Balatro Legendary Jokers Ranked: The 5 Best (and Worst) Picks for Winning Runs

I still can’t believe I lost a run after hitting a Legendary… because yeah, sometimes the “rarest card in the game” is basically a pretty wallpaper that steals a Joker slot.

Here’s my hardcore, 500-hours, no-BS take on “The 5 Best Legendary Jokers Ranked (Tier List)”—and the logic underneath it. I’m doing this reverse ranking because the bottom ones are the traps that ruin runs, and you need to know why.

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#5 — Chicot (a.k.a. “Legendary… until you realize it adds zero score”)

Verdict up front: Most of the time it’s Trash. Sometimes it’s a run-saving god. That’s the problem—its value is a coin flip based on which Boss shows up.

What it does: Disables Boss Blind effects. Sounds insane. In practice?

• It doesn’t increase Chips.
• It doesn’t increase Mult.
• It just stops specific Boss nonsense (The Arm, The Plant, The Needle, The Eye, Verdant Leaf, etc.).
• Rage Note: It doesn’t work on “The Water” (start with 0 discards), which is the exception that makes me want to scream.

When it’s actually good (I’ll give it this):

• If your build hard-loses to The Plant (Face Cards debuffed) or The Eye (no repeating hand types), Chicot can be the only reason you live.
• If you’re stacked with Jokers that get wrecked by Verdant Leaf (All cards debuffed), Chicot is straight-up anti-bullshit tech.

But here’s the brutal math of slot economy: You have 5 Joker slots. Spending 1 slot on “maybe I don’t die later” is usually worse than spending 1 slot on “I definitely win now.”

My Rule: If you’re already cruising, sell it. If a Boss is about to hard-counter your entire identity, keep it and pretend it’s a skill-based decision.

🛑 The “Must-Keep” Scenario: If your deck is 50%+ Face Cards (King/Queen/Jack) and you haven’t beaten Ante 8 yet, DO NOT SELL CHICOT. The risk of running into The Plant is mathematically too high to ignore.

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#4 — Canio (The “High Ceiling, High Variance, High Blood Pressure” Joker)

Verdict up front: Canio is OP on paper and painful in real runs unless you’re already halfway into the destroy/face-card madness.

What it does: Gains X1 Mult when a Face Card gets destroyed. Sounds simple—until you realize: Face Cards are also some of your best scoring pieces. So Canio often asks you to burn your own fuel to power a rocket.

Where Canio becomes disgusting:

• Pareidolia (everything is a face card) → suddenly every destroy effect is gas.
• Hanged Man / Grim type destruction loops → consistent scaling.
• Glass Card setups → destruction triggers naturally while still scoring huge.
• Erosion + Canio is the classic “deck diet into murder machine.”

Why people misplay it: They grab Canio early and then… never see destruction cards. Or they destroy their Face Cards and suddenly their deck becomes a wet noodle that can’t score base chips.

My “Take it or Ditch it” Checklist (Fast):

1. If I already have destroy access (Hanged Man-ish tools) OR Pareidolia: KEEP.
2. If not: Canio is just a slot tax with dreams. SELL.

And yeah—when you start stacking destroy math with Erosion and deck trimming, the numbers get gross fast. But don’t force it.

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#3 — Yorick (The “Gold Stake Workhorse” that never tweets, just wins)

Verdict up front: Yorick is the most consistent Legendary, and I respect it like a boring gym routine that gives you abs.

What it does (Post-Patch): Every 23 discards, you get X1 Mult, and it stacks forever.

• Old Yorick was a one-time pop.
• New Yorick is a slow machine that becomes a bulldozer.

Why it’s so good in High-Stakes reality:

• You don’t need Face Cards.
• You don’t need specific hands (Flush/Straight).
• You just need to discard like a gremlin and the Mult comes.

How to make Yorick not feel slow: Prioritize Discard Throughput:

• Merry Andy (+3 Discards) is basically performance-enhancing drugs for Yorick.
• Drunkard also helps.
• Play styles that naturally discard more (like High Card spam) can actually be “free discards for profit.”

The Anti-Synergy List (Run Killers):

• Burglar (No discards) = Yorick is dead. Sell immediately.
• The Water Boss = Yorick can’t function.
• Green Deck (No interest on unused discards) = Actually okay, but you lose the money synergy.

