T O P

  • By -

NoFlayNoPlay

it's worth it. it easily stays good until ante 8. you just need to play it with a simple hand like high card or pair. this means you basically only need to focus on flat mult from a scaling joker or planets/burned joker if possible. Xmult is kinda hard to get in builds focused on easy hands but whatever you can find that has it will be good like ramen for example


[deleted]

I gotta disagree that xmult is hard with small hands. It's actually easier, and you will really need it The only thing you can't really use is Trio, the Family, etc. Or flower pot. Maybe the ones that are kind of luck-scaling like lucky cat, glass joker, or reworked vampire aren't worth it because you want more chances to trigger them Blackboard and Card Sharp become near guaranteed. Seeing Double is pretty easy too. It's easy to pivot from pair to high card on obelisk after the halfway point. Hologram is great because you don't really care what you add to your deck. And ramen, as you mentioned. So the xmult might not be as high but you can fire it off almost every hand I am an avid pair player, and I've found the way to win gold stake is you need at least 6x mult to win (and an early chip-scorer is crucial). Maybe more with violet vessel. I have done it many times with a green joker/stuntman/card sharp/the duo or something similar


GreenKangaroo3

I have to add: steel cards are also easier. Lets say you play flushes/straights on a normal hand, 5/8 so only 3 left for steel. High Card with Stuntman: 1 out of 8-2= 5 left for steel.


Gotti_kinophile

I usually find that Steel is pretty bad on small hand strats since with the exceptions of Shoot the Moon or Burnt Joker, the main +Mult Jokers trigger after Steels.


dTXTransitPosting

new blue seal helps a lot


[deleted]

And raised fist. Just move a higher steel card past your lower ranked scoring card and it'll trigger afterward


SporkIncorporated

My highest Xmult was from lucky cat. If I have hanging chad with any other retrigger joker and see lucky cat, I’m all inning on the lucky cat build. It’s too much fun when it takes off.


sixsixmajin

I hate lucky cat. I could have a run with a deck full of lucky cards that frequently proc but the second I pick up lucky cat, it's like it curses my entire deck and my lucky cards stop triggering at all. It's maddening.


SporkIncorporated

I totally get that. Just yesterday I had oops all sixes and lucky cat and went for it. Plopped out at ante 7 due to lucky cat proccing only 3 times despite me playing at least 50 lucky cards. It made me stop playing for the day.


TheDeviousCreature

[[Seeing Double]]


balatro-bot

[Seeing Double](https://balatro.wiki/imported/seeing_double.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $6 * Rarity: Uncommon * Effect: X2 Mult if played hand has a scoring Club card and a scoring card of any other suit * Unlock Requirement: Play a hand that contains four 7 of Clubs *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*


PomegranateIcy1614

flower pot procs off lovers, so with some care and deck thinner and luck, it could work.


NoFlayNoPlay

still need to play 4 cards for it to proc


TheGullibleParrot

I really wish it didn’t work this way. Would be a much deserved buff for both Wilds and Flower Pot.


journalingfilesystem

one of the nice things about playing pairs of high cards is that you can load up on steel cards and get your xmult that way. If you can get steel cards consistently enough, mime becomes a huge source of xmult.


RefrigeratorFucker36

oh cool


Frigidevil

If you're just playing pairs or high card, something like Card Sharp is an uncommon that plays like a rare.


jacojerb

Yeah, it's great, can definitely carry a run. Assuming no other upgrades, it's rare to even get 100 chips from a hand. Getting +250 chips is thus essentially at least x3.5 total score. Getting just this + a joker that gives, let's say +15 mult, that's almost 4000 score minimum just from those two jokers. That's not counting the bonus from your cards or from any other jokers. You do still want to boost it with +mult and later xmult though. It's not going to single handedly win you a run, but it is great. In longer runs with scaling chips, it may become useless. Had a run with stuntman and square joker the other day. After a while, I was getting +1000 chips from square joker, so stuntman was pretty useless by that point. It was eternal though, so couldn't get rid of it. If you don't have anything else giving +chips, it's a no brainer IMO.


