How to Use LudoLive

A walk through the app itself: starting a match in each mode, reading the game screen, the controls, and what happens when a connection drops. For what the dice and tokens are allowed to do, see the Ludo rules.

Last reviewed against the game: 5 October 2026

Playing against the AI

Open Play with AI. The setup screen has three choices:

• Your color — which seat you play.
• Opponents — one to five AI players. One to three use the square board; four gives a five-seat pentagon board and five a six-seat hexagon.
• Difficulty — Easy, Medium or Hard. The strategy guide describes how each one plays.

Your colour and difficulty start from your defaults in Settings. Tap Start game. If you leave in the middle of a match, the next visit asks Resume game? — choose Resume to carry on or Start fresh. The pause button opens a Paused menu with Resume Game and Leave Game, and the game pauses by itself when you switch away from the tab.

Pass & play on one device

1. Open Play with Friends and tap Choose players.
2. Pick how many will play, from two to six. Five players get a pentagon board and six a hexagon.
3. Each seat card has a name (up to 20 characters), an avatar and a colour. Choosing a colour or avatar another seat already has swaps the two seats, so no two players ever match.
4. Tap Start game, then pass the device to whoever's seat card is glowing. Change table size takes you back to step 2.

A half-finished setup survives a page refresh for 24 hours, and an unfinished match offers Resume table? next time. The pause button opens the same Paused menu. Pass & play needs no internet connection.

Creating an online room

1. Open Play Online, choose Create a room and tap Create room.
2. Pick the table size — two to six — and tap Create N-player room.
3. In the lobby, tap Invite to send a link through your phone's share sheet (or copy it), or Copy code to paste the 8-character code.
4. The lobby fills up as friends arrive. Only the host can start, and the button reads Waiting for N more players… until every seat is taken — then it becomes Start game.

Joining someone else's room

• With a link: open it and you go straight to the room. If it opens inside a chat app's built-in browser, LudoLive offers to move you to your real browser.
• With a code: open Play Online, choose Join a room and type the code. Letters can be lower or upper case, and the join starts as soon as all eight characters are in.
• Your name and avatar come from your profile; you can change them from the lobby or with the edit button during a match.

More on rooms, chat and table sizes is in playing Ludo with friends.

Reading the game screen

• Seat cards show every player. The card of whoever's turn it is lifts and glows; on a shared device it also says Your turn, and AI or online players show thinking dots while they decide. A YOUR TURN banner flashes when the dice passes to you.
• Four pips on each card light up as that player's tokens reach home. A dimmed card means that player is disconnected.
• The hint on your card tells you what to do next: Tap to roll!, then Pick a token. Tokens that can legally move pulse with a glowing ring.
• If only one move is possible, the game plays it for you after a short pause.
• The dice timer ring counts down while you decide to roll — 30 seconds by default. It turns orange for the last ten seconds and red for the last three. If it runs out, your turn is skipped; nothing is rolled or moved for you, and choosing a token is never timed. Change it to 10 or 60 seconds or switch it off in Settings; in online rooms the host's setting applies.

Controls

• Roll: tap the dice, or press Space or Enter.
• Move: tap a glowing token, or press 1–4 to move your first to fourth token. You can also Tab to a token and press Enter or Space.
• Keyboard shortcuts are ignored while you are typing in a box or a dialog is open.

Chat and reactions in online rooms

The message button in the bottom-right corner opens the chat: forty one-tap quick messages such as “Good luck!” and “GG!”, emoji, and a typed message of up to 200 characters. Tap another player's avatar to send them one of twelve animated reactions, which everyone at the table sees. Messages go directly between players and aren't stored after the match.

If your connection drops

Online, a dropped connection shows Reconnecting… while the game tries to get you back, and your seat is kept for you. Refreshing the page puts you back in the same room, and the Play Online screen shows an Unfinished game card with a Rejoin button. A player who stays away doesn't hold up the table: after 30 seconds their turn is played for them. The troubleshooting guide explains every connection message and what to try.

After the game

The winner screen offers Play again (a Rematch vote in online rooms), Home, Stats and Share. Share sends a link to a result card showing the winner, the match time and each player's captures, sixes and tokens home.

Make it yours

• Customize picks a dice skin and a board theme — Classic, Neon, Royal, Ice, Shadow, Galaxy or Fire. All of them are available, and they're purely cosmetic.
• Settings holds your name, avatar and favourite colour; dark or light theme; animation speed; sound effects, music and their volumes; default AI difficulty; the dice timer; your analytics choice; and a reset option.
• Stats tracks games played, wins, losses, win rate, longest win streak, fastest win, average game time, wins against the AI and online wins — all stored on your device.
• LudoLive can be added to your home screen from the browser menu. Once loaded, the AI and pass & play modes work without a connection.