How to Play Farkle

What is Farkle?

Farkle is a classic dice game played with six dice, where players take turns rolling and setting aside scoring dice to build up a turn total — then decide whether to keep rolling for more, or bank what they've got before a bad roll wipes it out. First player to reach 10,000 points wins.

It's known by a lot of names depending on where you learned it: Farkle, Farkel, 10,000 (or 10,000 Dice), Zilch, Dix Mille, and Greed are all the same game, sometimes with small regional rule variations.

What You Need

Six standard six-sided dice, something to track score, and at least one other player (or, if you're playing solo, a computer opponent — which is exactly what Roll or Bust gives you).

How a Turn Works

1. Roll all six dice.
2. Set aside at least one scoring die or combination. If nothing you rolled scores, your turn ends immediately and you lose any points from this turn that weren't already banked — that's a bust (or "Farkle").
3. Choose: push or bank. Once you've set aside scoring dice, you can either bank your turn total and end your turn safely, or roll the remaining dice again to try to add more.
4. Hot dice. If every one of the six dice has scored (across one or more rolls this turn), you get to roll all six again with your turn total intact — a free shot at even more points.

Full Scoring Table

Only 1s, 5s, and qualifying sets (three-of-a-kind or better, straights, pairs, triplets) ever score. A 2, 3, 4, or 6 sitting on its own is worth nothing and can't be set aside.

A quick scoring example

You roll six dice and get: 1, 5, 5, 3, 2, 6. The 1 is worth 100, and the two 5s are worth 50 each — that's 200 points on the table. The 3, 2, and 6 don't score, so you'd set aside the 1 and both 5s, then decide whether to bank 200 or roll the remaining three dice for more.

Busting

If you roll and none of the dice show a scoring value or combination, your turn ends immediately and everything you'd built up this turn is lost — points already banked from previous turns are always safe. This is the tension at the heart of Farkle: every extra roll is more points on the table, but also one roll closer to losing all of them.

Strategy Tips

• Bank early when you're behind on dice. With only one or two dice left to roll, your bust odds climb fast — a single die busts about 2 times in 3.
• Push harder on hot dice. A fresh six-dice roll is much safer than rolling one or two leftover dice, since there are far more ways to score.
• Don't undervalue the 500-point minimum. If you're not on the board yet, sometimes the right play is to keep rolling even at real risk, since a small banked score doesn't help until you clear that threshold.
• Watch the total, not just this turn. Late in a close game, banking a modest amount to defend a lead is often smarter than chasing a bigger turn.