How to play Ludo: the complete rules, step by step

Ludo is a race game for two to four players. Each player has four tokens, rolls one six-sided die, and moves tokens clockwise around a shared track and up a private home column. You need a 6 to bring a token out, you capture by landing on an opponent, and the first player to get all four tokens home wins. That is the whole game; the rest of this page is the detail that settles arguments.

Every rule below is written the way Ludo Vest enforces it, because a written rule set is only useful if it is the one actually played. Where families and other apps commonly do something different, the post says so.

What Ludo is

Ludo is a simplified descendant of Pachisi, a cross-and-circle race game from India that is centuries old; the modern four-colour version was popularised in England in the late nineteenth century, according to Wikipedia. The name is Latin for "I play". Today it is played in homes around the world, and more and more often on a phone.

It is mostly luck, with just enough choice to matter. The die decides how far you move; you decide which token moves, when to leave a token exposed, and when to chase a capture instead of running for home. Those decisions are covered in the Ludo strategy guide.

The board and the pieces

A Ludo board is a cross. Each arm of the cross is three columns of squares, and the four corners are the coloured bases where tokens wait. The outer squares form one shared loop, the track, and the middle column of each arm is that colour's home column, leading to the triangle in the centre.

• The track has 52 squares. Each colour has its own start square on it, spaced 13 squares apart.
• A token travels 51 track squares, one lap less one, then turns into its home column instead of passing its own start again.
• The home column is six squares long and belongs to one colour only. Nobody else can enter it, so nothing there can be captured.
• Safe squares are the four start squares plus four starred squares, eight in all. No capture can happen on one.

Setting up

Each player takes a colour and puts all four tokens in the matching base. With four players every corner is used. With two, the players sit opposite each other, which gives both the same distance to the other and keeps the game even; Ludo Vest always seats a two-player table this way. Three players simply leave one corner empty.

To decide who starts, everyone rolls and the highest number goes first. Turns then pass clockwise. In the app the order is set for you, and your own seat is always drawn bottom-left so you never have to find your colour.

How a turn works, step by step

This is the full sequence of a game, from an empty board to a winner:

1. 1Set up the board. Each player picks a colour and puts all four tokens in the base (the large corner square) of that colour. Two players sit opposite each other; four players take one corner each.
2. 2Decide who goes first. Everyone rolls once and the highest roll starts. Play then passes clockwise, one seat at a time.
3. 3Roll the die. On your turn, roll the single six-sided die. The number you roll is how many squares one token moves.
4. 4Roll a 6 to bring a token out. A token can only leave base on a 6, and it enters the board on your start square. A 6 also earns another roll; a third 6 in a row is void and ends your turn.
5. 5Move a token forward. Move any one of your tokens on the board forward, clockwise, by the number rolled. If no token can legally move, the roll is lost.
6. 6Capture by landing on an opponent. Land exactly on a square holding an opponent's token and it goes back to its base. A capture earns you another roll. Tokens on the eight safe squares cannot be captured.
7. 7Turn into your home column. After a full lap of 51 squares, a token turns off the track into its own six-square home column, where no opponent can reach it.
8. 8Enter home with an exact roll. A token reaches home only on the exact number it needs; a roll that would overshoot cannot be played on that token. Reaching home earns another roll.
9. 9Get all four tokens home to win. The first player to bring all four tokens home wins. At a four-player table the others can keep playing for second, third and fourth place.

Rolling a six

The 6 does three jobs. It is the only roll that brings a token out of base. It moves a token already on the board six squares, if you prefer that. And it earns another roll.

The limit is the three-sixes rule: roll a 6 three times in a row and the third one is void. It is not played, the turn ends immediately, and anything you already moved with the first two sixes stays where it is. This stops one lucky streak from running the whole board, and it is the reason a hot hand eventually hands the die back. In Ludo Vest the count of sixes resets only when you roll something other than a 6 or the turn passes, so moving a token between sixes does not buy you a fourth.

Choosing which roll goes first

Because a 6 lets you roll again, you can have two numbers waiting at once: a 6 and then a 5, say. In Ludo Vest both wait as chips beside the die. Tap a chip, then tap a token, and you decide which number is played first and on which piece. The game never moves for you, even when there is only one legal move; you tap it, or the turn clock plays it when it runs out.

Capturing

Land exactly on a square holding an opponent's token and that token goes back to its base, where it needs a new 6 to come out. You also earn another roll. Passing over an opponent does nothing; only the square you finish on counts.

If an opponent has two or more tokens on one ordinary square, landing there captures all of them in Classic Ludo Vest. Two tokens together are no protection. That changes in Master, where two tokens of one colour form a Wall that blocks the track, explained in the variations guide.

