How to Use Cheats in Balatro (Debug Menu Guide)

Balatro, the 2024 breakout hit selling over 3.5 million copies and earning multiple Game Awards, continues to captivate players. However, even with its immense replayability, some players seek ways to refresh their experience. While modding offers one solution, accessing Balatro's built-in developer debug menu provides an alternative, allowing for cheat functionality without impacting achievements.

This guide details how to enable and utilize this hidden menu.

Quick Links

• Enabling Balatro Cheats

• Using the Balatro Debug Menu

Enabling Balatro Cheats

To unlock Balatro's cheat menu, you'll need 7-Zip, a free, open-source archiving tool. Locate your Balatro installation directory (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Balatro). If you can't find it, access your Steam library, right-click Balatro, select "Manage," then "Browse Local Files."

Right-click Balatro.exe and choose to open the archive using 7-Zip (this option might be under "Show More Options"). Locate conf.lua and open it with a text editor (like Notepad).

Modify the line _RELEASE_MODE = true to _RELEASE_MODE = false, save the file. If saving fails, extract conf.lua to your desktop, make the change, and replace the original file. With this done, pressing and holding the Tab key in-game will activate the debug menu. To disable cheats, simply revert the _RELEASE_MODE parameter back to true.

Using the Balatro Debug Menu

Balatro's cheat menu is user-friendly. Unlock collectibles by hovering over them and pressing '1'. Spawn jokers by hovering and pressing '3' (initially limited to five, but you can create negative jokers by pressing 'Q' four times while hovering over a joker in your hand, effectively bypassing the limit).

Balatro Cheat List (Hold Tab to Open Menu)

Cheat / Key Effect 1 Unlock Collectible (hover over in collection) 2 Discover Collectible (hover over in collection) 3 Spawn Collectible (hover over in collection) Q Change Joker Edition (hover over in hand) H Isolate Background J Play Splash Animation 8 Toggle Cursor 9 Toggle All Tooltips $10 Adds $10 to Total +1 Round Increases Round by 1 +1 Ante Increases Ante by 1 +1 Hand Adds one Hand +1 Discard Adds one Discard Boss Reroll Rerolls the Boss Background Removes Background +10 Chips Adds 10 Chips +10 Mult Adds 10 to Multiplier X2 Chips Doubles Chips X10 Mult Increases Multiplier by 10 Win this Run Completes Current Run Lose this Run Ends Current Run Reset Resets Current Run Jimbo Makes Jimbo Appear Jimbo Talk Jimbo Text Box