I Found An Incredible ONE CARD Strategy! - Balatro

Balatro Part 2 - you might think the way to win is with crazy hands like four of a kind, full house, and straight flush. However, did you consider the power of scoring just a single card with the high card strategy? This game has loads of surprises.
Edited by: Noarsy and Ben Ranger
#aliensrock #poker #roguelike
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COMMUNITY: discord.gg/aliensrock

[@KidGhost23]

the card that gave you the negative joker would’ve given you an extra joker slot, but decreased the amount of cards in your hand every draw by 1

[@Leekodot15]

Actually, doesn't it give TWO jokers? Since it makes it consume -1 slots and not 0, or am I incorrect?

[@icecream5125]

@@Leekodot15it would of only given 1 and removed another

[@salvatoredantonio2413]

​@@Leekodot15it consumes zero slots, so just one extra joker being itself

[@Leekodot15]

@@salvatoredantonio2413 Aaaah gotcha.

[@JacobTheCroc]

I downloaded the demo for myself to play it on my offtime and from a single demo I scored 10 hours of playtime and despite discovering everything this game had, I could not stop myself. There's something about this game that's just really good and addicting. Never before a demo made me play for this long.

[@zeelix5]

Islands of insights playtest did that to me too😭

[@Roader_021]

I have 18h in island of insights and its pre beta i believe 😅

[@evsicles]

i had 80 hours in the peglin demo, it had like 30 relics and 10 balls at the time, i really like pegging

[@woodsies4185]

As soon as this game is fully released I’m buying it I cannot wait and I can’t stop myself from playing💀 I’m not even good nor have I ever played poker but this is such a good game

[@arsonathan7997]

gambling addiction

[@GoFastBoots]

If you don't know, your passive jokers will always activate from left to right. So if you have cards that multiply they should generally always be on the far right of your joker track so the multiplier is factored after all of the additives have been totalled up. Joker ordering matters! You can also move cards around in your hand to reorder them. Which makes certain tarot cards much stronger (the one that takes two selected cards and turns the left one into the right one for example)

[@nevorotem6819]

he did it in the video

[@mloxard]

He knows

[@Schilani]

@@mloxard These comments are still really nice to have for other people watching.

[@NuclearWinterMan]

I didn't know you could reorder your hand.

[@kokoslocos4716]

ye first time i played, it was also bad for the tarot card that makes 2 cards into the rightmost one, i didnt know you can reorder, so it was always the left one into a smaller one which aint worth ngl

[@fabioiafrate1508]

I'm really happy the demo is out finally, a little bummed that most of the content is locked out but that's to be expected. Would've loved to have access to a few more decks especially.

[@brayachdragonbane7529]

the negative upgrade is one of the best, and -1 cards in hand doesnt matter on a high card build.... this game is fascinating love watching it

[@MajkaSrajka]

-1 card is actually synergy with the hate symbol card the raised first

[@brianarsuaga5008]

This game's really fun. My first run I ended up winning with a very broken straight flush build using a joker that makes 4 cards satisfy either a straight or a flush. That allows you to get a straight flush by playing a straight of four with only three identical suits, then adding a fifth card of the needed suit. Getting a straight of 4, and a flush of 4, even in disparate sets, counts as a straight flush like this. From there I used a bunch of arcana to turn nearly all my face cards into clubs. Oh, I also used that spawning card that gives you a free planet/tarot when you play a hand with an ace AND (not OR, Tyler!) a straight, which was silly easy to trigger because I could just add an ace to any straight to trigger it. Insane value, and you can sell the bad ones too.

[@0netwoguy54]

I did not realise the synergy of 4 fingers that way. Holy mackerel, I'm going to try that next run.

[@jonathanbanning9558]

14:28 weird how Tyler randomly gets mad, must have been a bug I think because he also randomly lost a streak on his multi-boosts

[@kitsicles111]

Definitely a bug, not a mistake

[@torvikgrendahl6129]

The Tyler CIA is on its way to your house for mentioning that

[@mambodog5322]

@@torvikgrendahl6129 what do you mean? It was clearly a bug, the game's fault for resetting the combo

[@Bouncy_Seal]

For clarification: x1.5 multiplier has no effect on how much you should focus on multipliers. It's functionally the same as multiplying your score by 1.5 at the end. Also, the area of the rectangle is, counterintuitively, NOT optimised when blue and red are equal, as blue is easier to increase than red. Therefore, if you have 50x50 and can increase blue by 20 for the cost of increasing red by, say, 5, that would get you from 2500 to 3150. The actual value you should aim for is a multiple of the "exchange rate" between the two, whatever that is.

