Morten Graversen
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35 Min read If you’re looking for the best Balatro Jokers our tier list has you covered for clearing the Gold Stakes difficulty.
We’ve ranked every Joker from best to worst with descriptions for why they’re placed where they are.
Be sure to check back whenever there is a new balance patch and just in general as the meta develops.
| Tier | Balatro Joker Tier List |
|---|---|
| S+ | Blueprint, Brainstorm, Triboulet |
| S | Vampire, Cavendish, The Duo, The Trio, The Family, Spare Trousers, Canio, Campfire |
| A | Hiker, Fortune Teller, Rocket, Setlzer, Trading Card, Bloodstone, Perkeo, Fibonacci, Onyx Agate, Arrowhead, Sixth Sense, Space Joker, Burnt Joker, Hologram, Driver’s License, Steel Joker, Ancient Joker, Card Sharp, Baseball Card, To Do List, Business Card, Mail-In Rebate, Cloud 9, Golden Joker, To The Moon, DNA, Green Joker, Gros Michel, Ramen, Ride The Bus, Stuntman, The Tribe, Throwback, Vagabond |
| B | Supernova, Scholar, Walkie Talkie, Sock and Buskin, Smiley Face, Scary Face, Wee Joker, Square Joker, Riff Raff, Half Joker, Invisible Joker, Constellation, Certificate, Ceremonial Dagger, Raised Fist, Yorick, Blackboard, Shoot The Moon, Egg, Abstract Joker, Swashbuckler, Misprint, Turtle Bean, Madness, Hack, Hit The Road, Rough Gem, Gluttonous Joker, Wrathful Joker, Lusty Joker, Greedy Joker, Diet Cola, Blue Joker, Bootstraps, Burglar, Acrobat, Baron, Seeing Double, The Order, Cartomancer, Flash Card, Delayed Gratification, Even Steven, Mime, Popcorn, Castle, Odd Todd, Ice Cream, Runner, Faceless Joker, Hanging Chad, 8 Ball, Photograph, Erosion, Lucky Cat, Glass Joker, Flower Pot, Obelisk, Joker Stencil, Reserved Parking, Joker, Oop! All 6s, Midas Mask, Mystic Summit, Superposition, Satellite |
| C | Matador, The Idol, Juggler, Splash, Pareidolia, Loyalty Card, Dusk, Jolly Joker, Zany Joker, Wily Joker, Mad Joker, Clever Joker, Sly Joker, Bull, Banner, Smeared Joker, Astronomer, Drunkard, Droll Joker, Crafty Joker, Crazy Joker, Devious Joker, Troubadour, Hallucination, Chaos The Clown, Mr. Bones, Merry Andy, Red Card, Showman, Stone Joker, Marble Joker, Gift Card, Luchador, Golden Ticket, Credit Card, Shortcut, Four Fingers, Séance |
These Jokers are the best of the best, basically always worth it.
At worst, this is just a copy of your best joker at the moment. What makes it broken is the ability to rearrange Jokers as needed.
For example, before the blind, copy your pre ante effect, before discard move it to copy your discard effect, then move it to the scaling Jokers (Space Joker) on early hands, and finally move it to your high-scoring Jokers to clear the blind. It won’t copy all Jokers but the Blueprint will let you know if the joker is compatible.
This is great for all the same reasons as Blueprint but slightly worse as copying the leftmost Joker means sometimes having suboptimalJoker ordering, especially when you want to copy Xmult Jokers.
It gets ridiculous combined with Blueprint. Note that it will not copy all Jokers but the Brainstorm will let you know if the Joker is compatible.
This Joker is Legendary so it’s only obtainable as a 1/5 chance from the Soul Spectral card. You won’t be seeing it too often and shouldn’t modify a deck expecting to see it later. That said, if you see it, it can power you straight through Ante 8 and beyond with ease.
The Joker is strongest doing 5 card hands with only kings and queens but still incredibly strong with just two in a hand. It benefits heavily from mult card enhancements and base hand mult as the effect is applied as the each king and queen is scored.
This tier of Joklers can carry runs alone or pair with so many strategies they can almost always be picked. They don’t require additional build around or investment most of the time.
Every deck will want to be adding enhancements cards so expect to have this Joker work for all good runs. It works when picked up early mid game or late and works with all hand types.
As an Uncommon, it shows up frequently and is easy to stack. It’s getting nerfed next patch to scale slower, increase rarity to rare, and only trigger on scored cards, but currently one of the most common and strongest Xmult jokers.
Xmult is almost required to clear ante 8 so all builds will look to transition early game jokers into one or more Xmult jokers. Note it doesn’t remove seals or editions and when combined with Midas Mask, put Midas Mask left of Vampire unless the cards are already enhanced.
Unconditional X3 mult has no need for scaling, is incredibly strong, is always active, and works with every hand type. To see this Joker on a run, you need to have Gros Michel get destroyed earlier in the same run which massively increases Gros Michel’s value.
