Balatro—All Tarot Cards and What They Do

For a successful run in Balatro, use Tarot Cards to improve your build through card enhancements, greater money gain, and more. There are 22 Tarot Cards in-game—each with different ideal applications. To unlock a Tarot Card, you must purchase it during an unseeded run.

The Fool

When used, the Fool Tarot Card creates a copy of the last-used Tarot or Planet Card. However, it cannot create a copy of another Fool card. If its effect can be used, there will be a green bubble when you hover over the Fool that states which card it’ll create.

Since the Fool can copy Tarot and Planet Cards, it’s a versatile consumable to keep on hand. Use it to double down on a card that optimizes your build. For example, if your build focuses on playing Flushes, use the Fool to create a copy of the Jupiter Planet Card (which upgrades the Flush Poker Hand).

The Magician

The Magician is a Tarot Card that enhances one Playing Card to become Lucky. When a Playing Card becomes Lucky, there’s a one in five chance it’ll give you +20 Mult when scored. On top of that, there’s also a one in fifteen chance that the Lucky card will reward you with $20 when scored.

While not the best enhancement, Lucky cards can be great for a build that uses the “Oops! All 6s” Joker. This Joker doubles all listed probabilities, so the odds of getting +20 Mult go up from one in five to two in five. Moreover, the one in fifteen chance to win $20 improves to two in fifteen.

The High Priestess

The High Priestess is a great Tarot Card for a Balatro build focused on using Planet Cards. When used, the High Priestess creates two random Planet Cards in your consumable inventory. Keep in mind that you need to have room for the Planet Cards to be created.

If you don’t have at least two open consumable slots, the High Priestess only creates what can fit. For instance, if you only have one open slot, this Tarot Card only creates one Planet Card. Look for the High Priestess if you’ve Jokers that get better from using Planet Cards, like the Constellation Joker (which gains x0.1 Mult when a Planet Card is used).

The Empress

The Empress Tarot Card enhances two selected cards into Mult Cards. A Mult Card has a base Mult of four, which gets added to your Mult level for every hand scored that includes a Mult Card. Therefore, the Empress gives your deck eight more potential Mult total.

Since Mult and Chips are the most important factors for increasing round wins, the Empress is arguably one of the best Tarot Cards for general use. There’s rarely a time when raising your Mult levels isn’t useful, so pick up the Empress whenever you can.

The Emperor

When used, the Emperor Tarot Card creates two random Tarot Cards in your consumable inventory. Like with the High Priestess, you need empty consumable slots to make ideal use of the Emperor. As such, if you want two fresh Tarot Cards, make sure you have two open consumable slots!

With that said, don’t worry if the Emperor is in your consumable inventory. It will disappear upon being used, so the Emperor won’t block new Tarot Cards from going into your consumable zone. The Emperor is particularly useful for builds using the Fortune Teller Joker, which gains +1 Mult per used Tarot Card.

The Hierophant

Similar to the Empress, the Hierophant is arguably one of the most useful Tarot Cards in Balatro. The Hierophant Tarot Card enhances up to two Playing Cards into Bonus Cards. Each Bonus Card, when scored, gives +30 Chips on top of its base Chip value.

That said, if you have a Bonus King that’s being scored, instead of giving the normal 10 Chips, it will yield 40 (30 from the Bonus enhancement and 10 from the King’s base value). Chip and Mult values are very important for winning rounds, so power up your Playing Cards with the Hierophant whenever possible.

The Lovers

The Lovers Tarot Card enhances one Playing Card into a Wild Card. Normally, a Playing Card can only be one suit (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, or Clubs). However, when one becomes a Wild Card, it becomes every suit.

As such, when scored, a Wild Card becomes whatever you need. This is helpful if you’re trying to play any variant of a Flush, such as a Straight Flush, Flush House, and more.

Warning

For boss blinds that debuff suits, Wild Cards will always be debuffed, as they count as all suits.

The Chariot

When you use the Chariot Tarot Card, you upgrade one Playing Card into a Steel Card. A Steel Card gives you x1.5 Mult when you have it in your hand as a Poker Hand is scored. This makes them tricky to use but helpful if more Mult is needed.

Note

Steel Cards do not apply their Mult gain if played in a Poker Hand.

Increasing your Mult by 50% may sound awesome; however, in-hand card effects apply before those of Jokers—but after the effects of cards played in your scored Poker Hand. As such, the x1.5 Mult from a held Steel Card only gets applied to the total round score of everything before Joker activations.

Justice

The Justice Tarot Card enhances one Playing Card into a Glass Card. Glass Cards give you x2 Mult when scored in a played Poker Hand. The downside is that there’s a one-in-four chance that a Glass Card will get destroyed every time it’s scored.

Destroying Glass Cards isn’t as bad as it sounds. Doing so shrinks your deck size, which increases the odds of drawing one of your better cards. Furthermore, there are some unlocks that require collecting and destroying Glass Cards. If you’re after 100% Balatro completion, you’ll need to use the Justice Tarot Card a few times.

The Hermit

If you want to make a ton of cash, the Hermit can help you! The Hermit Tarot Card doubles your money up to a limit of $20. As such, the most you can gain from using it is also $20. If you use this Tarot Card while you have $20, you’ll end up with $40.

More money means more purchases, which—in turn—means more upgrades and build optimization. Speaking of purchases, you should almost always buy the Hermit if you see it in the shop. It costs only $3 (most of the time), so if you have $7 or more, you’ll gain a net profit.

