Balatro best jokers: the run-winners, ranked

Balatro has 150 jokers. You don’t need a 150-row ranking — you need to know which jokers actually win runs, which ones scale into Gold Stake, and which ones are tier-list myths that look strong on paper but stall in practice. This list covers the S-tier and high A-tier picks (around 20 jokers), with a “what to take in the shop” answer at the bottom.

TL;DR — the shop decisions that matter most

Always buy on sight: Blueprint, Brainstorm, Triboulet, Perkeo, Showman.
Always buy if your build supports them: Lucky Cat (with Lucky cards), Mime (with Steel cards), Acrobat (for last-hand finishers), Burnt Joker (early-game scaling).
Always buy for economy: Credit Card, 8 Ball, Bootstraps, Astronomer (if you’re going Planet-heavy).
Skip unless your build is built around them: the trap jokers in the “Common mistakes” section at the bottom.

The rest of the page explains the reasoning and tells you what to do with each.

S-tier: run-winners regardless of deck

These five jokers single-handedly carry runs through Ante 8 and Gold Stake. If they appear in a shop and you have any economy left, buy.

Blueprint

Blueprint copies the joker in the slot immediately to its right. The reason it’s the consensus best joker in Balatro: positioning is dynamic. As your build evolves, you can move Blueprint next to whatever joker has become your engine — early-run Triboulet, mid-run Brainstorm, late-run a stacked Constellation. One joker that becomes whichever joker you most need.

Brainstorm

The functional twin of Blueprint: copies the leftmost joker instead of the right-neighbour. Brainstorm + Blueprint together is a small economy in itself — you can effectively triple the impact of your best joker. Almost every endgame deck wants both.

Triboulet

Triboulet gives X2 Mult on Kings and Queens. The math is brutal: any deck with a few King/Queen-heavy hands (which is most decks) sees Triboulet output more multiplier than nearly any other joker per hand. Combined with Blueprint copying it, Triboulet builds win runs by themselves.

Perkeo

Perkeo creates a Negative copy of a random consumable when leaving the shop. Negative consumables don’t take up consumable slots — so Perkeo turns the consumable economy from “I have to choose between Tarot/Planet/Spectral” to “I have all three.” If you’re playing a build that scales on Spectrals (Familiar, Grim, Incantation) or Planets (Constellation, Astronomer), Perkeo is the engine.

Showman

Showman makes duplicate jokers, tarots, planets, and spectrals appear in shops. The flat statement of its power is what it does for the Perkeo/Constellation/Triboulet combo: you can stack the same high-value card multiple times, where without Showman you’d never see the same Spectral twice. Two Triboulets is a different game than one.

A-tier: build-defining if your deck supports them

These jokers don’t carry runs by themselves — they carry runs they’re built for. Buy them when your deck has the supporting structure.

Lucky Cat

Lucky Cat scales X0.25 Mult every time a Lucky card triggers. With enough Lucky cards (added via Cromag tarot or Wraith spectral), Lucky Cat can scale past X1000 Mult in a single run. The catch is the setup — without Lucky cards in the deck, Lucky Cat is X1.0 forever. Don’t take it on sight unless you have at least one Lucky card already.

Mime

Mime triggers held-in-hand abilities twice. Mime is a build-defining joker for Steel-card decks (Steel cards add X1.5 Mult when held in hand; Mime doubles that to X3). Pair with Blueprint copying Mime for X9. Outside Steel-card builds, Mime is mid-tier — its baseline doesn’t scale.

Acrobat

Acrobat gives X3 Mult on the final hand of every round. The math is straightforward: every round ends with a maximum-effort final hand. Acrobat triples it. Pairs particularly well with Green Joker, Ride the Bus, and any joker that builds scaling Mult over a round — your stacking finally cashes out at X3 on the hand that matters.

