Wee Joker

Wee Joker

Effect
This Joker gains +8 Chips when each played 2 is scored
(Currently +0 Chips)
Rarity
Rare
Unlock Requirement
Win a run in 18 or fewer rounds
Stats
Buy Price
8
Sell Price
4
Type
Chips
Activation
Mixed
Compatibility
Copyable
Yes
Perishable
No
Eternal
Yes

Wee Joker is a Rare scaling Chips Joker that adds Chips to played hands. The amount of Chips added begins at +0 and is permanently increased by +8 whenever a 2 is scored. This also works with retriggers, such as the likes of Hack or Red Seal. It will not gain Chips if the played 2 is not scored.

Wee Joker is one of, if not the, strongest Chips Joker there is to offer thanks to its absurd scaling capabilities. Once the player can score 2s consistently, Wee Joker shines as a steady Chips source that can reach Stuntman levels of potency quite quickly and also has the potential to take off into the 4 digits, with some highly proficient scaling reaching 10s of thousands of Chips. To do so, poker hands that use a high number of playing cards are basically required, such as Four of a Kind, Five of a Kind or Flush Five.

Taking Wee Joker late into the run, when deck-fixing is already in the works, may still be worthwhile in case the player severely lacks a source of Chips. The player may have removed 2s beforehand though, which can make Wee Joker way more difficult to use. Instead, it is advised that the player first remove 7s and 8s, since their synergies are often the least impactful. Doing this on a Straight build is a no-go, however.

To unlock this Joker, the player must win a run in 18 rounds or less.

Synergies

Wee Joker synergizes well with all Decks fairly equally, but some have minor advantages over the others.

Most decks have the same starting amount of four 2s, making Wee Joker synergize with them fairly equally. However, some decks have features that may make utilizing Wee Joker easier:

  • Red Deck: The extra Discard allows the player to cycle through more cards, which helps with finding and scoring 2s greatly.
  • Blue Deck: The extra Hand lets the player use a "throwaway" hand for extra scaling, and also acts as a pseudo-Discard, again helping with finding and scoring 2s.
  • Magic Deck: With the help of the two starting copies of The Fool, the player can potentially create a deck centralized around 2s right at the very beginning. This can help with playing into Wee Joker later tremendously, provided the player can find the Joker. Try copying a Death to convert cards into 2s, or The Hanged Man to get rid of many non-2s at once.
  • Ghost Deck: Thanks to its easier access to Spectral Cards, the Ghost Deck has great potential to manipulate the deck into being beneficial to Wee Joker. Try looking for Cryptid to create multiple new 2s, or Deja Vu to put a red seal on an existing 2.
  • Abandoned Deck and Mad World: Due to the small size of the deck, the likelihood of stumbling across 2s on these deck is very much better, and thus allows for more efficient scaling.
  • Painted Deck: The starting +2 Hand size lets the player see more cards, and also allows for more lenient discarding in certain situations.
  • Plasma Deck: Sources of Chips are inherently better on Plasma Deck due to it treating Chips and Mult equally. Before the player gets their +Mult and xMult going, Wee Joker can be an absolute carry, often winning the run by itself.
  • Erratic Deck: May generate with a higher starting number of 2s, which can make finding and scoring them easier.

Hands that score large quantities of 2s are preferable to other hands. Focus on these in the early game:

As Deck manipulation access becomes more realistic, pivot to these hands (the final two are the most ideal, as they allow five 2s to score all at once):

