{"slug": "balatro", "name": "Balatro", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.637, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-11-20", "latest": "2026-05-12", "why": "most of the fun of the game comes from the mechanics being slightly obscured from the player", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "most of the fun of the game comes from the mechanics being slightly obscured from the player", "kind": "game", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.playbalatro.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Balatro"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 769816002, "item_id": 48113500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48113500", "by": "wincy", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Those games run with no difficulties.", "excerpt": "I have an RTX 5090 and am an avid gamer. When I travel I use my M1 MacBook Air and play indie games like Slay the Spire, Hades 2, Balatro, and Hollow Knight Silksong. Not cutting edge but definitely cutting edge fun. Those games run with no difficulties. Slay the Spire 2 is in early access and has some major issues running but I suspect that\u2019s some issues in the game engine because it\u2019s not framerate but some sort of", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence \u2013 Coming Fall 2026 \u2013 Googlebook"}, {"id": 769772304, "item_id": 48110769, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48110769", "by": "some_furry", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Play Balatro instead.", "excerpt": "Can't you just, wire your agent into a Python script and have it infinitely check its own work? That would hit the metrics, but do nothing useful. Hell, throw a Tarot reading in the middle of the loop so the agent has non-deterministic behavior too. https://github.com/trailofbits/skills/tree/main/plugins/let-fate-decide Amazon management wants to play five-dimensional chess? Play Balatro instead.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Amazon employees are \"tokenmaxxing\" due to pressure to use AI tools"}, {"id": 749956096, "item_id": 46872256, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46872256", "by": "gcr", "date": "2026-02-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "most of the fun of the game comes from the mechanics being slightly obscured from the player", "excerpt": "I designed and 3D-printed my own slide rule to help me play Balatro! Balatro is a roguelike survival game where you need to multiply \"chips\" and \"mult\" together to meet a requirement each round. You get three chances to draft enough resources to survive. I designed my own slide rule to help with the mental multiplication - most of the fun of the game comes from the mechanics being slightly obscured from the player. S", "context": "", "use_case": "Playing roguelike card game", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["playing roguelike card game", "playing the game"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48111545", "title": "Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence \u2013 Coming Fall 2026 \u2013 Googlebook", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48110529", "title": "Amazon employees are \"tokenmaxxing\" due to pressure to use AI tools", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46871179", "title": "Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45985196", "title": "How Slide Rules Work", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 769816002, "item_id": 48113500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48113500", "by": "wincy", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Those games run with no difficulties.", "excerpt": "I have an RTX 5090 and am an avid gamer. When I travel I use my M1 MacBook Air and play indie games like Slay the Spire, Hades 2, Balatro, and Hollow Knight Silksong. Not cutting edge but definitely cutting edge fun. Those games run with no difficulties. Slay the Spire 2 is in early access and has some major issues running but I suspect that\u2019s some issues in the game engine because it\u2019s not framerate but some sort of", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence \u2013 Coming Fall 2026 \u2013 Googlebook"}, {"id": 769772304, "item_id": 48110769, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48110769", "by": "some_furry", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Play Balatro instead.", "excerpt": "Can't you just, wire your agent into a Python script and have it infinitely check its own work? That would hit the metrics, but do nothing useful. Hell, throw a Tarot reading in the middle of the loop so the agent has non-deterministic behavior too. https://github.com/trailofbits/skills/tree/main/plugins/let-fate-decide Amazon management wants to play five-dimensional chess? Play Balatro instead.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Amazon employees are \"tokenmaxxing\" due to pressure to use AI tools"}, {"id": 749956096, "item_id": 46872256, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46872256", "by": "gcr", "date": "2026-02-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "most of the fun of the game comes from the mechanics being slightly obscured from the player", "excerpt": "I designed and 3D-printed my own slide rule to help me play Balatro! Balatro is a roguelike survival game where you need to multiply \"chips\" and \"mult\" together to meet a requirement each round. You get three chances to draft enough resources to survive. I designed my own slide rule to help with the mental multiplication - most of the fun of the game comes from the mechanics being slightly obscured from the player. S", "context": "", "use_case": "Playing roguelike card game", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?"}, {"id": 735949024, "item_id": 45996814, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45996814", "by": "gcr", "date": "2025-11-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Last year I made my own rotary slide rule for playing Balatro, the poker roguelike!", "excerpt": "Last year I made my own rotary slide rule for playing Balatro, the poker roguelike! My version has a couple interesting properties compared to ordinary linear slide rules: 1. It has three octaves, so it can scale from 1 to 1k or from 1k to 1m, or from 1m to 1b. This is great for calculating point values 2. It's rotary 3. It can be easily 3d-printed! Source code and .STL files here: https://www.printables.com/model/10", "context": "", "use_case": "playing the game", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Slide Rules Work"}]}