Balatro’s Throwback Joker is one of the most distinctive in the game. It looks flashy and impressive, but what it can do is even more noteworthy. Throwback is imperative and its effect makes it great for achieving higher scores.
Balatro runs are determined by a litany of factors: Chips, +Mult, xMult, the type of hand(s) you’re going for, and your Jokers. 150 available Jokers means a lot of choice. It means different runs. Balatro is nothing if not varied, and Throwback stands out from the rest of the pack.
I’d advise you to unlock Throwback sooner rather than later. The best part is it’s not difficult to acquire either.
What Does Throwback Joker Do in Balatro?
The Throwback Joker gets “X0.25 Mult for each Blind skipped this run” in Balatro.
The risk is skipping precious Shop visits to spend your money. Missing out on new Jokers and not getting Vouchers and Packs you need. Conversely, you can still get a lot of this stuff through Tags anyway. You have less freedom and choice, as it’s down to the mercy of the Tags, but it’s very easy to keep leveling up Throwback and fill out the rest of your run anyway.
How to Get Throwback Joker in Balatro
“Continue a run from the Main Menu” is the Joker unlock parameter for Throwback in Balatro.
Here’s a quick set of instructions if you don’t understand what this entails:
- Start a game of Balatro with any deck and difficulty modifiers.
- Get to the first Blind screen.
- Quit to the main menu.
- Continue your run.
- Doing so unlocks Throwback to use in the future!
Should You Get Throwback in Balatro?
Throwback is an easy xMult card and is easily upgraded, making it a very useful Joker if nothing better comes up.
It’s a scalable Joker, meaning you can level up the Joker’s potential, making higher score requirements more attainable. You always need a scalable Joker or two, and I think this makes Throwback perfectly usable. The depth of its multiplier also depends on the literal cards you’re dealt, and the skip bonuses each Blind provides.
Each Ante has three Blinds: Small Blind, Big Blind, and the Boss Blind. You can never skip the Boss Blind, leaving you with two Blind skip opportunities per Ante. You can’t start with Throwback, negating the first Blind. So, if you theoretically get Throwback from the first Shop, and make it to the Boss Blind in Ante 8, that’s potentially 15 chances to add 0.25 Mult to Throwback—meaning it can be a 4.75x Multiplier by the end.
Let me go one step further and recommend using Throwback in tandem with Hieroglyph (-1 Ante, -1 hand each round) and Petroglyph (-1 Ante, -1 discard each round). Using both Vouchers in one run gives you another two Antes on top of the usual eight. This means a further four Blinds to skip, and this equates to a full xMult point value.
Throwback isn’t the greatest xMult Joker in the game, far from it, but it’s still very good. I recommend selling it if you use the Shop and don’t get enough value and benefit from Throwback. Otherwise, a Blind-skipping run with lots of Tags—hello Anaglyph Deck—makes Throwback unreal.
More Balatro Joker unlock guides are a click away: Astronomer, Brainstorm, and Hit The Road.
Is Throwback perfect for you? Or do you value the rich and random contents of the shop to enforce the skips required to make Throwback usable?
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