Snakes & Ladders
Snakes and Ladders is the dice race almost everyone learns as a child. Two to four players start below square 1 and take turns rolling one die, moving their token up a board of 100 squares that winds left to right, then right to left, row by row. The first player to reach square 100 wins. Play against computer players, pass one phone around the family, or mix the two.
How to play
- Tap the glowing dice to roll. On a keyboard, press Space or Enter.
- Your token walks forward one square at a time by the number you rolled.
- Stop at the foot of a ladder and you climb straight to its top.
- Stop on a snake's head and you slide all the way down to its tail. Passing over a snake is safe.
- Tap anywhere while tokens are moving to skip to the end of the move, or switch on Fast speed.
Rules you can change
Families play this game in slightly different ways, so the setup screen lets you choose. With exact roll to finish, you must land on 100 exactly. Roll too high and you bounce back the extra squares, which can drop you onto the snake waiting near the top. Turn it off and any roll that reaches 100 wins. Extra turn on a 6 gives another roll after every 6, and three 6s lose the turn sends you back to where that turn began if you roll a third 6 in a row.
Boards
Classic is the board most people picture, long snake on 99 included. Ladder Garden has plenty of ladders and few snakes, which makes a short, cheerful game for young players. Snake Pit is the opposite: eleven snakes and big comebacks. The random board builds a new layout from a number. Every random board is checked before you play: no snake sits on 100, no snakes and ladders form an endless loop, and the expected length of a game stays close to the classic board.
Tips
- There is no strategy in the moves, only in the rules: fewer snakes and no exact finish mean shorter games.
- When you play against the computer and get bitten, you can watch a short ad once per game for a lucky re-roll that never lands on a snake.
- Your wins, longest ladder, worst snake and fastest win are saved in this browser, and so is a game in progress.
From Moksha Patam to your phone
The game comes from India, where it was known as Moksha Patam or Gyan Chaupar. It was used to teach children about life: ladders stood for good deeds such as generosity and humility that lift a person towards moksha, or liberation, while snakes stood for faults such as anger and greed that drag them back down. British families brought it home in the nineteenth century, dropped most of the lessons and kept the fun. The snakes and ladders are still there today.