Don't Play Balatro

[@skycap3081]

My personal goty the year is ufo 50. HOWEVER. My grandpa is addicted to video poker. He has lost thousands of dollars since covid, So I bought him a copy of Balatro on his phone and he STOPPED gambling at the casino ever since because its not as fun. For that alone GOTY BABY!

[@primalknight]

ufo 50 got released a bit too late in the year to let it simmer on people😔

[@sadrat5375]

So does this now mean we can call Balatro the nicotine patch of gambling addictions

[@skycap3081]

@@primalknight Watch it be nexxt years game of the year (unliky as Kingdom Come 2 and GTA 6 are going to war)

[@SpartanOfLight]

Based grandpappy

[@bellybutthole69]

Legit Balatro gives you all the dopamine of gambling without the crippling debts. Perfect game !

[@darklight4571]

The x1 game speed in the intro is the real horror

[@MuffinssiEA98]

Literally accurate for the time sink aspect

[@xFODDo]

Didn't even know I can speed up the game before that comment

[@tallestlalafell2345]

​@@xFODDo4x speed is the only way to play.

[@omiadera]

​@@tallestlalafell2345 4x speed turns my brain into a thoughtless pile of mush, i like 2x speed more

[@slifer2]

Saw someone playing 4x speed at my school and I can never go back

[@MysteriousKammm]

The decision of the dev to make it free of microtransactions forever is also really good. You know it would have been easy to introduce a token mechanic or smt that you would have to pay for. And a lot of people would have lost sooo much to it.

[@onelazynoob15]

It's pretty nuts that a game themed around gambling completely avoids the predatory monetization and gambling of modern games.

[@franslair2199]

Nevermind microtransactions. They've been making the cards from the game as merch and refused to do them in booster pack form even tho it would have been so easy

[@blakksheep736]

From what I hear, Localthunk is a statistician and so, ironically, vehemently hates gambling. He even put it in his will that, when he dies, his game must _never_ be sold to any gambling institution ever.

[@635574]

That's a shitty way just add 1 more option to shop for an ad. I don't care what platform providers you need to go to.

[@user-zezezozodarkdomains]

@@onelazynoob15 well apparently in a related note, poncle of Vampire Survivors was a casino game designer and he wanted to bring the visual sensation and psychological manipulation without the gambling but with adventure, wonder, and comedy.

[@mavolent6332]

Imagine making this game for a school presentation and getting nominated for game of the year next

[@useraccount333]

Literally. LocalThunk made this game because he thought it would look good on a resume or as part of his "game-making portfolio". Welp, I'd say winning a bunch of awards and being nominated for the BIGGEST award in the entire industry looks pretty good on a resume, don't you think?

[@floydhopkins7901]

Nevermind becoming an instant millionaire

[@kyeschatto5286]

​@@useraccount333 I mean I think it's just as likely that people send him their resume to make more games with him since he has a formula to be game of the year. That's an even funnier thought, he could just skip the middle man and become the company 😂

[@niicardo2050]

Someone tell bro he can put the game at 4x speed and have more fun

[@seththepotate]

you can _what_

[@peely.oiledup]

u dont know dopamine until u have played on 4x

[@seththepotate]

Well uh... I've put it to 4x. It's beautiful

[@niicardo2050]

@@seththepotate your welcome lad, have fun getting to naneinf

[@Professor_Utonium_]

I get that not everyone thinks the same way but my toxic trait is not understanding how people don't check options first thing in every game they play lol

[@SwagnusCarlton]

"Don't play if you value free time or productivity" I think I'm in the clear to play it

[@417Lmao]

The Game Awards is responsible for the loss of 100 hours of my life, I JUST DOWNLOADED IT 5 DAYS AGO. I got sleep deprivation, i literally staying awake for 2 and a half days without sleep, just to get Plasma Deck. My bedtime is ruined, and my brain needs more dopamine, more than ever. If it wasn't because the GOTY Nominations, I would never knew this type of drug existed. *I had fun, but at what costs?* *Everything.*

[@gomezthechimp1116]

I'm 500 hours in and still have 4 achievements left. I don't think I'll ever get Completionist++ though.

