The Boss Blind is the third blind of every Ante. It cannot be skipped, it usually asks for twice the Ante's base score, and it adds one rule for that round. Each Ante's boss is shown as soon as the Ante begins, so you always get the Small Blind and Big Blind shops to prepare for it.
Every effect, Ante and number below was checked against the Balatro Wiki for the current version (1.0.1). The danger ratings are our own judgement for a typical run; where a boss is harmless to most builds but deadly to one, the rating says so.
Every Boss Blind at a glance
Twenty-three regular bosses can appear on Antes 1 to 7. Eight of them are possible from Ante 1; the rest unlock at the Ante shown. All ask for 2x the base score and pay $5 unless noted.
| Boss Blind | Effect | From Ante | Danger | Counter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Hook | Discards 2 random cards from your hand after each hand played | 1 | Low | Play hands that are complete now; do not hold pieces for later |
| The Club | All Club cards are debuffed | 1 | Low (High for a Club Flush) | Convert cards to another suit with a stored suit-changing Tarot, or reroll |
| The Goad | All Spade cards are debuffed | 1 | Low (High for a Spade Flush) | Same as The Club |
| The Window | All Diamond cards are debuffed | 1 | Low (High for a Diamond Flush) | Same as The Club |
| The Head | All Heart cards are debuffed | 1 | Low (High for a Heart Flush) | Same as The Club |
| The Psychic | You must play 5 cards | 1 | Low | Pad small hands with extra cards; keep hand size at 5 or more |
| The Manacle | -1 hand size | 1 | Low | Hand size Jokers or vouchers offset it |
| The Pillar | Cards played earlier this Ante are debuffed | 1 | Medium | Keep your best cards out of the Small and Big Blind |
| The House | Your first hand is drawn face down | 2 | Low | Discard or play the face-down cards to see new ones |
| The Wall | Extra large blind: 4x the base score | 2 | High | Burst scoring; Luchador or Chicot returns it to 2x |
| The Wheel | Each card has a 1 in 7 chance to be drawn face down | 2 | Low | Jokers that score on any hand |
| The Arm | Lowers the level of the played poker hand by 1 (never below level 1) | 2 | Medium | Win with a different hand type if you can |
| The Fish | Cards drawn after each hand played are face down | 2 | Low | Cards drawn after a discard come face up |
| The Water | Start the round with 0 discards | 2 | Medium | Extra hand size, or Burglar |
| The Mouth | Only one hand type can score this round | 2 | Low | Make your first hand your build's hand |
| The Needle | Only 1 hand this round; asks for 1x the base score | 2 | High | One big hand; Burglar adds 3 hands |
| The Flint | The hand's base Chips and Mult are halved | 2 | Medium | Joker +Mult and XMult are not halved |
| The Mark | All face cards are drawn face down | 2 | Low (Medium for face builds) | Sort by rank to locate them; reroll if you rely on face cards |
| The Eye | No hand type may be repeated this round | 3 | Medium (High for one-hand builds) | Plan four different hands before you start |
| The Tooth | Lose $1 for every card played, even unscored ones | 3 | Low | Play fewer cards per hand |
| The Plant | All face cards are debuffed | 4 | Low (High for face builds) | Reroll it or sell Luchador |
| The Serpent | After every play or discard you always draw exactly 3 cards | 5 | Low | Discard 1 or 2 cards to draw 3 |
| The Ox | Playing your most played hand sets your money to $0 | 6 | Medium | Spend before the boss, or play another hand type |
The five Showdown Blinds replace the normal boss at Ante 8 (and Ante 16, 24 and 32 in Endless). They pay $8.
| Showdown Blind | Effect | Danger | Counter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amber Acorn | Flips all your Jokers face down and shuffles their order | Medium | Watch which Joker triggers and drag XMult back to the right |
| Verdant Leaf | All playing cards are debuffed until you sell 1 Joker | Low if prepared | Keep one Joker you can afford to sell |
| Violet Vessel | Very large blind: 6x the base score | Highest | Burst scoring; Luchador or Chicot returns it to 2x |
| Crimson Heart | One random Joker is disabled every hand | Medium to High | Play a throwaway hand to move the debuff |
| Cerulean Bell | One card is always force-selected | Medium | The Hanged Man destroys it; play hands where it can be a kicker |
Bosses are drawn from those that have appeared the fewest times in the run, so a boss will not repeat until every eligible boss has appeared once, and a rerolled boss counts as having appeared. If you already faced The Plant this run, you will not meet it again for a while.