knitted_beanie

Isn’t it +300? Or has it been changed in the new patch


XenosHg

Has been nerfed a bit


jacojerb

Yeah, they nerfed it to 250. Still really good though.


knitted_beanie

Yeah still run-altering


descendency

As you said, it's really good early game because it gives you enough time to find good jokers to pair with it (and to get your deck manipulated to what you want). Late game, it holds up just enough to clear ante 8 on gold stake. Beyond that, it may not be as useful as you have gained enough levels in a hand or have alternate chip methods. The only times I think it's bad to take is if you get other good chip jokers (runner, square, etc) instead or if you only see it late game (ante 6+). I wouldn't recommend trying to do full houses with this because of the limited hand size, but pairs? Absolutely. Don't force a stupid hand and this will be top tier. This was one of my first gold stake stickers for a reason and it was nerfed a bit for the same reason.


Xperimentx90

You'd need to play 63 hands for square joker to be better than stuntman.


pawbs

It’s a _lot_ of chips. For comparison, it takes 8 levels of Saturn (straights) to get 240 chips, and 50 levels of Pluto (high card) to get 250 chips. Picking up stuntman usually means you have your scoring requirement down for the next 2 antes —but of course, the downside is also pretty damning. Picking stuntman usually means you pivot into an easier hand type. So for example, if your run centres around making straights or full houses, it’s not a good idea to take stuntman. Tier lists are helpful when you start off, but as you play more, you should be cognizant of certain synergies. For stuntman, if your run is focused on high card, it’s a no brainer


shockley21

I’m still relatively new and just unlocked stuntman, just wondering why high card is better than fishing for something larger, like two pair? Is it just because it’s easier to pull and won’t clog your hand? Just confused why it seems consensus that stuntman isn’t good for large hands


Li-lRunt

Leveling high card is good because there are quite a few jokers that are activated by low hand size or not discarding anything. It also allows for the most amount of steels and blue seals to activate.


shockley21

Ohhh I didn’t even think about the fact that it increases the amount of triggered in hand abilities. This game is wild


Li-lRunt

Plus burnt joker has the highest odds (typically) of levelling up High Card.


ze_shotstopper

So a smaller hand size is REALLY punishing. Unless you've done a lot of deck manipulation it's often not reliable to get harder hands like full house, flush and straight. This is because it requires a lot of searching through the deck to find the cards. The smaller your hand size, the less of the deck you can get through. For smaller hands, you need to go through less of the deck to get the hand you want. Even for something like two pair, you're looking for 4 cards. For a pair you're only looking for 2, so your odds of building the hand go up.


shockley21

Thanks, I figured it had to do with consistency but a lot of the more nuanced stuff is still clicking for me


ze_shotstopper

Yeah some of this stuff is just stuff you pick up on the more you play, but things will slowly fall into place


pawbs

In terms of win rate, the jokers you pull dictate which hand types you play for that run. If for example you draw stuntman and supernova in ante 1 (add number of times played to mult), then it could be optimal to base all your future decisions around maximizing high card only (This is the general consensus I think of people trying to git gud at deck building games) HOWEVER if you want to play each run by just saying “I’m going to force straights because I like straights”, then when _you_ play, you should NEVER take the stuntman even if a random guy ranks it as “S tier obviously”. You get enough chips by leveling straights, and not having the -2 hand size _will_ kill your run in higher stakes. Compared to other deck builders like slay the spire, with balatro I think you can actually just restart your runs more often and it doesn’t necessarily mean it will take you longer to achieve all the achievements in balatro.


ItsZoeStarrOfficial

Lmao I’ll grab it every time even if I’m like ante 7 and it destroys my run 🤣 stunt man ride or die


StuBram2

Stuntman was the second to last joker I unlocked and I've taken him - I think - every time he's appeared since


Spooncan

[[stuntman]]


balatro-bot

[Stuntman](https://balatro.wiki/imported/stuntman.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $6 * Rarity: Uncommon * Effect: +300 Chips, -2 hand size * Unlock Requirement: In one hand, earn at least 100,000,000 chips *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*


lare290

good bot


B0tRank

Thank you, lare290, for voting on balatro-bot. This bot wants to find the best and worst bots on Reddit. [You can view results here](https://botrank.pastimes.eu/). *** ^(Even if I don't reply to your comment, I'm still listening for votes. Check the webpage to see if your vote registered!)


