Burglar

Latest release: 0.26.5

The host deck wheel now waits for its specific server confirmation and preserves input releases without letting dismissal clicks reach the lobby underneath. This Standard release includes the scaling cube and Balanced Asteroid exclusion from 0.26.4. The example cube has been removed; old selections fall back to Default. Everyone should update to the same version. Replace the entire Burglar folder.

New in 0.26.4

Select dont_worry_chat_were_scaling.json using Open draft → Draft pool. This cube contains 126 copies (63 different Jokers); a default four-player draft uses 108 and leaves 18 out. Its four-player limit is three packs.

Burglar runs using Balanced (or a ruleset built on its layer) now exclude Asteroids from normal consumable pools. Other Balanced changes remain active. Previously owned Asteroids are not deleted from saved runs. Start a fresh match. The host deck wheel and updated icon are included. This release is Standard only.

A two- to four-player Joker draft for Balatro.

Burglar brings Magic: The Gathering-style drafting to Balatro multiplayer. Before the run, you and your friends open packs of Jokers, pick what you want, and pass the rest around the table. The Jokers you draft become your personal shop pool for that match.

You don't get those Jokers immediately—you still have to find and buy them. The draft gives you a plan, and the run is where you find out whether it was a good one.

Made by Cjpep, based on Fantom_Balatro's original idea. A lot of the changes came from playing it with friends and figuring out what worked.

Standard edition

Burglar v0.26.5 Standard. Install only one edition; everyone in the lobby should use the same version and edition. The shared random-deck wheel is included.

Install through a Balatro-compatible mod manager, or put the included Burglar folder into your Mods folder. Replace the old folder rather than merging it.

What you need

• Balatro. The development baseline is 1.0.1o on Windows.
• Steamodded 1.0.0-beta-1814a or later.
• Lovely 0.10.0 or later. Multiplayer 1.0.4 requires this newer minimum.
• MultiplayerAPI and MultiplayerPvP, both 1.0.4 or later. This release was checked against 1.0.4; later releases may need another compatibility review.

MultiplayerSpeedrunning is optional. Remove the old Multiplayer and MultiplayerExperimental mods from active Mods. These downloads don't include Balatro, Lovely DLLs, or the multiplayer dependencies.

Install or update

1. Close Balatro.
2. Press Win + R, enter %AppData%\Balatro\Mods, and open that folder.
3. Move any old Draftout or Burglar installation somewhere outside Mods.
4. Extract your chosen player ZIP and place its Burglar folder in Mods.
5. Check that the path is Mods\Burglar\Burglar.json, without another Burglar folder inside it.
6. Start Balatro and check that Burglar appears in the Mods list.

Replace the whole folder when updating or changing editions. Don't merge editions or keep backup copies anywhere inside Mods.

Start a match

1. Open Multiplayer PvP → Create Lobby → Burglar → CREATE.
2. Share the lobby code. Burglar supports two, three, or four players.
3. The host clicks the deck/stake button below Open draft to use PvP's native deck picker. Choose balance rules under Lobby Options.
4. Everyone clicks Open draft. The host chooses the draft settings, then clicks Check players.
5. Wait for Ready to draft, then click Start draft. The button enables once every player is connected and the initial two-second routing check has finished. Recheck connections restarts the check if needed.
6. Pick your Jokers and confirm. Hover cards to read them, and use the team tray to keep track of your roster.
7. With Reveal rosters after draft enabled (the default), click Review all rosters after drafting to browse everyone's picks. Return to the lobby when you're ready. Guests ready up, and the host clicks Start Game.

F8 still opens the draft screen. A completed draft is kept if the host changes the deck or balance before starting the match. Restart draft starts over, so don't use it just to review your roster.

How the draft works

The default is three packs of nine Jokers per player, with one pick per turn. Pick a Joker, pass the pack, and repeat until the packs are empty. Everyone finishes with 27 Jokers in their pool.

Passing direction alternates between packs: packs 1 and 3 go one way; packs 2 and 4 go the other. The draft is shuffled fresh each time. Jokers that weren't included in the draft are unavailable through the normal roster-restricted sources for everyone.