[@OakenRecord]

ur really smart I don't even fully understand what u said lmao

[@Smallpriest]

Well said

[@kutairaisu4603]

​@@OakenRecordit doesn't work that way, although I don't know the insides of the game itself. In your example you increased blue by 20 and decreased red by 5 (from 50x50 to 70x45), but if instead you evenly add those "15 points" to the 50s, 57.5 x 57.5 = 3306 But, again, in game and with all the mechanics it could vary. Mathematically speaking, you should aim for equal numbers, and the rectangle analogy is correct.

[@kutairaisu4603]

Replied to the wrong person, lol

[@Smallpriest]

@@kutairaisu4603 my dude you just said "but again, in game and with all the mechanics it could vary". The OP is literally explaining how the in game mechanics causes it to vary in terms of how you should optimise. If you actually played the game you would understand that the OP is correct Let me give you a clearer example. Lets say your current "damage" is 30 chips x 20 multiplier. The shop comes up and you only have enough coins to buy 1 upgrade. You have 2 options, 1st upgrade gives +20 chips, 2nd upgrade gives +10 multiplier. If you pick the 2nd upgrade to make your damage 30 x 30 =900 because its a square, then you would be wrong because the 1st upgrade would make your damage be 50 x 20=1000

[@LocalThunk]

No way another video!!! Thanks again for playing Balatro :) Loved the video and the editing is incredible

[@niklp6116]

I want a physical deck of all the jokers so bad 🤑 They are so shiny and beautiful!

[@mloxard]

Tyler's explanation really helped it click for me! I kind of knew instinctively, but now it makes sense Ps. Thanks for the awesome game! Can't wait for the full release

[@TwoToneShoes]

Hey now I did it in my one live stream Mr. Thunk! It's just no one watched :p

[@CilantroGamer]

What do you mean by 'area under the rectangle' design idea? I think I missed something...

[@waltercardcollector]

@@CilantroGamer The part where Tyler talks about how ideally you want the red and blue numbers to be as close together as you can get them, because they multiply in the most efficient way. You can think of it as how the area inside a square uses space more efficiently then the area inside a long skinny rectangle.

[@andrewshirley9240]

One small correction on the multiplication tip you start going on about at 20:45 ish-- you are correct that if you have a finite number of points to allot between A and B, then the square (A=B) is the most efficient use of those points. So if you are choosing between a +10 being applied to red v blue, and you know R=20 and B=30, then you add the +10 to red, every time. Makes ton of sense for addition bonuses. However, multipliers are different-- multiplication is commutative, A\*B\*C is the same result no matter which order you multiply them in. So a 1.5x to red is the same as a 1.5x to blue, no matter what the initial values of red or blue were. There's also the fact that "assigned points" isn't always so clear as being 1:1. In the above example, what if the choice was between R+10 and B+15? Well they would actually be equally as powerful, because that "addition" can be viewed as functionally a multiplier to the base, and already demonstrated, the effectively multipliers are all we're trying to maximize here.

[@Zebo12345678]

I mean, Tyler was talking about the ratio of red to blue _after_ bonuses were applied (such as multipliers) so that he could maximize his final score. He was adding flat values to his chips (blue) and flat values + multipliers to his red value (the chip multiplier). Once those bonuses are resolved, he's left with as close to a square as possible. If he goes too heavy on chips, then the value of increasing his multiplier goes up. If he goes too heavy on multipliers, then the value of chips goes up. That's really all he was saying, and it's the reason he wants to keep red equal to blue as much as he can.

[@Qyubij]

this is wrong because you are multiplying the mult not the whole score, if you increase the mult then you get more mult when you multiply the mult (confusing i know)

[@Viscidsquare040]

@@QyubijBut the multiplier mult happens after all multipliers are added up in this case. That means the final evaluation is equal to Chips * Multiplier * Multiplier Multiplier where the order doesn’t matter. For example, say you have 10 chips, 10 multiplier, and 2x multiplier multiplier. Adding an equal amount to chips or multiplier gives the same result here. 11 C * 10 M * 2x = 11 * 20 = 220 10 C * 11 M * 2x = 10 * 22 = 220 You can think of it like adding chips giving the multiplier multiplier more things to affect after increasing the multiplier.

