Balatro

Balatro

31 Achievements

15,500 XP

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Heads Up

Heads Up

Win a Run

500 XP

71.85%

How to unlock the Heads Up achievement in Balatro - Definitive Guide

Obviously, this being a roguelike, every run will be different.
I am not sure yet if this achievement can be unlocked on a seeded run because the game came out yesterday as of writing this so I can only offer my strategy, which has worked more than once.

Pick the deck that gives you +1 to Discard, not Hand.
We want to win each round in one Hand if possible.
Using what I am going to tell you, I reached 90.000 in one hand at one point.

You want to level up either Straight, Flush or Full House with the Arcanas.
I went with Full House but once you pick, stay with that for the duration of your run.

The "trick" is to build up the level of your hand so it gives you more of a multiplier.
So always go for the Space cards (Arcanas) but otherwise try to keep money on you so you can get the interest (caps at 5$ without a special item)

1) Greedy/Lust/Gluttonous/Spades Joker is great for Flush and you should discard everything but your Joker's suit if you get it.

2) Misprint is great, Dusk is cool but not for this specific strategy where you want to finish ASAP, Raised Fist is cool because we discard cards anyway.

3) The most important piece if advice I can give and what helped me beat the run.
Pareidolia (all cards considered Face cards) with Scary Face/Smiley Face and some other kind of multiplier makes this trivial.
If you find these on a run you are almost sure to win.
Bussiness Card also helps with this, especially during the first half of the run.

4) Even Steven or Odd Todd are good, just keep one.

5) If you get Seltzer, try to skip both blinds and save it as much as possible for Bosses.
It's overpowered but limited to 10 hands.
Hands, not rounds.

Hope this helps you beat at least one run.
If you have any advice please share!
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21 Feb 2024 18:29

6 Comments
The space cards are the Celstial packs, not the Arcanas. The Arcanas allow you to do things like change three cards to diamonds, or make them gold cards etc.

Celestial cards allow you to level up your hands.
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By Rhinne on 23 Feb 2024 08:17
Right you are! Since I wrote this I've found ways to clear almost 2M in one hand alone!
I will update the guide with more info soon!
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By OrfeasDourvas on 23 Feb 2024 20:46
Missed the most basic piece of information...

How do you win a run? i.e. what conditions need to be met for a run to beaten? What ante/level to you have to reach/complete?
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By Doc Buddha on 13 May 2024 10:46
Antes will be changed with the next patch but for most White Stakes, you need 100.000 chips by the end of Ante 8.
You can continue in Endless mode but Ante 8 is always the deciding round for a win.
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By OrfeasDourvas on 13 May 2024 12:00
So i beat the 3rd/boss round for ante lvl 8 "for the win"?
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By Doc Buddha on 13 May 2024 18:31
Exactly! Each Ante consists of three rounds and each round consists of however many hands you can play.
There is always a small blind, a big blind and the ante boss no matter what difficulty you play on.
You will come to learn when you are facing the final boss because Ante 8 bosses are different to every other Ante boss.
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By OrfeasDourvas on 13 May 2024 20:52
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Each Balatro ante consists of three rounds: Small Blind, Big Blind and Boss Blind. You can skip the small and big blinds, but you must beat the Boss Blind in order to reach the next ante. Once you beat the Ante 8 Boss Blind, you win the run.

The best way to beat a run is to stabilize in the early game, while gradually becoming stronger until you find a reliable win condition (for example, focusing on playing a specific hand or card to get you big scores). You can choose any deck you like, but the Blue Deck is more beginner friendly in my opinion, as it gives you +1 hand every round, making it easier to reach the score.

On the first couple antes, the score requeriment is low, so you can focus on stabilizing your economy, so it's easier to reroll and find better jokers later on. Any joker that gives you a lot of chips or mult is good early on, like Popcorn (+20 mult, -4 each round), Gros Michel (+15 mult, 16% chance to get destroyed after each round) or Ice Cream (+100 chips, -5 for each hand played). It is important to not reroll too much on that stage of the run, as every 5 dollars you have give you $1 of interest after each round. A good economy comes primarily from winning with only a few hands (every spare hand gives you $1) and from your interest. The easiest way to one shot bosses and get more spare hands is from playing Flushes or Straights.

Your main win condition obviously change each run, but most of them consists of one scaling chip joker (example: The Bull), one or more jokers that ADD to your mult (Smiley Face, Spare Trousers, etc.) and a joker that MULTIPLIES you mult (X2, X3 and so on). The multiplicative jokers are the most important piece of your run on later antes, and it is way harder to beat a run without them. Other things like planet and tarot cards can enhance your deck and hand type, allowing you to get higher scores even without jokers, so it's a good idea to upgrade cards you consider important for your game plan.

On the base difficulty, the ante 8 Boss Blind requires you to score 100,000 points, so that's the threshold you want to cross. Good luck!
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10 Feb 2025 20:05