[@astrophil2385]

Fam, you spent 100 out of that 120 hours playing balatro? How did you manage to eat or sleep

[@theprotnt596]

@@astrophil23854 hours per day max eating or sleeping lmao

[@MisterPyOne]

A friend of mine did the same thing watching one peace, just barely slept like 2-4 hours a day shit and ate cornflakes while watching it the rest of the time. He didn't go to school for like 2 weeks just doing that. His parents are often out of the country because of work so he could kinda do whatever he wanted. He didn't shower or anything. Now I'm doing something similar, oof.

[@dashrubberbear]

be careful with not sleeping, that's how people get psychosis. I am NOT joking.

[@winterson7198]

I’ve been following Balatro since its first beta, and seeing it get the attention it so rightly deserves is so gratifying

[@seththepotate]

It's so goddamn good. I feel like I committed a crime to myself by not playing it sooner

[@Dargoneth]

I've been playing it for about 14 hours a day since i downloaded it 4 days ago. Help me 😅

[@JustLovett0]

Great intro. And I love your value of “no game should be perfect for anyone.” It’s absolutely true and something I haven’t heard other people really mention before.

[@LastGreatDen]

Entirely unrelated but loving that House of Leaves on the bookshelf, that by itself earned a sub

[@seththepotate]

Man I still gotta finish it. Was not a good idea to make _that_ book my return to reading

[@SillyGoobyWasTaken]

The maniacal laughter in the intro skit is extremely accurate to how I play

[@reaper5242]

There are multiple save files, and you can just click an unlock everything button on new saves you create. Letting you try everything out if you're not good enough to unlock everything on your own

[@reed6514]

Took a break from balatro. Stumbled upon this video. I wanna play more balatro.

[@seththepotate]

My evil plan unfolds...

[@MysteryPonyFiction]

I took ages to try this game out, I could never get the appeal from people explaining it. Then It came out on mobile and I decided to pick it up as a on-the-go game. I laid in bed on my phone for days, not going out, not turning my computer or xbox on. I'm not sure if you explained it well. Because it only make sense now that I've played it. Also subscribed. What an underrated channel.

[@cashnelson2306]

Playing on 1x 😩

[@camelmon]

playing on 0.5x 💪😎

[@NapnCat]

I can’t sleep at night. I am playing poker hands when I close my eyes. I’m serious.

[@Carcosahead]

Bro you need help

[@NapnCat]

@ agreed

[@Տophia]

tetris effect, it's normal.

[@twelvet_fr]

Insane algorithm suggestion

[@seththepotate]

🫡

[@xFODDo]

what's insane about it

[@mershere]

@@xFODDo brilliant algo pull

[@xFODDo]

@@mershere what's brilliant about it tho

[@mershere]

@@xFODDo it was a good video

[@maxlimit9129]

Balatro is a cognitohazard

[@anaguma90]

Real

[@d0pp3lgang3r]

I see house of leaves on your bookshelf. Good on ya

[@DemonWarp65]

What's really crazy to me is there are games that were released this year by major studios. Games that cost years in development, and millions to create, and they flopped HARD. Meanwhile, here's this addictive little roguelike deck building card game, and well, *gestures broadly.*

[@davidboesen4400]

Really well done! I liked the skit, hope to see more like it

[@Daveooooooh]

Great game, as there's not that many big boss's then yeah it'll seem like it's looking at your deck, but with so few you're going to run into this kind of thing a lot.

[@joeykeilholz925]

ERDTREE??? A DLC? FOR GAME OF THE YEAR????

