joker is my favorite joker, to the point I could be dominating a run by ante 3-4 and still consider taking it just cause I love the hand played jokers. My golden stake win had square and green jokers and I kept purposefully rearranging my jokers to play as many hands as possible. This game never ceases to surprise me on how crazy it can get, while remaining both challenging, yet extremely fair. Localthunk pulled a crazy balance between randomness, skill, variety and depth.

[@abdulazizmohammed8797]

Yes more balatro

[@ruisotas177]

amazing vedio realy help me out

[@lerkington]

nice vid (Also first)

[@linguinelabs]

Holy shit you can rearrange cards in your deck view 😭 how did I not know

[@DiggOlive]

My Balatro journey 😭

[@vi_pravi]

One thing I always try to do is to close the first blind (ideally the first two ones) in a single hand. I restart the run if i can't.

[@julienclaveau6129]

I think I heard somewhere that when wheel hits it will hit either your oldest or newest joker at 50% chance each, but I can't find where I heard this. Can anyone confirm this, and if this is also the case for other cards such as ankh or madness?

[@drspectred]

I believe this used to be a thing for one of the demo versions of the game, and I commented on it in one of my Balatro Daily videos. However, I can confirm this is no longer a thing.

[@spencers5514]

balatrology

[@hugoleboo1579]

To have the golden stake chip on Joker, do you have to win with it in your jokers or you just need to buy it once during the run ?

[@drspectred]

Unfortunately, it needs to be in your "final 5" and survive until after the boss. This means things like Banana and Mr. Bones don't give you the sticker if they expire.

[@hugoleboo1579]

@@drspectredok thx you. For now i'm trying to unlock every joker before doing the stakes. (Still not done a single red stakes xD). I struggle a lot with winning in less that 12 rounds and doing 100M chips. I'm such a bad player

[@ayyylmao9022]

how did you change to color of your suits?

[@ayyylmao9022]

oh high contrast cards lol my bad

[@Darng1]

I feel like whenever I win, I get godly synergy’s and awesome cards, but when I lose it’s usually on an early ante with 0 good cards seen or been able to afford.

[@mystwerks]

For orange stake Ive just been reseting till I get free shop/+15 boes and reseting after anti 2 if I dont have good jokers

[@jirkakote]

Same, but it gets tiring fast 😅

[@j45002]

What are boes?

[@Shindo9Kyu]

I wish this video had chapters :( Great video still!

[@someaccount5200]

Im pretty sure Flower pot counts wild cards as all 4 suits

[@bigboss-qv7pe]

Why did you not play the ace when you showed a straight hand at 6:20? Thank you for the vids.

[@broomybroomybroomy]

My guess is to demonstrate that it would be enough even without it

[@adelholzenerbier]

At 14:09 I would have taken the faceless joker thinking that it could potentiall pay of after just one round + temperance later on. Is it too hard to pull off or why wouldn't you take it?

[@chrisbarnes3660]

100% should’ve taken that

[@Tekjunkie6502]

been play 30 hours still haven'r got passed ante 8

[@RatPyromaniac]

I found out how to mod Balatro so now I have reverse tarot cards >:)

[@abdulazizmohammed8797]

They exist in the game already

[@RatPyromaniac]

@@abdulazizmohammed8797 bro what are you on about

[@pepaigea]

@@abdulazizmohammed8797 Nope!

[@jabbawookeez01]

watching this channel cause i fucking suck so far even if im getting scores. 😂

[@skeltaldelegate5408]

I'm finding that unlocking new jokers via milestones its really dampening the experience due to a now inflated rng table. This a consisrent problem for me in most roguelikes, where the first few runs are fun but later on, it becomes unreasonably rare to come across basic drops that are necessary to survive in the first few antes.

[@drspectred]

When the shop decides on what Joker to give you, it decides on a rarity first and then gives you a Joker of that rarity. Most of the unlocks are Rare or Uncommon, so this does not impact the ability to find the early game Common Jokers which help get your run off the ground. The unlockable Jokers are largely xMult Jokers, then making it easier to score more with less components.

[@skeltaldelegate5408]

@@drspectred i figured that was the case as well, maybe I'm just getting dead seeds, but even after clearing stakes for 3 of the later decks, when I when back to the first 2, I was really struggling to get anything usable

[@RuiOliveira-zm1ro]

Is Ace a face card?

[@colinlynch6491]

No, it doesnt have a face

[@yami7805]

41:24 I always make this mistake xddd

[@lilyvaldis]

Not gonna lie, while I loved the vid, skipping that negative card made me cringe a little 😅 Keep it up! ...the video. not the negative skipping 😂

[@stupxd]

Skipped for educational purposes, obviously. It is a very good early pick, even if it wasn't negative, though you won't see negatives that often, so not showing it off makes sense.

[@TheSeeker225]

Is there a reason the game can't display the score for the hand before it's submitted, or is it just a bad design choice ?

[@FloorFourteen]

There are plenty of things that use chance such as lucky cards or bloodstone that can drastically alter your score based on whether or not they activate.

[@thetechnovoid]

it isnt necessarily a bad design choice, as it can help the feel of the game or bring some fun to it. i personally like how it doesnt display the score the hand gives before playing it

[@phantomdergwulf]

It's an intentional game design, the developer wants the excitement of seeing the number go up and calculate everything individually as you play. It's fun to watch

[@ybouzl2191]

Yeah, I love balatro keeping it hidden

[@HakanaiVR]

You know what would really kick ass is a mod which simulates a million draws to show the odds of each outcome

[@kingmeverse5861]

7:28 minutes in picked up the game last night love indie rouguelikes cool gonna b a great time but FUCK it’s so much math!!!

[@kingmeverse5861]

do u play with a calculator open? or r u just sick like that?

[@Szechoable]

Honestly, you get better by just playing higher stakes. Though it could be a trap since you might only play when the shops are good and leave you with very bad habits. But when you try to play it out and don't just restart every shop, you'll know what to prioritize very quick.

[@drspectred]

Any skill takes practice, but telling folks "just play more; you'll figure it out eventually" seems unnecessarily callous and not at all constructive.

[@broomybroomybroomy]

It's really nice to have the mathematical breakdown. I have tried to work it out on my own, but it helps hearing it in this format. Currently stuck on purple. I agree that it has made white stakes much easier, but the jokers that become good (insanity) and the ones that become bad (most that rely on discards) kind of switch around

[@broomybroomybroomy]

Er, and I realize now it's called Madness, not Insanity

[@jhassert05]

why is this 8 hours of videos?

[@Skelnaj]

It's a vibe

[@squidge903]

You have a 'basics' video that's 2+ hours... Wtf man. You don't need to tell people how to play the game - they're watching this because they already play and want to get better...

[@ausmiku]

You forgot to say it's a crap lottery game. Winning requires luck getting good jokers. No skill needed.

[@Coopek4]

Nope

[@sammoon7897]

"Any game that requires even a tiny bit of luck is a bad game" Is this really the argument you're going with? Do you realise how stupid that is? 😂

[@LucasOliveira-zy6fj]

Definitely no. The peope who complain about it's being too RNG are the one that doesn't know the game well. He has a win streak gold stake series to prove that it's like real life poker: It's much more about skill than luck