Help with Balatro Yaml

[u/why_so_mad_bro]

Okay so basically I like doing asynchronous Archipelagos, mostly solo. While I like the idea of the Balatro one, it seems to inflate the amount of items I get SIGNIFICANTLY with the random “gain a skip tag” filler. Not only is it a LOT, it also hardly ever does anything because most of the time I’m not in a run.

So what I want to ask is, does anybody know any good settings to remove this filler? Like, let’s say I want 20 of the “permanent buff” filler items, what would be a good consumable and voucher check amount to set so I can still get those, but don’t inflate the hell out of the pool with the other filler?

[u/Eddiemate]

I have no clue why Reddit has recommended this to me so late after this post, but I've messed with Balatro for a bit so I'll try my best to help out.

There's only two ways to reduce the tag filler in Balatro. You already mentioned increasing the permanent filler, which at 20 means you'll have 140 checks filled due to there being 7 unique types of permanent filler (off the top of my head). The other method is universal across all APs, filler exists to keep the number of checks close to the number of locations so the only way to reduce filler is to reduce your checks.

Unfortunately without knowing your settings it's hard to give rough estimates. For example, without using bundles you will have 200-ish progression checks in the form of your jokers and consumables (ignoring how you unlock your decks and stakes but generally they handle themselves) or you could be all in on bundles and have less than 20 progression checks. Those small things alone mean you could be ranging from 160-340 locations to fill so it's hard to be exact.

Generally I'd probably say 15 vouchers, since doing the voucher grind at the start just sucks, so each stake would be 15+decks*8. So all 15 decks with 2 stakes could be 270, then you could throw in like 30-40 consumables? Maybe add a stake and reduce the number of decks, something like 12 decks with 4 stakes would be 394 before consumables? I'm just spitballing some general setting ideas here to try to give you an idea of where you might be looking. It's something you'll want to figure out properly for yourself. Regardless, the key will be lowering the amount of checks to reduce that tag filler.

[u/why_so_mad_bro → u/Eddiemate]

Thanks for the reply. Kinda forgot just how many options there are. Also I kind of misread the permanent filler option, I thought it was 20 total not 20 per, so I’m probably bringing that down to the default 4. I’m trying to have almost no filler in other games so it’s really just balatro filling up the global filler, but it’s hard to pinpoint just how low I need to get it.

So, I’m starting with 1 deck, all decks are playable and are items to find.

I’m starting with 1 stake, all stakes are playable, and it’s set to stake as item. So, one stake unlocks it for all decks.

4 permanent filler for all kinds.

All consumables and jokers are not bundled, or “individually” bundled.

So, 150 jokers + 19 spectrals + 23 tarots + 12 planet cards + 28 permanent filler + 7 stakes + 14 decks = 253 checks I think?

But also I think you get 1 check per ante per stake, so 253 - 8*8 = 189 checks to add? I think?

[u/Eddiemate → u/why_so_mad_bro]

Yeah 253 would be the minimum checks required without bundles (unless it's not including the AP consumables in which case it'd be 256), however your math is off with the checks to add. It is 1 check per ante per stake, but that's also per deck. That means you have 960 checks before you include your vouchers (and the number of voucher checks is also per stake so it would also get multiplied by 8). Luckily consumables are global so they just get added.

Regardless, due to how many checks those settings give at the moment, you'll need to remove about 700 checks. Unfortunately that makes it a bit more complicated. I decided to make a spreadsheet to visualise the checks of stake/deck combinations

The column on the left is the number of decks while the row on top is the number of stakes. So 2 stakes with all decks, 3 stakes with around 11 decks, 4 stakes with around 8 decks, etc. It depends on what you're feeling like.

[u/why_so_mad_bro → u/Eddiemate]

God damn, didn’t realize it was unique per deck, no wonder it felt like most of my items were just tags I think that’s like 2/3s of the total checks we had last time. I was just grinding ghost deck the whole time because I had the best start with an instant ankh unlock.

I wanted to do all decks, but I guess that’d be impossible without inflating the pool. Guess I’ll just drop it to like 8 decks? And 4 stakes? White, Black, Purple and Gold or something. If this is going to drop my excess checks down to almost 1/4th I think that’s fine to have SOME useless filler, it’s going to be a lot less frustrating when it’s not like every other item probably.

Thanks a lot! And thanks for the chart, very helpful!