This will feel awful when it destroys after the 1st round you buy it but I’ve only had that happen once and it was the only time I’ve ever seen it destroyed.
These cards are common Jokers to carry a run. They can all be run together for 4 and 5 of a kind decks. The Duo, while a lower Xmult can be run in Pairs, Three, Four, and Five-of-a-kinds, as well as Full Hhouses and even Flushes once the deck has copies of the same number and suit.
They still work through common transitions of Full House into four and five-of-a-kind. The Family doesn’t work in as many decks and is the hardest to trigger so the weakest individual Joker of the three but strong enough to be the only Xmult in four and five-of-a-kind decks. Overall, they’re excellent Jokers that slot smoothly into a variety of decks.
The best scaling +mult Joker as it’s easy to stack and scales quickly. It Easily carries early game and scales fast enough to be picked up in the mid-game. Once sufficiently scaled, it is strong enough to swap into hands that don’t stack it anymore and still remain relevant.
The +mult triggers on all hand types not only hands with Two Pairs. I will always grab this if I see it in the 1st 4 antes. You may find you want to play multiple weaker hands at time to further stack this Joker – also note that Four of a Kind does not contain a Two Pair.
Another legendary Joker, so don’t count on seeing it in most runs. While its effect might be trickier to build up compared to many other scaling Xmult Jokers, it packs a serious punch with each trigger.
Even with just 1-2 face cards removed, it’s already a force to be reckoned with, and it only gets stronger from there. Tarot cards are crucial for all strategies involving deck manipulation, and all it takes is one Hanged Man (which destroys 2 cards) to activate this bad boy.
In strategies centered around face cards (which are common due to their strong Joker combos), you even can focus on removing one of those face cards to get the ball rolling. Plus, glass cards become even more critical on higher-stakes runs, and this Joker’s power will stack when glass face cards break, adding another layer of strategy to the mix.
This card can be made to work early on with a strong economy, but where it truly shines is after rounds 6, 7, or 8, where it single-handedly rescues runs from certain defeat. It’s absolutely ridiculous when paired with purple seals, any of the economy or consumable vouchers, or an extra Joker slot.
Getting it to X2-3 after the boss blind is incredibly easy, and if needed, you can supercharge it by buying and selling repeatedly before the boss blind, especially with something like Violet Vessels X6 blind. Just be careful not to buy eternal Jokers during that final push.
Better in five and four-card hands, as well as well-thinned decks, as the card will stack up faster, but it’s incredible overall. I’ll always pick this if there’s room for it at the time because the upgrade on the cards is permanent. Oftentimes, I’ll grab this for a few Antes before selling it for late-game Jokers to strengthen the deck. If you have some way to trigger cards more than once, such as Red Seals or Hiker with “trigger twice,” having this Joker for a few rounds increases your chip values without using a Joker slot anymore while still allowing different enhancements on cards.
This is Stier on lower stakes, but once you hit Orange stakes and pack costs increase, you’ll notice that it stacks slower. Even with the increased pack cost, all strategies rely on Tarot cards to modify the deck, so a good run will naturally have more Tarots used.
Since this counts all previously used Tarot cards as well, it can be picked up on later Antes already +20 or more. As I moved up the stakes, I’ve been picking it less often early, as it isn’t as consistent as it is at lower stakes.
However, it is still one of the best +mult Jokers and can easily slot into any strategy, rewarding you for something we’re already going to do anyway. Knowing this card exists, the power of The Emperor (2 random Tarot cards) is undeniable.
When picked in Ante 1 or 2, it solves all econ problems without any additional investment in play pattern or deck building. As pack prices increase, so does the payout, allowing you to keep buying everything you want. I wouldn’t pick it past Ante 4 since it will scale too slowly at that point.
This Joker is incredibly powerful in the right deck at the right time. I’ve skipped all small blinds and big blinds Ante 5-8 to make sure I still had Seltzer for Ante 8 boss blind.
It doubles the effects of all card modifiers and all Jokers that trigger off played cards, so in builds that have multiple played card Jokers, you have functionally doubled the amount of Jokers.
Most of the time, this card will be used to give a power boost on a struggling run, to make it through a few more Antes and find the Jokers you actually need. It’s never bad, but make sure you sell it before it expires unless you really need it.
Deck thinning is always powerful in deckbuilders. Getting rid of the cards you don’t need permanently improves the consistency of your deck, preventing run-killing dead draws.
Even if this card only had the deck thinning component, I would consider it for many runs, but it also gives a respectable economic boost. Economy cards are also a very important part of the early to mid-game, allowing you to better afford planet and Tarot packs at higher stakes.
This card does both, setting you up for later success. The one-card discard does hurt when you only have two, but it’s definitely worth it.
On its own, it can be a little inconsistent, but it’s so strong that I’m willing to switch to a Heart Flush build when seen early. I generally find Flush builds weaker, as you have to invest a lot of Tarot cards into suit changes instead of effects that will actually increase your score or economy.
