Pareidolia

Pareidolia

Effect

All cards are considered face cards

Rarity

Uncommon

Unlock Requirement

Available from start.

Stats

Buy Price

5

Sell Price

2

Type

Effect

Activation

N/A (Passive)

Compatibility

Copyable

✗ No

Perishable

✓ Yes

Eternal

✓ Yes

Pareidolia is an Uncommon Effect Joker that makes all playing cards be counted as Face Cards. This is also applicable to Blinds' and other Jokers' effects. The cards will still retain their original rank, suit, and chip value.

Despite the in-game description saying "all cards", this only applies to playing cards (i.e., Tarot Cards and Planet Cards do not have this effect applied to them).

• Black Deck ( {{hl|orange|+1}} Joker slot <br> {{hl|blue|-1}} hand every round Discover at least {{hl|orange|100}} items from your [[collection]] Black Deck.png): This deck provides an extra Joker slot, making it easier to work with Pareidolia since it does not directly improve the player's build, without having other face card orientated Jokers to leverage it.
• Abandoned Deck ( Start run with no {{F|}}[[Card Ranks#Face cards|{{hl|orange|Face Cards}}]] in your deck Win a run with the {{D|Green}} on [[Stakes|any difficulty]] Abandoned Deck.png): Potentially benefits from having Pareidolia by giving access to face card bolstering Jokers.

A larger poker hand is generally more ideal to play, since it can trigger more Jokers that trigger off of face cards, including Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, etc..

The type of poker hand it is counted as is unaffected by the played cards counting as "face cards", since Pareidolia does not change a rank or suit.

Because Pareidolia does not change the rank of the card (rather, it just makes all playing cards count as face cards), it does not interfere with the effects of Jokers like Fibonacci (Each played {{hl|orange|Ace}}, {{hl|orange|2}}, {{hl|orange|3}}, {{hl|orange|5}}, or {{hl|orange|8}} gives {{Mult|+8}} when scored Uncommon Additive Mult On Scored Fibonacci.png) which trigger on specific ranks.

Generally, Pareidolia has synergy with any Joker that is triggered from face cards. Some specific Jokers it works well with include:

