Balatro: Best Early Game Jokers

Are you looking for the best early-game jokers in Balatro to help you in your first antes in any difficulty? Here’s what you must know.

Overall, early-game jokers offer amazing bonuses at first and have easy-to-trigger effects. In short, the best early-game joker is the Hologram, but there are many great alternatives to consider if you don’t get it.

Let’s go through your top choices when starting out.

Best Jokers to Get First in Balatro

In the early game, I recommend selecting jokers that grant chips or have any type of multiplier. Make sure to prioritize ones that have higher multiplying values and are also easy to trigger.

Based on that, let’s go through the best options.

Green Joker (Common)

+1 Mult per hand played, and -1 Mult per discard

Green Joker is an easy-to-use joker card since it allows you to stack up your multiplier steadily

Bootstraps

+2 Mult for every $5 you have

Bootstrats is extremely strong early on and scales very well into the mid-game. It’s useful in any deck, so I highly recommend picking it up once you find it.

Red Card

Starting at +0 Mult, gains +3 Mult when any Booster pack is skipped

Since most jokers in the early game won’t be worth picking up, and you’ll be skipping a lot, the Red Card can ramp up and gain a lot of value quickly.

Banner

+40 Chips for every remaining Discard

One of the strongest cards overall since it just lets you stack chips. Combined with the Wasteful voucher, you can consistently get over 100 chips every time.

Blue Joker

+2 Chips for each remaining card in your deck

Early on, this will grant you a lot of value. As your deck becomes smaller, discard and replace it with something else.

Ice Cream

It starts at +100 Chips but loses 5 Chips for every hand played

Pick this up as soon as you find it and replace it after playing a few hands since it loses value quickly.

Bull

+2 Chips for each dollar you have

The Bull is one of the strongest jokers in Balatro. Within a few rounds, it can scale and grant you a lot of chips after just a few rounds.

Cavendish

x3 Mult, but there is a 1 in 1000 chance this card is destroyed at the end of the round

The Cavendish is a must-pick card if you find it. You have to be extremely unlucky to trigger the 1 in 1000 chance, so it’s a plain x3 multiplier, which makes it extremely strong

Constellation

Gains x0.1 Mult per Planet card used

If you’re planning to invest in Planet cards, this is a must-have since it can offer a 3-4x multiplier consistently.

Hologram

Gains x0.25 Mult per playing card added to your deck

Hologram is overall the best early-game joker in Balatro. If you get it early on, this can ramp up and grant an amazing mult bonus that will carry your whole run. Combine this with any of the legendary jokers in Balatro, and you’ll be in for a treat.

Wrapping up

To wrap up, these are the best early-game jokers to get in Balatro. Overall, there is a wide variety in this list, including options that should be replaced ASAP and others that can scale even to the end game.

Of course, everything depends on luck, and you have to learn to play with the cards you get. However, it’s always good to know which cards to hope for that will help you win more consistently.

What’s your favorite early-game joker so far? Do you have any other tips to share to help others in their first few antes? Don’t hesitate to share them in the comments below.

If you’re on the lookout for a different game, check out our guide on the best base location in Nightingale.

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Harry

Harry has been a fan of video games from a very young age and writing allows him to share that passion with others. His favorite genres include MMORPGs, survival, and FPS.

He has a Master’s Degree in Philosophy, which allows him to always come up with a fresh approach to solving in-game puzzles and challenges, but also to create content that’s to the point, clean and easy to follow.