How to play Snakes and Ladders

Roll one die and race two to four players up a ten by ten track: ladders carry you up, snakes drag you down, and only an exact roll finishes on 100.

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Snakes and Ladders is the oldest kind of board game there is: a pure race up a track of a hundred squares, decided entirely by the die. There is nothing to decide and no way to be outplayed — which is precisely why it works as a game to play with anybody, at any age.

The track

The board is ten rows of ten. Row one runs 1 to 10 left to right, row two runs 11 to 20 right to left, and it alternates all the way up to 100 in the top corner. Every player starts off the board and moves up the track by the number rolled on a single die.

Ladders and snakes

Seven ladders and eight snakes are printed on the board, and all of them are visible from the very first roll. Nothing is hidden.

The ladders climb from 5 to 27, 9 to 31, 14 to 35, 40 to 59, 47 to 66, 63 to 81, and 76 to 97.

The snakes fall from 22 to 3, 28 to 10, 38 to 17, 49 to 30, 56 to 36, 71 to 52, 88 to 68, and 95 to 67.

Only the square you finish your move on counts. Passing over a ladder foot or a snake head on the way does nothing at all. And a ladder or a snake never chains into another one — landing at the top of a ladder that happens to be a snake head does not send you back down.

That gives the board its shape. The ladder at 63 lifts you to 81 and very nearly ends the race. The snake at 56 drops you to 36 and restarts it. The one at 95, eight squares from home, is the cruellest square on the board.

Finishing on exactly the last square

You must land precisely on 100. Roll more than you need and your token bounces back off the end of the board by the difference: from 97, a six takes you to 100 and then back three squares to 97.

The square you bounce onto is live. From 99 a six overshoots by five and puts you on 95 — which is a snake head, which sends you to 67. That single rule is why a game that looks finished so often is not, and it is worth understanding before you get to the top of the board and feel cheated by it.

The rule for sixes

Rolling a six earns you another roll. Three sixes in a row forfeits the turn entirely, with no move made at all — so a hot streak is not unlimited.

The first player to land exactly on 100 wins.

On there being no strategy

Every player has exactly one legal move each turn and must make it. Nobody is out-thought and nobody can play badly.

This is worth saying plainly because it changes what the game is for. There is no skill to acquire and no way to improve, so the whole thing rests on the swings — and the swings are enormous. The ladder at 9 is worth twenty-two squares in one roll. The snake at 88 undoes four good turns. A game can reverse completely in the last ten squares.

Play it for the arc rather than the contest, and expect the ending to be the loud part.

Controls

Tap the die to roll — that is the whole game.

Keyboard

Space, Enter or R rolls the die.
Enter starts a new race once someone has finished.

Table

Use the 2P / 3P / 4P control to set how many players are at the table.

Strategy tips

There is no strategy, and that is not a joke. Every turn has exactly one legal move, so no decision you make can change the outcome — the tips below are about what to expect rather than what to do.
Learn where the snake at 95 is before you get near it. Eight squares from home and it sends you back to 67, and it is the most common way a won game is lost.
Expect the last ten squares to take a while. You need the exact roll to finish, and the bounce-back can put you on a snake, so the endgame is longer than it looks.
Watch the ladder at 63. It jumps you to 81 and is the single biggest swing on the board in your favour.
Do not count a lead as safe below square 88. The snake there costs twenty squares and there is no way to avoid landing on it.
Remember that only your landing square matters. Passing over a snake head is completely safe, so the danger is exact, not approximate.
A six gives you another roll, but three in a row forfeits the turn. A hot streak has a ceiling.
Play it with somebody who does not want to think. Its whole virtue is that a five-year-old and an adult have exactly equal chances.