This card’s effect can carry a run if it’s your only Xmult Joker, but it really benefits from some way to double-trigger Heart cards or even the double probability Joker, Oops! All 6s. Very powerful, but definitely a build-around for that exponential growth.
While this legendary Joker doesn’t directly increase score, it allows for some very unique and powerful strategies for economy, leveling hands, or deck modification. The flexibility of this card is its real power.
If you need money, copy Hermits; if you need base hand mult, copy the Planet card; if you have one important enhanced card, copy Death. Set up can be a little tricky since you need to get the consumable you want into the consumable slot, but it’s worth it.
This Joker sets up very strong decks in a way no other Joker can, but you do need to not be at risk for losing immediately, and often it will get sold later for a scoring Joker.
+8 mult is a lot, and this card has a lot of targets. So early on, it can carry with pairs and two pairs of the listed cards while you work towards a four, five, and/or Full House deck. It remains good early and stays strong late, making it one of the best Jokers that affects scored cards due to its relevance from early to later game.
These are the black suit uncommon Jokers, both very strong. When picked up, they are strong enough to justify a focused flush run, but you will still need some strong support Jokers to make it through Ante 8, like trigger doublers or good Xmult. I think the Onyx is a little stronger, but both are good.
This Joker thins out sixes from the deck and provides spectral cards, which have some of the strongest effects in the game. With this card, I’m willing to add or increase card ranks to create more sixes.
The deck thinning alone is very strong, even if the spectral hits are bad. It’s the only consistent way to get spectral cards in consumable slots, which is crucial for Perkeo, and spectral cards in the consumable slot are a lot stronger since you can use them at the right time during a round.
Always a solid choice, even if it only hits 2-3 times before you need to sell it. Planet packs are rarely worth opening at higher stakes due to the increased cost, making this the best way to upgrade 5 card hands. It works even better with easy-to-assemble hands that don’t clear rounds in a single hand, as you get more opportunities to trigger Space Joker, i.e., lower card hands. Alongside the next card, it encourages me to opt for lower card hand strategies, as they compensate for the weaknesses of those strategies, which include lower chips from cards and lower level 1 values.
Great for many of the same reasons as Space Joker, but it primarily shines with High Card, Pairs, or Two Pairs. If I spot it early, I’ll quickly shift gears into one of those strategies since they’re straightforward to execute, although they do require high deck investment.
While it can also be effective for assembling more challenging hands like 5 card hands, it’s best to hold off on using the first discard until you can spare some hands. I’m not fond of using it with 5 card hands because it’s difficult to assemble multiple of the same 5 card hand without risking losses on the early antes, especially when you’re mostly working with the starting deck.
However, it can easily boost High Card or Pair levels to 10-15 on its own, addressing the chip and base mult issues these decks typically face.
This Joker can scale into an incredibly strong Xmult Joker, especially with spectral cards or the Joker that adds cards with a seal to the deck. It makes it worth it to open early card packs where it otherwise wouldn’t be. This card can carry a run on its own and isn’t too hard to scale with good scaling per stack.
The reason this card isn’t S tier is it can lead to deck bloat when adding suboptimal cards to the deck in order, definitely still worth adding bad cards to the deck for the first 8 or so stacks.
Also, without strong econ and some good luck, it can be difficult to consistently add new cards. Some bad luck with packs in the store can leave this stuck at X1 at an inopportune time resulting in a game loss. I would generally avoid this card past Ante 6 or if I’m already about to lose.
When you see this card at the right time, it can save runs—it’s a very strong Xmult. Since you’re already modifying the deck, and it only cares about the current enhanced card, you’ll always know when to pick it.
I’ll only pick it when it’s already active or if I’m only one or two away and know I’ll get there before I need it. I wouldn’t grab it early and hope to get there, as you often can’t afford to have a dead joker for the first 6 or so Antes at gold stakes.
Another potentially very powerful Xmult Joker. Steel cards are good in all strategies and vital to high card strategies, where a lot of power comes from in-hand effects. I look to grab this once I have 2-3 steel cards.
In some runs where I don’t already have Xmult or only have bad Xmult by Ante 4-5, I’ll grab this and pray. It’s very strong since it rewards you for doing something that’s already good.
Works well to supplement Xmult in five-card hands that aren’t flush-based and can carry Flush builds where you can make flushes of any suit. It selects suits randomly from all suits, not just ones in your deck, so it can be a detriment in specific suit flush builds where you only want to make hands with a single suit and decks which are modified to have uneven suit distribution.
With a full hand of the suit and double triggers, you won’t need much else to complete Ante 8.
Very strong as soon as you can consistently make the same hand twice, which is very early on easier hand types but with sufficient deck modification can become consistent with 5 card hands. If you are dependent on this Joker, the no repeat hands and only one hand boss blinds will end your run so be careful.