Safe squares

Eight squares are safe: the four start squares and the four starred squares. No token can be captured on one, and tokens of different colours can share them. A token sitting on a star is out of reach until it chooses to move on, which is why stars are the natural place to wait while an opponent passes.

There is one exception in Ludo Vest. In the Arrow variation the four stars carry the arrows instead, and those arrow squares are not safe. The four start squares stay safe in every variation.

The home column and the exact roll

Once a token has gone round, it turns into its own home column. From there it needs the exact number to reach home. With a token two squares from home, a 2 takes it in; a 5 cannot be used on that token at all, so you must play it on another token or lose it. In Ludo Vest an overshoot is simply never offered as a move.

Bringing a token home earns another roll, just like a 6 or a capture. If a roll has no legal move anywhere (no 6 while everything is in base, say), it is discarded and the next waiting roll is tried; when nothing is left, the turn passes.

Winning

The first player to bring all four tokens home wins. At a four-player table the remaining players can play on for second, third and fourth. In a paid Ludo Vest match the pot is split by placement: winner takes all at a two-player table, and 70/30 between first and second at a three- or four-player table.

House rules and how they differ

Ludo has been played at kitchen tables for more than a century, so households disagree. The common differences, and what Ludo Vest does:

• Leaving base on a 1 as well as a 6. Some families allow it. Ludo Vest requires a 6 in every variation, except that Blitz starts two of your tokens already on the board.
• Blockades. Some players treat two tokens on one square as a wall nobody can pass. Ludo Vest keeps that rule for Master only; in Classic a pair is captured together.
• Capture before home. Some rule sets say you must capture at least once before entering your home column. Ludo Vest uses this only in Blitz.
• Bonus for a capture. Parcheesi-style rule sets award extra squares of free movement for a capture. Ludo Vest gives one extra roll instead.
• Exact roll home. A few families let an overshoot bounce back. Ludo Vest needs the exact number.

None of these is wrong. Agree on them before the first roll, which is exactly what an app does for you.

The five Ludo Vest variations

Everything above is Classic. Each Ludo Vest variation is Classic with one idea added, so once you know these rules you know most of all five:

• Classic: the rules on this page, with 15-second turns.
• Master: two or more of your tokens on one track square form a Wall that opponents can neither pass nor land on; only a Wall moved as one unit can capture a Wall.
• Blitz: two tokens start on the board, you must capture once before any token may enter home, the first token home wins, and turns are 5 seconds.
• Arrow: land exactly on an arrow and your token jumps forward to the next one, with no extra roll; arrow squares are not safe.
• Team Up: four players in two pairs, partners sitting opposite. It combines with any of the four rule sets above, teammates never capture each other, and a pair wins when all eight of its tokens are home.

The full rules of each, and which suits how much time you have, are in the rules of all five Ludo variations.

Turn timers and auto play

On a physical board a slow player just makes everyone wait. Online, every turn has a clock: 15 seconds in every variation except Blitz, which is 5. When it runs out, the server plays for you: it rolls whatever you still owe and makes the preferred move for each number (bring a token home, else capture, else advance your furthest token).

Sit idle for 15 seconds (one full clock, or three in a row in Blitz) and your seat switches to auto play. Each later turn waits 5 seconds, rolls, and moves 1 to 1.5 seconds after the roll, so everyone sees the die settle first. Tap AUTO on your seat to take it back. If you disconnect, your seat is held for 60 seconds and reconnecting restores the exact board.

Two players or four

The rules do not change with the number of players, but the game does. With two, the board is emptier, captures are rarer and the match is mostly a race, so getting tokens out early matters more. With four, the track is crowded, every token in the open is somebody's target, and safe squares matter far more.

In Ludo Vest you can pick 2- or 4-player tables online, a 2-, 3- or 4-player private room with friends, or Team Up for two pairs.

Where to play by these rules

Ludo Vest is free, needs no account (you start as a guest and can link Google or Facebook later), and has no ads in the app as of September 2026. Android comes first and iOS after; the download page shows the store status and turns into a link the day each listing is live. Once installed, there are four ways to play:

• Online: pick a variation, two or four seats, and a stake. Casual tables fill with bots after 45 seconds of waiting; ranked tables and Team Up never do.
• A private room: tap Host Match, share the code or invite from your friend list. The guide to playing Ludo online with friends covers it, including voice chat at the table.
• Offline, pass-and-play: set up two or four seats on one phone, name each seat and pass it round. No connection needed.
• Offline against bots: leave a seat's name empty on the offline setup screen and a bot takes that seat.

Whichever you choose, the dice come from the same place. Every online match commits to its dice sequence before the first roll and reveals the seed at the end, so you can check afterwards that nobody changed a roll. The Fair Play page has the short version, and the support page answers everything else.