[@Professor_Utonium_]

We've really fallen as a community, us gamers

[@sandeater2024]

First time I saw Seth's setup sad to say he isn't a really minimalistic man but IG I can't complaini

[@seththepotate]

Minimalism is for chumps

[@sandeater2024]

@seththepotate × / | × \

[@DennGreenIII]

Had the same experience trying it for the first time. 2 weeks off work, I work midnights so when I'm up everyone else is sleeping, and I got bored. Randomly remembered there was a game nominated for goty and thought I remembered it being on mobile. Found it, downloaded it, played one run and was tired so went to bed. Next day was a Christmas party at my dad's, and decided to show my brother because we get into the same stuff. We spent the whole Christmas party playing it and discovering the game together (when we first started we thought the glitched mult joker was OP lmao oh how innocent we were) anyways we had so much fun, that I invited him over that night to play, and I bought the game again on steam this time, and we literally just got drunk playing balatro until the sun came up, and when I woke up in the morning he had downloaded it on his phone also. Now it has a complete chokehold on us, it's the only thing I do in my free time, and I'm not even that good at it lol

[@sdrawkcaBmaS]

I feel the satisfacory addiction. It has its fangs deep in my brain

[@onelazynoob15]

I got all the achievements on steam. Now I'm two gold stickers away from getting every achievement on mobile. 😅

[@onelazynoob15]

I've done it. Completionist++ on both steam and mobile

[@astroorbis]

1. balatro balatro balatro balatro balatro 2. i need that monogon mug this fucking second

[@NandR]

This is how I was when I was told about Factorio. I was warned. Back in 2014. And I was warned about Mount and Blade Warband. I never listen. Now here I am on the fence.

[@seththepotate]

With how my brain gets scratched by Satisfactory, Factorio scares me. I haven't tried it yet for personal safety

[@therattynatty]

Balatro is my GotY for sure. I refuse to download it on my phone because I think it would be the end of my productivity lol

[@Burnt_clutch89]

All I thought was " A card game? Gambling's really getting out of control isn't it?"

[@sabasaba9790]

A card can have three kinds of modifiers. Enhancement, Edition and Seals. If you can get all three on one card, then you try duplicate it!

[@sangan3202]

only problem ive seen is on switch it has some kind of memory leak and the game starts lagging as the run goes, its solved by closing and opening the game but i can tell you ive played it through with the slowdown cus i just didnt wanna take the 10 seconds to reset it

[@Professor_Utonium_]

That's really weird, I play on Switch and have never encountered that. I wonder if downloading it to system memory or SD Card might have something to do with that.

[@seththepotate]

I had that happen to me on mobile once. It just kinda... froze and crashed? Then it was fine lol

[@luizbertoncini]

That intro was literally me 🤣

[@thelastofitskind3034]

All of my friends and myself said the same thing wtf is belatro how in the world did it even won 🏆

[@thecoffemug6574]

hey great vid, i really liked how you explained it :)

[@ronnmozz]

Amazing video, this channels going to blow up soon. The videos are so well done, it’s inevitable

[@ronnmozz]

Also, house of leaves on the shelf, instant subscribe

[@joshr96]

Will have to check this game out. Remember playing a similar game in Dave the Diver (minigame). I guess they are both based on some older card game since they both share the joker power up concept.

[@SkDiggy]

Oh... So, it's like that card minigame in Dave the Diver, that I forced myself to play and found surprisingly fun... Only more complex... I think I'm probably gonna get this lol

[@X862go]

Idk it didn't hit for me.

[@NotTheBestAround1]

nothing is going to stop me from playing Balatro there's no laws against it Seth 😈 also i wanna see you play dragon ball sparking zero

[@seththepotate]

Your funeral lmao

[@NotTheBestAround1]

@@seththepotate *attend it*

[@gurjindersingh3843]

This is why you never judge a book by its cover

[@wolflance64]

Been playing since last year, I enjoy watching newbies

[@DEmeant0r]

Steam says I've got 100 hours on Balatro, that doesn't even count the 20-30 hours I've put on my phone as well.

[@poxx3916]

I got Balatro 2 months ago. I haven't seen the sun in weeks. Please... someone send food

[@8bitbuilds]

Nice video Seth! Subbed!

