Triboulet

Effect: Played Kings and Queens each give X2 Mult when scored

BalatroBuddy tier: S (Our opinion)

Triboulet in Balatro: Played Kings and Queens each give X2 Mult when scored. Rarity, cost, unlock, synergies, and how to play it.

Cost: Not sold (The Soul only)

Rarity: Legendary

Category: Multiplicative Mult Jokers

Unlock requirement: Find this Joker from the Soul card.

Verdict

The largest no-setup multiplier in the game. Five scored Kings and Queens is X32 on the very first hand you play it.

Why it works

  • X2 per scored King or Queen compounds per card, not per hand. Two face cards is X4, three is X8, five is 2^5 = X32 β€” every hand, with no counter to build up and nothing to lose on a boss blind.
  • It needs no scaling period at all. Unlike Hologram or Glass Joker it is at full strength the moment you pick it up, which matters enormously if you find it late.
  • Kings and Queens are the two ranks easiest to manufacture, because Death and Strength both convert toward them.
  • It multiplies per scoring card, so it stacks with retriggers rather than competing with them.

Joker placement

Right of your additive jokers. It is multiplicative, so anything adding flat Mult must resolve before it.

How to play

  1. Convert the deck toward Kings and Queens with Death (turn a junk card into a King) and Strength (raise a Jack or Queen a rank). DNA copies a good one outright.
  2. Target a Flush or Full House made entirely of Kings and Queens so all five scoring cards trigger.
  3. Play the face cards, do not hold them. This is the exact opposite of Baron and the two want the same cards.

Combos

Sock and Buskin

Five scored Kings and Queens go from 2^5 = X32 to 2^10 = X1,024.

Sock and Buskin retriggers every played face card, and Triboulet resolves per scoring trigger, so each face card pays its X2 twice.

Photograph + Hanging Chad

The first face card scores X2 from Triboulet and X2 from Photograph, and Hanging Chad fires that card three times in total.

Hanging Chad retriggers the first played scoring card two additional times, so the opener resolves every per-card multiplier attached to it three times over.

Traps

  • Triboulet only counts cards that actually SCORE. In a Straight where the King is the lone face card you get X2, not X32 β€” the other four cards contribute nothing to it.
  • Running Triboulet and Baron together without picking a side. One wants Kings on the table, the other wants them in your hand, and split-the-difference builds do neither well.
  • It is Soul-only, so it cannot be a plan. It is a card that changes a run you are already having.

Benchmarks

Ante 8

X32 on a face-heavy hand clears the 100,000 Ante 8 boss on its own with even a modest chip base.

Endless

Strong but flat-capped at your face card count. Past Ante 11 it needs a retrigger or a copy joker attached to keep pace.

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