Can be harder to make work, but a lot of the uncommon Jokers are already really good, and you only need 2 for this card to be worth it. Often, I prefer looking for an upgrade for this card before the final Antes, but it often keeps runs alive through the mid-game. I won’t grab this unless I have at least one other uncommon Joker I expect to hold onto for a while.
This legendary Joker is good at preventing losses from boss blinds that counter whatever you are running, but it does not help you win either. If you have the room for it, this card is amazing and provides excellent insurance from an unfortunate boss blind roll. If you have already hit all run-ending boss blinds, you can also sell it for $10, as boss blinds don’t repeat.
One of the best econ Jokers, as it can pay out very quickly. Frequently able to trigger twice per round, netting $10. Make sure you check what the first scoring hand is so you don’t grab one that you won’t be able to score.
Usually, I grab it, hoping to hit 3-4 times quickly, then sell it when it hits a hand I won’t be able to consistently score, such as a Straight Flush. That To-Do List can give quick bursts of money, then free up the Joker slot again, which is the real power of this card.
A very strong econ Joker; most runs will naturally gravitate towards using face cards early on since they give higher chip value anyway, so this rewards you for doing something you were already going to be wanting to do a lot of the time.
As with most econ Jokers, you are looking to upgrade this into scoring Jokers in the mid-game. By the late game, this card already isn’t giving you enough money to buy all the packs anyway.
A slightly weaker econ Joker than Business Card in my opinion, as you only get two discards to start with. Still, it usually gives $3-6 a round and doesn’t really have any deck limitations. It does sometimes encourage playing suboptimal hands as you want to save a discard to hit more of the selected rank.
95% of the time, these cards are exactly the same. $4 extra each round is very respectable. Neither card encourages suboptimal play to make them work. Cloud Nine is slightly better for me, as I’m slightly more likely to end up adding a 9 than removing one.
An amazing econ Joker if you’re already at the interest limit and vastly improved with a voucher that increases the interest limit. Unfortunately, if you don’t have at least $15 by the end of the round, this card isn’t very good, and it heavily disincentivizes going below the interest limit, which makes it a little worse.
Throughout the mid-game, you’re already trying to keep money above the interest limit anyway, so it’s not as severe a drawback as it might sound.
An incredibly strong way to sculpt your deck as long as you are able to sacrifice one hand per round. Even better in high card strategies where you aren’t sacrificing a scoring hand. Worth noting, this card is key in some endless strategies, but even without that, it’s still a very powerful Joker.
If you don’t have upgraded cards as targets, this card gets a lot weaker. The card is very powerful and will improve all decks, but it doesn’t help you survive immediately. I always want to pick it up but have to figure out when I can afford the Joker slot and $ cost. It’s especially good with one of the copy Jokers.
Easy to stack when picked up early and can be stacked enough to stay relevant through the late game. When picked up early, it is strong enough to carry you through to the mid-game if you just don’t use your discards and instead use the extra hands as discards to stack as much as possible. Look to pick this up with a good econ Joker so you can afford to lose the unused hand money needed to stack this effectively.
A +15 mult is good early, but the reason this card is actually powerful is that when it destroys, it makes Cavendish available in the same run. I will almost always pick this up and then let it die just for that reason.
Very strong on pick up as an unconditional Xmult card. It will help you survive long enough to find better Xmult jokers. Don’t be afraid to still use discards as needed and instead expect to sell this card later. Once it drops below 1.5X, I hope to have already found something better.
An early Ride the Bus is strong enough to justify never scoring face cards and modifying the deck to remove them, just be careful not to accidentally reset this card. I avoid buying this past Ante 4 since it won’t stack fast enough.
+300 chips is a wild amount of chips to have added onto every hand, and when seen early, it’s strong enough to switch into a lower card hand strategy.
I wouldn’t try to fit this into any of the 5 card hand strategies as the -2 hand size is brutal, even for hands as low as two pair and 3 of a kind, unless the deck is already significantly modified. Very strong but with a significant drawback.
Optimal for Flush strategies but weaker than the 2/3/4 of a kind Xmult since it doesn’t work with nearly as many other Jokers and doesn’t overlap with very many hands. Most of the time, I get a Flush 5 or Flush House deck online, I’ve already beaten Ante 8 so this only really works in Flush decks. That said, very strong in Flush decks but lacks flexibility and really needs additional Flush Joker support to clear Ante 8.
When you hit some good rewards on Skip Antes (free shops, big Joker packs) early on, this card can be very powerful and works with all hand strategies. It doesn’t combo well with any scaling econ Jokers that want to run out as many hands as possible to stack, like the Green Joker.
If you pick this up, keep in mind that small blind base money is removed even in the early stakes so it can be more easily skipped, and make sure to check what the skipped blind rewards are; negative Jokers are always great.
This card generates more tarot cards than any other Joker as long as you keep your money low. When you have this, always run your money down as low as possible so rerolls just to get Drain the Bank are absolutely worth it. Tarot cards are very powerful and important to every deck and plan. It is worth playing every available hand with this card, even if you have to run out High Card hands just to make extra tarots.