The host can choose 1–4 packs, 1 or 2 picks per turn, and a pick timer. Packs 1–3 contain nine Jokers each; the optional fourth pack contains eight, giving each player a 35-Joker roster. Your pool is a list of Jokers you can find during the run—you don't start with all of them equipped.

The default timer is Scaling: 5s per Joker: a nine-Joker pack starts at 45 seconds, then the timer shortens as the pack empties. Existing saved timer choices are kept; select Scaling in setup if your old setting was Off.

Reveal rosters after draft (open deck lists) is on by default. Everyone can browse completed rosters before the match. Turn it off before drafting for private rosters. Upgrading enables this once for future drafts; subsequent choices are saved. Picks stay private while drafting. After the last pick, Review all rosters lets you switch players and pages and hover Jokers for descriptions. The option also works in Local development draft.

How the match works

• Everyone starts with four lives.
• Ante 1 uses the normal Small Blind, Big Blind, and Boss Blind.
• From Ante 2 onward, each ante ends with PvP after the Small and Big Blinds.
• With three or four players remaining, anyone below the final average PvP score loses a life. Meeting the average is enough.
• Once only two players remain, the match uses normal 1v1 scoring, including the multiplayer mod's early-finish behavior.
• The last player with lives wins.

Your Joker pool

Shops, Buffoon packs, Judgment, and Riff-Raff draw from your drafted roster. View and sort your roster through the Joker Collection during a Burglar run.

Rare and Uncommon Tags select only eligible drafted Jokers of their promised rarity. If none is available, they use the Jimbo fallback below instead of another random rarity.

A few deliberate exceptions:

• Jimbo (j_joker) is the fallback when no eligible Joker can be generated by a roster-restricted source. This includes exhausted shop/Buffoon slots, rarity-tag offers, Judgment and Riff-Raff. Jimbo can appear without being drafted and beyond his drafted copy count; he does not get added to your roster. Normal Joker-space limits still apply.
• Wraith can give any Rare Joker, even one you didn't draft.
• The Soul keeps its usual Legendary behavior.
• Showman is Rare and isn't draftable, so Wraith can still find it.
• Matador, Mr. Bones, and Luchador aren't in the draft.
• Once Gros Michel goes extinct, it won't return to that player's shop pool.

Getting a Joker through Wraith, The Soul, or the Jimbo fallback doesn't add it to your drafted shop pool.

Try the draft by yourself

Open Mods → Burglar → Config → Local development draft. Choose two, three, or four seats and start a draft. You control each seat in turn, so you can try the picks, pack passing, timers, and roster controls without getting a group together.

Afterward, you can assign a seat's pool to a new normal run outside multiplayer lobbies. Use Disarm future runs when you're finished testing so future solo runs return to normal. This mode doesn't test online connections or multiplayer scoring.

Spectating — Spectator edition only

After losing all your lives in a three- or four-player match, stay in the lobby and click Watch remaining players on the results screen. F9 is also a shortcut. Choose a survivor with the Previous/Next controls.

The feed starts at a shop or blind-selection checkpoint and uses a delay of at least five seconds. It shows the watched player's board, hand, shop offers, packs, and changing card areas. Survivors don't have to press anything.

This is a reconstructed view from game snapshots, not a screen share or full replay. Some quick actions and animations may not appear. It is still experimental. Two-player matches end when someone is eliminated, so there's nobody left to spectate. The viewer doesn't support saved-roster bracket matches.

For a scripted preview: Mods → Burglar → Config → Local spectator preview. It demonstrates the layout, not a live connection.

Lobby tournament (four players)

1. In a four-player Burglar lobby, open Open draft, choose Format: Tournament, and draft as usual. Choose Stake stickers: On here if wanted; it defaults to Off.
2. After drafting, click Play tournament. The mod saves everyone's original pool and sets up the two semifinal rooms automatically. One player briefly leaves and returns while the second room is created; wait for setup to finish.
3. Seats 1–2 play in the original room; seats 3–4 move into a separate native Nemesis room. Both semifinals can run at the same time. Each pair readies up and starts its own four-life 1v1. Neither pair waits for the other pair to enter or finish a PvP blind.
4. Both players click Return to lobby after their semifinal. Stay connected while results are confirmed. If your semifinal finishes first, wait in its lobby. Once both are finished and returned, Burglar reunites the players automatically, records the winners, and sends the eliminated players back out of the lobby.
5. The two finalists ready up in the original room and start a fresh four-life 1v1 at Ante 1. Only their original drafted pools and copy limits carry forward. Money, bought Jokers, vouchers, consumables, card/deck changes and lost lives reset.