[@FartwithnoF]

You’ll video was meal worthy (I watched it while eating) thank you

[@TrashBa7]

Since the game came out, I’ve sunk like 600+ hours into this game to get completionist++ and I STILL find myself itching to play more. The only bugs I’ve found are related to how Steam gives achievements, but other than that I’ve found nothing. Addicting is the perfect way to describe this game

[@kakeup]

I love Balatro, I played it round a freinds house on his steam deck and I bought it as soon as I got home and now I've sunk lots of hours into this game, its so fun, im nowhere near unlocking all the stuff but im getting there.

[@m.a6416]

Get it on your phone and uninstall it from your pc. It's perfect for killing time when you need to kill time. I was late to a dentist appointment and they told me I can get in after 2 hours since I missed my time slot. I sat down, opened Balatro on my phone and it felt like I sat down for 2 minutes before my name was called.

[@PolterGibbst]

Wished I would have watched this video when it came out... feel like i have a problem now. 😂 Everyone's gonna be wondering where's the next video, but I'm just too "busy". 😂😅

[@favgameisundertale1912]

I feel like a lot of new players really like the Four Fingers Joker. Before Balatro was on mobile I downloaded this knock off that had the base mechanics, but no shop, spectral cards or vouchers. You basically just got a random pack of either Jokers or Tarots, and you could get Constellation cards (which replace Planet cards) and I really liked the Four Fingers Joker (although they later changed them to "monster cards"), but, as I played more and more, especially once Balatro was released on mobile, I learned that it's not always that good. It's okay to just go with whatever strategy the run gives you, and adding more mult is usually better.

[@gomezthechimp1116]

you can look ahead to see what the next boss is, and plan for it.

[@cmoney163]

Balatro was robbed

[@McSmurfy]

3 days later for me too😅. Finally got a win and now see sound.

[@brandilasagna]

first video of yours i've seen! well done! Balatro is easily one of my favorite games this year

[@Vario69]

*sticks to Cobalt Core

[@atu7219]

House of Leaves in the back tho

[@wndr099]

I had to take my switch mid video to play balatro thank you

[@SXZ-dev]

I think Balatro well deserved it, it fundamentally nails the soul of what videogames are all about, it's a throwback to a simpler era, Pacman and Space Invaders, when the goal of games was just to be quick instant fun, not Hollywood productions digitally recreated. I think it's important to always keep one such game in the nominations to keep developers grounded in what gaming really fundamentally is at it's core.

[@oldmaui7302]

House of leaves on your bookshelf ! Based

[@Shiawase813]

Stop possessing people, Jimbo

[@angelicambyence]

8:25 OMG I thought this too! I rarely put all my buffs on one type of poker hand, but the one run I JUST so happened to put it all on ONE poker hand...in the later half of the game, like Ante 7 or so....I get the "Most played poker hand is debuffed." or whatever the wording is for the first time. And its like..."HOW DID YOU KNOOOW?" XD

[@TheStrangeSelf]

This game is pretty much perfect. I'm so happy it exists AND the creator is cool? yesssss

[@NEMOsleeps24]

Balatro is now on mobile, and if you have a folding phone with a large inner screen this is a real game changer. Ive opened my phone twice as much as I used to since the mobile version released

[@Micromation]

Nobody is ever gonna be able to refund Balatro... Steam has only 2h refund policy and there ain't no fucking way you will notice the flow of time while playing it. You sit down for 15min and it's been 5 hours - it's a goddamn black hole, time just flows differently :/

[@seththepotate]

On the upside, that black hole will upgrade all your hands so...

[@revlayle]

They say "The Plant" is worst... but, it's really "The mother-fucking Flint" (half base chips and mult) that kills my runs

[@seththepotate]

The Flint is god-awful

[@ericwarncke]

Agreed

[@Randomsmashfan64]

Fuck the arm though. Hate how it weakens my hands.

[@momatik]

Good video. You briefly mentioned the mobile version. Would you recommend that?

