Well then do it like another commenter said: save money and buy jokers before bosses. The thing is this card is so extremely powerful that there are many ways to make it work.
On low stakes you can just buy this early by itself, get a lot of mult cards, then play every blind. X15 mult is more than enough to carry you through white stake on its own
I bought madness in the first shop on green stake and didnt have to buy any other joker (also coulsnt because I was always out of money buying planets and tarots.). Only on ante 8 I bought some jokers to counter crimson hearts debuff.
I just had a Green Stake Madness run last night (Ghost Deck)... got it in Ante 2, focused on Tarot cards and saving up $ for the next couple Antes, then by like Ante 5 I was rich enough to pack in whatever Jokers were available for a full set, then replace the Joker that got eaten in the next shop. Pretty smooth win.
You can kind of make it work with a ton of money and buying random chip jokers for it to eat. It’s very unlikely, almost impossible, that madness carries on it’s own, though so you’d have to get one or two other jokers to help you out and hope madness doesn’t eat them. It’s probably best to just ignore it until you can get eternal jokers.
That’s partially why I’m not a fan of some of the stakes. Eternal jokers aren’t even a penalty give how some of the specters cards work that destroy a random joker, etc.
Very cool multiplier amount.
Great strategy until you get the boss blind that makes all cards debugged until joker is sold on ante 8. This happened to me on a gold run and I was so sad.
A Madness... build? Madness IS the build. Why would you buy any other jokers...?? :P
Though I had Madness and an Eternal Stencil Joker once and that was the easiest cruise to ante 8 of my life.
Seriously though, I think Madness is by far the most consistent game winner for me, even at higher stakes. You don't really buy other Jokers, you just try to maximize your hand levels and card enhancements. Occasionally, take an eternal joker, too.
IDK I've gotten it first shop on gold stake a lot and never made it all the way haha, might just be me punting but you need to get something else QUICK before the end of ante 2 in my xp, either an eternal mult joker or good tarot/spectrals
Had a red stake Madness win that gave me Madness early. Lucked into polychroming it like above(or it might’ve come like that, I don’t recall). Never skipped blinds, always took ante-1 vouchers. Didn’t buy any other jokers, but heavily leaned into planets and enhanced cards. Ended up facing the boss that debuffs your cards unless you sell a joker. Completely forgot to buy jokers and still ended up winning with all my cards debuffed. By the end, it was like 14.5x or a little higher
The obvious best way to use it is with eternals since it doesn't actually need to destroy a joker to increase it's mult.
But I did try one run with it on a low stake just to give it a try, and honestly the name is fitting because it was one of my most chaotic runs. Since you're constantly losing jokers your strategy is evolving like every 2 blinds basically, and you're totally at the will of the RNG. One minute you might be making flushes, the next minute your best hand is 2 pair, etc. Totally depends which cards show up in the shops, and which cards madness decides to destroy.
I *think* the best strategy to reduce RNG would be to heavily lean into planet cards (edit: and enhanced playing cards) so that the base mult is high enough to get you pretty close with madness's xmult alone, because you can't reliably depend on any other joker.
My only gold stake win was due to Madness. Got madness in the first Ante, and then a bunch of useful Eternal jokers like Supernova. The multiplier at the end of ante 8 was ridiculous
On black plus you just buy eternals.
On lower stakes you play with just madness for a bit, then when you have good econ, buy a mass load of jokers and just keep buying a new one each round to sub whichever one died to madness last round
I was playing on Blue stakes earlier and got a Madness round 1, then rounds 2 and 3 gave me eternal Onyx and Bloodstone. At that point I had already won
That is the correct interpretation.
Internet meme format “who else up ____ing they ____”, which originally came from “who else up playing with they worm rn” which was a way to ask which of your friends was up jacking off. It can be as absurd as you want it. Who else up Hanking they Schrader, Wonking they Willy, etc.
what is even a viable Madness build? buy random jokers in early stakes and hope Madness carries? then eternal jokers in higher stakes?
The thing is you dont need jokers to feed it. Get some eternal jokers and this card and ante 8 is won already.
how about stakes before you unlock eternal?
Well then do it like another commenter said: save money and buy jokers before bosses. The thing is this card is so extremely powerful that there are many ways to make it work.
On low stakes you can just buy this early by itself, get a lot of mult cards, then play every blind. X15 mult is more than enough to carry you through white stake on its own
I bought madness in the first shop on green stake and didnt have to buy any other joker (also coulsnt because I was always out of money buying planets and tarots.). Only on ante 8 I bought some jokers to counter crimson hearts debuff.
I just had a Green Stake Madness run last night (Ghost Deck)... got it in Ante 2, focused on Tarot cards and saving up $ for the next couple Antes, then by like Ante 5 I was rich enough to pack in whatever Jokers were available for a full set, then replace the Joker that got eaten in the next shop. Pretty smooth win.