[@GroundThing]

Right before you got it, I was thinking "You know, this run could really benefit from a revolutionary". I would have gotten rid of the Half Joker though. You still want to be playing high card hands, but Splash is actually really good for high-card hands, since it lets you score 5 cards no matter what, and you want to get rid of low cards, which could be odds for a total of roughly +50 or so chips per hand (since the opportunity cost is different between mult and chips, thinking of it like maximizing a square can be useful, but really you'll never get 1-to-1 chips to mult trade offs, so it's better to think of it like each bonus chip you get is worth your mult value and each mult is worth your chip value, so if you're stacking mult, it's better to give some static chip value, especially if you're playing low cards for revolutionary and get fewer chips from rank)

[@louisgunstone723]

got a top 3% score in my medicine entrance exams today so this video is a little treat for me :)

[@lakoderdritte994]

Congratulations!

[@noarsy7716]

congrats!

[@NickiRusin]

med school is tough! great job man!

[@RohitKulan]

You listened to those people that say "become a doctor"! Congratulations!

[@Katsforever]

good job!

[@1unar_eclipse]

26:06 I think it only starts tracking after you buy that one from what limited stuff I've seen

[@Luigicat11]

"I thought I bought a lot of planet cards." You have, but it only starts counting _after_ you've added it to your Joker set. Very good to have early game, not so much right at the end.

[@poijnve3912]

13:31 you hand is 8 cards, and remember you can only have 5 joker. that spectral card what it does is reduce your hand to 7, and give one of your jokers the bonus of negative, which make it count as a negative card, meaning you can now have 6 jokers (to get more multiplayer, probably for longer runs) of course the importance of it being in a joker means that you will lose the extra space for joker IF you sell the joker with the bonus to slot~

[@pallad4742]

Played my own way through after seeing the first video, very excited for the full game release and all the future videos. Already found some very interesting combos/hands that I want to see Tyler's reaction to, don't want to spoil anything though. As a tip, that celestial joker you found in the last shop that adds x0.1 to the multiplier for every planet card played? It always starts at x1 when you purchase it, and adds the x0.1 for every planet card played after that, so you can't nerf yourself accidently with a bad multiplier, like the stencil joker which I also hope you find and can use. If you see the celestial joker in an early shop, that's the time to buy it so you still have time to get planet cards and upgrade it.

[@Tango_168]

Always a good time watching Tyler

[@channelchanger2839]

This game is seeming to be very cool! That whole high card combo was amazing! Cant wait for the full version to release!

[@scottylightheart7180]

i’m really happy your starting a series with this game! i really liked it when someone else played it but they only did a video on it and i’ve wanted to see more of since :D

[@gloopgloopglorp]

It's really refreshing to see a math nerd play this game :) I've been watching a few people play it and you're the first person to mention aiming for squares with the red and blue numbers multiplying together.

[@maxl_2034]

This game is REALLY fun to watch. An Aliensrock video is always a good watch!

[@lychee349]

Yess, happy to see more of this game!

[@PhiNickGaming]

This game has a lot of potential and I'm here for it. First roguelite in a while that's really grabbed me as a viewer.

[@blankadams3120]

Also, the no face cards deck can really help with the Ride the Bus joker, as Aces don't destroy the combo, and you don't have accidental face card use...

[@JRDUDE2007]

Thank you sm for introducing this game to me, it has been so much fun to play. I can't wait to see you try out the other decks

[@bang_lihat]

For a Demo this game looks hella polished. Cant wait to see more of this ❤

[@darknessblades]

Alien try to get cards with the negative foil effect, this allows you to get 1 more joker card [stacking] Then you also have astronomer and blueprint, which form the ULTIMATE combo. as they each multiply the current multiplier Soo if astro has a multiplier of 2.5 and the current multiplier is 100 you get 250, it then gets multiplied again due blueprint to 625

[@MrBrander]

21:31 WOW! That's actually super good explanation how sum of numbers can be the same but the multiplication can give you different result and thus indeed having equal numbers is better than having unequal numbers. Wow. That's some seriously good explaining there. I hadn't even realized that during my 34 years of life before this day. And that can be even tested with 7x7 = 49. 6x8 gives you 48 and if we go even further 5x9 gives you 45 but the sum of all those numbers (7+7 = 6+8 = 5+9) is the same, 14. And that explanation can help in understanding other things too by opening untraditional doors for untraditional viewing angles for different things.