• Business Card (Played {{hl|orange|face}} cards have a {{hl|green|1 in 2}} chance to give {{Money|2}} when scored Common Economy On Scored Business_Card.png): All cards scored have a 1 in 2 chance to generate $2. This means a played hand with any 5 scoring cards will generate an average of $5, as much as Rough Gem (Played cards with {{suit|Diamond}} suit earn {{Money|1}} when scored Have at least {{hl|orange|30}} cards with {{hl|orange|Diamond}} suit in your deck Uncommon Economy On Scored Rough Gem.png) when playing a  Diamonds Flush.
• Faceless Joker (Earn {{Money|5}} if {{hl|orange|3}} or more {{hl|orange|face cards}} are discarded at the same time Common Economy On Discard Faceless_Joker.png): Gives $5 for every discard that has at least 3 cards.
• Reserved Parking (Each {{hl|orange|face}} card held in hand has a {{hl|green|1 in 2}} chance to give {{Money|1}} Common Economy On Held Reserved Parking.png): All cards held in hand will have a 1 in 2 chance to generate $1. This translates to an average of $0.5 per held card on every played hand, and becomes stronger as the player's hand size increases or their played hands begin containing fewer cards.
• Smiley Face (Played {{hl|orange|face}} cards give {{mult|+5}} when scored Common Additive Mult On Scored Smiley Face.png): All scored cards get +5 Mult each (up to +25 Mult with no other effects).
• Scary Face (Played {{hl|orange|face}} cards give {{Chips|+30}} when scored Common Chips On Scored Scary Face.png): All scored cards get +30 Chips each (up to +150 Chips with no other effects).
• Sock and Buskin (Retrigger all played {{hl|orange|face}} cards Play a total of {{hl|orange|300}} face cards Uncommon Retrigger On Scored Sock and Buskin.png): All scored cards trigger twice. Pairing this with the aforementioned Business Card, Smiley Face, and/or Scary Face means twice as much money, +Mult, and Chips, respectively.
• Midas Mask (All played {{hl|orange|face}} cards become [[Gold Cards|{{hl|orange|Gold}}]] cards when scored Uncommon Effect On Played Midas_Mask.png): All scoring cards become Gold Cards when played, which allows for huge amounts of money generation as the run progresses and the player's hand size increases (as much as $21 with the base hand size of 8 and a round-ending High Card). These two Jokers alongside Vampire (This Joker gains {{xmult|0.1}} per scoring {{hl|orange|Enhanced card}} played, removes card {{hl|orange|Enhancement}} <br> {{Currently|{{xmult|1}}}} Uncommon Multiplicative Mult Mixed Vampire.png) can combine to boost Vampire by X0.5 extra Mult per hand played, as long as each hand has 5 scoring cards.
• Canio (This Joker gains {{xmult|1}} when a {{hl|orange|face}} card is destroyed <br> {{currently|{{xmult|1}}}} Find this [[Jokers|Joker]] from the [[Spectral Cards|{{hl|sblue|Soul}}]] card. Legendary Multiplicative Mult Mixed Canio.png): Destroying any card gives it X1 Mult. Note that only playing cards count as face cards and not Jokers or consumables. Thus, the effects of Ceremonial Dagger (When [[Blinds|{{hl|orange|Blind}}]] is selected, destroy [[Jokers|Joker]] to the right and permanently add {{hl|orange|double}} its sell value to this {{hl|red|Mult}} <br> {{currently|{{mult|+0}}}} Uncommon Additive Mult Independent Ceremonial Dagger.png) and Madness (When {{hl|orange|Small Blind}} or {{hl|orange|Big Blind}} is selected, gain {{xmult|0.5}} and {{hl|orange|destroy}} a random Joker <br> {{Currently|{{xmult|1}}}} Uncommon Multiplicative Mult Independent Madness.png), or the 'food' Jokers that can destroy themselves (such as Popcorn ({{Mult|+20}} <br> {{Mult|-4}} per round played Common Additive Mult Independent Popcorn.png)) will not trigger Canio's scaling.
• Splash (Every {{hl|orange|played card}} counts in scoring Common Effect N/A (Passive) Splash.png): All played cards trigger any Jokers that apply to scored face cards.
• Photograph (First played {{hl|orange|face}} card gives {{xmult|2}} when scored Common Multiplicative Mult On Scored Photograph.png): Despite it buffing face cards, combining it with this Joker typically has somewhat limited effectiveness, as it gives its X2 Mult when the first card in the played poker hand is scored, meaning it happens before any of the other scored cards have a chance to activate their own "when scored" effects. However, pairing it with the aforementioned Smiley Face and/or Sock and Buskin makes it a bit stronger, and it also allows for far easier ballooning of the power of Glass Cards, cards with a Red Seal, and/or Polychrome playing cards.
• Luchador (Sell this card to disable the current [[Blinds|{{hl|orange|Boss Blind}}]] Uncommon Effect N/A (Passive) Luchador.png), Mr. Bones (Prevents Death if chips scored are at least {{hl|orange|25%}} of required chips <br> {{hl|red|self destructs}} Lose {{hl|orange|5}} runs Uncommon Effect N/A (Passive) Mr. Bones.png), and Chicot (Disables effect of every [[Blinds|{{hl|orange|Boss Blind}}]] Find this [[Jokers|Joker]] from the [[Spectral Cards|{{hl|sblue|Soul}}]] card. Legendary Effect On Blind Select Chicot.png): In the absence of another way to circumvent select Boss Blinds, any of these Jokers will let the player avoid almost certain death when faced with The Mark ( Boss The Mark.png) or The Plant ( Boss The Plant.png). Investing in an Ectoplasm (Add [[Card Modifiers#Editions|{{hl|edition|Negative}}]] to a random {{hl|orange|Joker,}} {{hl|red|-1}} hand size Available from start. Spectral Ectoplasm.png), a Negative Tag ( Discover the {{edition|Negative}} edition Negative tag.png), or Blank ({{hl|gray|Does nothing?}} Base Blank.png) (leading to Antimatter ({{hl|edition|+1}} Joker Slot Redeem Blank 10 total times Upgraded Antimatter.png)) can all be worth considering in these cases, as being down two scoring Jokers can make a run very dangerous, much more so than just one would.

• Pareidolia is one of the few Jokers in the game that almost necessitates the use of a specific Voucher(s). Director's Cut (Reroll [[Blinds|Boss Blind]] {{hl|orange|1}} time per Ante, {{Money|10}} per roll Base Director's Cut.png) and its upgraded counterpart Retcon (Reroll [[Blinds|Boss Blind]] {{hl|orange|unlimited}} times, {{Money|10}} per roll Discover 25 Blinds Upgraded Retcon.png) are one of the only ways to boost a Pareidolia build's stability, by allowing the near-guaranteed avoidance of two run-enders Blinds (discussed below) so long as the player has money.
• Seed Money (Raise the cap on interest earned in each round to {{Money|10}} Base Seed Money.png) and Money Tree (Raise the cap on interest earned in each round to {{Money|20}} Max out the interest per round earnings for ten consecutive rounds Upgraded Money Tree.png) can also synergize with this card, if you have jokers like Business Card (Played {{hl|orange|face}} cards have a {{hl|green|1 in 2}} chance to give {{Money|2}} when scored Common Economy On Scored Business_Card.png), Reserved Parking (Each {{hl|orange|face}} card held in hand has a {{hl|green|1 in 2}} chance to give {{Money|1}} Common Economy On Held Reserved Parking.png) and Midas Mask (All played {{hl|orange|face}} cards become [[Gold Cards|{{hl|orange|Gold}}]] cards when scored Uncommon Effect On Played Midas_Mask.png). These jokers can generate extra money, and combining them with these vouchers can enable extremely high amounts of interest.

