Every New Balatro Collab Explained

Summary

LocalThunk announced a big gameplay update for Balatro coming in 2025 following the celebration of hitting 2 million units sold.
The "Friends of Jimbo" update for Balatro includes crossovers with The Witcher 3, Among Us, Vampire Survivors, and Dave the Diver.
While the crossovers don't change gameplay, they offer fans a fresh incentive to dive back into the engaging world of Balatro.

To celebrate hitting 2 million units sold, Balatro's developer LocalThunk put up a new post on the roguelike card game's Steam page back at the start of August. To mark the momentous occasion, LocalThunk stated that three major announcements would be dropping over the Summer, the first of which was that Balatro would be receiving a big gameplay update in 2025. LocalThunk has just dropped the second major Balatro announcement of the Summer, and it's set an incredibly high bar for the eventual third reveal.

During the latest Nintendo Direct, a new Balatro content update named "Friends of Jimbo" was revealed. In a free update available right now, Balatro has added not one, not two, but four crossovers with major gaming franchises. Each of these crossover packs changes the appearance of Balatro's face cards and adds one or two new animations to the game, and it can be enjoyed on all platforms at no extra cost.

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By Ediz Guner

Every Crossover Balatro's Friend of Jimbo Update Adds to The Game

The Witcher 3

A game that really needs no introduction, The Witcher 3 is still widely considered to be one of the greatest action-RPGs ever made, and somehow, it's barely aged a day over the last nine years. With a fairly popular Netflix show now under the franchise's belt as well, The Witcher's characters are known far and wide, making their appearance in Balatro all the more impressive. Geralt of Rivia, Yennefer, and Jaskier/Dandelion appear as the King, Queen, and Jack cards respectively.

Among Us

One of the biggest Indie games in recent memory, Among Us has found its way to Balatro in its latest "Friends of Jimbo" update. This Among Us collab turns Balatro's King, Queen, and Jack into the social game's Red Crewmate, with the King revealing Red to be a monstrous Impostor. Though the designs used for Among Us' Balatro face cards aren't quite as immediately recognizable as The Witcher 3's Geralt, Yen, and Jaskier, they still add a nice layer of collaboration to the game.

Vampire Survivors

A particularly fitting crossover given Vampire Survivors' similar breakout nature in 2022, Balatro's latest update has also added some new face cards based on the hit roguelike bullet hell. Here, the Jack card has been turned into Vampire Survivors' iconic garlic-wielding Poe, while the Queen card depicts Queen Sigma, and the King displays the vampire that adorns Vampire Survivors' cover art, but who infamously doesn't actually appear in-game.

Dave the Diver

The most recent release in this Balatro crossover update, Dave the Diver, launched back in January of last year. Half ocean-exploring action game and half sushi restaurant manager, Dave the Diver is an addictive, bright, and fun game that's managed to make quite a name for itself over the last year and a half. Along with appearing in Balatro, Dave the Diver has also crossed over with fellow nautical-themed Indie game Dredge, the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla, and even the fighting franchise Guilty Gear. In Balatro, Dave the Diver's titular hero appears as the Queen card, while sushi restaurant investor Cobra is depicted as the Jack card, and head chef Bancho is the King.

While these crossovers don't drastically affect Balatro's gameplay in any way, they don't need to. The core gameplay loop of Balatro is exceptionally strong, and these collaborations simply offer fans of those series an incentive to jump back in for just one more round.

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