[@ultradude5410]

Man that’s the demo?! That’s almost solid as a full release! It looks like there’s a TON of stuff planned, and I think this game has a TON of potential!

[@robloxianwasdude]

Pluto, after being deemed a dwarf planet, got its revenge 17 years later in the form of a synergy card in a demo for a rougelike Poker game. Who would've thought this sentence would be true until now?

[@Briliam11801]

I love these card puzzle games, glad to see it

[@billcipher1756]

cant wait for this game to fully come out been loving watching you playing it

[@seethedeo]

Hype man! Hope you really go hard with this game. I liked landlord and the blackjack game but this seems like a perfect blend of the two.

[@oliveguardian7757]

would love to see way more of this game

[@TheQuicksilver115]

YES! This is already my new favorite series

[@Cookie_Dragons44]

I love your vids man❤❤ Keep it up!

[@Mathtriqueur]

Playing with spectral packs was good for a while because of the ouija effect. Then they nerfed ouija by reducing your hand size by 1 and the five of a kind from 200 x 20 to 100 x 10.

[@ninjashoe2158]

Dang. To be fair, that was the only consistent way of getting 5 of a kind, so they didn't have to kill it THAT hard.

[@Mathtriqueur]

​@@ninjashoe2158Been playing since the change and I personally feel right now that one of the most powerful builds is the abandonned deck aiming for flushes with a bus and supernova. But I could be wrong for what the meta could be since I've gotten other runs that did just as well.

[@ninjashoe2158]

@Mathtriqueur I find both the Yellow deck with the extra 10 starting cash (really 12 with interest) to be nice for a few decks as well. I can see the value in the abandoned deck, though, although it's a bit harder to kick off due to the lack of 10 value cards.

[@Qyubij]

​@@ninjashoe2158not really, tarot cards help loads

[@theneekofficial8829]

For the record the joker at 26:09 that talks about planet cards, it only adds up multiplier for planet cards used after buying it. that’s why it says x1 mult. if you get it early on though it can be a beast as you just like build it up and up and eventually it’d be better than like a polychrome x1.5 type beat

[@HoomaanHedayat]

I was waiting for another video on this game LETS GO

[@RealMester]

I absolutely love this new upload schedule, thanks Tyler

[@penguinsarecool6357]

I preferred the old upload schedule tbh, I could watch it before I went to sleep.

[@theodorewhaley4184]

This game looks awesome and I have been really enjoying a lot of your content

[@Living_druid0911]

Day 1 of asking Tyler to start a video with “hey tuys Gyler here!’

[@Living_druid0911]

Shit-now I gotta keep this chain going

[@sealboi9666]

Tey huys hyler gere

[@LeVarito]

Don't surrender keep it going

[@dragonthatshootsboilingtea3884]

Hatty hattington has found a new name and life in asking tyler to do things

[@disbled]

Yes

[@mr.breadsllama]

Great video, had some weird technical stuff happen around 14:00, and might've missed a half minute or so, but I'm sure that it was nothing important.

[@nygus20]

I'm extremely grateful for content creators like aliensrock for showcasing these amazing gems of a games that I would not see otherwise.

[@LucidTyrant]

My favorite AliensRock video where nothing of particular note happened at 14:00

[@duckmunch8307]

Sadly, the Planet Card Joker doesn’t start scaling until you buy the joker. It always starts at x1 multiplier

[@blizzard8958]

Love the half hour long videos!

