Among the various decks in Balatro, the Painted Deck stands out as one of the most challenging to master. With its limited Joker slots, it can surprise players who are accustomed to the typical five slots. Adapting your strategy is crucial, much like with other decks in Balatro.
While the Black Deck offers more Joker slots but fewer hands, the Painted Deck does the reverse—making each Joker slot significantly more important. As the difficulty of the game escalates, completing the Painted Deck becomes increasingly challenging. Here are some strategies to help you succeed.
Understanding the Painted Deck
Here’s a brief overview of how the Painted Deck works. When utilizing this deck, your hand size will increase by two cards, while the number of Joker slots will decrease by one. As a result, your starting hand consists of ten cards, but you only have four Joker slots.
To unlock the Painted Deck, defeat any deck on the Green Stake.
This setup increases your chances of drawing rare hands since you’ll see nearly one-fifth of your deck when you start. However, it also makes it more difficult to obtain compatible Jokers, which forces you to make harder choices about which Jokers to keep or sell.
As you progress, the challenges grow, especially when aiming for a complete run in Balatro.
Winning Strategy for Early Stakes with the Painted Deck
To begin, here are some effective strategies for using the Painted Deck during the early stakes, which include:
- White Stake (Default)
- Red Stake (Small Blind offers no reward money)
- Green Stake (Scoring scales faster for each Ante)
These stakes are relatively manageable as they don’t significantly alter the overall deck strategy, simply making the blinds slightly more challenging.
The first priority when using the Painted Deck is to consider which hand you want to focus on. The increase in hand size makes it easier to achieve strong combinations like Straights, Flushes, and Full Houses. Therefore, choosing one of those three options is a solid strategy for your run.
A high-risk but potentially rewarding approach is to aim for Straight Flushes, which becomes more feasible with your larger hand size. However, it comes with risks due to its rarity, so starting with a Flush or Straight and then shifting to a single suit is advisable for building a Straight Flush.
In the early game, the best Jokers to look for are those that boost Mult for individual cards. Some popular options include suit-specific Jokers, as well as others like Gros Michel, Fibonacci, Even Steven, Scholar, and Walkie Talkie. As your run progresses, focus on finding Jokers that work well in synergy to maintain momentum.
|
Joker |
Ability Description |
Why? |
|---|---|---|
|
Gros Michel |
Increases your Mult by 15. |
A consistent +15 Mult bonus per round is incredibly valuable, especially as you play more cards per hand. |
|
Fibonacci |
Grants +8 Mult for every Ace, 2, 3, 5, or 8 you play. |
With a 10-card hand, you are more likely to see these numbers, allowing for effective Mult stacking. |
|
Even Steven |
Playing even-numbered cards adds +4 Mult. |
Since half of all numbered ranks are even, this makes it easy to earn a high Mult quickly. |
|
Scholar |
Aces provide +20 Chips and +4 Mult when used. |
Building around Aces makes good sense, as they synergize well with Fibonacci for an extra boost. |
|
Walkie Talkie |
Playing a 10 or 4 gives +10 Chips and +4 Mult. |
Given that you have a 10-card hand, your chances of playing these specific cards increase, leading to steady gains. |
As your run progresses, focus on finding late-game Jokers like The Tribe, Bloodstone, Arrowhead, Smeared Joker, and Ancient Joker for Flush strategies. For Straight builds, look for The Order, Runner, Hiker, Four Fingers, Troubadour, and Shortcut. Regardless of your strategy, acquiring effective multiplier Jokers, such as Cavendish, Baseball Card, and Yorick, is crucial.