Bottom line: If you want reliable scaling and hate gambling on draw patterns, Yorick is your guy.

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#2 — Triboulet (The “Instant Dopamine” Legendary)

Verdict up front: Triboulet is violent. It’s the Legendary you pick when you want to watch the screen explode and pretend you’re a genius.

What it does: Every scored King/Queen gives X2 Mult. That’s exponential scaling.

• 5 K/Q scored → $2^5$ = X32 Mult
• With Sock and Buskin (retrigger face cards) → it gets stupid: effectively becomes $2^{10}$ = X1024 Mult in the cleanest scenario.

This is why Triboulet feels so unfair: it doesn’t scale like “+some Mult.” It scales like “oh you played 5 cards? Here’s a new universe.”

The catch (and why it’s not #1):

• It’s Face-Card dependent.
• Some decks start awkward (hello Abandoned Deck) or need investment to flood K/Q.
• If you don’t fix your deck, Triboulet is just sitting there like an expensive pet.

My Triboulet Playbook (What tier lists never say clearly enough): The moment I get it, I’m immediately asking:

1. “How fast can I increase K/Q density?” (Tarot: Strength, Death).
2. “Do I have retrigger potential?” (Hack, Sock & Buskin, Dusk).
3. I will happily pivot into Full House (3K+2Q) or Five of a Kind. If I can’t raise Face density soon, Triboulet is “OP later”—and I’m trying to win now.

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#1 — Perkeo (The “You’re Not Playing Balatro Anymore” Joker)

Verdict up front: Perkeo is the only Legendary that changes the game from a “score run” into a resource economy simulator. It’s the engine that builds engines. That’s why it’s #1.

What it does: When you leave the shop, it creates a Negative copy of a random consumable you own.

Why “Negative” is busted math:

• It creates slot space where there was none.
• It sells for good money.
• It generates compounding value every single shop visit.

Why Perkeo is S+ in Endless: Because it’s not a multiplier. It’s a Multiplier Factory. Every shop becomes: More Tarots. More Planets. More Spectrals. More consistency. More “find the exact broken thing I need.”

The Perkeo Copy Priority List (Don’t Copy Trash):

1. The Soul / Black Hole: (Rare, but obvious).
2. Cryptid: Copies your best Jokers. This is how you break the integer limit.
3. The Hermit / Temperance: Infinite Money glitch.
4. Pluto / Your Main Planet: Scaling base stats makes Jokers optional.

The real limitation nobody respects enough: TEMPO. If you get Perkeo too late (like Ante 8 boss), the “compounding” doesn’t have time to compound. The best Perkeo is the one you get early enough to snowball.

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My “Real Player” Decision Grid

Don’t panic when you see the Soul card. Use this grid.

📸 Pro Tip: Screenshot this table for your next run.

You got…	If you’re Ahead (Cruising)	If you’re Behind (Dying)	Immediate Action
Perkeo	KEEP	KEEP	Curate consumables immediately. Sell trash Tarots so it only copies the good stuff.
Triboulet	KEEP	KEEP	Pivot deck to Kings/Queens. Hunt for retrigger Jokers.
Yorick	KEEP	KEEP	Max discards per round (Blue Seal / Merry Andy).
Canio	Situational	SELL	Only commit if a Destroy Engine (Hanged Man/Trading Card) exists.
Chicot	SELL	Situational	Keep ONLY if a Boss (Plant/Wall) hard-counters your specific deck.

FAQ

Is Perkeo always the best Legendary?

For 99% of runs and Endless mode, yes. The ability to break the slot cap makes it mathematically superior.

Can you get multiple Legendary Jokers?

Yes, but it’s extremely rare. If you have Perkeo, you can theoretically copy The Soul card to get others!

What is the worst Legendary Joker?

Chicot is mathematically the weakest because it adds zero score. However, it is the best “insurance” against run-ending Bosses.

TL;DR:

• Perkeo = Inevitability (The Factory)
• Triboulet = Instant Violence (The Nuke)
• Yorick = Stable Scaling (The Gym Rat)
• Canio = High-Variance Gamble
• Chicot = Expensive Insurance