• Avoid this Joker on the Painted Deck ( {{hl|orange|+2}} hand size, <br> {{hl|red|-1}} Joker slot Win a run with any [[Decks|deck]] on the {{Stake|Green}} difficulty or harder Painted Deck.png), Blast Off ( ), and Cruelty ( ), as their inherent reduced Joker slots makes Pareidolia extremely hard to use without going out of your way to hold more Jokers or scale certain poker hands with Planet Cards.

• Ride the Bus (This Joker gains {{Mult|+1}} per {{hl|orange|consecutive}} hand played without a scoring {{hl|orange|face}} card <br> {{Currently|{{Mult|+0}}}} Common Additive Mult Mixed Ride the Bus.png) will reset back to +0 Mult on every hand played when Pareidolia is present.

There is one Boss Blind that weakens Pareidolia-based builds, and another that is extremely run-threatening:

• The Mark ( Boss The Mark.png): All cards are drawn face-down, making it far more difficult to assemble a sufficiently-scoring hand. This can be somewhat remedied by carrying Enhancing or Suit-changing Tarot Cards into this Boss Blind, allowing a few cards to be identified at a time. Similarly, and more effectively, albeit much rarer, the Ouija (Converts all cards in hand to a single random [[Card Ranks|{{hl|orange|rank}}]]<br>{{hl|red|-1}} hand size Available from start. Spectral Ouija.png) and Sigil (Converts all cards in hand to a single random [[Card Suits|{{hl|orange|suit}}]] Available from start. Spectral Sigil.png) Spectral Cards can completely negate the power of this Boss Blind, by guaranteeing that a potentially lethal hand can be scored (Five of a Kind/Flush Five and Flush/Straight Flush/Flush House, respectively).
• The Plant ( Boss The Plant.png): All cards are debuffed, meaning they cannot provide 'when scored' or 'held in hand' effects at all and utterly crippling the player's score. This is an almost guaranteed run-ender against a Pareidolia build unless the player can reroll the Boss Blind, or the player's other Jokers and poker hand levels provide enough raw scoring independent of it (in which case replacing it may be a better move than keeping it).

Depending on a player's strategy, selling Pareidolia before entering these Boss Blinds may be beneficial (selling Pareidolia after The Mark ( Boss The Mark.png) has begun does not flip over non-face cards). At other times, however, encountering either of these can mean certain death, which makes means of rerolling or disabling the Boss Blind imperative to keeping a build like this stable.

• The Mad World ( ) challenge starts the player with an Eternal, Negative copy of () Pareidolia.

• Pareidolia can be defined as "the perception of apparently significant patterns or recognizable images in random or accidental arrangements of shapes and lines", which can include faces. This plays into its ability to make all cards count as face cards; it makes the Blinds the player is up against perceived face cards where there may otherwise be none.
• The art of this card references its name as it is a set of playing cards arranged to appear like a face.
• All but four jokers either provide some benefit by themselves, or simply require having literally any other joker (such as Swashbuckler (Adds the sell value of all other owned [[Jokers|{{hl|orange|Jokers}}]] to Mult <br> {{currently|{{mult|+1}}}} Sell a total of {{hl|orange|20}} Joker cards Common Additive Mult Independent Swashbuckler.png) or Invisible Joker (After {{hl|orange|2}} rounds, sell this card to {{hl|orange|Duplicate}} a random Joker <br> {{currently|{{hl|orange|0}}/2}} <br> {{hl|gray|(Removes [[Negative|{{hl|edition|Negative}}]] from copy)}} Win a run without ever having more than {{hl|orange|4 Jokers}} Rare Effect N/A (Passive) Invisible Joker.png)); the exceptions are Pareidolia, Baseball Card ([[Uncommon Jokers|{{hl|green|Uncommon}}]] Jokers each give {{xmult|1.5}} Rare Multiplicative Mult On Other Jokers Baseball Card.png), Blueprint (Copies ability of [[Jokers|{{Hl|orange|Joker}}]] to the right Win a run Rare Effect Blueprint.png) and Brainstorm (Copies the ability of leftmost [[Jokers|{{hl|orange|Joker}}]] Discard a {{ph|Royal Flush}}. Rare Effect Brainstorm.png). Of these, Pareidolia has by far the smallest pool of compatible jokers with only nine.