Keep in mind not to use any econ tarot cards produced until you hit the shop where they can be used to buy as bursts of money to buy everything you want and still spend down below $3. Needing to keep money below $3 each hand is a very significant cost to a run, but the volume of tarots is worth the cost.
B-tier Jokers are situational or hard to make work cards which can be powerful in some strategies but otherwise useless. They include cards that work well as mid game survival tools but will need to be replaced, cards that aren’t that strong individually but work together with other Joker as packages, or weaker versions of good effects
Never bad, but usually gets outclassed late. Outside of Pairs/High Card strategies, where you can both consistently make a hand and need multiple hands to clear a round, this card doesn’t scale fast enough for the late game. Being retroactive helps a lot for this card if you don’t see this in the first few shops.
Aces are already cards you focus on early due to better chip value, and this card can take you into the mid-game on its own, especially if you add some Aces. It pairs very well with Fibonacci, giving chips and +mult, which is very helpful, especially before getting card and hand upgrades.
Good for the same reasons Scholar is. It has the same limitations on worse targets but has 2 targets, so it’s easier to make work across multiple hands in the same round.
Each is pretty good on its own as there are multiple targets and face cards have good base chip values. Sock and Buskin are the weakest early but functionally doubles the other two, as well as the Joker Photograph (X2 on 1st scored face card) and any card modifications.
The three plus Photograph together can clear Ante 8 without needing anything else. Generally, +mult is a little better than chips, so I like Smiley Face a little more, but usually, I’m looking to pick all these up together.
An early pickup of this card can make it worth it to prioritize 2’s in deck mods, and it can achieve ridiculous +chips with effects to double trigger 2’s. Once stacked sufficiently, you don’t need to keep using Twos, and +8 per card is fast scaling, so it doesn’t need to take that long to get there.
Overall, power reduced by needing to use Twos, which have the lowest base value and are frequently removed from decks early on. Being a rare means it doesn’t show up nearly as often either.
Easy to stack early but doesn’t scale that quickly. Usually used with Two Pairs early, which means you lose the extra cards you would normally toss with the two pairs but doesn’t usually hurt too much. Good pickup early but needs other scoring Jokers to survive to relevance. Being a decent common, many runs will use this card for some of the run.
Functions as an econ Joker that also helps you survive the early Antes. Once maxed on Jokers, sell the two worst ones each time. Then, once it makes good Commons, usually scaling ones, you should sell it. Combos well with Ceremonial Knife when juggling Jokers between rounds and after the round starts.
Due to RNG on the quality and type of the Jokers each round, this card is better while a deck is still flexible with the kinds of hands it can make. Strong early but looking to replace in the mid-game.
Can solo carry early rounds and then usually get sold before the mid-game. Very powerful for Pair/High Card strategies for surviving their weak early game, where you will hold onto it into the mid-game until you can find in-hand Jokers and Steel cards.
A very powerful effect, but you need to survive with it for three rounds. Worth grabbing if you have one Joker carrying the game. Before selling Invisible Joker, sell any irrelevant Jokers, ideally just leaving the one strong Joker.
Sometimes I’ll take the 50/50 when I have one Xmult Joker I want to copy and one scaling Joker I can’t afford to sell either. Note: this will copy a scaling Joker with all the current stacks, and copy the edition and an eternal sticker if the Joker has one.
An S-tier scaling Xmult Joker at lower stakes. However, at orange stakes and up, the pack price increases, which means Planet packs are almost never worth the money, which hurts this Joker a lot. For gold stakes, you will see a lot fewer Planet cards unless you have amazing econ.
By the time you do, this card often scales too slowly to become relevant. Still, it’s a scaling Xmult Joker that can work with all strategies, so it’s not bad, but it’s too hard to make work consistently, so it ends up in B-tier.
I really like this card when picked up early, as every seal except blue seals is very powerful in different situations. I don’t let this overbloat my deck; I usually keep it for 6-8 rounds at most before selling it.
Strong with Riff Raff and strong with a solid economy and extra Joker slots. If you don’t have anything you want destroyed, make sure you move it to the far right before the round starts, then move it back where you want it for scoring after. Scales fast enough it can remain relevant late game but not that easy to make work.
Never completely useless, unless you let it hit a card debuffed by a boss blind. Good early on and even in the mid-game with lower card hands like Three of a Kind, which can toss in some of the lowest rank cards along with the scoring ones. Much weaker in 5 card strategies.
A legendary Joker that takes a very long time to come online with 2 discards a round and is dead until then, so most often you lose before this starts working. That said, when it does come online, it’s an easy S-tier Joker, but most often reads as -1 Joker slot.
Strong enough to warrant removing all red cards and can carry a run well with a set-up flush run through Ante 8. However, it is too inconsistent to belong in the higher tiers. It stings when you get stuck with one red card in hand while running black flushes.
