What if You Made Poker a Deck Builder? | Baltro
Apple Arcade recently added Baltro+ to its library. It is a game which I first came across when checking out indie games on YouTube. Since it was free to me (as an Apple Arcade subscriber) I decided to give the game a go. Once I picked it up, I could not put it back down.
The loop is loopy
I have a friend who has a bad habit of hyping a game up like it’s the best thing since sliced bread. After the novelty of the game wears off, they start using technical game development / design jargon such as ‘game loop’ and ‘mechanics’ to justify why the game is no longer worth spending time on.
The game loop isn’t loopy enough!
-My friend
Naturally this phrase became a staple in our gaming group, with every new title they hype up, we joke that the loop won’t be loopy enough for our friend.
But with Baltro, I can almost guarantee that the loop truly is loopy.
The game mechanics
The game loop, which in simple terms are the actions you repeatedly perform throughout the duration of your playtime. For Baltro, it’s hands of poker that you play and get scored against.
You start by being dealt a hand of 8 playing cards. It’s up to you to play five of those cards on the table. You are then scored based on poker rules. The rarer the hand (like a straight flush), the more points you score.
If the starting 8 cards isn’t good enough, then you have the option of discarding up to five cards to try and get a better hand. You then have a set number of hands to try and score the minimum amount of points to beat the round.
The rounds are grouped into antes, each ante has three rounds:
- Small blind (a lower requirement of score)
- Big blind (a higher requirement of score)
- Boss blind (a significantly higher requirement along with a debuff, for example diamonds don’t score).
You need to beat 8 such antes, each with higher score requirements and usually more complex bosses, to win the game.
If all this sounds simple, well then, here’s where the complication is introduced in the form of jokers. After each round, you are taken to a shop. And in the shop you can purchase jokers, with a limit of five jokers in your hand. Each joker has a unique ability, for example, score triple the amount for each diamond card. This affects which hands you prioritise.
Each joker’s effect stack on top of one another. For example, one joker might score your hand twice, and another joker might add 50 points to your score. So when you score with these two jokers, your second joker would contribute 100 points total to your score (as it’s scored twice due to the first joker).
Now that you know the basics of the game, here’s a tale of how I got to ante 8, the final ante to beat to win the game!
Journey to ante 8
Quite early on in this one game, I got a joker which was called Ceremonial Dagger. This joker would destroy a joker placed next to it and add the sell value of that joker to my score multiplier. This meant that with every round, as long as I sacrificed a joker, I would get stronger and stronger.
Having this effect in my hand meant I was unstoppable, beating bosses in one hand with ease. This got me too cocky, putting all my eggs in the single basket which was the Ceremonial Dagger. This led me to not diversify into other playstyles.
I then somehow by the skin of my teeth got to ante 8. The final Boss Blind was Extra Large Blind which as the name suggests, meant I needed to score an obscene amount of points to win (about 400,000 points if memory serves).
I was lucky to draw a hand that was guaranteed to score the highest amount of points I could possibly score. I hit confirm on my hand and watched as my score kept ticking higher and higher until it stopped at 50,000 points. This meant that, if I was lucky, I could get to 200,000 points max.
True to my prediction, I got down to my last hand and knew that there was no way I was going to score the required 400,000 points. And I watched as my run came to an end so close to the finish line.
This motivated me even more to try and win the next time which I eventually did! With a strat that utilised all five joker slots with various effects. Therefore, regardless of what debuff the boss had, I had a playstyle which could defeat it. And it felt super good to finally beat the game!
But it doesn’t stop there, you are given the option to keep going to see how much further you can go in an endless mode. And after you hit a point where you no longer can continue, you start all over again, with new jokers and a new deck and optionally with a higher difficulty!
Wrapping up
If this post has persuaded you to try Baltro, then you can do so at this link. It is available in almost all major platforms such as PC, console and on mobile. These are some of the reasons why I highly recommend Baltro.
Other recommendations this week:
- Abroad in Japan: One of the best YouTube channels showcasing Japan through thought-provoking documentaries and funny characters.
- TIER scooters in Bristol: A great way to get around the city on a budget.
- When Chai Met Toast live: A beautiful experience singing along and dancing to songs despite not being familiar with them.
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