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Getting through Balatro is easier said than done. A solid understanding of Poker will only get you so far, and if we are being honest, it won’t get you all that far. The trick is to overcome each blind by scoring enough chips. The amount of chips required increases for each Ante, and every Ante has three Blinds.
The star of every Ante is the Boss Blind. These require a huge amount of chips (usually) whilst also contending with a difficult modifier designed to mess with your ability to score. Not only that but Ante 8 has a special Boss Blind that is particularly nasty. In this guide, we will go over all of them so you know what to expect.
More Balatro content:
Deck Unlock Guide | Planet Card Guide | Tarot Card Guide | Spectral Card Guide | Legendary Joker Guide | Modifier Guide | Blank Voucher Guide | Best Legendary Jokers | Tag Guide | How To Unlock Cavendish
Blinds In Balatro
Before we go into Boss Blinds, we should probably touch on Blinds in general. A Blind is simply a score you need to hit to progress to the next Blind in the Ante. There are 8 Antes, and three Blinds per Ante. They are split into Small, Big, and Boss.
Blind | Effect |
Small Blind | x1 base chips |
Big Blind | x1.5 base chips |
What sets your standard Blinds apart in Balatro is their ability to be skipped to gain special Tags. We have a whole guide covering Tags which we highly recommend you check out. Boss Blinds cannot be skipped for Tags and they come with unique modifiers.
Boss Blinds
Boss Blinds are the gatekeepers to higher Ante’s and are likely where most of your runs will end. This will either be down to the Score being insurmountable for your deck, or the Boss Blind having an effect that punishes you too harshly.
There are a total of 23 Boss Blinds in Balatro. Each Blind will only start to appear after a certain Ante, with all Blinds being available after Ante 6.
Blind | Effect | Min. Ante |
Club | All Clubs are debuffed | 1 |
Hook | Discards 2 cards from your hand at random after each hand played | 1 |
Goad | All Spades are debuffed | 1 |
Head | All Hearts are duffed | 1 |
Pillar | Previously played cards during the Ante are debuffed | 1 |
Psychic | All hands must be played with 5 cards to score | 1 |
Manacle | -1 Hand Size | 1 |
Window | All Diamonds are debuffed | 1 |
Arm | Decrease the level of the Poker Hand played | 2 |
Fish | Cards drawn after a hand are drawn face down | 2 |
Flint | Base chips and melt for playing a hand are halved | 2 |
House | First hand is drawn face down | 2 |
Mark | All Face Cards are down face down | 2 |
Mouth | Only 1 type of Poker Hand can be played this Round | 2 |
Needle | Play only a single hand | 2 |
Wall | Extra large Blind (4x Base) | 2 |
Water | No discards | 2 |
Wheel | 1 in 7 cards are drawn face down | 2 |
Eye | Every hand played must be a different Poker Hand | 3 |
Tooth | -$1 for every card played | 3 |
Plant | All Face Cards are debuffed | 4 |
Serpent | After playing or discarding, draw 3 cards | 5 |
Ox | Playing your most played hand resets your money to $0 | 6 |
Ante 8 Boss Blinds In Balatro
We lied when we said there were 23 Boss Blinds in Balatro. There are another 5 Blinds in the game. These only appear as the finale to Ante 8. These are even more disruptive than standard Boss Blinds, so we made a separate entry for them here.
Blind | Effect |
Amber Acorn | Flips all Jokers face down and shuffles them |
Verdant Leaf | All cards are debuffed until you sell 1 Joker |
Violet Vessel | Extremely large Blind (x6 base) |
Crimson Heart | A random Joker is disabled every hand |
Cerulean Bell | 1 random card is selected at all times |
That’s all we have on Balatro for now. Be sure to check back for more guides, tips, and tricks.