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Each deck inBalatrohas different effects that change the game dramatically. One of the more difficult decks is the Plasma Deck, which uses the power of math to make things more complicated for you. It can be a daunting deck to play as it requires you to use a strategy different from what you may be used to.
However, like everything inBalatro, the Plasma Deck is not an impossible challenge to overcome. This guide will give you some tips and tricks that should allow you to beat this deck on every stake.
What Does The Plasma Deck Do In Balatro?
The Plasma Deck is unique in that ittakes your chips and multiplier, adds them together, and splits that number in halfto determine the score. This means that if you played a hand that scored 100 chips and had 20 mult, it would not come out to be 2000 chips like usual. Instead, these numbers would be added together to become 120, then split into 60 chips and 60 mult. These two numbers would then be multiplied by each other to become 3600.
As you might have guessed, this can significantly alter the strategy you would usually use to beat a deck. In most scenarios in Balatro, it may be a better idea to focus on increasing your multiplier over your chip count. But, with the Plasma Deck, since your numbers are all added together, it’s a much better idea toget your chip count as high as you can, as it’s easier to increase chips than it is to get ludicrously high mult numbers.
Focus On Jokers That Boosts Your Number Of Chips
The first thing you want to focus on is findingJokers that dramatically increase your number of chips. However, you don’t want just any chip-increasing Joker.Some chip Jokersmay seem useful early on in a Plasma Deck run, such as Scary Face, Ice Cream, or any of the Jokers that reward chips when certain hands are played, like Sly Joker or Crafty Joker. Having one of these types of Jokers in your build isn’t a bad idea for early Antes, but as you enter the later Antes, these can let you down as they don’t scale well enough to get to the higher scores.
Thebest Jokersare the ones that give you progressively more chips. For example, if you’re focusing on getting straights,Runneris a good choice as it will permanently gain 15 chipsevery time you play a straight.Hikeradds 5 chips permanently to each card, which turns a 2 into a 7, and so on.
Try to get Jokers that gain additional chips early in a run to get the most chips out of them. They may not be as valuable if they’re acquired past Ante 5.
While not a chip-scaling Joker,you shouldpick up Stuntmanif it’s available in the shopsince it will give you 250 chips for each played hand. Your hand size will shrink by 2, but it’s worth having for Plasma Deck runs.
Pick Up Some Jokers That Boost Multiplyer Too
While gaining chips is a priority in Plasma Deck runs,mult numberswill still be a big part of your score. Focus on Jokers that score you big amounts of chips first, then pick up one or two Jokers that can net you a big multiplier. This includes Jokers likeThrowback, Baron, Vampire,or any Joker that gives significant mult for playing certain kinds of hands, like The Trio or The Order.
Earn Extra Money For Purchases & Rerolls
You should also try toaccumulate as much moneyas you’re able to as buying Jokers isn’t cheap. It’s not too hard to beat the first Boss Blind in a Plasma Deck run, so if you see Tags that give you extra cash, you should choose them instead of playing the early Small or Big Blinds. That way, you’ll have plenty of cash to buy the Jokers you need or reroll the store repeatedly until you find what you want.
If you find theBullJoker, it’ll make money even more valuable since it gives you +2 chips for every dollar you have.
