Why Campfire is the best card in Balatro

There are quite a few very powerful cards in Balatro, including some really powerful jokers. Just one of these can make or break a run. While this might be a controversial opinion, my favorite of all Balatro jokers is Campfire.

Balatro Campfire - The best card in the game

The Campfire is a Rare card in Balatro. Every time another joker or a consumable card like a planet or a tarot card is sold (not destroyed), Campfire gains a x0.5 multiplier added onto it. Every time a Boss Blind is completed, the Campfire resets back to x1.0 multiplier.

This powerful card allows you to purchase other cards, immediately sell them back, and then add a theoretically unlimited amount to the Campfire. With enough money, you can build massive amounts of chips with this monster, and it can be a great addition to almost any deck.

The type of multiplier makes the difference

In Balatro, there are two different types of multipliers; you can get a plus multiplier or a times multiplier. Where the plus multiplier will give you whatever your base is plus that number, the X multiplier will, well, multiply it.

Plus, multipliers are denoted by red letters, written like "+15." Times multipliers are white text in a small red box, and the X is capitalized, as in "X4."

As a quick example of the difference it can make, let's say a level 1 Flush, which is 35 chips with a base of X4 multiplier. That's 140 chips. If you have a +2 multiplier, it would add two to the X4 base. So we would have 35 X 6, which is 210. The time multiplier of the same value, X2, would bring up the base to X8, giving us a total of 280. The bigger the numbers here, the larger the difference becomes.

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Usually, in any given round, I can ramp Campfire up into X5 or X6 without issue, ramping my base numbers quickly into the millions as I begin to use things like planet cards and other jokers to ramp up my base chips and multipliers.

The argument for Campfire being number one

There are a ton of great joker cards in Balatro. Misprint is up there, along with Legendary Jokers like Yorick (also a powerful X5 time multiplier), and I adore Ride the Bus, especially when paired with the Abandoned Deck, but Campfire holds a special place in my heart.

This card allows you to take your wealth and turn it directly in multipliers; it's the only card that will theoretically let you crank a multiplier into the sky other than perhaps the Lucky Cat, The Glass Joker, and the Vampire, each of which tick up a markedly slower pace. The Campfire, unlike all the others, cranks at a rate of 0.5 per sold card rather than much slower and harder-to-churn out-pace compared to all the others. And it doesn't rely on needing to play a bunch of rounds first like Yorick does.

Campfire does require a lot of money to get going, whereas the other ramp-up cards require setup or other cards specific to work alongside them, such as Vampire coupling really well with Pareidolia and Midas Mask.

Campfire does have a downside of resetting each boss battle, but with a proper way to churn out as much money as possible each round—you'll find feeding the Campfire to be extremely easy and really satisfying. There is nothing better than watching that X number tick up over and over, then slamming the Boss Blinds into infinity before doing it all again.

While there are much better card combinations out there (my personal favorite is putting together Fibonacci, Odd Todd, and Scholar and ramping Aces into oblivion), if I could only pick one joker to be the very best on its own almost regardless of whatever setup you are currently running, it would have to be Campfire, with Yorick and Misprint as a close second and third.

For more Balatro, check out Best Balatro Mods on Pro Game Guides.