Which bosses wreck which builds
Most bosses are mild for most runs. The danger is concentrated: each build has one to three bosses that can end it. Find your build below and keep a plan for those bosses specifically.
| Build | Bosses to fear | Why | Preparation |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-suit Flush | The Club / The Goad / The Window / The Head (your suit) | Every card of your suit is debuffed, and Wild Cards count as every suit, so they are debuffed too | Hold a suit-changing Tarot (The Star, The Moon, The Sun, The World) or reroll |
| Flush with Smeared Joker | Two suit bosses instead of one | Smeared Joker makes the paired suit count as the debuffed suit | Same as above; treat both suits' bosses as threats |
| Pair, Two Pair, Three of a Kind | The Eye, The Psychic | No repeating the same hand; Half Joker needs 3 or fewer cards and is dead under The Psychic | Rotate Pair, Two Pair and Three of a Kind under The Eye; pad hands to 5 under The Psychic |
| Straight | The Hook, The Water, The Serpent | Straights are built by holding and digging; these bosses remove held cards, discards or refill | More hand size; Four Fingers or Shortcut make Straights easier to complete |
| Face cards (Photograph, Baron, Triboulet) | The Plant, The Mark | Face cards are debuffed or hidden; Pareidolia makes every card a face card, so every card is hit | Reroll The Plant or sell Luchador; sell Pareidolia before The Mark |
| Held-in-hand (Baron, Steel Cards) | The Hook, The Manacle | Held cards are discarded at random or there is less room to hold them | Hand size bonuses; avoid fighting The Hook with a held-card engine |
| One leveled hand (Card Sharp, many Planets) | The Eye, The Arm, The Flint | You cannot repeat it, it loses levels, or its leveled base is halved | Keep a second scoring hand; stack Joker +Mult against The Flint |
| Discard engines (Hit the Road, Castle, Yorick) | The Water | No discards means no scaling that round | Reroll, or carry enough score to win without scaling |
| Joker-dependent engines | Crimson Heart, Amber Acorn, Verdant Leaf | Showdown bosses that disable, hide or require selling Jokers | More Joker slots and a spare, sellable Joker |
| Economy and interest | The Ox, The Tooth | Money set to $0, or $1 lost per card | Spend first; play few cards under The Tooth |
The pattern is worth knowing: the more one-dimensional the build, the more bosses can stop it. A Flush deck of only Hearts fears The Head; a Flush deck split between two suits can still make Flushes in the other suit. The Deck Build Guide covers how to shape a deck for one hand without becoming fragile.
How to prepare: rerolls, Luchador and Chicot
Boss Blinds cannot be skipped, but you can change which boss you face or switch its effect off.
| Tool | What it does | Cost and source | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Director's Cut (Voucher) | Reroll the Boss Blind once per Ante | $10 per reroll | Using a Boss Tag first uses up that Ante's reroll |
| Retcon (Voucher) | Reroll the Boss Blind any number of times | $10 per reroll | Needs Director's Cut in the same run; unlocks after you discover 25 Blinds |
| Boss Tag | Rerolls the next Boss Blind for free | Skip a Small or Big Blind | Costs you that blind's reward and shop |
| Luchador (Uncommon Joker) | Sell it during a Boss Blind to disable that boss | $5 in the shop | Does nothing if sold outside the boss or while debuffed |
| Chicot (Legendary Joker) | Disables every Boss Blind while held | Only from the Spectral card The Soul | Cannot be copied by Blueprint or Brainstorm |
| Mr. Bones (Uncommon Joker) | Saves the run if you reach 25% of the required score, then destroys itself | $5 in the shop | No reward money for that blind; does not work if debuffed |
Rerolls follow one fixed rule: rerolling at Ante 8 (or any multiple of 8) always gives another Showdown Blind, and rerolling on any other Ante always gives a regular boss. You cannot reroll your way out of the final boss into an easy one.
Disabling a boss also removes its score multiplier. With Luchador or Chicot, The Wall and Violet Vessel drop back to 2x the base score. The Needle is the exception that works in your favour: you get all your hands back, but the requirement stays at 1x the base.
Luchador is best early. In Antes 2 to 5 one bad boss is the most likely way to lose, and Luchador costs one Joker slot. Late in a run that slot is usually worth more as a scoring Joker, and in Endless you face many bosses, which favours Chicot or Retcon over a one-use Joker.
Matador is the opposite approach. It is an Uncommon Joker ($7) that pays $8 each time a played hand triggers the boss's ability, for example scoring a debuffed card under a suit boss. It works with the suit bosses, The Plant, The Pillar, The Flint, The Arm (on a hand of level 2 or higher), The Ox, Verdant Leaf, and The Eye, The Mouth or The Psychic when the hand does not score. It does nothing against the other bosses, and nothing once Luchador or Chicot has disabled the boss.
The Showdown Blinds at Ante 8
The Ante 8 boss is always one of five Showdown Blinds. Ante 8 asks for 50,000 base at White Stake, so a 2x Showdown Blind needs 100,000, and Violet Vessel needs 300,000.
