A massive Balatro exploit has been hidden in the game the entire time, Dev confirms

Poker roguelite Balatro has built a strong and loyal community of players thanks to the many different ways the game can surprise you during a run. Today, the same day the game launched on mobile devices, developer LocalThunk has seemingly confirmed a feature that looks like a glitch, but instead works as intended.

This exploit, which was revealed in a YouTube video by BelenosBear, involves the Misprint wild card, and more specifically, it revolves around the seemingly random text that flashes in Misprint’s ability text.

Basically, if you pause during a Balatro run, go to your card collection in the pause menu, and then go to Misprint, you will occasionally see random numbers, letters, and symbols flashing in the ability text. As it turns out, these sequences aren’t random and actually tell you the top card of your deck by the numbers and letters that appear; for example, in BelenosBear’s video, a sequence ending in “4S” produces the four of spades on the next draw, while “9H” produces the nine of hearts.

BelenosBear posted their video on X, and the official Balatro account not only acknowledged that the exploit exists, but that it has been part of the game since launch. The account first posted a GIF of the game’s mascot, Joker, laughing, before following that up with the post below:

Balatro is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Mobile versions on both iOS and Android, along with a special Balatro+ version for Apple Arcade subscribers, launched earlier today.