|
Joker |
Ability Description |
Why? |
|---|---|---|
|
Flush Build |
||
|
The Tribe |
x2 Mult if the hand has a flush. |
A straightforward multiplier card that adds flexibility to your Flush build. |
|
Bloodstone |
1 in 2 chance for a played Heart card to x1.5 your Mult. |
This is effective for a Heart suit Flush build but relies on luck unless used with Oops! All 6s. |
|
Arrowhead |
+50 chips for every scoring Spade card. |
Helps accumulate chips in a Spade Flush build, but needs a solid Mult Joker paired with it. |
|
Smeared Joker |
Heart and Diamond cards count as the same suit, Spade and Club cards count as another. |
This card may not add chips or Mult but greatly simplifies constructing Flushes and Straight Flushes. |
|
Ancient Joker |
Every card of a random suit triggers x1.5 Mult, with the suit changing each round. |
This Joker can provide significant boosts if used strategically, benefiting from synergy with Bloodstone. |
|
Straight Build |
||
|
The Order |
x3 Mult if your hand contains a Straight. |
This is a great choice if you’re committed to building Straights. |
|
Runner |
Gains +15 chips for each Straight played, starting from zero. |
This creates a powerful synergy when combined with The Order. |
|
Hiker |
Every card played receives a +5 chips boost, which remains even after Hiker is sold. |
This enhances the value of your base cards, creating lasting benefits. |
|
Four Fingers |
All Flushes and Straights can be completed with just four cards. |
This is especially beneficial for Straight builds, given their typical scarcity. |
|
Troubadour |
+2 hand size, but -1 hands per round. |
This expands your already large hand size, making Stight straights more accessible. |
|
Shortcut |
Straights can be completed with gaps of one number between cards (like 10, 8, 6, 4, 2). |
This significantly eases the construction of Straight builds. |
|
All Builds |
||
|
Cavendish |
x3 Mult but has a 1 in 1000 chance to go extinct. |
This evolved version of Gros Michel can provide a substantial boost if you can find it. |
|
Baseball Card |
x1.5 Mult per Uncommon Joker currently active. |
This offers a unique multiplier based on your current Joker combinations. |
|
Yorick |
Starts at x1 Mult and increases by x1 for every 23 cards discarded. |
This works exceptionally well for larger hand builds focused on discarding. |
Winning Strategy for Mid to Late Stakes with the Painted Deck
As the stakes rise, new strategies come into play. These stakes involve:
- Black Stake (Eternal Jokers are added)
- Blue Stake (-1 discard)
- Purple Stake (Scores scale even faster for each Ante)
- Orange Stake (Perishable Jokers are added)
- Gold Stake (Rental Jokers are added)
For these higher stakes, all previous strategies still apply, but some become essential. First and foremost is the use of Negative Jokers, which can effectively compensate for the deck’s primary limitation by allowing you to include extra Jokers.
Securing Negative Jokers is critical, and the opportunities for free Negative Jokers in subsequent shop visits should be prioritized. Particularly if you already possess a Double Tag from earlier skips or by selling the Diet Cola Joker, pursuing these options can significantly enhance your runs.
Additionally, when it comes to shop Vouchers, always purchase Blank as it opens up the Antimatter Voucher later in the game, which guarantees an extra Joker slot.
At the highest stakes, where Perishable and Rental Jokers are prevalent, there’s a chance of acquiring a Negative Perishable Joker, which can be quite frustrating. There’s no foolproof method to ensure a Negative Joker doesn’t turn out to be Perishable outside of using the Ectoplasm Spectral card, which can still yield unpredictable results.
Now, at these higher stakes, focus on Jokers like Blueprint, Brainstorm, Baron, D.N.A., and Hologram. The ability to adapt is critical here since Perishable Jokers may require you to change strategies mid-run.
|
Joker |
Ability Description |
Why? |
|---|---|---|
| Blueprint |
Copies the ability of the Joker to its right. |
It effectively duplicates powerful Jokers, bolstering your run significantly. |
| Brainstorm |
Copies the ability of the leftmost Joker. |
This can create powerful combinations and even allow for copying Blueprint. |
| Baron |
x1.5 Mult for each King held in hand at the end of a round. |
Crafting Steel Kings with a Baron card is among the easiest ways to reach high scores. |
| D.N.A. |
Creates a duplicate card of the first card played every round, provided it’s a single card. |
D.N.A. stands out as one of the strongest non-scoring Jokers since it can tailor your deck to your needs. |
| Hologram |
Starts at x1 Mult, increasing by x0.25 for each card added to the deck. |
In conjunction with D.N.A, each round adds significant Mult to Hologram, enhancing your scoring potential. |
Overall, especially as you progress to the Gold Stake, aim to acquire at least two high-quality, non-Perishable Jokers that complement each other, alongside multiple Negative Jokers of varying quality.
Lastly, don’t let yourself get discouraged. While skill plays a part in Balatro, luck is also essential. Don’t hesitate to hit the reset button frequently at higher stakes—it’s normal to face challenges even with easier decks as you reach the top-tier stakes, and the Painted Deck can be particularly tough to master.
