Balatro has received a brand-new update that not only makes the game much easier across all Stakes but also adds new Jokers into the pack.
The latest update for Balatro is perhaps its biggest as it seeks to rebalance a lot of the game’s difficulty as well as add in new content. Players can expect buffs to certain cards, as well as tweaks to the Antes in each Stake. We’ve explained all the major changes below as well as outlined the full patch notes so you can go into this update ready.
Balatro Update 1.0.1 Makes the Game Much Easier
Balatro’s first major update, 1.0.1, is making some seriously big changes. The first major change is to Ante scaling. The White Stake will have reduced score scaling on Antes 3 and 4. There are also tweaks to the scaling on Antes in both the Purple and Green Stakes as well. Finally, card packs will no longer get progressively more expensive per Ante in the Orange Stake, thus further tweaking the difficulty.
Additionally, several cards have received buffs and two new Jokers have been added: the Perishable Joker and Rental Joker. Perishable Jokers will disable any Joker that gets the ‘perishable’ sticker after five rounds. They have just a 30 percent chance to appear during Orange Stake runs. On the other hand, you’ll have a 30 percent chance to get the Rental Joker during Gold Stake runs. These cause Jokers with a ‘rental’ sticker to cost $1 upfront and then an additional $3 every round. This effect will stack alongside the eternal and perishable effects.
The update is available now, but only as a public test. This means it’s not officially out, but the public can trial it and give feedback on any issues. You can access it by right-clicking on Balatro in your Steam library and then selecting Properties, Betas, and Beta Participation. Finally, from the drop-down menu, select public_experimental. Once you boot up the game, you’ll be playing the updated version.
The full update will be released in “about a week,” according to the developer. However, there’s no word on when it will come to console, although we suspect relatively soon. You can find the full patch notes in the section below.
Full Balatro 1.0.1 Patch Notes
- Updated version of Love2D – this fixed an issue on Windows and Steam Deck causing poor/stuttery performance for some players
- Added toggle for ‘Reduced Motion’, removing the swirly background and gyrating card motion
- Changed default fallback tarot from Fool to Strength (when all tarots are on screen)
- Changed Gold Stake random seeds – now ensures that the first Legendary Joker on that seed is a Joker that you have not won with on Gold Stake (For Completionist++ hunting)
- Changed ante scaling in white stake:
- Ante 3: 2800 -> 2000
- Ante 4: 6000 -> 5000
- Changed ante scaling in green stake:
- Ante 2: 1000 -> 900
- Ante 3: 3200 -> 2400
- Ante 4: 9000 -> 7000
- Changed ante scaling in purple stake:
- Ante 2: 1200 -> 1000
- Ante 3: 3600 -> 3000
- Ante 4: 10000 -> 8000
- Ante 5: 25000 -> 22000
- Changed Orange Stake:
- Scrapped increasing pack cost
- Added new ‘Perishable’ mechanic, Jokers have a 30% chance to have a ‘Perishable’ sticker, disabling them after 5 rounds
- Changed Gold Stake:
- Scrapped -1 hand size
- Added new ‘Rental’ mechanic, Jokers have a 30% chance to have a ‘Rental’ sticker (stacks with eternal/perishable), making them cost $1 up front and $3 every round
- Changed eternal to apply to Jokers in Buffoon packs
- Changed the first shop in every run to always include a normal Buffoon pack as one of the pack options
- Upcoming blinds/tags can now be seen in the shop immediately after defeating a boss blind/cashing out
- Some Blinds are now be banned on challenge runs – banned Crimson Heart, Verdant Leaf and Amber Acorn on ‘Jokerless’ – banned Verdant Leaf on ‘Typecast’ – banned Verdant Leaf on ‘Non-Perishable’ – banned The Plant on ‘Mad World’
- Buffed Saturn
- Now gives +3 mult instead of +2 mult for Straights
- Buffed Neptune