Modifying the deck to only have spades and clubs takes a long time and a lot of tarot card investment. It can work with lower card hands with less deck modification, as you get free slots to toss red cards. However, needing to decrease red cards uses different lower-value tarot cards than preferred for the lower card hands, so usually, you can’t do both things. Note that wild cards on red cards in hand still allow this card’s effect to trigger.
You only need 1-2 Queens in hand to make this work in the early to mid-game. You will want to add a lot of Queens but not make hands with them, so you would only keep this into the late game in lower card hand strategies. The early game power makes this card a pretty decent pick on a lot of runs.
A decent econ Joker that can be combined with Ceremonial Dagger, Swashbuckler, and Temperance tarot cards. Hurt by the delayed payout, which means it won’t increase interest payments until sold.
Great early, but falls off quickly, so I’m always looking to replace this card with something better by the mid-game.
Same issues as Abstract Joker and often about the same value, but with some good Joker pairings. If you have Xmult Jokers, do the math to see if it is better to the left or right of them.
Useful at the same spots Abstract Joker is but less consistent with more high-roll potential. Decent overall.
Great for surviving a few rounds, then selling, giving you more time to scale scaling Jokers and find late-game Jokers. +5/4/3 hand size is a very powerful effect. I usually only grab it to hold it for 2-3 rounds.
Very powerful effect if picked up early and actually more viable once Eternal Jokers are added, as they can’t be destroyed. The effect is almost strong enough to work as a solo Joker since you have more money available for other upgrades like card tarot and celestial packs.
It’s very RNG dependent on finding relevant Eternal Jokers, but when you high roll, the game feels easy. A build-around with severe drawbacks.
Doubling effects are incredibly powerful when paired with Jokers that trigger off played cards, but they don’t do a lot on their own, so they need additional investment.
Hack suffers from only doubling low chip value cards, so it really needs to be comboed. When it does combo (Fibonacci/Bloodstone), Hack can be a key piece through Ante 8.
I think my opinion on this card may improve over time, but I’ve unlocked it later and don’t have as much experience with it. It’s a little awkward on the deck-building side, as you want a lot of Jacks in the deck but only to discard.
Only having a baseline of 2 discards means often needing to alter the play pattern to save a discard for Jacks. That said, it’s functional until late game at 2 discarded Jacks, and if built around with discard vouchers, this card does have potential. Resetting each round puts you at high risk for dead draws if you haven’t added Jacks.
While a good econ Joker, being the uncommon Diamond Joker makes Diamonds the weakest suit in the game. I usually grab this when I haven’t found a better econ Joker and have some kind of non-Flush 5-card hand. It’s not a viable build-around the way the other three suits’ uncommon Jokers are.
All three of these Jokers do the same thing and are fine early in all 5-card strategies, as well as important for a single-suit focused Flush build.
However, they will need a lot of additional support to remain relevant into the mid and late game. I usually expect to upgrade these cards by the mid game, but they’re solid overall.
Buy and sell immediately for a Double Tag as long as you still have a free Joker slot. It’s low cost and potentially a powerful effect
Decent early Chips Joker that works with all hands. It’s worse with additional discards and deck thinning. Better for low card hands that benefit most from the Chips anyway and don’t use as many cards from the deck each round.
If you have one interest voucher and stay at or above interest level, this can be strong through the mid game; if you have both, it can be key to beating Ante 8.
It’s a very situational grab as you need a very strong economy. Generally, not spending any money just to stack this card doesn’t feel very strong, but it can work with the right setup of econ joker/s, like an early Rocket.
Combos well with all jokers that benefit from additional hands/cards played to help scale faster. With 2 discards, this is a functional +1 to hands seen, but it isn’t worth it without some additional synergy. Note that it’s compatible with copy jokers for +6 hands.
Can be very strong but forces you to save a good hand to play as the last hand. I find it best with four other fairly strong Jokers as the backup plan that can save a run. If you need this to clear every blind you lose a lot of the extra hand money, usually paired with scaling Jokers that need a lot of hands played to scale well.
A key card for a common endless run strategy, this Joker has a very high ceiling but takes a lot of time and investment to build around to get there. I usually find that by the time a build-around with this card really comes online, I’m well past Ante 8 anyway. A weak early game further hurts this card’s consistency in clearing Gold Stakes, but the high ceiling means it’s worth considering.
Xmult that isn’t too hard to trigger even without a build-around, however, isn’t strong enough to carry on its own. It does require occasionally playing suboptimal hands to make sure it still triggers, such as having to play a Full House with the Pair that has a club instead of the rank relevant to a Joker. Overall, a fine Xmult Joker when you don’t find better options.
Straights are the least flexible and hardest to build around, both for the deck and Joker pairings, making this card weaker than its corresponding hand type Xmult cards. It’s very strong as a stand-alone effect, but I never want to build towards Straights if I can avoid it.
While relatively weaker, Tarot card effects are still very important. This Joker takes no investment other than a Joker slot and no change in play pattern, so I’m happy to grab it when I have an empty slot and can afford to keep it for a few Antes until I swap it for something better.
