How to Play Farkle in 5 Simple Steps

1: Grab 6 dice and a friend (or more)

All you need for a game of Farkle is 6 dice and 2 or more players.

2: Determine who goes first through a roll-off

Like most dice games, we recommend doing a roll-off to determine who goes first. Each player rolls a single die and the highest roll goes first. In the case of a tie, the players who tie reroll until the first player is determined.

3: Play the first turn by rolling 6 dice to score points

3A: Roll 6 dice

To start each turn, a player rolls all 6 dice.

If any dice are scoring: The player is then faced with the fear/greed decision. Score the points, or press their luck to improve their score. Scoring dice include 1s and 5s, as well as a number of poker-style combinations (pairs, straights, etc) as outlined below.

If no dice are scoring: If no dice in the initial roll score points, this is a Farkle, and the turn ends.

3B: Choose to reroll dice to improve score

Any roll that has at least one scoring die may be rerolled to improve the hand. Just select which scoring dice you’d like to keep (must be at least one, but you don’t have to set aside all scoring dice), set them aside, and reroll the remaining dice. You can continue to reroll as many times as you want as long as you’re setting aside at least one scoring die each roll (for a maximum of 6 possible rolls if you were to only keep one die per roll, which would be very rare).

3C: Bank the score

After any scoring roll, the player may choose to score their hand as it is, per the scoring rules outlined below.

Until a score is banked, it’s at risk of a Farkle wiping it out.

3D: End the turn

A turn ends when either:

The player rolls or rerolls and has no scoring dice rolled. This is known as a FARKLE. No points are scored for a turn with a Farkle.

The player decides to bank the score after rolling or rerolling scoring dice.

3E: Bonus roll

At the end of a hand, if a player was able to have all 6 dice scored, they have “hot dice” and have an option to take bonus rolls and repeat steps 3A-3D above.

If a Farkle is rolled during the bonus, they also score zero points for the whole round, including the 6 dice previously rolled. Players can earn multiple bonus rolls as long as they keep scoring all 6 dice.

3F: Add the score for the round

When scoring, dice that were set aside on multi-roll turns must be played in the grouping for that role. They cannot be combined with dice from other rolls to form new scoring combinations. Scoring will be as follows:

• 5 = 50 points
• 1 = 100 points
• 3 of a kind 2-6 is 100x the number (2 = 200, 3 = 300, 4 = 400, 5 = 500, 6 = 600)
• 3 of a kind 1s: 1,000
• 4 of a kind = 1,000
• 5 of a kind = 2,000
• 6 of a kind = 3,000
• Straight (all 6 dice 1-6) = 1,500
• 3 pairs = 1,500
• 4 of a kind + pair = 1,500
• 2 x 3 of a kind = 2,500

4. Play continues clockwise (or alternates if 2 player)

The next player will take a turn following the same rules outlined above.

5. Continue taking turns/rounds until 10,000 points and declare a winner

Play continues until one player reaches 10,000 points and is declared the winner.