Best Card Enhancements In Balatro

Summary

• Balatro, a 2024 indie hit, is now on Game Pass, bringing its strategic gameplay to more players than ever.
• Jokers are key to effective Balatro builds, but enhanced cards also play a vital role in creating a truly powerful deck.
• Glass and Steel are the best Balatro enhancements, offering great scoring potential thanks to their x Mult bonuses.

One of the best games of 2024, the roguelike poker hit Balatro, has now landed on Game Pass, meaning more players can try it out—and most likely get hooked—by this small indie gem that can be relentless on one’s spare time. Ever since its launch, Balatro has already made waves thanks to its unique style, captivating gameplay loop, and finely tuned mechanics for reaching insanely high scores.

The key to every effective Balatro deck build is, without a doubt, the Jokers, but enhanced cards in a deck also play a crucial role in achieving higher Antes and setting massive scores. There are eight different enhancements available, each tied to a specific Tarot card obtainable via the Shop or Booster packs. Below, we’ll be ranking every card enhancement in the game, determining the worst and best Balatro card enhancements, their special effects, and the conditions where they shine the most.

8

Gold Card

Tarot Card: The Devil

• Card Effect: $3 If Card Is Held In Hand At End Of Round

Right at the bottom sits the Gold card enhancement. Almost always useless for scoring and not very effective for amassing cash quickly, Gold cards aren’t a particularly interesting enhancement in Balatro, making The Devil tarot one of the most underwhelming picks for the majority of builds.

True, with some rare Joker combinations (like Midas Mask + Vampire synergy) Gold cards can become the bread and butter of one specific build. In most other cases, it’s hardly enough to justify enhancing cards in Gold when better options are available, even if money is tight during a run. Just pick The Hermit or Temperance tarot, or grab the Investment tag to quickly solve cash problems instead of relying on these.

7

Wild Card

Tarot Card: The Lovers

• Card Effect: Can Be Used As Any Suit

Another rather underwhelming card enhancement is the Wild card. While it isn’t inherently useless, making Flush hands easier to score, the lack of any stacking or potential retriggers severely limits its utility. We all love landing Flushes in Balatro, but Wild cards don’t really matter much for that strategy, as there are plenty of ways to refine a deck or Joker setup for effective and reliable Flush scoring without relying on them.

Not to mention, for some reason, The Lovers tarot transforms only one card at a time, while many stronger enhancements apply to two cards per single tarot.

6

Bonus Card

Tarot Card: The Hierophant

• Card Effect: +30 Extra Chips

The best thing that can be said about the Bonus card enhancement is probably, “Not great, not terrible.” These cards get the job done, reliably and noticeably boosting Chips scored for each hand. Particularly effective during earlier Antes, Bonus cards can complement any build, scoring hand, or Joker setup, making this enhancement surprisingly versatile.

In some cases or with certain Joker combinations, Bonus cards can be immensely effective. But as a rule of thumb, players will get better results by stacking Mult for higher total score output. So while better than Wild or Gold cards, if other enhancement choices are available, they’ll likely yield stronger results.

5

Stone Card

Tarot Card: The Tower

• Card Effect: +50 Chips, No Rank Or Suit

The Stone card enhancement is a somewhat better version of the Bonus enhancement for several reasons. First, it grants more raw Chips when scoring—nice and easy. Second, it always scores if the played hand allows, complementing any hand with fewer than five scored cards (so no Flushes, Full Houses, or Straights). However, this is where the Stone card’s flaws become apparent: for builds that rely on five-card hands, Stone cards turn into unnecessary obstacles that drag the deck down.

Also, while The Hierophant tarot grants two Bonus cards at a time, The Tower only adds one Stone card to the deck—something worth considering when trying to maximize Chip scoring potential or choosing between the two.

4

Lucky Card

Tarot Card: The Magician

• Card Effect: One In Five Chance For +20 Mult, One In 15 Chance To Win $20

The Lucky card enhancement is very appealing, promising unspoken riches when the right moment arrives. Not only are the separate bonuses for Mult or money strong enough on their own, but they can also trigger simultaneously on a single Lucky card that scores, instantly turning a potentially weak hand into a round-winning one while also boosting the player’s bank account. It’s a win-win scenario, but of course, there’s a big if.

The chances of gaining additional Mult or those extra shiny $20 are pretty low and unreliable, potentially leading to frustration in the win-or-lose situations that Balatro is so generous with. Even when shifting the odds a bit via the Oops! All 6s Joker, the chances remain unpredictable, limiting the Lucky enhancement’s utility to low-pressure play where missing out on these bonuses isn’t a dealbreaker.

3

Mult Card

Tarot Card: The Empress

The Mult card enhancement is undoubtedly one of the best in Balatro, allowing for a steady buildup of Mult in any played hand, build, deck, or Joker combo, especially when retriggers are in play. While the Mult gain from a single-scored enhanced card isn’t exactly groundbreaking, there are almost no drawbacks to the simple strategy of using The Empress tarot to add two more Mult cards to the deck.

Probably the best thing about Mult cards is that they score before x Mult Jokers, so having at least one x2 Joker yields great results when scoring a hand with multiple Mult cards at once. Not as strong as Steel or Glass, but certainly among the most versatile, reliable, and impactful card enhancements in Balatro.

2

Steel Card

Tarot Card: The Chariot

• Card Effect: x1.5 Mult While This Card Stays In Hand

One of the most powerful—if not the most powerful—enhancements in Balatro is the Steel card, obtainable by using The Chariot tarot. In a way, having a Steel card in hand is like having an extra Joker, and players can stack multiple Steel cards at once, making them a true game-changer during higher Antes. One particularly rewarding strategy is to combine Steel cards with Mult-scoring cards for some really neat Joker-less scores.

While not as strong as Glass cards, Steel cards come with literally zero drawbacks, meaning players risk nothing by building their run around them. So when choosing between the two best enhancements, it mostly comes down to a choice between high-risk, high-reward gameplay or a more predictable but slightly less explosive approach.

1

Glass Card

Tarot Card: Justice

• Card Effect: x2 Mult, One-In-Four Chance To Destroy Card

Undoubtedly the best enhancement in Balatro, even with its severe drawback of possibly being destroyed after scoring (which can actually benefit certain Jokers or builds), Glass cards are almost the only way to survive the notorious Ante 10 and Ante 11 score scaling. Given that xMult is the best way to increase score output in the game, it’s no surprise that Glass cards rank among the top enhancements, essentially acting as extra xMult Jokers. Plus, they can be retriggered for some staggering xMult combos before real xMult Jokers’ effects kick in.

Players truly start to appreciate Glass cards at higher Antes, so if you’re wondering how to pass Ante 11 in Balatro, investing in Glass cards early and saving them for when score scaling really kicks in might just be the answer.