10 Best Common Jokers Ranked

Balatro is a poker-based deck builder that quickly stole the hearts of roguelike fans with its simple concept, charming art style, and vast collection of jokers.

The game is essentially just rounds of poker, with minimum score values steadily increasing with each round, building to a boss round with difficult winning conditions. The goal is to build your strongest hand with limited discards and collect jokers to increase your chances of winning.

The simple ways that the joker cards interact with the deck of cards you build, as well as other collected jokers, can exponentially affect your scores.

The random nature of both poker and roguelikes makes success extremely difficult, which is very true to the core of the game’s concept. This list will dive into the ten best common jokers, showing you which pieces to look out for to set you up for victory.

The common jokers are more frequent and easier to plan around early, and although some exist to be outgrown, many can interact with the uncommon and rare jokers in major ways.

10 Credit Card

Shopping Strengths

Balatro Joker Collection Credit Card Joker.

The Credit Card joker allows you to go 20 dollars in debt upon purchase, which gives you a lot of immediate power to grow your deck’s skills.

You can use this debt to purchase multiple Planet cards to increase the payouts of your played hands, Tarot cards to change the existing cards in your deck, and Vouchers to change the rule conditions of each blind.

The Credit Card can also be used to buy as many jokers as possible early, so you can start getting big modifiers at the slowest point of the game. This makes surviving the early rounds much more consistent at the cost of earning money fast.

Selling the Credit Card after maxing out the debt is usually the smartest move to open a joker slot back up and take a small chunk out of your 20-dollar debt.

9 Misprint

The Power of Chance

Balatro Joker Collection Misprint Joker.

The Misprint joker is a strange joker because it varies from strong to underwhelming on each played hand. It has the potential for a huge multiplier or a low one and cycles constantly on the art of the card’s description.

The inconsistency of this joker makes it pretty hard to rely on but it maintains as an excellent filler for your joker lineup. Sometimes it can give you just the edge needed to win the entire round and can even make the entire blind trivial.

This joker is best used when you already have a few jokers working in tandem with each other, and its effects are more of a lucky break than a make or break.

It can be easy to lean on as a crutch but should be outgrown quickly before it ends your entire run. In a game like Balatro, consistency is your greatest strength.

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8 Even Steven & Odd Todd

A Dynamic Duo

A side by side of Even Steven and Odd Todd from Balatro.

The Even Steven and Odd Todd jokers are mirrored jokers as their names suggest, affecting even and odd played cards respectively. Even Steven adds a +4 multiplier for each even card played, and Odd Todd adds +31 chips for each odd card played.

Each joker increases the played value of nearly half of your starting deck, disregarding face cards. This means that the combined power of both covers nearly your entire deck and, because they are common, it is easily achievable.

These jokers shine especially when playing Straights making each played card exponentially stronger than played without. It is an excellent combo strategy for early game and can be leaned on while you fill your joker lineup.

7 Scholar

Knowledge is Power

Balatro Joker Collection Scholar Joker.

The Scholar joker applies +20 chips and +4 multiplier for each Ace card played. The strength of this joker can make a single pair of aces clear entire early rounds and scales very well with planet cards, making it valuable as you progress.

Having such a large increase in chips and multiplier at the end of each hand with an ace also carries Royal Straights into great territories because of their inherently high value.

This joker can edge underwhelming and great hands into success and synergizes with many uncommon and rare jokers.

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6 Riff-Raff

Master of Opportunity

Balatro Joker Collection Riff-Raff Joker.

The Riff-Raff joker creates two random common jokers when you select each blind. The caveat to this being that you must have room for them in order for them to be created. Grabbing this joker as early as possible is a great strategy to fill your joker lineup while saving money early.

If Riff-Raff creates jokers you aren’t interested in they can always be sold, further padding your budget for future customization. This joker is very useful for working with jokers that destroy your joker base in order to increase strength.

Eventually, you will fill your lineup with the jokers you need and, ideally, this joker is outgrown quickly, but it provides great momentum for the early game.

5 Half Joker

Less is More

Balatro Joker Collection Half Joker.

The Half Joker provides a +20 multiplier for each hand played with three cards or fewer. Alongside planet cards that increase the base value for High Card, Pair, and Three of a Kind makes this card a behemoth in any phase of the game.

This joker requires setup and focus on playing lower values, but the value of +20 multiplier for every hand cannot be ignored. Half Joker gives comfort in playing lower-value hands in tight spots and when you want to save your higher-value cards for bigger values.

This joker is versatile as a safety net and as a main strategy for your whole run.

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4 Splash

Power Comes from Within

Balatro Joker Collection Splash Joker.

Splash is a very simple joker that scores each played card regardless of whether it plays into a hand. This means, rather than discarding awkward cards in your hand, they can be added to the overall value and save your discards for when you need them most.

Splash can also reduce your total discards per round, meaning you get a greater money payout at the end for saved resources.

This joker scales excellently into the late game and is hard to justify selling unless you find a greater synergy to your deck, making it a must-have when seen in the shop.

3 Raised Fist

One Man’s Trash…

Balatro Joker Collection Raised Fist Joker.

The Raised Fist joker adds double the lowest card held in hand to the multiplier. This makes you strategize which cards you play, and a higher value may help you more if saved rather than played.

In combination with the Splash joker mentioned above, this gives you comfort in tacking lower cards to your played hand and saving the higher values to be added to the multiplier. Raised Fist helps you survive while you build up to a strong hand and is a great safety net to achieve high scores.

As you remove low cards from your deck through tarot cards, you can ensure the likelihood of a high multiplier and give you more control over your outcomes.

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2 Smiley Face

Happy Accidents

Balatro Joker Collection Smiley Face Joker.

The Smiley Face joker adds a +5 multiplier to each played face card. When deciding which cards to keep and discard, the obvious strategy tends to be holding onto the highest-value cards. This ensures payoff on slow playing the cards you have and burning through discards.

When Smiley Face is used to play Royal Straights, it adds a total of a +20 multiplier to an already high-scoring hand. When used in conjunction with jokers like the Half Joker, you can reach great heights in score and blow through the early game.

As difficulty increases, face cards are always helpful, making the additional multiplier all the more useful.

1 Supernova

The Power of Patience

Balatro Joker Collection Supernova Joker.

The Supernova joker adds the number of times the type of hand played to the multiplier of each hand. This joker has great value because it grows simply by playing the game and focusing on the same type of hand played.

Many jokers grow at a cost to your resources, meaning Supernova’s natural growth is unparalleled compared to other Common jokers. This joker works well with any other joker because it helps any hand you play.

Supernova is a great grab from the shop no matter when you see it and can reach the strength of Uncommon and even Rare jokers in the late game.

This concludes the list of strongest common jokers in Balatro. The nature of poker and roguelikes alike require a level of luck-based strategy and perseverance to achieve victory.

Oftentimes, even the best planned runs can be ended by bad hands and the appearance of certain jokers. Patience is key and learning how to create any consistencies within your own deck-base much like any other deck builder.

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