Back to Guides
AdvancedYorickLegendaryJokersMultDiscardScaling

Balatro Yorick — X1 Mult Every 23 Discards

Yorick gains X1 Mult per 23 cards discarded. With base discards that is about X1 every two rounds. What it takes to make the slowest Legendary actually pay.

Balatro HQ
8/1/2026
~6 min read
Yorick: X1 Mult base, +X1 for every 23 cards you discard. It counts cards, not discards.

Yorick gains X1 Mult for every 23 cards discarded. Cards, not discard actions. That distinction is the whole guide: a 1-card discard moves the counter by 1, a 5-card discard moves it by 5. Never discard less than you can afford.

The 23 is a Hamlet reference, by the way. Act 5, Scene 1: the skull "has lain in the earth three-and-twenty years."

What the pace actually looks like

SetupCards shed per roundRounds per X1
Base, 3 discards, 8 hand size~15~1.5
Blue Stake+, 2 discards~10~2.3
+ Merry Andy (6 discards)~30~0.8
+ Merry Andy + Troubadour~35~0.65

A full 8-ante run is about 24 rounds. Base pace gets you to roughly X16 by the end. That is a real number, but you had to reach Ante 8 to see it, and you needed something else carrying you the whole way there.

Base stats

FieldValue
RarityLegendary
SourceThe Soul only, never in the shop
Buy / Sell$20 / $10
EffectGains X1 Mult every 23 cards discarded
Blueprint copyableYes

How to play it

The tension is obvious: discarding hard means throwing away cards you might have played. The fix is a bigger hand size, not more discipline. With 10 cards in hand you can dump 5 junk cards and still hold a Pair, so every discard is free.

Then commit to small hands. High Card and Pair are the right hands for a Yorick run. You are not assembling a Straight, you are converting cards into multiplier and letting the multiplier do the work. Base Mult barely matters once Yorick is at X10.

Best combos

Merry Andy is +3 discards, the single biggest accelerator. Drunkard is +1 with no downside.

Merry Andy. +3 discards, -1 hand size. It roughly doubles Yorick's scaling rate. The hand size loss stings, which is exactly why you pair it with the next two.

Drunkard. +1 discard, Common, no downside. Easier to find than Merry Andy and does a third of the work.

Juggler and Troubadour. +1 and +2 hand size. More cards in hand means you can discard aggressively without losing your playable hand. These are not filler, they are what makes Merry Andy safe to run.

Wasteful and Recyclomancy. +1 discard each, permanently. Both are auto-buys in a Yorick run. Recyclomancy requires Wasteful first.

Every one of these pays you for discarding. Yorick turns the same action into Mult.

The discard payoff cluster. Mystic Summit, Faceless Joker, Mail-In Rebate, Castle, Hit the Road and Burnt Joker all key off discards in some way. A Yorick deck is already performing the action, so these convert the same behaviour into chips, Mult and money.

The Hook. It is a Boss Blind, not a Joker, but its forced discard of 2 cards per hand feeds Yorick for free. One of the very few blinds a Yorick build is happy to see.

What it fights with

Every one of these pays you for NOT discarding. Do not run them with Yorick.

The hoarding cluster. Delayed Gratification pays $2 per unused discard, Banner gives chips per remaining discard, Green Joker gains Mult per hand and loses it per discard, Ramen loses X0.01 per card discarded. Every one of them is the opposite instruction. Ramen is the worst offender: it actively drains as Yorick fills.

Burglar. Selecting the blind gives +3 hands and removes all discards for the blind. That is not a downside for Yorick, it is an off switch. If Burglar carries an Eternal sticker, do not buy it under any circumstances.

What kills it

The Water clears all discards for the blind, so Yorick gains nothing that fight. Blue Stake and above start every round with one fewer discard, which is a permanent 25-33% slowdown. Green Deck pays $1 per unused discard, actively bribing you against the plan. Abandoned Deck and Mad World run small decks where deep discarding thins you out fast.

Guide

How Yorick ranks against the other four Legendaries, and the find-time table that decides whether to keep it.

Verdict

The weakest of the five, and it is not close. Yorick needs a discard engine, a big hand size, and about six antes of runway before it becomes the best card in your build. Found on Ante 1 with Merry Andy already in hand, it wins runs. Found on Ante 6, it is $10.

FAQ

Do cards destroyed by other effects count toward Yorick?

No. Only cards you actively discard. Trading Card destroying a discarded card still counts the discard itself, but Glass card breaks and Hanged Man destructions do not.

Does the counter reset between rounds or antes?

No. It is a cumulative lifetime count for the run. Progress toward the next 23 carries across rounds, antes and shops.

Yorick with Blueprint?

Works, and it is the fastest way to make a slow Yorick relevant. Blueprint copies its current X Mult, so a X8 Yorick becomes X64 across the pair. Blueprint does not add to the discard counter, it just mirrors the result.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Yorick do in Balatro?
Yorick starts at X1 Mult and gains an extra X1 Mult for every 23 cards discarded. It counts cards, not discard actions, so a full 5-card discard is worth five times a 1-card discard.
How fast does Yorick scale?
With 3 discards and 8 hand size you can shed about 15 cards a round, so roughly X1 every 1.5 rounds. Merry Andy adds 3 discards and takes that to about X1 per round.
Does Yorick count discard actions or cards?
Cards. Always discard the maximum you can afford. Two 1-card discards move the counter by 2, one 5-card discard moves it by 5.
What breaks Yorick?
The Water Boss Blind removes all discards, so Yorick cannot scale during it. Burglar is worse, it clears every discard for the whole blind in exchange for hands. Blue Stake and above start you with one fewer discard.
Was Yorick nerfed?
It was changed in patch 1.0.1f. It used to give a flat X5 Mult after 23 discards used. Now it gains X1 per 23 cards discarded, which scales without a cap but starts much weaker.

Share this article