What you need
Six ordinary dice, a pencil and a score sheet. A cup to shake the dice helps. Farkle is a folk game with many names (Ten Thousand, Zilch, Greed, Hot Dice) and many sets of house rules; boxed editions sell their own scoring cards. Our printable farkle score sheet has the scoring chart on top and room for six players.
Setup
Choose a scorekeeper. Each player rolls one die; the highest roll goes first and play passes to the left. Everyone starts at zero.
How to play
- On your turn, roll all six dice.
- Set aside at least one scoring die or combination (see the chart). You keep a running total for the turn.
- Now choose: bank the running total and pass the dice, or roll the remaining dice to add more.
- If a roll shows nothing that scores, that is a farkle: you lose the whole running total for this turn and your turn ends.
- If you manage to set aside all six dice, you have hot dice: roll all six again and keep adding to the same running total.
A combination only counts if it appears in a single roll. Two 5s set aside from one roll and a third 5 from the next roll are three single 5s (150), not three of a kind (500).
Scoring and winning
These are the traditional values given on Wikipedia from the folk-game collection Playing Grandma’s Games:
| Dice | Points |
|---|---|
| Each 1 | 100 |
| Each 5 | 50 |
| Three 1s | 1,000 |
| Three 2s / 3s / 4s / 5s / 6s | 200 / 300 / 400 / 500 / 600 |
| Four of a kind | 1,000 |
| Five of a kind | 2,000 |
| Six of a kind | 3,000 |
| Three pairs | 1,500 |
| Straight 1-2-3-4-5-6 | 2,500 |
When a player’s banked total reaches 10,000 or more, every other player gets one last turn to beat it. The highest total then wins.
The boxed Farkle rules published by UltraBoardGames differ in places: three 1s score only 300, a straight scores 1,500, four of a kind with a pair scores 1,500 and two triplets 2,500. They also require a first bank of at least 500. Pick one table before you start and keep it for the whole game.
Common variants
- Opening threshold: you cannot bank for the first time until your running total reaches 500 (or 1,000).
- Doubling: each extra matching die doubles three of a kind, so four 1s are 2,000 and five 1s 4,000.
- Piggybacking: you may start your turn by rolling the dice the previous player left, and take over their running total if you score.
- Five-dice game: the original form of the game used five dice; three pairs is impossible.
- Three farkles: three farkles in a row cost 500 points.
- Exact 10,000: you must land on exactly 10,000; overshoot and your turn’s points go to the lowest player.
Tips for first games
- With six dice, a farkle is rare, so keep rolling. With one or two dice left, the risk is high; bank unless you are far behind.
- You do not have to keep every scoring die. Setting aside one 1 and re-rolling five dice is often better than keeping a lone 5 as well.
- A popular simple plan: bank once your running total reaches 300 to 500, unless you have hot dice.
- In the final round, you know the target. Roll until you beat it.
Frequently asked questions
What does “farkle” mean in the game? A roll with no scoring dice. You lose the points from that turn, not your banked score.
Do I have to set aside all scoring dice? No. You must set aside at least one scoring die after each roll; the rest you may re-roll.
Can I add dice from different rolls to make three of a kind? No. Combinations must come from one roll.
What are hot dice? All six dice have scored in the turn. Roll all six again and keep adding to your total.
How many points to win? 10,000 is standard. Play to 5,000 for a quicker game.
