Steam Deck’s most popular game is even better with mods, here’s how to add them
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Balatro is a roguelike deck-building game that mixes poker mechanics with strategic card upgrades. At its core, you're building hands of poker, but the game twists things up with special Joker cards that modify your playstyle, multipliers that boost your score, and escalating challenges that force you to adapt. It might look like a typical poker game, but it’s more like a strategy puzzle where you figure out the best way to break the game using the cards you're dealt.
The game has been a hit among Steam Deck owners and currently holds the top spot in the Top 100 most-played Steam Deck games in the past year. It was previously the second most-played Steam Deck game of last year, just behind Elden Ring. However, you can make this already fun game even better by adding mods, such as a Pokemon mod, which adds Pokemon cards to the game, and many more. But before you start experiencing the game in a new way, here’s what you’ll need to do to mod Balatro.
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How to mod Balatro on Steam Deck
To mod Balatro, you obviously need a purchased copy of the game on Steam, and you must be in Desktop Mode on the Deck to carry out the rest of the steps. One thing to note is that this guide focuses on mods that require the Lovely framework and SteamOdded, which add new content without replacing the Balatro.exe file. With that said, here's how to mod Balatro:
- Start by opening up your browser and heading to the Lovely Injector GitHub. Here, download the latest Windows release.
- Next, go to your Balatro install directory by heading over to Steam, right-clicking on Balatro, and clicking on “Browse Game Files.”
- From here, move the version.dll from the Lovely Injector download and put it in Balatro’s install directory.
- Now, with that done, you need to install the latest version of the Steamodded mod.
- Next, type this in the file browser address bar: “/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/2379780/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/Balatro” and it should directly take you to Balatro’s save directory.
- Here, right-click anywhere and create a new folder named “Mods.”
- Once that is done, go ahead and put Steamodded and any other mods you have into this folder, and make sure that any mods you put here are contained in a single folder.
- Finally, go to Balatro in your Steam library and head to the preferences. Scroll down and put this into the launch option text box: WINEDLLOVERRIDES=”version=n,b” %command%.
And that’s pretty much it! You should now be able to enjoy Balatro with your favorite mods. If you want to check out all the available Balatro mods, we highly recommend heading to the Awesome-Balatro GitHub page, which lists a ton of mods and tools that you can add to Balatro for a refreshing and new experience.