-
1
Violet Vessel — 6x the base score
The pure score check, and the one that ends the most winning runs. On White Stake it asks for 300,000 at Ante 8; on Green Stake 600,000; from Purple Stake 1,200,000. Luchador or Chicot cut it to 2x. Mr. Bones saves the run if you reach 25%, and a win saved by Mr. Bones still counts as winning the run.
-
2
Crimson Heart — one random Joker disabled each hand
A different Joker is disabled each hand; it never picks the same Joker twice in a row unless you only have one. If it disables your key XMult Joker before your big hand, play a cheap hand first to move the debuff. A debuffed Luchador can be sold but will not disable the blind.
-
3
Amber Acorn — Jokers flipped and shuffled
Your Jokers still work, but their order is randomized, so an XMult Joker can land to the left of your +Mult Jokers and score far less. Play one hand, watch which Joker triggers, and drag XMult Jokers back to the right. Square Joker, Half Joker, Wee Joker and Photograph keep their distinctive shape when face down.
-
4
Verdant Leaf — all cards debuffed until you sell a Joker
Sell one Joker and the effect ends. Keep a Joker you can spare, such as an economy Joker. On Black Stake and above, Eternal Jokers cannot be sold, so a run of only Eternal Jokers has no answer. Selling Luchador also counts and disables the blind.
-
5
Cerulean Bell — one card always selected
One random card is always selected, and a new one is chosen after you play or discard it. Small hands such as a Pair let the forced card ride along as an unscored card. The Hanged Man can destroy the forced card.
You see the Ante 8 boss when Ante 8 begins, which leaves only two shops to prepare. Assume one of the five is coming from Ante 6: keep a spare Joker for Verdant Leaf, avoid a build that only works with one specific Joker, and make sure your four hands can reach 100,000, with a plan for 300,000 if Violet Vessel appears.
Higher Stakes and Endless
No Stake changes what any boss does, but several Stakes change how hard the bosses hit.
| Stake | Effect on Boss Blinds |
|---|---|
| Green and Purple | Base scores rise, so The Wall and Violet Vessel rise with them. The Wall at Ante 7 asks for 140,000 on White, 240,000 on Green and 440,000 from Purple |
| Black | Eternal Jokers cannot be sold, which matters against Verdant Leaf |
| Blue | -1 discard every round, leaving less room to dig past the face-down cards of The House, The Wheel and The Fish |
| Orange | A Perishable Luchador is debuffed after 5 rounds and then cannot disable a boss |
| Gold | A Rental Luchador costs $3 every round you hold it |
In Endless Mode, Showdown Blinds return at Ante 16, 24 and 32, and the base score grows much faster than exponentially: 110,000 at Ante 9 and about 8.6 × 10^20 at Ante 16 on White Stake. At that point every boss you face is a risk to a run that has to score in a few hands, which is why Chicot and Retcon are worth more in Endless than in a normal run. Ante 39's requirement overflows the game's number format, so it cannot be beaten.
Common mistakes
- Not reading the boss at the start of the Ante. It is shown before the Small Blind. Two shops are enough to buy a Tarot, a voucher or Luchador; zero shops are not.
- Spending your best cards early against The Pillar. Cards you play in the Small and Big Blind are debuffed in the boss round. Win the early blinds with filler cards, or skip them.
- Opening with a throwaway hand against The Mouth. The first hand you play decides the only hand type that can score.
- Rerolling at Ante 8 to escape a Showdown Blind. The reroll always gives another Showdown Blind.
- Selling Luchador at the wrong time. It only works when sold during the Boss Blind and not while debuffed by Crimson Heart or a Perishable sticker.
- Adding Smeared Joker or Wild Cards to a Flush deck without a backup. Both increase the number of cards a suit boss debuffs.
- Treating The Arm as a one-round penalty. The lost level is permanent. If another hand type can win the round, play that instead.
Related guides
How scoring, Antes and Stakes work from the start: Beginner Guide. Which Jokers to buy, including Chicot and the other Legendaries: Joker Tier List. How to shape a deck for one hand without becoming fragile: Deck Build Guide. Our verdict on the game: Balatro Review.
★Honest Take — most bosses are fair, a few are a coin flip
Balatro's bosses are better designed than they first seem. Every one is shown at the start of its Ante, two shops before you fight it, and most target a specific build, so a loss to The Plant with a face-card deck is usually a loss to not rerolling or not carrying Luchador. The exceptions are real, though. The Wall and The Needle in Antes 2 to 4 can end a run before you have the economy to answer them, and Violet Vessel turns a run that comfortably beat every Ante into a loss in one screen. The fair criticism is that the counters are expensive: Director's Cut costs $10 before every reroll, and Chicot is a 0.3% Spectral card away. The practical lesson is simple: know the two or three bosses your build cannot survive, and spend on insurance against those, not against all 28.