[@kcrusade2013]

Hey Tyler, I’m not sure if you discovered this already on other runs after this, but you can move around the jokers. If you got a joker that multiplies the red number at the start, as you get more jokers that add the red you can move the one that multiplies to the right of them and it’ll multiply at the end instead of whatever position it’s in

[@thegoat9219]

Yeah this game is very very cool I hope you play it a lot in the future when it releases

[@mloxard]

I won today with a nice three of a kind build! It was pretty similiar to yours and was very fun to play

[@VriskaEightExclamationMarks]

the thing about trying to make the red and blue close to equal is that usually anything that improves blue usually improves it by a lot more. usually in my strongest builds the blue is still quite a lot bigger. and improving red when you have a multiplier doesnt actually matter more than improving blue, because red and blue are multiplied, and thus the multiplier also multiplies the blue in a way. in an x*y*z equation z doesnt multiply just x or y, it multiplies their product. also the joker that improves multiplier per planet bought only improves after its bought, and its at 1 by default. so if you had gotten it earlier in the run it would have easily carried. in the final boss fight remember that you dont necessarily have to sell. sometimes the cards themselves dont add any real value to the score and the extra joker would add more value. in this case the cards themselves only added a little bit of chips while the joker added a lot to the multiplier.

[@rickadias]

This game is really cool indeed. Please keep the gameplay coming! =D

[@Tyler-ho8ts]

I can’t wait for this game to release. I’ve already played the demo a dozen times. Never been so excited for a game demo

[@Azuriian]

Thankfully Tyler didn't mess up the "Ride the bus" joker card strat, that would have been very ashaming B)

[@Petruslol]

Thank you Tyler for showing me this game, I gave it a go the other night and ended up playing a couple of rounds and winning one (Flush build, got the Planet card to lv14)...at 3 am. This game is definitely going on my wishlist!

[@OBESETURTLE29]

Please play more of this game and the puzzle mmo! I dont know if you stream but I am a loyal youtube viewer! 🎉🎉

[@AssJagger]

Highly recommend getting this game. It’s not out yet, but the demo is free and as you probably can see from the videos is a lot of fun

[@ronannung4678]

For the constellation joker or the joker that uses the # of planet cards used as a multiplier, Its base multiplier starts at 1, and after being bought, it adds a .1 multiplier to its base for every planet card bought. Any planet cards used before it is bought will not be registered for the increase in the multiplier.

[@blankadams3120]

The planets joker? Starts at x1 when you buy it, and increases by x.1 every time afterward that you buy another planet card. It can get huge if you buy a lot of planets.

[@element_119]

Tyler's gambling arc has returned, and I'm all for it!

[@adamnicholasparker]

Loving this.

[@RandomCrowe]

The constellation joker doesn't start counting until after you buy it unfortunately so it's best if you can get it early. It's does pair stupidly well with the astronomer joker which makes planet cards free and with telescope to ensure you get a good planet from the constellation pack though.

[@felixd8665]

I thought you got early access to the game, and I was already excited to get it when it came out. Now that I know this is only the demo, I'm even more excited.

[@thebigpotate]

Bus play was amazing and Tyler used it to it's fullest potential

[@exiledtobronze8694]

absolutely love this game can't wait till full release... also try to get a spectral card and go 5 of a kind... gotten 60k+ hands that way!

[@sspaghet4080]

my word i love watching tyler play this game

[@xtra_1807]

I cannot believe this is a DEMO, cant wait to see more videos on thus game

[@snotrod7]

I’m still blown away by that snake game Tyler played a few months ago

[@Rb_Drache]

In Verdant Leaf(last stage), not selling a joker can also be a valid option depending on what jokers and cards you have, because you’ll only lose chips from the cards and any additional effect those cards have(steel, mult, bonus etc.) It didn’t matter in the and because of the glass card tho lol

[@bobinard9759]

13:17 negative gives +1 joker slot and they remove 1 hand space. You get one less card but you can play one more joker

[@yakoquarneti1288]

Tremendo juego y el rufián de Aliensrock me robó el corazón

[@murphthegangster]

I can’t wait to see “all polychromial joker run” in my feed one day, I know it’s coming

[@johnd5740]

Dropping that Calculus optimization knowledge

[@Bananas5678]

The Joker that gives *0.1 per planet card used ability only works after you get it

[@Fabbbio1001]

Oh boy this game has a fantastic art style with cards

[@electromika]

He hated it at first, but that gold seal 6 of clubs is what won him the game... enemies to lovers

[@HalfBoyHalfGod]

Absolutely cannot wait for all the shenanigans this game will bring

[@00Krohnos]

You can actually win against the final boss without selling a joker as long as you aren't relying on the played cards for bonuses! I won that way and it was awesome!

