Misc joker ideas!

[barren finch]

The rot joker will give +0.75x mult for every hand a food joker decays, and 0.25x for every round a food joker doesn’t decay

It is unlocked by having only food jokers, and having 5 die at the same time at the end of a round

(Originally wanted every food joker but the bananas would make it hard).

Fridge joker: food jokers have a 1/10 chance to not decay (procs before the death check on the banana’s).

Theres a 1/20 chance that they are fully restored

It also works like showman for food jokers.

Hungry joker: gives +20 mult per use left on food jokers (egg, diet cola, and the banana’s all count as one). But is destroyed if a food joker is destroyed(selling doesn’t count)

Sugar joker: Re triggers all food jokers abilities. Dies at the end of the ante. Cant be blueprinted.

Mold joker: Retrigger continuous food jokers, but they decay at double rate. All non food jokers have a 1/1000 chance to be destroyed by mold as well (ex popcorn mold icecream ramen jimbo seltzer, popcorn icecream and ramen would be retriggered because they are continuous)

Scaffolding joker: doubles the scaling of the joker to the left

All of these are just quick ideas and would need MASSIVE rebalancing ngl but just what I can think of quickly

[slender ether]

"food jokers" would need to become a category in balatro first. And joker categories opens a whole can of worms (and/or possibilities). But it's far from what is considered "base game" or "vanilla"

[summer venture]

ngl i dont see the issue with making catagories

this is outside the suggestion itself but why do yall hate the idea of catagories, like what is the can of worms being openned here

[slender ether]

it's a whole different gameplay aspect that is not present in Balatro

there are categories, the rarities, those are the only at play afaik

but any other are arbitrary and need some sort of tag or whatever

[fossil quest]

rarities are also a bit arbitrary in a way

as theyre not indicators of strength

mostly complexity

[slender ether]

I'd say mostly potential

but yeah, the strongest joker is the one that fits what you're trying to do

[fossil quest]

i also dont want joker categories to matter really

[summer venture]

well they do exist regardless, as per anything in the universe, its just not outlined outright, food joker IS a category in balatro because they share a theme and have consistent rules like: not lasting very long be it by slowly degrading or randomly disappearing and having the same "Eaten" message when they die, thats a category, and yeah there should be tags for these things so jokers can affect certain groups of jokers and letting people be able to build around different types of jokers

[fossil quest]

since i feel any category bonus stuff would incentivise forcing builds which is uhh

my least favourite playstyle

[summer venture]

i mean, look at pareidolia or however you spell it

[slender ether]

that's not a category, your brain sees a pattern and that's it

[summer venture]

aint that what a category is tho

[slender ether]

a category is a defined thing, in game there's only the rarity as a defined thing that applies to certain groups of jokers

what those jokers share, you said it yourself, is a theme

and that's vague

coming from Binding of Isaac, it'd be cool to have joker categories and jokers that play with those.
But we don't. And defining them would be a ground work that's had to be done beforehand

[summer venture]

uhhh undefined category??
either way the pattern is there though so why shouldn't it be defined more clearly to let other mechanics be made off of them by manipulating things of a certain category

[fossil quest]

luchador is my favourite food joker

[slender ether]

luchador is a good point, works like cola, you sell it to activate it

[fossil quest]

also mr bones

[fossil quest]

i think because it wouldn't be fun

its a joker whose effect relies on specific other jokers rather than something more accessible

its the definition of forcing a build

[slender ether]

that's a good point

[summer venture]

i mean it cant be too hard, i think even i could do it, wouldn't be as simple as like making a tags list for each joker, coming up with certain tags like "Food" "Scaling" or whatnot and just adding them where it applies

[slender ether]

food is a theme, scaling is a mechanic. I already disagree

[fossil quest]

ill continue this. the categories in isaac are used in a game where rerolling 6 times can happen multiple times a run

jn balatro unless youre already winning categories and how isaac does them doesnt work

[slender ether]

and don't get me wrong, the idea of joker categories can work, definitely
But it's just not in the game and is not a vanilla concept

[fossil quest]

isaac wants you to break the game at least a little. balatro gives you tools and you build a winning run with those

[slender ether]

plus, with enough skill, you can beat a run in isaac without any items. can't do that in Balatro

but yeah, the idea of categories implies the mechanic of synergy. Good example is Baseball Card. it utilizes the category [rarity] for a kind of synergy
a synergy that holds very little if you have a ton of jokers that work like that.
the interesting thing in balatro is that the jokers react to the cards you play, not to the other jokers you have (most of the time)

[fossil quest]

baseball cards requirement is extrmeely broad for a reason honestly

its find uncommons not find this specific joker mechanic which is otherwise a bad idea to invest in (temporary jokers ie food jokers)

[sturdy onyx]

"food jokers" arent a thing

[fast sail]

you got it right

[coral zenith]

is seltzer a food joker

discuss

[sturdy onyx]

no

because food jokers arent a thing

[grand wren]

yes because you can eat any joker

[glossy orbit]

"Its just paper"
Burnt joker:

[sturdy onyx]

still edible

[glossy orbit]

Mr. Bones?

[sturdy onyx]

calcium 😋

[glossy orbit]

Acrobat?

[sturdy onyx]

probably has good protein

[glossy orbit]

Worrying

[grand wren]

acrobat's just another design on paper

[vital ledge]

Glass joker

[grand wren]

yum

[slender ether]

crunchy

[fast sail]

steel joker