The rules of all five Ludo variations, in full

Ludo Vest ships five variations. Blitz, Arrow and Team Up each add one idea to Classic (a sprint, arrows or a partner), Master plays the Classic rules, and all five share the Double Piece. That is on purpose: a variation that needs a tutorial is a variation nobody plays. Everything below is the rule set the server actually enforces.

The board every variation shares

On a 2, 3 or 4 seat table, a 52-cell ring with four seats starting at cells 0, 13, 26 and 39 (the 6 and 8 player boards are covered below). A token travels 51 ring cells, then turns into a six-cell home column. Internally a token's whole position is one number: 0 is base, 1 to 51 is the ring, 52 to 56 is the home column, and 57 is home.

• Sixes roll again. But the third six in a row is void and ends the turn: the anti-stalling rule, and the reason a hot streak eventually hands the dice back. Moves you already made with the first two stand.
• Capturing means landing on an unsafe cell holding an opponent's token. Every opponent token there goes back to base, and you take another turn.
• Double Piece (every variation): two or more of one player's own tokens on one square form a Double Piece, shown stacked with a gold crown and a "2". It moves together only on a 2, 4 or 6, by half the roll (a 6 moves it 3 squares); on any roll you may move one piece the full roll instead, which splits it, and on an even roll the game asks "Move both together" or "Move one piece". No opponent piece can pass a Double Piece. A single token can never land on it or capture it; only an opponent's Double Piece moving together and landing exactly on it sends both home, never on a safe square, and that capture earns one bonus roll. A Double Piece flies an arrow together and walks into its home column together on an exact halved roll.
• Safe cells are the four start cells and the four starred cells, eight in total on a 4 seat board, at ring indices 0, 8, 13, 21, 26, 34, 39 and 47 (12 on the 6 player board and 16 on the 8 player board, a start cell and a star for each seat). No capture ever happens on one, in every variation, Arrow and Blitz included.
• Reaching home also earns another roll, as a six or a capture does.
• You choose the order. A six lets you roll again before moving, so a 6 and a 5 can both be waiting at once. They sit as chips beside the die: tap one, then tap a token, and you decide which number goes first and on which piece. Even a single legal move waits for your tap.
• Exact rolls enter home. An overshoot is not a legal move, so it is simply not offered.

Classic

The original game. Roll a 6 to bring a token out of base, race all four around the ring, and win by getting all four home with exact rolls (at a 6 or 8 player table, your first token home finishes you). Fifteen-second turns, and the Double Piece above: a single token never captures a double. If someone has only ever played Ludo on a physical board, this is the one that matches their memory.

Master

Every Classic rule applies, Double Piece included. Master used to be the only variation with blocks (its Walls); since October 2026 that idea is the Double Piece every variation plays, so Master now plays exactly the Classic rules. A Double Piece parked on someone's start cell keeps their tokens in base until it moves.

• There is no capture requirement to enter home. Exact rolls, all four home to win (your first token home finishes you at a 6 or 8 player table).

Doubles rewrite the strategy. A double parked in the right place stops a runner cold, so the game becomes about where to build, when to split a double to move on, and when to march one forward on an even roll at half speed. Expect longer matches and more reversals in the last third.

Blitz

Built for length. One of your tokens starts on the board and the other three wait in base for a 6, and the win condition is the first token home rather than all four. Turns are 15 seconds, as in every other variation.

There is one catch: you must capture at least once before any of your tokens may enter the home column. Until you do, a token that reaches its turn-in keeps going and laps the board again. A padlock on your home column shows it is still shut, and your first capture opens it for the rest of the match. It plays as a sprint with a knife-edge ending: the leading token is the most obvious target on the board, and the player who has not captured yet is hunting. This is the one to pick when you have five minutes.

Blitz is also played on the arrow board, exactly as in Arrow below: corner arrows and your own home arrow, a flight when a move ends exactly on an arrow's tail, an extra roll for every flight, and arrow squares that are not safe. Your home arrow stays an ordinary square until your column is open, so a locked token that ends on it simply stands there and laps on.

Arrow

Classic rules, plus two kinds of arrow. At each of the four inner corners beside the centre, a short corner arrow crosses the corner diagonally: end a move exactly on its tail and your token flies across to the next arm. Each colour also has a curved home arrow on the square two before its own start: end a move exactly there and your token flies straight into the first square of its home column, skipping the last stretch of the ring. Only that colour uses its home arrow. For everyone else it is an ordinary square. Every flight earns an extra roll; passing over an arrow does nothing. Arrow squares are not safe, and captures happen where a flight lands. The stars and start squares stay safe, as in Classic.

The interesting consequence is that distance stops being reliable. In Classic you can look at the board and know roughly who is winning. In Arrow, an exact landing on a corner buys a square and a roll, and an exact landing on your home arrow skips the dangerous last stretch, so leads are worth less and exact counting is worth more.

Six and eight players

Up to eight at one table. At 6 and 8 players, your first token home finishes you, and the game ends when 2 players have finished: 1st takes 70% of the pot and 2nd takes 30%. Everyone else is ranked by tokens home, then by how far their tokens got. Classic, Blitz, Arrow and Master all run at 6 and 8 players, in quick play, private rooms and club tables. Team Up stays at four.

• The board grows with the table: the ring is 78 cells at 6 seats and 104 at 8, against 52 at 4, with 13 ring cells per seat.
• Finishing is your first token home in every mode, and the game ends when 2 players have finished. A finisher leaves the board, so the race cannot stall.
• League points in a public matchmade game: 1st earns 40 at 6 seats and 50 at 8, and 2nd earns 20 and 25. Everyone else earns 4.

Team Up

Four seats, two teams: you are paired with the player sitting opposite you. Team Up is a seating rather than a rule set, so it pairs with any variation (Classic, Master, Blitz or Arrow) online, in a private room and offline. It is always a four-seat table, and matchmaking waits until four players have joined. The win condition is all eight tokens of one team home, and the winning pair split the prize.

• Teammates never capture each other, and share squares freely.
• A partner whose four tokens are all home keeps their turn and rolls for the other's tokens.
• Everything else is the variation you paired it with. In Blitz the first token home wins for the pair, and each player's own first capture opens their home column. A Double Piece is only ever one player's own tokens, so your partner's double never blocks you and you pass it freely. In Arrow a flight that ends on your partner simply shares the square, and each player's home arrow belongs to their own colour.

Team Up is the variation that most changes what the voice chat sounds like, because for the first time a bad roll is somebody else's problem too. It is also where the rule against capturing teammates has real strategic weight: you can park a token beside your partner's runner without the usual risk.

Which to pick

Two things that are true in all five

First, the dice. Whichever variation you pick, the sequence is derived from a seed the server committed to before the first roll, and the seed is revealed at the end. No variation gets its own generator and no variation gets different odds.

Second, disconnects. Your seat is held for 60 seconds and reconnecting restores the exact board. After that you have left, exactly as if you had tapped Exit: your pieces come off the board, your turns are skipped and your stake stays in the pot. The others play on, and when only one player or pair is left the match ends with them as the winner. A private room ends the moment anybody leaves; a club table keeps its own shorter rule. If everybody disconnects before a single roll, every stake that was actually charged is refunded: nothing was played, so nothing was won or lost.

New to the game altogether? Start with how to play Ludo, then take the variations to the table with the Ludo strategy guide.