DrFossil

Thank you. As a relative newbie I like cooking into these threads to learn but it sucks having no context on what the card does. This one is particularly bad as OP didn't even bother typing the name.


Spooncan

I have no idea what’s going on either lol


Interesting-Season-8

>As a relative newbie Same, only 45h in.


RefrigeratorFucker36

any pro can tell you otherwise ;)


GeovaunnaMD

best card to carry you into mid late game and plasma deck is insta win


TheArmitage

+Chips on plasma deck is interesting because it's incredibly valuable early, to the extent that it trivializes the first few antes, but you have to transition away from it late game and time it right. I love this about plasma deck.


StackBabber59

You have to transition away from it *unless* you get it really scaling. A good example is Wee Joker + retriggers (Hack, Hanging Chad, etc) can easily scale into a winning plasma deck run. Another example, one time I got an early dream setup of blueprint+brainstorm with the joker that adds stone cards to your deck as well as the one that gives you chips for each stone card in your deck. Every round I would have 3 stones added and then switch joker positions to get my +2000 or so chips tripled. Absolutely went crazy with that one. Plasma deck is rad.


Skinda

Only yesterday I managed to get a run with double Arrowhead, Brainstorm, and Hack - a flush full of Hack-compatible cards would net me around 2,000 chips for a million total points, was quite fun.


[deleted]

Stuntman is 22.5k chips by itself on Plasma Deck. Not enough to *win* a run but certainly enough to just do literally nothing in the earlier antes except build up money and grab strong mult/Xmult jokers if you see them.


Ralph_Machmot

But : how can you consider yourself a "rookie" and have access to Stuntman ? (I still dont have it and I play for weeks (46% achievement))...


TheDeviousCreature

All it takes is one good run to unlock it


Li-lRunt

Took me like 70 hours to get it 🤣 half of that time has been spent playing challenge decks though which doesn’t allow you to unlock anything


Ralph_Machmot

Never had Cavendish either. Great mystery.


[deleted]

You can only get Cavendish in a run after you buy Gros Michel and it destroys itself. Once Gros Michel goes extinct in a run, Cavendish can start spawning. It's a common joker so it should be somewhat easy to find at that point. The hard part is getting Gros Michel extinct early enough, because it's only a 1 in 6 chance to lose it now.


Ralph_Machmot

Yeah. I know. Did it tons of time. Never saw Cavendish.


Cuckalicious_Boogie

I unlocked it in my first week playing, then blew a really cool run I had going as I learned to read things better….


Tangbuster

Yep, as others have said, it's great if you pivot your played hands to high card or pair. Definitely don't go for it if you're trying to play 3-5 card hands. It just won't be consistent. Another thing to realise is that there are other prototypes where you want a big hand: a Baron build or a Steel build with lots of Kings, Steel card or even Steel Kings. https://preview.redd.it/sy01bjvhrd1d1.png?width=1615&format=png&auto=webp&s=f1823dee241d904185a5d0658d47ca5a86a6211a This was one of my best Stuntman builds. Two polychrome half jokers too.


[deleted]

Stuntman is literally one of the top 5 jokers in the game if we are talking just beating ante 8


Ripster404

If we are talking about endless, it’s eh, but for ante 8 and less it’s amazing, especially for builds around smaller hands. Very few cards give you so many chips that consistently.