A drawn or disputed match advances nobody. After both players return, use Bracket → Replay drawn match on both clients, then ready up for a new run. The other semifinal continues independently. If you disconnect between rooms, Mods → Burglar → Config → Rejoin tournament returns to your assigned room. Do not leave immediately after losing: return to the lobby first so both results can be confirmed.

All players must use the same new version. Start a fresh tournament after updating; do not update halfway through a 0.25.0 bracket. This is a playtest build: room handoffs, match discovery and rendering still need a four-player test on the official server.

Stake stickers

Stake stickers is a host-controlled option in draft setup and on the completed-draft screen. It defaults to Off. The local development draft has the same option for its armed runs.

When On, the applied stake chain enables Eternal (Black), Perishable (Orange), and Rental (Gold), with the game's normal rolls and Joker compatibility. This includes the corresponding vanilla tiers when the PvP balance ruleset replaces their modifier functions. Custom-stake sticker flags are respected. White Stake adds none. The setting is saved with the run and carried into both semifinals and the final; changing your local config does not override the host.

This option concerns gameplay modifiers, not collection win badges. It does not add stickers to the draft previews or change non-Burglar games.

Optional: manual saved-roster 1v1s

After a four-player draft, each player opens Save roster / bracket 1v1 → Save latest draft roster. Leave the draft lobby and make separate private Nemesis lobbies. Both players must open Saved-roster 1v1 / bracket → Enable for this lobby.

Wait for Rosters confirmed, then ready up and start. Each match is a fresh run with four lives; only the drafted pool carries over. Pairings are manual. Ordinary PvP doesn't automatically inherit your roster—both players must enable this mode for each lobby.

Reporting a bug

Include your version and edition, dependency versions, a screenshot or crash report, the ante, how many players were left, and what happened just before the problem. Mention whether you were hosting.

For more detail, turn on Mods → Burglar → Config → Diagnostics, reproduce the issue, and use Copy diagnostic log. Logs are local and aren't uploaded automatically. The existing folder remains %AppData%\Balatro\draftout-diagnostics for compatibility.

Credits

• Cjpep — development and implementation.
• Fantom_Balatro — the original idea for bringing a Magic-style Joker draft to Balatro. Burglar started with his concept.
• NightmareBalatro, AustereGenie388, PatientEscape38, and UnseenExplosion — playtesting, feedback, and helping find the things that broke.

Thanks to the developers of MultiplayerAPI, MultiplayerPvP, Steamodded, and Lovely for the tools this runs on. The draft takes inspiration from Magic: The Gathering; the runs are still very much Balatro.

Source and releases

The code uses the MIT license. The bundled Bungee font retains its license in assets/fonts/OFL.txt.

Run python tools/build_release.py from a source checkout to build both player editions and the source ZIP. The source bundle includes a release guide and validation notes in docs/.

The public name, install folder, manifest filename, and module folder are Burglar. Internal Draftout/draftout identifiers remain where used by saves, asset keys, callbacks, and multiplayer messages. They are intentional; renaming them isn't necessary to install or play.

Custom draft pools

Use Draft pool in draft setup to choose Default or a custom JSON file in Burglar/cubes. Only the online host needs the file. See the cube guide and the included example. Smaller pools need fewer packs; excluded or unavailable Jokers are rejected; repeat a Joker ID to include multiple copies.

Selecting another Joker now replaces an existing selection without a separate deselect click. In pick-two mode, it replaces the oldest selected Joker. Confirm selection still locks in the pick.

Score display in 0.26.4

FFA averages display as rounded whole numbers with commas (for example, 12,346). Values above 100,000,000 use scientific notation with up to two decimal places (for example, 1.23e9). This is display formatting only: exact averages still decide life losses, and final-two 1v1 rules are unchanged. A rounded displayed average is not an exact cutoff.

The host can choose Open draft → Random deck before drafting or after the draft finishes. Every player sees the same animated wheel and selected deck. All players must use this release to see the animation. Native deck selection remains available.