Stakes

There are 8 stakes in Balatro, which become cumulatively more difficult. Each new stake modifier is added onto the previous ones, making it more challenging as you progress through the stakes.

In order to unlock the next stake for each unique deck, you must complete a run on the current highest unlocked stake for each specific deck individually. For example, you must complete the White Stake for the Red Deck ( {{hl|red|+1}} discard every round Unlocked from start Red Deck.png), before you can unlock the Red Stake for the Red Deck. You will not have unlocked the Red Stake for the Blue Deck ( {{hl|blue|+1}} hand every round Discover at least {{hl|orange|20}} items from your [[collection]] Blue Deck.png), you must first complete the White Stake with the Blue Deck in order to do so.

By finishing a stake with a Joker on the Ante 8 Showdown Blind, you will get a () Stake sticker on said Joker, with the corresponding Stake color you completed the run on. This also applies to the Deck that was used. By turning on the "display stake sticker during run" in the settings, it will display all stake stickers during your run.

Challenge Decks can only be played on the White Stake.

The 8 stakes, listed in the order that they are unlocked. Note that each stake applies the modifiers of all previous stakes.

Nr	Stake	Name	Effect	Unlocks Deck on win
1		White Stake	Base difficulty	None
2		Red Stake	Small Blind gives no reward money	Zodiac Deck ( Start run with {{V|Tarot Merchant|class=hl-purple}}, {{V|Planet Merchant|class=hl-cyan}}, and {{V|Overstock|class=hl-orange}} Win a run with any [[Decks|deck]] on the {{Stake|Red}} difficulty or harder Zodiac Deck.png)
3		Green Stake	Required score scales faster for each Ante	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)
4		Black Stake	30% chance for Jokers in shops or booster packs to have an Eternal sticker (Cannot be sold or destroyed)	Anaglyph Deck ( After defeating each [[Blinds|{{hl|orange|Boss Blind}}]], gain a [[File:Double tag.png|24px]] [[Tags|{{hl|orange|Double Tag}}]] Win a run with any [[Decks|deck]] on the {{Stake|Black}} difficulty or harder Anaglyph Deck.png)
5		Blue Stake	-1 Discard	Plasma Deck ( Balance [[Chips|{{hl|blue|Chips}}]] and [[Mult|{{hl|red|Mult}}]] when calculating score for played hand <br> {{hl|red|X2}} base Blind size Win a run with any [[Decks|deck]] on the {{Stake|Blue}} difficulty or harder Plasma Deck.png)
6		Purple Stake	Required score scales even faster for each Ante	None
7		Orange Stake	30% chance for Jokers in shops or booster packs to have a Perishable sticker (Debuffed after 5 Rounds)	Erratic Deck ( All [[Card Ranks|{{hl|orange|Ranks}}]] and [[Suits|{{hl|orange|Suits}}]] in deck are randomized Win a run with any [[Decks|deck]] on the {{Stake|Orange}} difficulty or harder Erratic Deck.png)
8		Gold Stake	30% chance for Jokers in shops or booster packs to have a Rental sticker (Costs $3 per round, can be bought for $1) The first Soul card in a Gold seed will give a Legendary Joker that doesn't yet have a Gold Sticker, which will help with the Completionist++ achievement.	None

• In an interview with Bloomberg, LocalThunk has confirmed that he plans to change the blue stake in the 1.1 Update.^[1]
• The unused stake in the game files with the joker face may have been named "Jimbo Stake", as that is the name of the foil badge for Balatro on Steam. LocalThunk has stated that this stake image was created "just for fun".^[2]

This information has been manually compiled. Some updates may not be included yet.