Best Mods For Balatro

Summary

Balatro is a deck-building game combining poker with roguelike features, allowing players to strategize with different cards.
Players can enhance their gameplay experience with various mods, from cosmetic changes to altering gameplay mechanics.
Mods like Pokermon and Preorder Cards offer new cards, gameplay elements, and cheats to customize and improve the game.

There are plenty of roguelike adventure games out there, where each run differs from the last. But what would happen if it was combined with a card game? That’s where Balatro comes in. It’s a deck-building game where players have to put together the right cards to beat the opposing blinds, be it by making use of the cards’ different effects or buying new cards from the shop.

Balatro: 9 Best Starting Decks

Players new to Balatro will quickly see the benefits of using the following decks while learning the ropes.

In other words, it’s poker with roguelike elements, as different deck builds, tags, and jokers can put the player ahead if they have the right hand. It’s a crazy enough game as it is, but people have found ways to mod the game, be it cosmetically or fundamentally. If players fancy switching things, they can give these great Balatro mods a try.

1

Jojo’s Tarot Cards

Run Like An Egyptian

Balatro doesn’t just use the standard playing card suits. Jokers can come into play, adding chips and multi-bonuses. Planet cards raise the value of certain poker hands. Then Tarot cards pop up to change card suits, among other one-off effects. They can make or break hands depending on how they’re used.

Still, as neat as Balatro’s take on Tarot cards is, they could be more colorful and stylish. Like the ones that turn up in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders. KaptenApten’s mod replaces the standard Tarot deck with their Jojo designs. It’s only a cosmetic mod, so playing The World won’t drop a road roller or stop time or the like. But even non-Jojo fans might like their more artistic touch.

2

Sonic The Hedgehog Card Deck

The Best Character For Quick Runs

Best Balatro Mods- Sonic the Hedgehog Deck

If players aren’t into Jojo or want something more than a Tarot Card mod, they could replace the standard suits with Sonic the Hedgehog characters! SeagullMoe took the images from the Sonic Advance 3 select screen to produce a new set of Kings, Queens, Jacks, and Aces, represented by Sonic, Amy Rose, Knuckles, and Tails, respectively.

They come in different modes too, from featuring fully colored characters to a more monochrome grayscale where the figures are tinted to represent different suits. Both can also be toggled between a high-contrast or low-contrast appearance. Either way, they’ll help the player run through the game in style, be it to the bank or bankruptcy.

3

Luigi’s Casino Cards

Can’t Spell “Cards” Without DS

Then again, unless people managed to play some of the Sonic Café games back in the day, the walking pincushion and his friends don’t have much to do with playing cards. Mario & co. have though, thanks to Luigi’s Casino in Super Mario 64 DS. The green one’s different card minigames became part of many Nintendo kids’ childhood memories, positive or otherwise.

Luigi sleeping in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team; Luigi in Magicant in Super Smash Bros Ultimate; Luigi screaming in fear in Luigi's Mansion 3

Nintendo: 10 Weirdest Things That Luigi Has Done

Luigi has long lived in Mario’s shadow, but he sometimes steals the spotlight in strange ways.

This is why Theredblood put together a mod that replaces Balatro’s standard suits with the ones from Luigi’s Casino. Instead of clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds, there are clouds, flowers, mushrooms, and stars, with Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi as the King, Queen, and Jack cards, respectively. That way, those old DS players can relive those happy(?) memories in Balatro.

4

Pokermon

To Catch Them Is The Real Test

Cosmetic mods are all well and good, but some alter the gameplay itself. For example, InertSteak’s Pokermon does more than replace the standard decks with Pokemon cards. It adds more cards for players to play with too, including 200 new Joker cards to switch things up. There’s even a toggle if players want to play exclusively with these new Jokers or not.

There are more Pokemon-based updates planned for it too like Gym Leader challenges, and Gen 2 representation. However, it does require two specific loaders for it to work properly: the latest versions of the Lovely Injector and Steamodded. Once they’re set up, it’s just a case of unzipping the files and placing them in their own folder in the player’s Mods database.

