How to play Ludo

Race four tokens home around the cross before three computer rivals — roll sixes to break out, capture on contact, and finish on an exact count.

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Ludo descends from Pachisi, played in India for well over a thousand years, and the modern cross-shaped board is a British simplification of it. The rules are simple enough for a six-year-old; the decisions are not, because almost every roll asks the same question — advance, or protect.

The board

The track is a fifty-two-square circuit running clockwise around the cross, plus a five-square home column for each colour leading to the central goal. Every player has four tokens starting in a base, a fixed entry square, and eight safe squares on the circuit: the four coloured entry squares and four starred squares spaced around the track.

Getting out, and the six

A token leaves its base only on a six, and it enters on that colour's entry square. Rolling a six also grants another roll, and so does capturing — which means a good turn can run several rolls long. The counterweight is that three sixes in a row forfeit the turn entirely, including anything you rolled for on the third. If you have no token on the board and do not roll a six, the turn passes with nothing to do.

Capturing

Landing exactly on a square occupied by a single opposing token sends it back to its base, and it must roll a six all over again to return. Capturing is what makes Ludo a game rather than a race: sending an opponent's token home from twenty squares along costs them the entire journey. Safe squares cannot be captured on, and two of your own tokens on one square form a block that opponents cannot land on or pass.

Getting home

A token turns off the circuit into its own home column after completing a full lap. The centre goal requires an exact roll — overshoot and the token does not move at all, which is why parking a token one or two squares short of home late in a game can leave it stranded for several turns. All four tokens must reach the centre to win.

Where games are actually decided

Two habits decide most games. The first is spreading tokens instead of stacking them: four tokens strung around the circuit give you a legal move for almost any roll, where two tokens give you none half the time. The second is knowing when to hold a token on a safe square rather than running it into an opponent's firing line — the arithmetic is simply how many of the six die faces would let them reach you.

Controls

Click Roll, tap the die in your corner, or press Space to roll.

Movable tokens light up and are numbered — click one, or press its number 1–4, to move it. With only one legal move, Space takes it.
Hover a token to see the route it would travel and where it would land; a red marker means the landing square captures.
A six lets a token leave the base and grants another roll; captures do too.
Tokens enter the centre only on an exact count.

Strategy tips

Bring a second token out as soon as you can. One token on the board means most rolls have no useful move.
Count the gap before moving into range. If an opponent sits one to six squares behind you, you are giving them a one-in-six chance per token.
Stack two tokens on a square to form a block when you are ahead — it is both safety and a roadblock on the shared track.
Capture when the target has travelled a long way, not simply because you can. Sending a token home from three squares out gains almost nothing.
Keep one token back near your entry square as a threat; opponents have to route past it.
Watch the exact-count rule. Bunching tokens just outside the goal wastes rolls — move them in one at a time.
After a six, think before rerolling into a bad position. The extra roll is not always a gift.