Ludo Rules

Ludo is a race game: get all four of your tokens around the board and safely home before anybody else. These are the exact rules LudoLive plays by — read once and you'll know everything you need.

What you're trying to do

Every player has four tokens in their own coloured corner, called the yard. A token has to leave the yard, travel one full lap of the shared track, then turn up its own coloured home columnto the centre. Get all four tokens to the centre and you've finished the race.

How many players

Between two and six. Two, three and four players use the classic square board. Five players get a pentagon board and six players get a hexagon — same rules, just more sides so everyone has their own corner, colour and home column.

Turn order

Players take turns in seat order, going around the table. When somebody finishes all four tokens they drop out of the rotation and their turn is skipped from then on.

The dice

• On your turn you roll one die, giving you a number from 1 to 6.
• That number is how many squares one of your tokens moves. You move one token per roll — you never split a roll between two tokens.
• If the roll gives you no legal move at all, your turn simply passes to the next player.

LudoLive deals dice rather than generating them independently — each player draws from their own shuffled shoe of faces, so every face still comes up its full one-in-six share but long droughts and freak streaks are much rarer. The FAQ explains exactly how.

Getting a token onto the board

A token can only leave the yard on a roll of six. When you roll a six you may move a token out of the yard onto your own starting square. If you have no tokens left in the yard, the six is just a move of six squares like any other.

What a six does

• A six brings a token out of the yard and earns you an extra roll — you go again.
• One turn holds at most two sixes. Once you have rolled two, the die will not show a six again on that turn — you roll a 1 to 5 and the turn carries on normally. Nobody is ever punished for rolling well.
• A six only pays out if you can use it. If the roll leaves you with no legal move, the turn ends there like any other — the extra roll is earned by making a move, not by the number itself.

Moving your tokens

• Tokens travel around the shared track in one direction, the same way for everyone.
• A token always moves the exact number rolled— you may not move fewer squares, and you may not skip a move you're able to make if it's your only one.
• Each player enters the track at their own starting square and leaves it at their own home column, so every token covers the same distance.
• Your own tokens may share a square. LudoLive has no blocking rule — a stack does not stop anybody from passing or landing there.

Capturing

Land exactly on a square occupied by an opponent and you capture: their token goes straight back to its yard and has to roll a six to start over. If they had two tokens stacked on that square, both go back.

• A capture earns you an extra roll.
• You can never capture your own tokens — you simply share the square.
• Capturing only happens on the shared track, never inside a home column.

Safe squares

Some squares are safe, marked with a star on the board. A token standing on a safe square cannot be captured — an opponent may land on the same square, and both tokens simply stand there together.

• Every player's own starting square is a safe square.
• There is one more starred safe square along each side of the board.
• Your home column is safe too: once a token turns into it, no opponent can ever reach it.

There is one limit on that shelter: a safe square is still a square, not a sanctuary. Crowd five tokens onto one and it gives way — every token standing there goes back to its yard, including the one that just arrived and including your own. Four or fewer is ordinary play and nothing happens. This is not a capture: nobody knocked anybody off, so it earns the player who triggered it no extra roll.

Reaching home

1. After a full lap, a token turns off the shared track and into its own coloured home column.
2. It keeps moving up the column by the number rolled — nothing special is needed to enter the column.
3. The final square needs an exact roll. If your number would take the token past the last square, that move isn't legal and you must move a different token — or pass, if you have nothing else to move.
4. Landing a token on the final square finishes it for good, and earns you an extra roll.

Winning

The first player to bring all four tokenshome wins the match and takes first place. The game doesn't stop there: everyone still racing keeps playing for second place, third place and so on. When only one player is left they are placed automatically — nobody has to finish a race they can't win.

When you can't move

Sometimes a roll is useless — every token is in the yard and you didn't roll a six, or every possible move would overshoot the last home square. When that happens nothing moves and your turn ends, whatever the die showed — a six included.

Quick reference

• Leave the yard: roll a 6.
• Extra roll: after a six, after a capture, after finishing a token.
• Sixes per turn: two at most — a third six is never dealt.
• Capture: land exactly on an opponent, off a safe square.
• Can't be captured: on a starred square, on your start square, or in your home column.
• Safe square gives way: five tokens on one — all of them go home.
• Finish a token: land on the last home square with an exact roll.
• Win: be the first with all four tokens home.

Ready to play?

How to Playwalks you through starting a match — on your own against the computer, around one phone with friends, or in an online room for up to six people. If something still isn't clear, the FAQ is the next stop.