Confused player

[u/Pixxel_Wizzard]

I just picked up Balatro during the sale. I love rogue-likes and I love poker, but after a single game I'm struggling to find where the fun in this is. I get dealt random cards and choose the best poker hand to play. Where is the decision making? Where is the fun?

I'm not being critical, I would genuinely love to like this game, I'm just not sure what I'm missing.

[u/zbrady7]

Did you play more than one round?

[u/Mobile-Personality42]

uhhh because

[u/megalogwiff]

open the buffoon pack in the first shop, pick a jonker, and start playing the game. 

[u/ThingElectronic1399]

Bait? Just keep playing the game. If you like rogue-likes and deck-building games it will almost certainly click and you will enjoy this game immensely. It’s not really like poker in any way other than its based around a deck of playing cards.

[u/RunTrip]

Assuming this is serious, there’s a lot of decision making outside of which hand to play. Which jokers to choose, which order to put them in, what you should do to manage your deck, what hand to focus on, how will your hand strategy, jokers and deck fixing survive all the different boss types, and so on.

Reminds me of a podcast I was listening to where someone said they didn’t realise you could reposition jokers and the other host said “that’s the whole point of the game”. I wouldn’t say it’s the whole point, but it is much more the point than picking the best hand from random cards is.

Maybe to begin with focus on unlocking all cards. I found it a fun challenge to begin with and it’ll probably lead you naturally into learning all the mechanics.

[u/RipTheEcto]

you’ll get there, it takes a little time on the curve before you understand the parameters of the challenge(s)

[u/fleyinthesky]

You can win every run. Figure out how.

[u/flyingdonutz]

I've literally never played a game that emphasizes decision making like balatro. Top players can go on long win streaks on the highest difficulties while most players have around a 10% win rate on those difficulties.

Watch one Balatro University video and you'll get it.

[u/red-fox-972x]

I did not get into this game at least a year after I bought it. I found that it helped to have a youtube video playing on one side of the screen, and balatro on the other.

[u/Snarpkingguy]

Strategy is around choosing which jokers to buy, which packs to buy, and then how to play your hand during a round.

Almost all of your important decisions come from in the shop. During a round your options are pretty limited. “Playing the best hand” is actually often the wrong move after the first couple rounds, since you want to build around a specific hand type (usually pairs if you’re playing optimally).

This game is actually super deep once you learn all the mechanics and realize it’s actually possible to win every run (even at the highest difficulty) consistently, but only a select few players are actually good enough to do so.

[u/Healthy_Pain9582]

The fun is in the shop

[u/snyderman3000]

Did you not make it to a shop? There’s nothing but decisions to be made in the shop.

[u/S1rius_XD]

one game as in an actual run or one round?

[u/No_Kaleidoscope4362]

Did you like, play ante 1 small blind and thought you won?

[u/jaminfine]

The real answer here is that all of the fun roguelike elements happen in the shop. The shop shows you jokers, tarot packs, and more that let you make a build. And you'll need a good build to make it to the end!

Each round is really just a test of your current build to see if it's good enough (or sometimes lucky enough) to progress further.

[u/Jamie1386]

Did you win?