5

Stickers Always Shown

Keeping Tabs On The Jokers

Best Balatro Mods- Stickers Always Shown

In Balatro, players can also apply stickers to cards, which provide different effects. It can make a Joker card a permanent part of the player’s hand via the Eternal Sticker, or a fleeting bonus via the Perishable sticker, etc. Stake stickers will mark out previously used Jokers, but unless players choose to have them displayed in the settings menu, they’re usually invisible. SirMaiquis changes that with their Stickers Always Shown mod.

It makes sure every sticker is always shown on every Joker they’re applied to. The mod was made with the Completionist++ achievement in mind, which requires getting a Gold Stake sticker on every Joker in the game. But it also makes it easier to plan out strategies and make the game more open to play. It also requires Steamodded to work properly, so people should keep that in mind if they want to give it a go.

6

Roulette By Hellyom

Stay In The Game Longer By Taking A Chance On The Wheel

Usually, players can head to the shop to see if they can buy the right card (or cards) they need to keep their run going. However, if they don’t have the cash to splash, they won’t be running very far. Hellyom’s Roulette mod gives them the chance to build up their earnings in a flash by giving them a roulette wheel, so they can gamble while they gamble!

Three Jokers that are central to some of Balatro's best strategies

Balatro: Best Strategies

These are some of the best strategies necessary for wins in Balatro.

It’s simpler than a real roulette wheel though, as the player only needs to bet on red, black, or green to increase their earnings by 1.8x, 2x, or 11x, respectively. If they win, they could earn enough to keep going and buy the best decks around. If they lose, their cash goes up in smoke, and they’ll have to start a new run. It’s a neat way to drive the stakes higher and take a break from dealing cards.

7

Preorder Cards

Sneaking A Peek

By default, players won’t know what kind of cards they’re going to get when they buy them from the shop. The booster packs are completely sealed until bought, and the Joker/Tarot/Planet, etc. cards change every so often, with some card types being more likely to appear than others. But that can be changed with asd123cqp’s Preorder Cards mod, as it lets players choose which cards turn up for purchase.

Once loaded (via Steamodded), players can press F4-F8 to “preorder” Negative, Polychrome, Holographic, Foil, and Base cases. Once selected, it’ll turn up in the shop, where it’ll be free to purchase. Pressing F9 will even let players unlock new cards. It’s a straight-up cheat mod, but sometimes it’s good to be bad once in a while. If only preordering games worked the same way.

8

Mika’s Mod Collection

The Wildest Jokers Around

Best Balatro Mods- Mika's Mod Collection

After a while, players might know what to expect from certain Jokers, decks, and so on. If they fancy a change of pace, they could download Mika’s Mod Collection, which adds 60 new Jokers, 7 different decks, 2 Tarot cards, and a new Spectral card to help switch things up. They look pretty normal at first too, until some of the more unique ones turn up.

They feature some neat artwork by Grassy too, like the Abbey Road Joker featuring 4 clowns walking on a famous zebra crossing, or the Crime Scene Joker featuring a chalk outline of a clown. But they can still switch the game up in different ways, like the Student Loans Joker putting its player in up to $100’s worth of debt. It also requires the Lovely Injector and Steamodded to work properly.

9

Hidden Aces Edition

More Cash, Less Risk

Some mods make the game easier or make it more interesting with different cards and new functions. But what if the player just wants to stack the odds in their favor? It’s a single-player game, and the CPU doesn’t have any feelings, so why shouldn’t they bend the rules sometimes? JewTron certainly thought so when they made the Hidden Aces Edition.

The latest edition (as of this writing) lets the player discard 10 cards at a time, earn twice as much cash from blinds, and offer more cards per pack, with more powerful vouchers, tarot cards, and tags. It makes the game much easier to play, as players get a better chance of getting strong cards and winning more cash than before. If people want a bigger virtual payday without losing out, this is the mod to get.