When set up with strong econ or with reroll vouchers, this card can quickly stack and remain strong through the late game. It stacks at the shops, so no play pattern changes are needed, which enhances its power significantly.
Most of the time I skip it, but I always check if I’m set up to easily stack it. With a lot of money banked, it can even be picked up late to rapidly stack for an Ante 8 push.
Unless you have additional discards, this card is pretty weak, and not being able to use any discards is a significant cost as well. It does not combo with Burglar, as you get discards set to 0. Still, econ jokers are important, and sometimes this is what you get given, rarely having the money to reroll, especially without a better econ Joker.
Not strong enough to be a build around, but a solid addition to early game decks and often kept around in the mid game while looking for more relevant Jokers. Even giving +8 mult is relevant when combined with chip or Xmult Jokers.
Key card for late game low card hand strategies that rely much more on in hand effects than other plans. Early on, it can hit some gold cards or blue seals, but that’s a side benefit more than a reason to pick this card. Incredibly powerful for some decks, but most shouldn’t really consider it.
Like Turtle Bean, it offers short-term power for a round or two. It lets you survive to see more shops and stack scaling Jokers.
I only recommend picking this in Ante 1-2 as it doesn’t stack quickly, but it does stack steadily and easily. It’s a perfectly viable and flexible stacking chip joker, just not the strongest.
Same as Even Steven but for chips so slightly weaker.
Same as Popcorn but for chips.
Straights are easy enough to make early on that you can pick this up to stack early, even though straights are a bad build around. This card is still pretty good since you can stack it at a decent pace early.
If you need a Chips Joker, it can stay relevant later in the game without needing continued stacking, so it can work for many decks.
Hard to consistently get this to trigger, but $5 is a lot of money, so take it when you need an Econ Joker and aren’t doing a Face Card strategy, or with a Face Card strategy that’s steamrolling the current blinds. Decent Econ Joker but pretty situational.
Very situationally good, pairs well with Photograph and if you have one very upgraded card. Early on, it can be helpful with any enhanced card and never fully dead but falls off quickly. Generally, you will want to replace it by mid-game. Make sure to reorder cards in the played hand to put the best card first.
I will grab this early on and be content with getting 4-5 Planet cards before selling it, as I don’t find it too hard to trigger. Since it’s not worth opening Planet packs most of the time on gold stakes, this can be a nice way to upgrade a few hands’ base chips and multipliers.
It is very RNG-dependent, so frequently I’ll find myself selling the Planet cards for hands I’ll never end up using. You will want to sell this by the mid-game.
Excellent when combined with the other Face Card Jokers, but otherwise lackluster. Benefits heavily from base hand multiplier and from double or triple triggers on the first Face Card. Reorder the hand to put a multiplier-enhanced Face Card first to see additional benefits.
Early on, this card only needs +8 or so to be worth it, and if you get lucky and hit an Immolate in a spectral pack, you can be good until the mid-game with just this card.
Most runs will need to replace this card as it is hard to consistently thin your deck, and you will want to add some cards as well. Overall, not a build-around, but you will find decks where this works or even excels based on whatever else you were already doing.
Xmult is essentially mandatory for successful runs, and these are scaling Xmult, but I rarely find they work. Depending on lucky cards hit is too inconsistent, and I avoid using glass cards until I need them.
So, both these cards end up not stacking quickly enough for most runs. I feel the Glass Joker has greater potential, but it has never been good for me. Both also have the opportunity cost of needing to heavily prioritize the relevant tarot card as well.
Strong Xmult but so conditional it rarely triggers. As with Gass Joker and Lucky Cat, you will want wild card tarots to make this work consistently which means you are giving up better tarot cards to make this work. This card can save a run but I’m hoping to be offered better Xmult options.
Incredibly strong in theory, all you have to do is start High Card or Pair for early to mid game and then hard pivot to a five card hands when you need the Xmult. In practice, I’ve found this card always resets before Ante 8 resulting in a loss.
Note playing a hand tied for most played will reset the card so it will eventually reset. This card has a lot of potential for a build around but it’s hard to make work and when it doesn’t it goes back to X1 so I prefer other options.
While this is Xmult, it’s played more as a decent early game card with a single + mult Joker maybe an econ Joker and then empty slots. Keep it as long as the slots are empty but don’t pass up any good scaling Jokers to keep it around.
Hard to have work in late game as the best Jokers combo with other Jokers. The power of this card is not needing to buy C tier Jokers to survive.
Can be strong in low card hands with increased face cards in deck but overall, a weaker econ Joker.
Because this costs $2, it can be purchased in 1st shop and you’ll still have 1$ interest next round. Good for Ante 1 or 2 to survive if you also grabbed an econ Joker or if you didn’t find any other playable Jokers.
Being unconditional helps so you can keep it until you need the slot and it will always help score, but only a little
This is only good when paired with other probability Jokers, I wouldn’t pick it just for lucky cards. Note that it also affects negative probabilities, boss blinds, and glass cards. I really only pick this up when I already have Blood Stone.
