Maverick is, at the time of writing, working on completing every deck on every difficulty. While doing so, he is answering some questions he posed himself when he started, such as this one about a score on fire.
How To Get a Score on Fire in Balatro
You probably didn’t require an article to figure out that your score catches fire when it’s high. But the same score may catch fire on one blind and not the next, so what exactly triggers it?
The answer is that your score catches on fire when it’s high enough to complete that blind in one hand. But wait, you say, you had your score catch fire when it wasn’t your first hand that blind? It doesn’t matter if it’s your first hand or not. As long as your score is higher than the total score you need to beat that blind, it will catch fire.
Advantages of Scores on Fire
When your score is on fire, it means you’re well ahead of the curve. That means you likely aren’t in danger of losing anywhere soon, meaning you can:
- Work towards going over $25 so you get $5 of interest every blind
- Prioritize Jokers that take a while to ramp up, such as Hologram or Constellation
- Keep “utility” Joker Cards around a while longer, such as economy Jokers or Cartomancer
- Earn extra money, as each hand remaining gives you an extra dollar at the end of a blind
Getting a Score on Fire During the First Ante
The more elements work together, the more difficult it will get to predict if your score will catch fire. During the first ante, however, it is fairly easy to calculate. You just need to know how to calculate extra chips scored, which is 11 for an Ace, 10 for Face Cards (King – Queen – Jack) and 2-10 for 2-10. You then add these extra chips to the blue part of the image below.
Small Blind
Getting a score on fire gives you a few extra dollars, which also helps getting over the $5 mark to get an extra dollar in interest during the next blinds. It is generally worth discarding for this for this reason in my opinion.
- Straight: needs to score at least 45 extra chips with your cards (Queen – Jack – 10 – 9 – 8 or above)
- Flush: needs to score at least 40 extra chips with your cards (e.g., Ace – Queen – 8 – 7 – 4)
- Full House: needs to score at least 35 extra chips with your cards (e.g., 9 – 9 – 9 – 4 – 4)
- Any Four of a Kind or Straight Flush
Big Blind and Boss
I generally don’t advise trying to get a score on fire beyond the Small Blind unless you have a Joker or used a Planet Card. The requirements of getting one are quite high and discarding for it could get you in trouble. I recommend getting there in 2 hands instead. You can do so with most Straight+ hands without counting your chips too heavily.
If you’re still curious, however, here are the requirements:
- Big Blind: Any Four of a Kind or any Straight Flush
- Boss (that does not reduce your base chips or debuffs relevant cards): Four of a Kind of 7 or higher or any Straight Flush