The Wheel of Fortune

As the biggest waste of money out of all Tarot Cards in Balatro, we recommend avoiding the Wheel of Fortune unless you have lots of cash to burn. That’s because the Wheel of Fortune Tarot Card only has a one-in-four chance to add a random edition (except Negative) to a random Joker. This means that a Joker will become Foil (+50 Chips), Holographic (+10 Mult), or Polychrome (x1.5 Mult).

There’s no denying that the flavor behind this Tarot Card is on point. With that said, the 75% chance of the Wheel of Fortune doing nothing makes it a risky buy. Even when it does activate, this Tarot Card may add an edition to a Joker that already has one—which would overwrite it. That would not be very fortunate.

Strength

If you need to increase the rank of up to two Playing Cards, the Strength Tarot Card will let you do so. Increasing the rank of cards means turning them into cards valued one Chip point higher (in most cases). For example, if you use Strength on a 9, that 9 will turn into a 10. Conversely, ranking a Jack up to a Queen won’t increase Chip value, as all face cards are worth 10 Chips each.

As a result, you can increase the Chip-gaining potential of most cards in your deck. There are more applications for the Strength Tarot Card than Chip gain, though. By using Strength on 10s you’ll create more Jacks, which would be useful in a build revolving around face cards.

The Hanged Man

The Hanged Man Tarot Card lets you destroy up to two Playing Cards. Use this to get rid of low-value cards, such as 2s and 3s—as long as such Playing Cards aren’t useful for your best tactics. By thinning out your deck, you’ll increase the odds of drawing better cards.

Death

Out of all the Tarot Cards in Balatro, Death is one of the most versatile. When you use the Death Tarot Card, you turn one Playing Card into another of your choice. This is a solid way to increase the number of Aces or face cards in your deck.

Due to Death’s effect applying to cards depending on where they are positioned, you need to rearrange your hand before using it in most cases.

Tip

Always double-check the positioning of your cards before using the Death Tarot Card. You don’t want to accidentally turn an Ace into a 2 for most builds.

Temperance

Much like the Hermit, Temperance is an easy way to make more money than usual. When you use the Temperance Tarot Card, you’ll gain money equal to the total sell value of all currently owned Jokers. Rare edition Jokers (Foil, Holographic, Polychrome, and Negative) are worth more, so try to keep a few of them to get big gains from Temperance.

If you see Temperance in the shop, it usually costs $3. If your cumulative Jokers’ sell value is higher than that, it’s worth buying Temperance. That way, you’ll get a nice net profit effortlessly.

The Devil

The Devil helps you make money in a different way than the Hermit or Temperance. When used, the Devil Tarot Card turns one selected Playing Card into a Gold Card. In terms of round score, Gold Cards are the same as normal Playing Cards.

However, if you’re holding a Gold Card in your hand (not your played Poker Hand) at the end of a round, you’ll get $3. In this regard, Gold Cards are similar to Steel Cards, but the former is for money gain—not round score increases.

The Tower

The Tower Tarot Card enhances one Playing Card into a Stone Card. A Stone Card gives 50 Chips when scored; however, it does not have a rank or a suit. While an additional 50 Chips per hand played is helpful at the beginning of a run, its usefulness tapers off later.

There are lots of times when a card with a rank or suit can yield more than 50 Chips. Since Stone is a type of enhancement, you cannot make such cards Bonus or Mult ones without losing the Stone trait. While we like the concept, we’ve yet to—in our approximate 40 hours of playing Balatro—find a mid or late-game purpose for Stone Cards outside of a build that uses the Stone Joker (which gives 25 Chips per Stone Card in your deck).

The Star

The first of four suit-related Tarot Cards in Balatro, the Star converts up to three Playing Cards to the Diamond suit. As you probably guessed, this is great for Flush-oriented builds. Jokers like the Greedy Joker (which gives +4 Mult per Diamond card scored) become even more viable.

The Moon

Next up out of the suit-focused Tarot Cards is the Moon. When you use the Moon Tarot Card, you can convert up to three Playing Cards into Clubs. Use it to power up your Club Flushes! The Gluttonous Joker is a smart choice for such a build, as it gives +4 Mult per Club card scored.

The Sun

Third out of the suit-specialized Tarot Cards is the Sun. If you use the Sun Tarot Card, you’ll convert up to three cards into the Heart suit. What better way to show your love for your build than to use the Lusty Joker here? It gives +4 Mult per Heart card scored.

Judgement

We’re going by numbered order, so we’re breaking the suit-themed Tarot combo to tell you about Judgement. The Judgement Tarot Card is simple but sweet: it creates a random Joker. What’s more, it can create any Joker—even rare and legendary ones!

If you’re going for 100% completion in Balatro, Judgement is one of the most helpful Tarot Cards. There are 150 Jokers in the game and finding them all organically can be time-consuming. Use Judgement to help you find Jokers and you’ll collect ’em all in no time.

The World

Last but not least is the World—a Tarot Card that turns up to three Playing Cards into the Spades suit. As with the Star, the Moon, and the Sun, the World is excellent for Flush builds. Combined with the Wrathful Joker (which gives +4 Mult per Spade card scored), you can play some big poker hands.

See the future of your build by properly reading all 22 Tarot Cards in Balatro! When used efficiently, you can make tons of money, bolster round score easily, and even unlock Jokers, Vouchers, and more. If you’re a fan of games featuring valuable cards, feel free to check out our article about the rarest card in Magic: The Gathering—after you play a bit more Balatro, of course.