[@seththepotate]

Absolutely. That's been my main platform for it. But having access to it at all times is one hell of a temptation

[@jawhoney]

I jus played vampire survivors and i understood immediate and the laugh

[@reed6514]

10:30 you mean give it 115 minutes

[@nicholasgeorge4156]

I’ve been playing balatro for a few months. I’m 42 percent done on mobile. 192 stickers and some are from negative effects I had on jokers I know I’d never use any other time. That’s the only thing I hate is that a ROGUE game meaning play the way you want, makes you use every deck and every joker on max difficulty for 100%

[@Acez768]

casually ignores metaphor

[@rodrigoalves-cg6xv]

Hey dude, what's the outro music? Please, it's awesome!!

[@seththepotate]

Dammit the one time I forgor to put it in the description... It's "The Kill" (Instrumental) by Particle House. Liscened through Epidemic Sound

[@scarlett_j]

Thanks for liking the game I've produced. You are epic!

[@eliottbourgois1651]

How the f did you get a monogon mug ? XD great vid

[@seththepotate]

Official SL0 merch! Linky: crowdmade.com/collections/brandonjla/products/brandonjla-monogon-white-mug Also thanks!

[@BEED0GG]

It's even worse playing on your phone. You take this game everywhere. Very addictive. First day I downloaded it i played for 3 hours straight on my phone.

[@pk251]

BONEWORKS MONOGON COFFEE MUG WTF YOURE AWESOME

[@r0xjo0]

I was bored of this game in 20 minutes.

[@yairmendoza2501]

Abandoned deck is one of the best decks ever and Plant does nothing to you

[@FredMorgan-gb5el]

There is 4x speed you know

[@brocktpate]

Great breakdown of Balatro, super valuable for a new player like me. I agree on cross-saves. It would definitely get me to be a repeat customer. If that isn’t enough for the devs, I don’t know what is haha.

[@wabisabi7600X]

I love rogue likes and multiple times have tried to get into Balatro But as a poker player I can't for the life of me separate the pokerness of the cards, this alone I believe is why I can't enjoy the game, oh well I guess I have some more time to try and beat Elden Ring

[@dailynews5683]

Just started, I can't get past stage ante 4.

[@armsregkralkidna1359]

This game makes me excited for 4 day like crazy, but when i beat the game suddenly my enthusiasm gone.

[@WUSITME]

I love that you have to tell people not to play the $10-15 game cuz it consumes all ur time cuz it's that good

[@IsaiahSuber97]

i was on the beta.i was cooked before i even knew what was coming

[@hatkidd]

Love the monogon mug

[@TheDomainGPCE]

So, play Balatro

[@zarrahkat8954]

I'm never one to travel the hype-train. I'll play a demo to be sure but the hype around this one seems a lil sus. I can say that many of the other games up for awards were not impressive. I would rather hear you grind an axe in thee background. - Peace.

[@Cream_Sleaze]

I have refrained. And shall continue per your recommendation. Thank kind sir. It's INSIDIOUS

[@pezster8324]

I disagree the Plant isn't a problem. The ARM is worse. Also the Smudge Joker can bone ya in the Boss rounds.

[@flamingscar5263]

Had me won over with the monogon mug

[@MaxLBogue]

wish i had seen this before tuesday night...

[@lassipls]

I literally disappeared from the face of the earth for a whole week after installing this game

[@JonDenton]

Great vid

[@porafriken]

didn’t expect to see you down here! would love some gaming vids from you as well

[@jpthedrummer4258]

Yoooo Jon my man!

[@aidangordon4544]

Oh, hi Jon 😂

[@mattbrownruns]

The giggling sent me

[@tcgdude]

Great 👍 video. Thanks for the breakdown. Subbed up. See you next time!

[@butwhytho4858]

This is free on Apple Arcade. And it’s ruining my life 🤣

[@BLEEDINGSKELOS]

This game is crack. My mind goes numb, and I wake up from my stupor with thousands of dollars. If only life was like that.

[@marcjigshechogerona]

May the naneinf be with you brother