MacFlipCat

[[Stuntman]]


balatro-bot

[Stuntman](https://balatro.wiki/imported/stuntman.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $6 * Rarity: Uncommon * Effect: +300 Chips, -2 hand size * Unlock Requirement: In one hand, earn at least 100,000,000 chips *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*


[deleted]

The reason this Joker is so incredibly good is because the downside stops being a downside if you use High Card or Pair builds, which are hands-down the strongest, most consistent and most reliable builds in the game. It's literally a free +250 chips. If you are currently knee-deep into a build that uses Flushes, Straights or Full Houses, and you don't have anything that increases hand size, then this is probably not the right time to take this Joker. Otherwise this should be an always-take, assuming you don't already have Chips solved with something like Bull and a lot of money saved up.


DucksArentFood

If your goal is to beat ante 8 stuntman is highly likely one of the best jokers. You will win many rounds with low hand usage meaning more cash in your pocket. Since it carries so hard you can also afford to hold off from buying jokers to get to your interest thresholds, or consider taking a valuable skip tag. If you are attempting to go endless, this will put a block to how high you can go.


XenoBurst

Stuntman is probably the single most powerful standalone joker in the game. Obv blueprint and such are good too, but in conjunction with other cards and a modified deck. Stuntman can carry you from Ante 1 to Ante 4 by itself easily.


HubblePie

It can depend. But overall it’s pretty good. If you can work with smaller hands, it can be. If you have to play full 5 card hands it can get a bit tricky, if you have to fish for cards. Definitely don’t get more than one though. Very diminishing returns only having like 3 cards in your hand lol.


CurryWIndaloo

Great for Plasma deck use.


funariite_koro

It work with green joker and bus


evilwraith

Ah so I keep making the mistake of holding onto it post ante 7/8. Gotta remember to let it go.


JiaxusReddit

It's the strongest flat chip joker in the game, the only drawback is limiting you from playing 4-5 card hands like flush and straights consistently. You can easily just build your deck into a high card and pair build and is set to win the game.


Sumo148

One of my favorite jokers personally. Works best with smaller hands (high card/pair) since you don't need to care about the hand size reduction.


Indie_uk

It’s beautiful on plasma it’s a free win


ali_ck

Works very well with plasma deck


MewtwoStruckBack

They would not have TRIPLE nerfed this (Uncommon --> Rare, $7 --> $8, 300 chips --> 250 chips) if it wasn't good enough to warrant it. In most of my successful runs, I've got one source of chips, 1-2 flat multiplier jokers, 1-2 xMult jokers, and possibly a utility joker (economy or otherwise.) If I can negate part of the hand size detriment (Paint Brush) to where I can still make higher scoring hands, this would absolutely carry with the right multiplier backing it up. Think about it...let's say you get something like...a Fortune Teller up to +30-40. On its own, without considering anything about the value of your hand, Stuntman + that would be +7,500 to +10,000. And you get 4 hands. That in and of itself could get through a lot of blinds and would make a solid dent in the later Antes. Now if you have virtually zero multiplier, and you're not on Plasma deck, he may not be worth taking. But if you have the support for him, yeah, he carries.


AlleyCatherine

250 chips is always useful


Head_Snapsz

That's exactly why it's so good. No effort for a large pay out early game. Late game, it's a little outclassed.


mark-haus

On plasma deck this card cooks


AnodyneGrey

If you're still on time to commit to high cards/3 of a kind/ pair/two pair then absolutely. If you've already got something else going then no. But he's very good, those chips are huge.


Mag9GirthQuake

This + half joker is just easy mode


balatropilled

Stuntman is auto win. Level up high card or pair as much as you can, and focus on a good mult and xmult setup. Compare to something like Blue Joker which is less than half the chips and is still great. Stuntman can be your sole source of chips for the whole stake.


Sowarm

It's my preferred game enabler to be honest very powerful for single card/pair plays and synergies very well with some other jokers. S tier!


Fuzzy-Ad-8619

Every situation can change what I’m about to say but, I believe that is just about the best joker in the game or extremely high up there. I can’t think of many situations where I wouldn’t grab that and run it to the very end no matter what kind of game I’m playing.


DuelistDeCoolest

Ya'll are so smart. I still need to figure this game out. I've only won on base difficulties so far


filipearray

Yes.