Succeeding in Balatro requires an assortment of intertwining Jokers who synergize with each other. Balatro’s Hit The Road Joker takes care of the Multiplier side of the equation, but you need to unlock it, and once you do, you need to know how to use it.
I’ve had Balatro runs heavily lopsided in terms of Chips, and vice versa with Mult. While the glorious Plasma Deck can take of this problem, if you’re using another type of deck, it’s better to have reliable, high-scoring Jokers to send your score into the stratosphere. The Hit The Road Joker does this in Spades—and Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds.
With over 150 Jokers in Balatro—such as the Brainstorm Joker—it’s difficult to know all the unlock criteria. Hit The Road has a specific requirement and one that needs some serious strategy.
How to Get Hit The Road Joker in Balatro
You need to discard five Jacks simultaneously to unlock the Hit The Road Joker in Balatro.
I know what you’re thinking, “This sounds impossible!” and I know you’re thinking this because I thought it too at first. How often have you been in a position where you have the chance to discard five Jacks?
If you’re struggling, here are some ways to artificially manufacture a hand of five Jacks:
- Purchase Standard Packs to have a chance of adding new Jacks to your deck—Jumbo Packs are ideal.
- Open Arcana Packs to get Tarot Cards capable of altering your held cards:
- Strength: Increases the rank of up to 2 selected cards by 1—If you have two 10s, they can become Jacks.
- The Hanged Man: Destroys two cards—Destroy any cards other than Jacks.
- Death: Select 2 cards, convert the left card into the right card—Move any card to the left of a Jack, select them both, and use Death to turn a card into a Jack.
- Spectral Cards are far less consistent, but they can make your job easier:
- Ouija: Converts all cards in hand to a single random rank, but -1 hand size—Need a lot of luck with this one, but it could turn many cards into Jacks.
- Cryptid: Creates 2 exact copies (including Enhancements, Editions, and Seals) of a selected card in your hand.
- The DNA Joker adds a permanent copy of the selected card to your deck which you can immediately draw to hand, but only if your first hand of the round has one card. You can copy many Jacks this way, but it’s a Rare Joker, so don’t expect to see it as often.
What Does Hit The Road Joker do in Balatro?
Hit The Road starts with a 1x Multiplier, and gains X0.5 Mult for every Jack discarded in a round. The card’s Mult is reset at the end of each round.
For example, the card would have a 2.5X Multiplier if you discarded three Jokers before you played your first hand. In layman’s terms, the more Jacks you discard during a round, the stronger the Joker gets.
Should You Get Hit The Road in Balatro?
Hit The Road is wildly dependent on your current deck’s Jacks, but I think it’s too good of a Joker to pass up.
The Red Deck adds an extra Discard per Round and Wasteful and Recyclomancy Store Vouchers offer an extra Discard each. Building a deck around these qualities allows you more Discards, and more chances to get Jacks. Throw in all the methods I mentioned above, and you can guarantee a big xMultiplier each round.
As long as you get enough Chips to go with your powerful Mult potential, you should have no trouble getting to the later Antes—watch out for the Boss Blinds looking to oppose your strategy:
- The Fish: Cards drawn face down after each hand played.
- The Water: Start with 0 discards.
- The Mark: All face cards are drawn face down.
Hit The Road is one of the Balatro community’s most favored cards. But what do you think? Do you think it’s overrated? Or are you having a hard time unlocking it at all?
Check out more Balatro content including the best Seeds in Balatro, along with what the Blank Voucher does.
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