- Now gives +4 mult instead of +3 mult for Straight Flush
- Buffed Eris
- Now gives +50 chips instead of +40 chips for Flush Five
- Buffed Ceres
- Now gives +4 mult instead of +3 mult for Flush House
- Changed Uncommon tag – Now makes the uncommon joker free
- Changed Rare tag – Now makes the rare joker free
- Negative, Polychrome, Holo, Foil tags all make their respective joker free
- Changed Investment to give $25 instead of $15
- Changed 8 Ball – scrapped old effect, new effect -> 1 in 4 chance to spawn a tarot when any played 8 is scored
- Changed Blue Seal – now creates the planet card of the final poker hand played during the round
- Changed both Mad and Clever Joker – scrapped ‘contains 4 of a kind’ effect, now applies instead to any hand that contains a ‘Two Pair’
- Changed Yorick – scrapped old effect, new effect -> gains X1 mult every 23 cards discarded (starts at X1)
- Changed Magician Tarot – now applies lucky to 2 cards instead of 1
- Changed Midas Mask – now only applies Gold enhancement to scoring face cards, costs $7 was $6
- Changed Vampire:
- now only removes enhancement from scoring cards
- gives X0.1 mult per enhancement instead of X0.2 mult
- Rare instead of Uncommon
- Changed Madness – now only applies on small/big blinds, not on boss blind selection
- Changed To Do list – poker hand no longer changes on payout, always changes at end of round (won’t get stuck on Straight Flush)
- Changed description of Shortcut to include a more apt example (10 8 6 5 3)
- Changed Ancient Joker – the selected suit is no longer able to repeat between rounds
- Changed Swashbuckler – Now adds sell value of all other Jokers to Mult, not just the Jokers to the left
- Changed Hanging Chad – Now retriggers the first played card 2 times instead of once
- Changed Flower Pot – Now includes the base suit of debuffed cards when determining if it will trigger
- Changed Bootstraps to include current mult bonus in description
- Changed all 4 Sinful Jokers (one for each suit) – they now each give +3 mult per suit instead of +4 mult
- Changed Banner – now gives +30 chips per remaining discard instead of +40 chips
- Changed Fibonacci – costs $8 instead of $7, because Fibonacci
- Changed Steel Joker – Now gives X0.2 mult per Steel card in full deck instead of X0.25 mult
- Changed Odd Todd – Now gives +31 chips per odd ranked card instead of +30 chips
- Changed Sixth Sense – Now uncommon and $6, was rare
- Changed Hiker – Now gives +5 chips to every scoring card played instead of +4 chips
- Changed Gros Michel – Now has a 1 in 6 chance to go extinct instead of 1 in 4
- Changed Seance – Now uncommon and $6, was rare and $7
- Changed Riff-Raff – Now $6, was $4
- Changed Vagabond:
- Rare, was uncommon
- $8, was $6
- Applies when you have $4 or less, was $3 or less
- Changed Cloud 9 – Now $7, was $6
- Changed Mail-In Rebate – Now $5 was $3
- Changed Reserved Parking – Now common, was uncommon
- Changed Lucky Cat – Now gains X0.25 per lucky proc, was X0.2
- Changed Trading card – Now costs $6, was $5
- Changed Campfire – Now gains X0.25 per card sold, was X0.5
- Changed Smily Face – Now give +5 mult per face card, was +4 mult
- Changed Golden Ticket – Now payes out $4 per gold card played, was $3
- Changed Bloodstone – Now has a 1 in 2 chance to proc, was 1 in 3
- Changed Onyx Agate – Now gives +7 mult per club card, was +8 mult
- Changed Glass Joker – Now gives X0.75 mult per glass card destroyed, was X0.5 mult
- Changed Stuntman – Now gives +250 Chips, was +300
- Changed Invisible Joker – Now requires 2 rounds and costs $8, was 3 rounds and $10
- Changed Burnt Joker – Now is rare, was uncommon
- Changed wording on most scaling jokers to refer to ‘this joker’
- Fixed bug where opening a booster pack with hand size of 0 was unskippable
- Fixed bug where the card generated by ‘Certificate’ was not being debuffed by the boss
That’s everything you need to know about Balatro’s latest update. For more articles just like this one, be sure to check out our Guide Hub.