Madness

How Madness works

Madness gains ×0.5 Mult permanently when Small Blind or Big Blind is selected, and destroys a random joker at the same time. Boss Blinds do NOT trigger Madness — neither the gain nor the destruction.

The destruction part is the catch: Madness will eventually consume your other jokers. The longer you keep Madness, the fewer joker slots you have, but the higher Madness's own X mult climbs.

How much Madness gains per ante

Each ante has 1 Small Blind and 1 Big Blind (skipping a Blind also doesn't trigger Madness — it only fires when you select to play the Blind).

• 2 Madness triggers per ante × ×0.5 mult = +×1 Madness per ante
• 8 antes × ×1 = ×8 final Madness mult if you keep it the whole run.

So an Ante 1 Madness reaches ×8 by run end. An Ante 4 Madness reaches ×4 by run end.

The joker-destruction cost

Madness destroys one random joker each trigger. That's potentially 16 jokers destroyed across a full run from Antes 1-8 (2 per ante × 8).

Realistic mitigations:

• Negative jokers can't be destroyed by Madness. Pull Negative consumables and Negative tag heavily — make as many of your jokers Negative as possible, then Madness's destruction roll has fewer valid targets.
• Single-joker runs: Madness's destruction needs a target. If Madness is your only joker, it can't destroy itself. Some builds intentionally sell down to just Madness, but you lose tremendous build flexibility.
• Skip the Blind: skipping doesn't trigger Madness. But you lose the gold + skip tag, which usually isn't worth it.

Madness + Loyalty / Pawnshop / Throwback

Madness's joker-killing means don't pair it with expensive jokers you need to keep. The math:

• Bought a $20 Legendary joker, Madness destroys it next blind = $0 returned (no sell value).
• Bought $5 commons, Madness destroys them = $5 sell × number destroyed = some money back.

Madness pairs with low-cost rotational jokers (Common +Mult, economy spinners) and avoids stacks of expensive Legendaries unless they're Negative.

Madness vs other ×0.5 scaling jokers

Madness's ×0.5 per Blind is competitive with several alternatives:

• Throwback (×0.25 per Blind skipped): half the rate, but no destruction downside.
• Yorick (×1 per 23 discards): different feed source, no destruction risk.
• Madness: highest single-source X-mult-per-Blind in the game, balanced by the random destruction.

Madness wins on pure mult per slot if you can manage the destruction.

When to take, when to skip

Take Madness:

• Early run (Antes 1-2) with Negative jokers planned via Perkeo or Negative tag.
• Lean joker rotation, comfortable losing cheap commons.
• You have only 1-2 essential jokers (Negative-protected) and Madness is the rest.

Skip Madness:

• Stacked expensive build (Triboulet, Yorick, Blueprint chain) where any destruction is catastrophic.
• No Negative joker plan.
• Late-ante Madness (Antes 7-8) — only banks 1-2 triggers before run end, not worth the destruction risk.

Related Jokers

Same rarity or category as Madness.

Madness FAQ