Ludo Strategy for LudoLive's Rules
Most Ludo advice assumes rules this game doesn't use. This guide is built on LudoLive's own rules — no blocking, a two-six ceiling, extra rolls for captures and finished tokens, and safe squares that give way under five tokens — so every tip applies to the board in front of you.
Last reviewed against the game:
Know the distances
On the classic square board a token walks 56 steps from its start square to the centre: 51 squares around the shared track, then five up its own home column, then the finish. The track is 52 squares long and each colour's start square is 13 squares after the previous one, so an opponent who started just behind you is chasing you around the whole lap.
There are eight safe squares on that board: the four start squares and four stars, each star eight squares past a start. They are safe whether or not a colour is in play, so in a three-player game the empty corner's start square is still a refuge.
Opening a token or moving one that's out
A token only leaves the yard on a six, and the six earns another roll whichever way you use it. So when you roll one, the extra roll is guaranteed either way and the only question is position:
- Open early while the board is quiet. One token on the board means every roll has to move that token, wherever it lands. Two or three tokens out give you a choice on every roll, and choice is what lets you dodge, capture and land on stars.
- Your start square is safe — use that. A freshly opened token cannot be captured on its start square. Opening is never risky by itself; the risk begins when the token moves off.
- Opening never captures. Because start squares are safe, an opponent parked on your start square is not knocked off when you come out — your token simply shares the square.
- Move the six instead when it lets an existing token capture, reach a star, or slip into its home column — those gains are lost if you don't take them now, while a token in the yard will still be there next time.
Reading the danger
A token on an ordinary square can be hit by any opponent token one to six squares behind it on the shared track, because that opponent only needs the exact number. Two less obvious danger zones:
- Just past an opponent's start square. If that player still has tokens in the yard, a six brings one out and the extra roll can reach the six squares beyond their start.
- Stacks. Your own tokens can share a square, but there is no blocking here: a stack doesn't stop anybody passing, and an opponent landing on it sends every token in it home in one go. Off a safe square, two tokens together are a bigger target, not a wall.
The home column is completely safe — once a token turns into it, no opponent can reach it. Getting a threatened token there is often worth more than a few squares of progress elsewhere.
Safe squares and the five-token limit
A token on a star or a start square cannot be captured, and opponents who land there just share it. The exception is crowding: when a move leaves five or more tokens on one safe square, the square gives way and every token on it goes back to its yard — whoever owns them, including the token that just arrived and any of yours already there.
- Count before you land on a busy star. If four tokens are already standing there, your token is the fifth, and you lose it along with everyone else's.
- It can be a weapon. If most of the crowd belongs to opponents — especially far-travelled tokens — being the fifth piece can cost them far more than it costs you. The blast is not a capture, so it doesn't earn an extra roll by itself (a six used for the move still does).
- It matters most at big tables. With five or six players there are more tokens on the track and the stars fill up faster.
Sixes, extra rolls and the two-six ceiling
You get another roll after a six, after a capture and after bringing a token home. Those can chain: a capture made with a three still earns a roll. Two things limit the chain:
- A turn holds at most two sixes. After your second six, the next roll is dealt from 1 to 5. If you still need to open a token, use one of those first two sixes for it — the third roll can't bring anyone out.
- An unusable roll ends the turn. A six with no legal move earns nothing. The extra roll comes from making a move, not from the number.
Each player draws from their own dealt “shoe” of dice faces rather than an independent random roll (the rules page explains how). In practice this means long droughts and long streaks are rarer than with a physical die, but no roll can be predicted — plan around what a single roll could do, not around a six being “due”.
The endgame
The last square needs an exact roll; a number that would overshoot it simply isn't a legal move for that token. That shapes the end of a game:
- Keep a spare move. If your only token on the board sits two squares from home, every roll except a two passes your turn (a six can still open a token, if you have one left in the yard). Leaving another token outside the home column gives the other rolls somewhere useful to go.
- Finishing earns a roll — except the last one. Bringing a token home gives you another roll, so finish early in a turn when you can. Your fourth token is the exception: it places you, and play passes on.
- Second place is still worth playing for. The game carries on after the first player finishes, ranking everyone in order until one player is left and placed automatically.
Bigger tables and duels
Five players get a pentagon board and six get a hexagon. Their arms are shorter, so the home column is four squares instead of five, but the lap is longer: 58 steps from start to finish on the pentagon and 69 on the hexagon, with a start square and a star (seven squares past the start) on every arm. More players means more tokens behind you at any moment, so stars matter more and stacks are riskier. In a two-player game the two colours sit in opposite corners, half a lap apart, which gives each side more open track before they meet.
How the computer opponents decide
The AI scores every legal move. Finishing a token and capturing (more so the further the victim had travelled) score highest, followed by opening a token when it has few on the board, entering the home column and landing on a safe square. It treats a crowded safe square as a trap, only stepping in as the fifth token when the blast would cost opponents more than it costs the AI.
- Easy picks a random legal move about two times in three, and ignores threats.
- Medium plays its best-scoring move most of the time, slips occasionally, and avoids squares opponents can reach.
- Hard always plays its top-scoring move, weighs threats more heavily the further a token has travelled, and pushes its most advanced tokens.
Practising against Hard is a good way to learn the habits above: watch where it refuses to stand.