[@JaySlaterOfMars]

Negative (lets you pack another joker in, right?) and -1 hand size seems pretty awesome for the high card strat.

[@somewhatpixels6814]

this is an amazing game with already a good amount of content for being a demo

[@ShimmeringSpectrum]

Early game: Lots of complex strategizing about how to maximize efficiency Mid game: Three of a kind is baller Late game: Ha ha 6 of clubs go brrrrrrrr

[@greatsageclok-roo9013]

"High card is the weakest hand in Poker." *Tyler with this game:* Hold my beer.

[@Vitro101]

During the final boss fight, it sometimes can be better to opt for not selling a joker and living with the debuffed cards. For your build, you would lose the 10 chips from the debuffed card, but keep the ride the bus joker which will give more chips overall.

[@NotSoAnonymousSoldier]

i love watchign this game

[@solzutv]

The card that gives you +0.1× per starts out at 1x no matter when you get it, and it's not just adding whatever it has to the red like adding 1. To a red score of 5 making it 6 but instead multiplies it, so let's say you have a red score of 50 and you have this card leveled to 1.3x then you will have your red number increased to 65

[@PuRelBoss]

Just started playing this game. Got a flush house / flush build ended up 1 handing the final demo boss.

[@awalker300]

love this game.

[@junin3738]

Yes yes yes more balatro 🙌🥰

[@darkpurpletcgs8628]

Love this game!!!!!

[@DracoGalboy]

It'll be interesting to see how you would do in actual hold'em

[@TunkrDunkr]

I love this game so much bro 😭

[@Run2127]

Without Splash, you can play face cards as long as the Ace is the highest card.

[@pideperdonus2]

This game is so long that I didn’t even know this was a DEMO. I thought that it was the full release.

[@thonk7611]

wait is the using rank/suit to figure things out about the face down cards intentional?

[@zacharyjohnson7944]

Ride the bus, gold joker and to do list are super super strong if you get them early. Ride the bus is actually just broken

[@sarry419]

I saw in a post on steam that this game aims to be released in feburary.

[@kevinb1229]

Just a friendly reminder (and I don't know if you figure this out later; forgive me if you already have), but if a Joker says that your hand needs to 'contain' a certain hand in order for it to activate, that just means it has to be ANYWHERE in the hand. For example, at 1:50 it said 'contains a Pair'. For that requirement, a simple Pair would work... but so would Two Pair, Three of a Kind, Full House and Four of a Kind. If you make a Straight Flush, it will activate any Joker that requires a Straight or a Flush. It's a good thing to keep in mind for future runs!

[@Aliensrock]

The card does not say 'contains a pair', read it again.

[@kevinb1229]

You know what? You're right. My brain's just so used to the ones that add mult if they 'contain' a certain hand from the last demo that my brain auto-corrected it. Just goes to show that everyone makes mistakes

[@lucianoariasduval]

The "red side gets x1.5, so it's better than blue side" isn't entirely correct. You still made the right call, though, odd todd isn't maxing out in a high card set-up and supernova scales, it's known to be one of the best jokers in the game. Anyway, getting back on track: if you think about the scoring formula you have Chips x Mult x (and then all of your Multipliers individually, in this case just a) x1.5. Imagine your hand is worth 100 x 10 and you have a 1.5 multiplier. Without any other modifiers, you get a 100×15 for a score of 1500. If you had a joker that added 100 chips, you'd double your score, while a +20 mult for an extra 30 on the red side would triple it. However, if you already had other jokers adding mult and your hand before calculating either of those jokers looked like 100 x 60 x 1.5, the +100 chips still doubles your score while the +20 mult bumps it up by 30%.

[@vbkfivn]

I am just begging for this game to be released. I love games like this.

[@Mothuzad]

You were correct that n * n will be greater than (n-c)*(n+c), but you overlooked the fact that getting one more multiplier is more costly than getting one more chip. If you factor in some exchange rate like 3 multiplier to 10 chips (which seems to be the difference between the two card upgrades I've seen), then you want your chips bonus to be about 10/3 times your multiplier. That might not be the right factor, but you get the idea. The second thing is that the 1.5x multiplier doesn't mean you should prefer multiplier over chips, because you're going to end up multiplying all 3 of those numbers anyway.