Its best use is when combo’ed with Vampire but is also good for turning on Driver’s License. It can be used as a supplemental econ Joker to quickly enhance some face cards then sell Midas Mask.
+ 15 mult can carry through some of the early Antes but this card has a significant negative impact on your play pattern as it need to burn discards, worsening follow up hands.
It isn’t the most severe drawback but it’s also not that strong a payoff. Overall, fine early but will want to swap out in mid game.
Tarot cards are very good and this card is playable but it’s weaker than its competition. Very rarely triggers more than once a round and needs one of two Straights to trigger so many rounds won’t trigger at all. Discarding for Straights tends to make crafting other hand type more difficult so it results in suboptimal play to make this card work.
Not a very good econ Joker as it requires spreading Planet cards across multiple hands to be effective. At the point in a run you want an econ Joker this usually only gives 1-2$.
Lastly, we have the Jokers you generally want to avoid since they are weaker, bad, or borderline useless, but sometimes you will need to pick them up to survive a few more rounds.
Most of these cards are to be avoided so I won’t talk as much about these but I do have a few worth mentioning.
It seems like it should be strong hypothetically, able to trigger multiple times in a boss blind and give $8 each time. In practice, only half the boss blinds can even possibly trigger this Joker, and you most often can’t afford a Joker that doesn’t do anything. I’d only grab it if I knew the next boss blind will make it easy to trigger at least twice.
Only picks from cards you have in the deck, so it has a very high ceiling if you can modify a deck down to only have a few ranks and suits, but it takes way too much investment to get it to work consistently with any consistency. It will usually only have a single target in the deck each round. If you can reduce your deck to a single card rank and suit, this is as good as Triboulet.
The hand it triggers will be very strong, but the amount of juggling needed to set this up for effective use is just too much for my taste. Also, it will not trigger every round, so every other round or more will need to be completed with this Joker dead while still playing to set it up. Not worth the effort and goes wrong too often.
Not terrible if you already have a lot of gold cards from another Joker, but almost never worth it. While I do this, it’s a good idea not to be afraid to play gold cards you need for scoring.
I would need at least 4-6 gold enhancements before I pick this up. I feel that adding gold cards is already fairly weak, so getting a lot of them only happens with Midas Mask.
Doubling trigger Jokers have the potential to be incredibly powerful, but final hand Jokers are generally worse, as mentioned earlier. This card is definitely worth considering for runs dependent on played card triggers, but usually isn’t good enough from my experience.
Very situationally useful for double triggering both the Club and Spade uncommons simultaneously, and that’s the only situation I feel this card is worth a Joker slot.
The Heart and Diamond uncommons aren’t strong enough together to occupy a Joker slot. It can provide some temporary boost in the early game with the common suit Jokers and makes Flushes easier to play, but it’s not strong enough to generally buy; I’d rather save the money.
If you get to see two copies of an important Joker, this card is amazing. That rarely happens, unfortunately, and since it does nothing for econ or score, having it cost a Joker slot isn’t worth it at Gold Stakes.
Multiple of the same Planet or tarot card appearing in packs is detrimental for finding the ones you need, and the vast majority of packs you only get one pick from anyway, so even duplicates of the ones you want don’t matter most of the time.
It is essentially free since you buy it for a dollar and sell it for a dollar. So with empty slots, it’s fine to pick up. Combo with boss blind that sets money to 0 and tarot card that gives a rare but sets money to 0. Otherwise, you really don’t want to be in debt anyway since accruing interest is very important for econ on most runs.
Good effect but too expensive, and not all shops will even have planets or celestial packs, and they are frequently duds anyway. Not a bad effect, but it doesn’t do enough most of the time. I will pick it up if there is a double celestial pack in a shop and I have an empty joker slot, but otherwise no.
For all the chip and mult Jokers for the different hands, they can be useful in the early game and will sometimes stick around to the mid-game if you can’t find anything better. Ordered based on flexibility and strength of the respective hands and mult vs. chips.
The Commons come up with Riff-Raff, so you will sometimes see some of these effects in those runs. Some of these do have combos with other Jokers where you might want it, but even in those situations, there are multiple better options to combo with or the other Joker is strong enough to not need the combo with these Jokers.
I don’t think Stone cards are worth it to put in a deck. They help lower card hands early but clog the deck, harming the late-game plan, which is usually based on in-hand effects.
Since Stone cards aren’t very good, this card would have to be good enough to justify adding Stone cards, and it clearly isn’t.
I already don’t think it is usually worth it to enhance cards in deck with Stone so I certainly don’t want to clog the deck by directly adding them.
I’ve never triggered this card despite repeated efforts. I think it’s an awful joker, and it’s a rare. You will be very unhappy setting money to zero off a Wrath tarot and have this be your rare joker.
Flushes and Straights with 1 less card score fewer points, so even if easier to make, they won’t take you very far. I don’t want this card ever.
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