#Joker Toggles

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

acoustic portal
#

Let's say you have a build that requires you to play hands in order to gain strength or economy (mainly scaling Jokers), but your hands and Jokers are so powerful that you win by playing just one hand. What if you could temporarily toggle Jokers on or off, so that you can viably gain strength?

Example A:

  • Square Joker (ON)
  • Green Joker (ON)
  • Gros Michel (OFF)

Because you picked up Gros Michel within the first two antes, you're guaranteed to win any hand you play, and neither Square or Green Joker will not scale as efficiently. So, you would toggle off the banana, because you want to play a number of throwaway hands and to scale those two Jokers. At the last hand, you would toggle on the banana to finish the round.

Example B

Another example would be if you were trying to generate economy, let's say with To-Do List, and you wanted to toggle off certain Jokers that will automatically win you the round in a single hand.

Example C

Boss Blind: The Serpent

Initial Joker Setup:

  • Blueprint (ON)
  • Burglar (ON)
  • DNA (ON)
  • Baron (OFF)
  • Mime (OFF)
  • Brainstorm (ON)
  • Plus any additional copies of Blueprint/Brainstorm

Instead of waiting through scoring animations to gain a certain amount of Kings in your hand, toggle off Baron and Mime until the last hand, order the Jokers optimally, then turn them back on to get your precious naneinf.

Caveats

Joker Toggles could end up being too powerful for their own good, so there's discussion to be had about nerfing them, such as having Jokers that can't be toggled (Juggler, Drunkard, Stuntman, etc.), or limiting the amount of toggles to a certain number. Another argument for some builds would be to not pick up certain Jokers for builds, like Square or Green Joker, but having Jokers in your possession until you're ready to use them is another.

What do you think?

placid solstice
#

i feel it would be a bit too niche and too good at the same time. overscoring and having to cut scaling short being a real thing is not something thats too bothersome anyways

final mirage
#

Maybe you could like hold jokers and they would be dragged somewhere but not score
Idk that might clutter the UI more but I also dont know if adding a button would work effectively

final lichen
#

This eliminates so much of the fun intricacy of this game though

#

Like having scaling Jokers inherently means you need to balance your score so you're not scoring too high, and that's part of the challenge

#

Like in Example A, you would have to either:

A. Keep Gros Michel and guarantee safety and some econ for at least a few rounds at the cost of missed scaling potential and gambling on how long Michel will last

B. Take the risk of selling Gros Michel to achieve much higher scaling and immediately gain a bit of cash, but lose out on econ, future Cavendish, and possibly even your ability to clear the blind

#

Difficult choices like that are what make roguelites fun imo, you don't get to just pick the upsides of both

#

Xmult Jokers are also special in that, by rearranging your Jokers, you can minimize your score without selling Jokers

#

But you have to play cautiously and remember to move them when necessary, and you have to estimate when you need to move them back to clear the blind

placid solstice
#

i dont think theres any roguelike where you can turn off an upgrade and turn it back on rather than fully getting rid of it

final lichen
#

In fact, Balatro's pretty special in that you can even get rid of your Jokers at any time and move them to change how they work