Balatro took the world by storm upon its 2024 release, selling over 3.5 million copies and earning three awards at the 2024 Game Awards. Its creative gameplay and near-infinite replayability maintain its immense popularity. However, mastering its mechanics might leave some players seeking fresh challenges. While mods offer one solution, accessing Balatro's built-in developer debug menu provides another, enabling cheats without impacting achievements.
This method uses the game's internal cheat functionality, allowing players to craft ideal Joker combinations without tedious seed searching. This is particularly beneficial for achievement hunters who prefer not to use mods.
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How to Enable Cheats in Balatro
To activate Balatro's debug menu and cheats, you'll need the free, open-source software 7-Zip. Navigate to your Balatro installation directory (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Balatro). If you can't find it, locate Balatro in your Steam library, right-click, select "Manage," then "Browse Local Files."
Right-click Balatro.exe and open the archive using 7-Zip (you may find this under "Show More Options"). Locate the file named `conf.lua` and open it with a text editor like Notepad.
Change `_RELEASE_MODE = true` to `_RELEASE_MODE = false`, then save the file. If saving fails, extract `conf.lua` to your desktop, make the change, and replace the original file. Successfully doing this activates the debug menu (accessed by holding the Tab key in-game).
To disable the debug menu, simply revert the `_RELEASE_MODE` parameter in `conf.lua` to `true`.
How to Use the Debug Menu in Balatro
Balatro's cheat menu is user-friendly. Unlock collectibles by hovering and pressing '1'; add Jokers by hovering and pressing '3'. Initially limited to five Jokers, pressing 'Q' four times on a Joker in hand transforms it into a negative, effectively increasing your Joker count.
All Balatro Cheats (Hold Tab to Open Menu)
| Cheat / Key | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Unlock a Collectible (while hovering over it in the collection) |
| 2 | Discover a Collectible (while hovering over it in the collection) |
| 3 | Spawn a Collectible (while hovering over it in the collection) |
| Q | Change Joker Edition (while hovering over it in hand) |
| H | Isolate Background |
| J | Play Splash Animation |
| 8 | Toggle Cursor |
| 9 | Toggle All Tooltips |
| $10 | Adds $10 to Total |
| +1 Round | Increases the Round by 1 |
| +1 Ante | Increases the Ante by 1 |
| +1 Hand | Adds one additional Hand |
| +1 Discard | Adds one additional Discard |
| Boss Reroll | Rerolls the Boss |
| Background | Removes the Background |
| +10 Chips | Adds 10 Chips to Total |
| +10 Mult | Adds 10 Mult to Total |
| X2 Chips | Doubles Chip Total |
| X10 Mult | Increases the Mult by 10 |
| Win this Run | Completes the Current Run |
| Lose this Run | Ends the Current Run |
| Reset | Resets the Current Run |
| Jimbo | Makes Jimbo Appear |
| Jimbo Talk | Makes a Text Box Appear by Jimbo |
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