Balatro’s Séance Joker is not easy to use, and that’s an understatement. However, like many Jokers, if you can master its ways, its deck-building capabilities are second to none. We’ve put together a handy guide on unlocking Séance and how to maximize its strengths.
Let’s face it we all have particular Jokers we favor. We also turn a blind eye to other Jokers too. A strength of Balatro is you need to be able to adapt. Even if you don’t like a Joker in the Shop, you’re struggling, and your run is going nowhere, it might be time to pivot. Séance is a Marmite Joker for many players, but it’s better than being universally disliked.
Séance is levels above other Jokers and requires a deeper understanding of Balatro. Let’s dig a little deeper into the indie game‘s card.
How to Get Séance Joker in Balatro
Séance is unlocked from the beginning of Balatro, meaning it’s available in the Shop and Tarot Cards immediately.
Séance is an instant unlock, unlike Brainstorm and Hit The Road. From the first time you play Balatro, Séance can be gotten from any method allowing you to add a Joker card. Once you have it, things become tricky.
How to Use Séance Joker in Balatro?
You need to get Straight Flushes with Séance equipped as each time you do it creates a random Spectral Card.
On paper, this is one of the toughest Jokers to use in Balatro by far. A Straight Flush is second only to a Royal Flush in terms of difficult hands. You need the right Tarot Cards and Deck manipulation techniques to manufacture enough Straight Flushes to make Séance worth it.
How to Get Straight Flushes in Balatro
A Straight Flush consists of five cards in sequential order, all in the same suit. You need consistent methods to draw a Straight Flush regularly and earn a Spectral Card in the process.
Here are a few ways to ensure Straight Flushes happen for you more often:
- Checkered Deck: The 52 cards split into 26 Spades and 26 Hearts—making it easier to get the same suit.
- Wild Cards: Open Arcana Packs to turn cards into Wild Cards, and open Standard Packs in the hopes of getting at least one, making suits easier to pair up.
- Tarot Cards: A few tarot Cards can make Straight Flushes more doable:
- The Lovers—Enhances 1 selected card into a Wild Card.
- The Star, The Moon, The Sun, and The World turn three cards of your choosing into the applicable suit of the Tarot card—if you have more cards of one suit, you increase the odds of getting the suit.
- The Fool—Creates the last Tarot or Planet card used during this run (The Fool excluded).
- Strength—Increases rank of up to 2 selected cards by 1. Perfect for a midround boost to a couple of cards, especially if you’re fighting a tough Boss Blind.
- Shortcut Joker: Allows Straights to be made with gaps of 1 rank (ex: 10 8 6 5 3)”
- Four Fingers Joker: All Flushes and Straights can be made with 4 cards.
It’s hard to recommend adding more cards from a numerical perspective. Because a Straight Flush is diverse in this regard, I’d concentrate on making one suit appear more frequently.
Should You Use Séance in Balatro?
Personally, Séance isn’t for me, but everyone is different, and there are huge upsides to sticking with a Séance run.
Firstly, you can’t get The Soul (Creates a Legendary Joker) or Black Hole (Upgrades every poker hand—including secret hands not yet discovered by one level) Spectral Cards with Séance. Plus, no matter how much you turn the odds closer in your favor, getting a Straight Flush isn’t consistent.
On the other hand, a Straight Flush scores a lot of points. Leveling up the hand type once or twice reaps big dividends. Also, Séance isn’t a Joker card you need for the whole game. It’s good to have for the first four or five Antes, allowing you to, hopefully, pick up the best Spectral Cards such as Ankh, Incantation, Ectoplasm, and Cryptid.
There are a few ways to provoke more Straight Flushes—Shortcut and Four Fingers being a favorite of mine. I’d say at least give a proper Séance go a try. It’s fun to experiment, Balatro encourages wild runs, and if you do get lucky, you probably blitz your entire playthrough with a solid Séance setup.
We have plenty of other Balatro content I recommend such as the best Balatro Seeds and the mystery of the Blank Voucher explained.
Comments