Ludo rules: how to move, capture and get every token home
The complete rules of Ludo as played on PlayFaceToFace: leaving the yard, moving, captures, safe squares, blockades, the home stretch and how to win.
Ludo is a dice race for two to four players. Each player has four tokens, and the first to bring all four from the yard, round the track and into home wins. These are the rules our online game plays by, checked against the game itself.
The board and the goal
Each colour has a yard in one corner where its four tokens start. A shared main track of 52 squares runs round the board, and each colour has a private home stretch of six squares leading to home in the centre. Tokens travel clockwise.
- Each player controls four tokens.
- Roll a 6 to bring a token out of the yard.
- Move one token by exactly the number rolled.
- Land on a single opponent token to capture it.
- Safe squares and blockades limit captures and movement.
- The first player with all four tokens home wins.
Getting a token out of the yard
Tokens start in the yard, off the track. You need a 6 to bring one out, and it goes straight onto your colour's starting square. With no token on the track and no 6, your turn passes.
A 6 also earns another roll after you move. Three 6s in a row forfeit the turn.
Moving a token
After you roll, choose one token that can move the full number shown. You can't split a roll between two tokens. If no token can make a legal move with that roll, play passes to the next player.
Captures
End your move on a main-track square holding a single opponent token and you capture it. The token goes back to its yard, and its owner needs another 6 to bring it out again.
Only the square where your move ends counts. Passing over a token does nothing. There are no captures on safe squares, in a home stretch or at home. Read more in safe squares, captures and blockades.
Safe squares and blockades
Eight squares on the main track are safe. Four are the coloured starting squares and four are the star squares. A token on a safe square can't be captured, so it is a good place for an advanced token to wait.
Two or more tokens of the same opponent on one main-track square form a blockade. You can't land on it or move through it. A single token is never a blockade, and tokens of two different opponents on one square don't add up to one.
The home stretch and finishing
When a token has gone all the way round, it turns off the main track into its own colour's home stretch. Only that colour uses the lane, so nothing can capture a token there.
Rolls still have to be used in full. In our game a token near home that rolls more than it needs walks into home and bounces back by the extra steps. A token two squares from home that rolls a 5 moves two squares in and three back out. Many house rules instead make that move illegal and require an exact roll. A finished token can't move again.
Winning
The first player to bring all four tokens home wins. One finished token is safe for good, but the game goes on until a player has completed the route with every token.
Moves that are not allowed
- Bringing a token out of the yard without a 6.
- Splitting one roll between two tokens.
- Moving through or landing on an opponent's blockade.
- Capturing a token on a safe square.
- Moving a token that has already reached home.
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Ludo
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