It’s sort of a poker+slot machine deck builder rogue-like.

You play 8 levels of 3 rounds each, where the score you have to get to progress is gradually higher each time. You score points (chips) by selecting poker hands from your hand of eight cards. Cards are worth whatever their value is, face cards are ten, aces are eleven. Then each poker hand has a particular base value.

Let’s say you need to score 300 points to progress. You have 4 attempts to play poker hands to reach that score. You also have three attempts to discard up to five cards to attempt to get better cards to play a better hand with.

You select and play a straight 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 of varying suits.

A straight has a base value of 30 chips, and a multiplier of 4.

So you’ll get 30 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 65, multiplied by 4, for a total of 260. Just short of our goal.

You are dealt more cards from your deck to refill your hand.

You select and play two kings, and two 7s.

Two Pair has a base value of 20 chips and a multiplier of 2. This works out to 20 + 10 + 10 + 7 + 7 = 54, multiplied by 2, for a total of 108. Plus our previous 260, gives us 368. You win the round, and get some money. $3 for winning the round + $1 for each of your leftover hands (you played 2 of 4). So you receive $5 in addition to the $4 you started with for a total of $9.

You go to the shop phase which occurs between every round. You have the option of buying 2 available cards (jokers, tarot cards, or planet cards), 2 packs of cards (which let you select 1 or 2 of an available 2-5 cards), or a voucher (grants you some advantage like +1 hands per round, +1 hand size, etc.).

Joker cards modify scoring and gameplay in some way, and you can have up to five of them (you can increase this, or some jokers don’t count against the limit). They’ll do things like add multiplier to certain cards or hands, let you earn money for playing certain cards or hands, all kinds of things. There are 150 of them, so the number of possible effects are immense.

Tarot cards usually modify your deck in some way, letting you turn selected cards into different suits, or increasing their rank, or destroying some, or turning one card into another, or giving you some amount of money.

Planet cards increase the base value of a hand. For example, above a straight was worth 30 chips with a multiplier of 4. The Saturn card will increase this by 30 chips and 3 multiplier so that it’s now 60 chips and 7 multiplier.

You buy the Hermit tarot card in the shop for $3. You now have $6. You use the Hermit card, which doubles your money, up to $20. You now have $12.

You buy the buffoon pack for $4, which lets you choose one of two joker cards.

Your options are:

Wrathful Joker: Each played Spade card gives +3 multiplier when scored.

Clever Joker: +80 chips if played hand contains a Two Pair.

You select the Wrathful Joker and return to the shop. You have $8. You purchase Jupiter, which increases the base value of a Flush from 35 chips x 4 to 50 chips x 6. You have $5 and go to the next round.

You have to score 450 chips to progress.

Your hand has 4 spades and 4 other assorted suit cards. You select all but the spades and discard them, getting 4 replacement cards. You now have 6 spades and 2 other cards. You select the Ace, Queen, 10, 9, and 5 of spades, and play a Flush.

A Flush has a base value of 50 chips with a multiplier of 6. The Joker you have will add 3 to the multiplier every time a spade is scored. So the scoring goes like this:

Ace +11 chips +3 multiplier -> Total = 61 x 9

Queen +10 chips +3 multiplier -> Total = 71 x 12

Ten +10 chips +3 multiplier -> Total = 71 x 15

Nine +9 chips +3 multiplier -> Total = 80 x 18

Five +5 chips +3 multiplier -> Total = 85 x 21 = 1,785

This is well on excess of the 450 needed to progress, you win the round, receiving $4 for winning the round, $1 for each of your remaining hands ($3), and $1 in interest for having $5 in your bank at the end of the round. You now have $13.

You go to the shop phase. You purchase whatever you think will benefit you and proceed to the boss blind. This will have some sort of debuff like, “All Spade cards are debuffed” meaning they’ll have a score of zero, and any joker effect that would trigger like +3 multiplier for a spade, won’t trigger.

And so the game continues in that fashion with progressively higher score requirements while you try to collect jokers and modify your deck in a way which synergizes do that you can reach those score requirements. For example, I built a winning deck around playing entirely Royal Flushes, by duplicating the required cards and destroying most of the rest.

I want to get the mobile port but I also want to avoid tanking my countries GPD by 0.001%

I just did a day or two ago and fuck it’s addicting.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playstack.balatro.android