Balatro: all Legendary Jokers and how to unlock them

List of every Legendary Joker in Balatro and how to unlock them all
Balatro: all Legendary Jokers and how to unlock them
Balatro: all Legendary Jokers and how to unlock them /

Jokers are the lifeblood of any Balatro run. If you don’t get a good lineup of Jokers to give you extra chips, multipliers, and multiplication of those multipliers, then you can kiss any chance of winning your run goodbye. Thankfully, Balatro has no shortage of Jokers for you to build your run around, with 150 to choose from.

There are five Jokers though, that stand on a higher pedestal than all the rest. Named for the famous Jesters of history, these Legendary Jokers have some incredible abilities. We’ll go through them all and how you can unlock them.

Balatro: how to unlock and use the Plasma Deck

How to unlock Legendary Jokers in Balatro

Balatro The Soul Spectral cards
The Soul Spectral card allows you to unlock Balatro's Legendary Jokers / Playstack

All five Legendary Jokers have to be unlocked in the same way, which is by using The Soul Spectral card.

If you haven’t already encountered them, Spectral cards are rare and mysterious cards that often have great boons, but at the cost of a debuff. However, The Soul’s effect is very straightforward: “Creates a Legendary Joker.”

When using this card, you will be randomly given one of the five Legendary Jokers in the game, and once you receive one of them via The Soul card, it will be permanently unlocked for future runs. So, if you want all five, you’ve got to buy Spectral Packs whenever you can to get the best odds of pulling The Soul and getting a new Legendary Joker.

List of Legendary Jokers in Balatro and their effects

Balatro Legendary Jokers
Legendary Jokers have some of the most powerful effects in Balatro, but often with a twist / Playstack

Here is a list of what each Legendary Joker does:

  • Canio – Gains x1 Mult when a face card is destroyed (starts with x1 Mult)
  • Triboulet – Played Kings and Queens each give x2 Mult when scored
  • Yorick – x5 Mult, but alas, only after using 23 discards
  • Chicot – Disables the effect of every Boss Blind
  • Perkeo – Create a Negative copy of 1 random consumable card in your possession at the end of the shop

Published
Ryan Woodrow
RYAN WOODROW

Ryan Woodrow is Guides Editor for GLHF based in London, England. He has a particular love for JRPGs and the stories they tell. His all-time favorite JRPGs are the Xenoblade Chronicles games because of the highly emotive and philosophy-driven stories that hold great meaning. Other JRPGs he loves in the genre are Persona 5 Royal, Octopath Traveler, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Nier Automata, and Pokémon. He also regularly dives deep into the indie scene trying to find hidden gems and innovative ideas. Some of his favorite indie games include FTL: Faster Than Light, Thomas Was Alone, Moonlighter, Phantom Abyss, and Towerfall Ascension. More of his favorite games are Minecraft, Super Mario Odyssey, Stardew Valley, Skyrim, and XCOM 2. He has a first-class degree in Games Studies from Staffordshire University and has written for several sites such as USA Today's ForTheWin, Game Rant, The Sun, and KeenGamer. Email: ryan.woodrow@glhf.gg