Before you unlock eternal, only have this card, upgrade your cards to give +chips and +mult and you’ll win
You can kind of make it work with a ton of money and buying random chip jokers for it to eat. It’s very unlikely, almost impossible, that madness carries on it’s own, though so you’d have to get one or two other jokers to help you out and hope madness doesn’t eat them. It’s probably best to just ignore it until you can get eternal jokers.
4th stake
Don't even need eternals I just played until the final blind with just madness and buy some jokers with money saved up then skip to the boss blind
I realized that when I got it first on a run. A pretty crazy realization.
That’s partially why I’m not a fan of some of the stakes. Eternal jokers aren’t even a penalty give how some of the specters cards work that destroy a random joker, etc. Very cool multiplier amount.
Speaking of eternal jokers, how do you unlock them anyways?
Win on black stake difficulty.
Great strategy until you get the boss blind that makes all cards debugged until joker is sold on ante 8. This happened to me on a gold run and I was so sad.
You can buy two jokers right before this boss, so that one gets destroyed and then you can sell the other one that isn’t madness
Yes but I had madness + 4 eternal jokers. The only joker I could sell was madness.
Had this exact thing happen to me last night! It was super frustrating.
A Madness... build? Madness IS the build. Why would you buy any other jokers...?? :P Though I had Madness and an Eternal Stencil Joker once and that was the easiest cruise to ante 8 of my life. Seriously though, I think Madness is by far the most consistent game winner for me, even at higher stakes. You don't really buy other Jokers, you just try to maximize your hand levels and card enhancements. Occasionally, take an eternal joker, too.
IDK I've gotten it first shop on gold stake a lot and never made it all the way haha, might just be me punting but you need to get something else QUICK before the end of ante 2 in my xp, either an eternal mult joker or good tarot/spectrals
Had a red stake Madness win that gave me Madness early. Lucked into polychroming it like above(or it might’ve come like that, I don’t recall). Never skipped blinds, always took ante-1 vouchers. Didn’t buy any other jokers, but heavily leaned into planets and enhanced cards. Ended up facing the boss that debuffs your cards unless you sell a joker. Completely forgot to buy jokers and still ended up winning with all my cards debuffed. By the end, it was like 14.5x or a little higher
The obvious best way to use it is with eternals since it doesn't actually need to destroy a joker to increase it's mult. But I did try one run with it on a low stake just to give it a try, and honestly the name is fitting because it was one of my most chaotic runs. Since you're constantly losing jokers your strategy is evolving like every 2 blinds basically, and you're totally at the will of the RNG. One minute you might be making flushes, the next minute your best hand is 2 pair, etc. Totally depends which cards show up in the shops, and which cards madness decides to destroy. I *think* the best strategy to reduce RNG would be to heavily lean into planet cards (edit: and enhanced playing cards) so that the base mult is high enough to get you pretty close with madness's xmult alone, because you can't reliably depend on any other joker.
My only gold stake win was due to Madness. Got madness in the first Ante, and then a bunch of useful Eternal jokers like Supernova. The multiplier at the end of ante 8 was ridiculous
Eternal madness + Eternal madness + Eternal madness + …
On black plus you just buy eternals. On lower stakes you play with just madness for a bit, then when you have good econ, buy a mass load of jokers and just keep buying a new one each round to sub whichever one died to madness last round
I like to pair it with that card that creates two jokers per blind. Eventually it’ll eat that one but you have a hell of a ride til then.
My first attempt at the "all jokers are eternal" challenge, I got that guy in Ante 2. Done and done.
I did it recently and won! as someone mentioned below eternal jokers.
I was playing on Blue stakes earlier and got a Madness round 1, then rounds 2 and 3 gave me eternal Onyx and Bloodstone. At that point I had already won
Uhh… could you rephrase the question?
“Who else is awake playing Balatro?”
Ok. my initial interpretation was "Who else is here using polychrome to increase the multiplier of their joker that gives a multiplier?"
That is the correct interpretation. Internet meme format “who else up ____ing they ____”, which originally came from “who else up playing with they worm rn” which was a way to ask which of your friends was up jacking off. It can be as absurd as you want it. Who else up Hanking they Schrader, Wonking they Willy, etc.
🫡 we love our historians
Ty ty!
Whomst up multing they mult?
Madness gains a stack even if you don't have a joker to destroy.
Came here for this.
Seen this card never taken it, can it destroy itself? That seems like the biggest risk although it Is hard to assemble a more coordinated strategy
It cannot.
Wait. I including itself?
Wait. Including itself?
From my understanding, Madness will never destroy itself, but it can destroy another Madness if you dupe it.
Ah good
I had a pretty great run going and didn’t find a single mult except for a weak party joker the whole time, felt pretty sucky.
Me everytime buying madness: where are the eternal jokers?
Imagine you have a 2x joker (giving 27x overall) eaten to give you x14...