Ludo

Ludo is the classic race game for two to four players. Each player has four tokens waiting in a coloured yard. Roll the dice, bring your tokens out, send them once around the board and up your own coloured column into the centre. The first player with all four tokens home wins. Play against one or three bots, or hand one phone around for a pass-and-play game with friends and family.

Short on time? Pick a Quick game on the setup screen: everyone starts with one token already out, two tokens home finishes, and the first player to finish wins. It takes about half as long as a classic game. Choose Classic for the full race with all four tokens.

How to play

• Tap the dice when it glows to roll. On a keyboard, press Space or Enter.
• Tokens you can move bounce with a dashed ring under them. Tap one to move it. If only one move is possible, it plays itself.
• You need a 6 to bring a token out of the yard onto your start square.
• Tokens travel clockwise around the board, then turn into the home column of their own colour.
• Land exactly on an opponent to capture it: it goes back to its yard and you roll again.
• Star squares and the coloured start squares are safe. Nobody can be captured there, so tokens of different colours can share them.
• A 6 gives you another roll, but three 6s in a row end your turn.
• Bringing a token home gives you another roll. You need the exact number to reach the centre.
• Against bots you can watch a short ad to re-roll a bad throw. The re-roll comes back every few turns, and straight away when one of your tokens is captured.

House rules

Every family plays Ludo a little differently, so the settings let you switch the main rules on or off before a game: whether a 1 can also open a token, whether a 6 earns another roll, the three-6s rule, bonus rolls for captures and for reaching home, and whether the safe squares protect tokens. Quick start begins every player with one token already on the board, which makes for a shorter, livelier game.

Bots

Easy bots move almost at random and are good for learning. Normal bots take captures and bring tokens out when they can. Hard bots also look at danger: they avoid stopping just in front of your tokens, run away when threatened, hide on safe squares and race their leaders home. Turn on fast bots if you want their turns to fly by.

Tips

• Get two or more tokens out early. With only one token on the board, every roll has to move it, even into danger.
• Count the squares behind you. An opponent within six squares can hit you on their next roll.
• Rest on star squares when an opponent is close behind.
• Chase tokens that have travelled far. Sending a nearly-home token back to its yard swings the whole game.
• Keep a token near your yard exit to punish opponents who pass your start square.

Your wins against the bots are saved in this browser, and a game in progress is kept too, so you can close the tab and carry on later.