"Looks like we found out who the real joker is": Balatro dev reveals one Joker card has been hiding a revolutionary secret all along, because they "thought it was pretty funny"
Sep. 13, 2024Misprint has a secret ability
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Balatro fans are currently in shambles as it’s been revealed that one of the less exciting Joker cards has been hiding a helpful Easter egg this whole time, that’s only been spotted after one player went searching through the game’s code.
Your next card can be worked out from the number and letter shown – with D corresponding to Diamond, H for Heart, S for Spade, and C for Club, and the numbers being exactly what you’d expect, and 11, 12, 13, and 14 matching up with Jack, Queen, King, and Ace, respectively. This was seemingly first discovered by Discord user TamerSoup625, who claims to have uncovered it in the game’s source code, and BelenosBear demonstrates it perfectly by discarding cards and watching the predictions come true. What’s more, it’s proven that you can pull off the trick from your card collection, too.
Balatro’s solo dev LocalThunkwas quick to respond to this, initiallyteasing on Twitterlast night: “Step 1. Put little Misprint secret in code. Step 2. Bury it under 18000 IF statements. Step 3. ?????. Step 4. PROFIT.” Now though, they’ve actually explained themselves.
“So years ago I added Misprint as one of the first ~15 Jokers in the game. From day one it had this Easter egg, I did it as a joke for a friend and we thought it was pretty funny at the time,“LocalThunk reveals. “Looks like we found out who the real joker is.”
Just in case this revelation wasn’t enough, BelenosBear also noticed that, yup, the Easter egg is even present in Balatro’s demo, so it’s been right under our noses all along. We’ll just have to wait and see how genius players might use it to their advantage – it’s no doubt things like this that make Balatro one of thebest roguelike gamesfor some.
Roguelike hit Balatro can’t be sold to any gambling companies or casinos even after its creator dies, because its solo dev is so against that idea they’ve written it into their will.
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I’m one of GamesRadar+’s news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield’s student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming’s news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you’re sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.
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