Balatro—How to Unlock the Secret Planet Cards

While there are only eight planets (and one dwarf planet) in our solar system, that doesn’t mean others don’t matter! In Balatro, you’ll want to find the secret Planet Cards to buff your rare and powerful Poker Hand types. There are three to find, but unlocking them can be difficult.

What Are Planet Cards in Balatro?

Planet Cards in Balatro are upgrades that improve how many Chips and how much Mult you get for specific Poker Hand types. The nine basic Planet Cards can be found in Celestial Booster Packs and—on occasion—in the shop as single cards. From the start of any run, all nine basic Planet Cards are accessible in the shop.

Here’s every basic Planet Card and what they do:

• Mercury: Levels up the Pair Poker Hand type
• Venus: Levels up the Three of a Kind Poker Hand type
• Earth: Levels up the Full House Poker Hand type
• Mars: Levels up the Four of a Kind Poker Hand type
• Jupiter: Levels up the Flush Poker Hand type
• Saturn: Levels up the Straight Poker Hand type
• Uranus: Levels up the Two Pair Poker Hand type
• Neptune: Levels up the Straight Flush Poker Hand type
• Pluto: Levels up the High Card Poker Hand type

Unlocking the Three Secret Planet Cards in Balatro

To unlock the secret Planet Cards in Balatro, you must play the Poker Hand types connected to them. Each requires some help from the Tarot Cards in Balatro to become playable. Some assistance from Spectral Cards is also useful. Thankfully, once done in a run, the unlocked secret Planet Card automatically starts appearing in the shop—but only during runs where its respective Poker Hand type is played.

Planet X

You unlock the Planet X Planet Card by playing a Five of a Kind Poker Hand. Five of a Kind is the type of Poker Hand that consists of five cards of the same rank. For example, you can get a Five of a Kind by playing a hand of five Aces.

Since your deck starts only having four of each card rank, you’ll need some help. The two Tarot Cards that can help you get a Five of a Kind are Strength and Death. Strength increases the ranks of up to two Playing Cards by one rank each (9s get upgraded to 10s, 10s to Jacks, and so on). Death lets you turn one Playing Card into another—essentially allowing you to clone a Playing Card of your choice.

Tip

The Fool—since it duplicates other Tarot and Planet Cards—can also be useful here. Keep in mind that the Fool cannot clone another Fool card.

On top of that, there are five Spectral Cards that can assist you in this endeavor: Familiar, Grim, Incantation, Ouija, and Cryptid. Out of these five Spectral Cards, Grim, Ouija, and Cryptid are the most useful for attaining a Five of a Kind. Here’s a breakdown of each:

• Familiar: Destroys one random card in your hand and creates three random enhanced face cards (Jacks, Queens, or Kings)
• Grim: Destroys one random card in your hand and creates two random enhanced Aces
• Incantation: Destroys one random card in your hand and creates four random enhanced numbered cards (2s through 10s)
• Ouija: Converts all cards in your hand to a single random rank and decreases your hand size by one (default eight-card hand reduced to a seven-card hand)
• Cryptid: Creates two copies of one selected card in your hand (this does not destroy the selected card)

Ceres

To unlock the Ceres Planet Card, you must play a Flush House Poker Hand. A Flush House is a Poker Hand that combines a Flush and a Full House: you need three cards of the same rank and another two cards that share a different rank than the other three—but all need to be the same suit. For instance, a hand composed of three 10s of Spades and two 9s of Spades will make a Flush House.

There are seven Tarot Cards that make it easier to play a Flush House: the Lovers, Strength, Death, the Star, the Moon, the Sun, and the World. The Lovers turn a Playing Card into a Wild Card, which counts as all suits. Strength increases the ranks of up to two selected cards by one rank each. Death converts one card into another, so you can use it to duplicate anything you want. The Star, the Moon, the Sun, and the World all let you convert up to three cards into their respective suits; the Star for Diamonds, the Moon for Clubs, the Sun for Hearts, and the World for Spades.

What’s more, there are a couple of Spectral Cards that can help you here: Sigil and Cryptid. Sigil converts all Playing Cards in your hand into a random suit. Cryptid makes two copies of one selected Playing Card.

Eris

The last of the secret Planet Cards in Balatro—Eris—needs to be unlocked by playing a Flush Five Poker Hand. A Flush Five is a Poker Hand that merges a Flush and a Five of a Kind. To get such a Poker Hand, something like five Queens of Hearts would do.

To get more cards useful for playing a Flush Five, consider using one of the following seven Tarot Cards:

• The Lovers: Converts a card into a Wild Card
• Strength: Increases the rank of up to two cards
• Death: Converts one selected card into another
• The Star: Converts up to three cards into Diamonds
• The Moon: Converts up to three cards into Clubs
• The Sun: Converts up to three cards into Hearts
• The World: Converts up to three cards into Spades

Furthermore, these six Spectral Cards can also help you draw what you need for a Flush Five:

• Familiar: Destroys one random card in your hand and creates three random enhanced face cards
• Grim: Destroys one random card in your hand and creates two random enhanced Aces
• Incantation: Destroys one random card in your hand and creates four random enhanced numbered cards
• Sigil: Converts all cards in your hand into a random suit
• Ouija: Converts all cards in your hand to a single random rank and decreases your hand size by one
• Cryptid: Creates two copies of one selected card in your hand

Balatro is quickly becoming a cult classic in the indie game scene—for good reasons! It’s fun, balanced, and unique; we highly recommend it to those who like card games such as Magic: The Gathering. In fact, some of the Tarot and Spectral Cards remind us of cards from MTG, like Doubling Season.