  • Any retrigger Jokers work incredibly well with Wee Joker, as rescoring a 2 upgrades Wee Joker another time. In particular, Hack offers unconditional retriggers to 2s, making it very helpful, with one copy providing up to an extra +40 Chips on a hand with five scoring 2s. Hanging Chad is also very strong with Wee Joker, guaranteeing +24 Chips if a 2 can be scored. Sock and Buskin can only retrigger 2s if Pareidolia is owned. Seltzer and Dusk can also be useful, but they have certain limits; Seltzer only lasts for 10 hands, and Dusk only works on the final hand.
  • Drunkard and Merry Andy: The extra discards provided by these Jokers make finding and scoring 2s much easier.
  • Even Steven and Fibonacci: Giving +4 Mult and +8 Mult, respectively, whenever a 2 is scored, either of these can make playing large quantities of 2s even more rewarding, especially when accounting for retriggers.
  • Trading Card is a source of both money and deck thinning, which helps Wee Joker by making 2s proportionally more common, and making acquiring better scoring easier as the run progresses.
  • DNA: By duplicating 2s, especially 2s with a Red Seal, this Joker can scale much faster, making it a near auto-include when discovered while holding this Joker, even if just temporarily.
  • Splash allows the player to score 2s without needing to be part of the scoring hand. This is particularly useful if the player only draws one 2, as splash can score the 2 while playing 4 other cards to find more 2s later.
  • The Idol can be an amazing joker to give huge amounts of multiplicative mult if the player has a lot of 2s in their deck. While it requires a massive amount of deck-fixing, it can pay off incredibly well by giving X2 Mult when a 2 is scored, which pairs well with the retriggers that Wee Joker builds often have.
  • Ancient Joker can potentially be useful if there are a large number of Wild 2s, as this enables the extremely powerful Flush Five - a hand that can guide a run far into Endless Mode in combination with repeated Multiplicative Mult sources and Planet Card scaling. Bloodstone can be considered in its absence by creating a large number of 2s of  Hearts, albeit its randomness factor makes it a lot less reliable. This isn't an issue if Oops! All 6s is owned.
  • Death and Strength can make more 2s.
  • The Hanged Man can remove non-2s allowing you to see 2s easier.
  • Deja Vu can apply Red Seals onto 2s allowing Wee Joker to scale faster.
  • Cryptid can create copies of 2s.
  • Grabber together with Nacho Tong are very good Vouchers to take, as they allow the player to score more 2s, or use the extra hands as pseudo-discards to find more 2s.
  • Wasteful, as well as its upgraded counterpart Recyclomancy, are good Vouchers to take when using Wee Joker. As scoring non-2s is less ideal, discards can be used in order to locate 2s.
  • Hieroglyph gives more opportunity to score 2s, but might not be worth it if the player is struggling to score enough points. Its upgraded counterpart, Petroglyph, may also be worth considering if the player has access to extra discards, but it is much less justifiable on the higher Stakes.
  • This Joker is easily distinguishable when played against Amber Acorn, as it retains its unique shape even when flipped face-down.

Anti-synergies

Strategy

As skipping is usually a high-risk strategy, it can be slightly tricky to win a run in 18 or fewer rounds, meaning the player must skip at least 6 Blinds, averaging at 1.25 Blinds per Ante skipped.

  • A basic Deck, such as Red Deck or Blue Deck, is likely the best, as an additional discard/hand makes it more feasible to play more risky as is the case with skipping.
  • Plasma Deck can skip more in the early game due to its balancing ability, making the need to obtain Jokers early less of a priority.
  • Anaglyph Deck earns the player a Double Tag upon defeating a Boss Blind, making skipping slightly more viable.
  • Tags in general to look out for are Investment Tag and Speed Tag, as earning Economy is critical since the player sees fewer Shops and Blind payouts overall.
  • Throwback is basically a must-have during the unlock attempt, as it directly benefits from skipping.
    • The Uncommon Tag may be a quick way to obtain Throwback early, on top of retroactively scaling it.

Trivia

  • The card art is identical to the default Joker, but scaled down to a smaller size. This also makes all Joker Stickers appear at a scaled-down size on the card itself.
    • When duplicating this joker through the use of Ankh or Invisible Joker, the Joker Sticker will appear normal sized, going off the card.
  • This Joker is part of a set that doesn't adhere to the standard joker size, along with Photograph, Half Joker, and Square Joker.
  • The term "wee" is a Scottish term used to refer to something as small-sized or not at a regular size. This also ties into the Wee Joker's ability to keep building +8 Chips for every scoring card with a rank of 2, the smallest rank in Balatro.

Update History

This information has been manually compiled. Some updates may not be included yet.
1.0.1f
  • Effect

1.0.0h[verify]

  • Effect
    • Permanently gains +10 chips for every 2 that is played -> This Joker gains +8 Chips when each played 2 is scored

0.8.8

  • Effect
    • Permanently gains +20 chips for every 2 that is played -> Permanently gains +10 chips for every 2 that is played

In other languages

LanguageNameNotes
Internalj_wee
Chinese (Simplified)小小丑
Chinese (Traditional)小小丑
DutchMini-joker
FrenchP'tit joker
GermanWinziger Joker
IndonesianWee Joker
ItalianJolly piccolo
Japaneseウィージョーカー
Korean아주 작은 조커
PolishMaleńki Joker
Portuguese (Brazilian)Curinguinha
RussianТрусливый джокерWrongly translated as "Scaredy/Cowardly Joker". A more appropriate name would be "Мелкий джокер" (melkiy dzhoker).
Spanish (Spain)Comodín pequeño
Spanish (Latin America)Comodín pequeño