Burnt Joker

Burnt Joker upgrades the level of the first hand type you play each round. Played early, it stacks fast — by Ante 3 your most-played hand can be at +10 to +15 levels. It’s an indirect economy: you’re saving the cost of Planet cards. Take on sight in the early game; less valuable past Ante 4 when the upgrade cost-savings shrinks.

Stuntman

Stuntman grants +250 Chips at the cost of −2 hand size. The trade-off is sharp: smaller hands favour High Card, Pair, and Three of a Kind builds. If your deck is built around those small hands (often the case with Flush or Straight-skipping builds), Stuntman is one of the highest pure-chip joker contributions in the game. If you’re playing Flush or larger hands, Stuntman is actively bad — the hand-size loss outweighs the chips.

A-tier economy jokers

Economy jokers don’t score points directly — they let you afford more jokers. Underrated by beginners, mandatory by Gold Stake.

Credit Card

Credit Card costs $1 and lets you go into −$20 debt without losing the round. That’s effectively $20 of free spending power in the early game. Take it the first round you see it.

8 Ball

8 Ball generates a Tarot card whenever a hand contains an 8. If your deck has any 8s and you play hands often, 8 Ball is steady Tarot generation — which means free Planet upgrades, Spectral access, and deck improvements.

Bootstraps

Bootstraps grants +2 Mult per $5 you hold. With Credit Card-fuelled economy and the natural cash accumulation past Ante 4, Bootstraps is regularly +20 to +40 Mult by the late game. Scales with playing-it-safe — exactly the rounds where extra Mult matters most.

Astronomer

Astronomer makes all Celestial packs free. If you’re going Planet-heavy (Constellation, Satellite, Telescope), Astronomer pays for itself in one Celestial pack. Otherwise, skip.

What to take in the shop (decision guide)

Three questions to ask before buying any joker:

Does it scale with what my deck already does? A joker that adds X2 Mult on Hearts in a Spade deck is dead weight. The strongest jokers in your run are the ones aligned with hand types you already favour.
Does it stack with Blueprint or Brainstorm? Jokers that copy well are 2x what they appear on the card. Triboulet + Blueprint > a different joker with marginally higher raw value.
Will it scale, or is it flat? Scaling jokers (Lucky Cat, Green Joker, Constellation, Ride the Bus) outperform flat jokers by Ante 5. Flat jokers (Joker, Jolly Joker, Wrathful Joker) are early-game placeholders.

Common mistakes — jokers that look strong but underperform

Trap picks that show up in tier lists but stall in actual runs:

The Joker (the basic +4 Mult one). Flat +4 Mult is fine for Ante 1; useless by Ante 3. Take it as a placeholder until something scales appears.
Misprint (random +0 to +23 Mult). Variance kills it. The mean output is similar to Joker, but the variance can produce a +0 hand that loses you a round.
Marble Joker (adds a Stone card each round). Stone cards don’t score in most builds; adding them dilutes your deck. Only good in dedicated Stone-card builds.
Mystic Summit (15+ Mult when you have 0 discards). Sounds great until you realise high-discard builds are how most runs survive Boss Blinds.
DNA. Duplicates a played card on the first hand of each round. The duplicate is great, but DNA’s slot is competing with Blueprint, Brainstorm, Triboulet, etc. — the opportunity cost is brutal.

Quick-reference card

For mid-shop decisions:

See Blueprint or Brainstorm? Buy. Always.
See Triboulet, Perkeo, or Showman? Buy if you have $5+.
Building Lucky cards? Buy Lucky Cat.
Building Steel cards? Buy Mime.
Round-finishing scaling? Buy Acrobat.
Early-game (Ante 1–3)? Buy Burnt Joker.
Economy-tight? Buy Credit Card, then 8 Ball.
Going Planet-heavy? Buy Astronomer + Perkeo.
Stuck deciding? Take whichever joker most clearly stacks with your two best existing jokers.

Verified against the Balatro Wiki Joker pages, Mobalytics’ Balatro tier list, and consensus across Steam community guides through v1.0.1f. Last updated 2026-05-20.