Play Qwixx Online

What Is Qwixx?

Qwixx is a quick roll-and-write dice game for two to five players in which everyone crosses off numbers on a personal score sheet with four colored rows. The rows run in opposite directions, red and yellow from 2 up to 12 and green and blue from 12 down to 2, and every cross must be placed to the right of the crosses already in that row. Whatever you skip is gone forever. Every turn turns on that constraint: take a poor number now, or wait and risk waiting too long.

Two things make Qwixx feel different from a scorecard game like Yahtzee. There is no downtime, because every player may use the white dice on every turn, and the scoring rewards depth, not breadth: a row with 12 crosses is worth 78 points while two rows with 6 crosses each are worth 42. A game takes about fifteen minutes, which is why it has become a modern family classic and a gateway to the roll-and-write genre. If you enjoy it, the card-matching race of Roll For It and the party pace of Bunco make good companions.

A Short History of Qwixx

Qwixx was designed by Steffen Benndorf and published in 2012 by Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag (NSV), a German company better known at the time for playing cards than for board games. The graphic design was by Oliver and Sandra Freudenreich. In 2013 the game was one of three nominees for the Spiel des Jahres, the most influential award in tabletop gaming; the prize went to Hanabi, but a nomination alone is enough to make a title a best-seller in Germany, and Qwixx has remained in print ever since.

The American publisher Gamewright discovered Qwixx, by its own account, “tucked away in a corner” at the Essen game fair and released an English edition in 2014. That edition won a Mensa Select award in 2014, and the Dutch edition by White Goblin Games won the Nederlandse Spellenprijs in the family category the same year. NSV’s tenth-anniversary announcement in 2022 put worldwide sales at more than one million copies; the publisher’s website now describes Qwixx as its most successful title with more than three million copies sold.

Qwixx’s success sparked a long line of official expansions and spin-offs, covered in the variants section below, and helped launch the roll-and-write boom of the late 2010s, in which dozens of games borrowed its idea of shared dice and private sheets.

Qwixx Rules

The rules below follow the official NSV and Gamewright rulebooks. The wording is our own.

Components

• Six dice: two white, one red, one yellow, one green and one blue.
• A score sheet per player with four colored rows, a lock symbol at the end of each row, four penalty boxes and a scoring key.
• Pencils.

Object

Score the most points when the game ends. Points come from the number of crosses in each colored row minus 5 for every penalty box you marked. The game ends the instant two rows are locked or one player marks their fourth penalty.

The Score Sheet

Red and yellow rows show the numbers 2 through 12 from left to right. Green and blue rows show 12 down to 2. Every row ends with a lock symbol. Crosses in a row must always be made from left to right, though you may leave gaps; any number to the left of your most recent cross can never be crossed later.

How a Turn Works

The active player rolls all six dice, then two actions happen in a fixed order.

1. White dice, everyone. The active player adds the two white dice and announces the sum. Every player, including the active player, may cross that number in any one row of their own sheet. This is optional for everyone.
2. White plus colored die, active player only. The active player may combine one white die with one colored die and cross the sum in the row of that color. Only the active player gets this action, and it is optional.

If the active player crosses off nothing in either action, they must mark one penalty box, worth minus 5 points. Passive players never take a penalty. Play then passes clockwise.

Locking a Row

To cross off the last number in a row, 12 in red or yellow or 2 in green or blue, you must already have at least five crosses in that row. When you cross that final number you also cross the lock symbol, which counts as one more cross for scoring. The row is now locked for every player, and the colored die of that row is removed from the game immediately.

Because the white-dice action is simultaneous, two players can both cross the final number with the white sum in the same turn and both lock the row. After that, nobody can add crosses to that row, and the active player cannot use the removed die in action two.

Ending the Game

The game ends immediately when either of the following happens:

• A player marks their fourth penalty box.
• Two rows are locked (two colored dice have been removed). If a third row locks in the same white-dice action, it counts too.

Total each row from the scoring table, subtract the penalties, and the highest score wins.

Scoring Table

These are the triangular numbers: the nth cross in a row is worth exactly n points. The lock symbol counts as a cross, so a completed row holds a maximum of 12 crosses (11 numbers plus the lock) for 78 points.

Worked Examples

Example 1: a normal turn. You roll white 3 and 4, red 5, yellow 2, green 6, blue 1. The white sum is 7; your red row ends at 6, so you cross red 7 at no cost. For action two the combinations are red 8 or 9, yellow 5 or 6, green 9 or 10, blue 4 or 5. Your green row ends at 11, so green 9 skips nothing. You cross it and end the turn with two new crosses.

Example 2: the passive player. The computer rolls and announces a white sum of 4. Your yellow row ends at 3, so you take yellow 4 for free even though it is not your turn. This is the single biggest source of points in Qwixx: over a game you get as many white-dice opportunities as everyone else combined.

Example 3: reaching for a lock. Your blue row has six crosses ending at 4, and the roll offers blue 2 through white 1 + blue 1. Because you have at least five crosses you may cross the 2 and the lock, jumping from 6 crosses (21 points) to 8 (36 points), removing the blue die from the game and ending everyone else’s blue row on the spot.

Example 4: the official rulebook score. A finished sheet with 4 red crosses, 3 yellow, 8 green, 7 blue and two penalties scores 10 + 6 + 36 + 28 − 10 = 70 points.

Qwixx Probabilities

Almost every Qwixx decision comes down to how likely a particular number is to appear before you are forced to skip it. Two distributions matter.

The white-dice sum

Two six-sided dice produce 36 equally likely results, and the sum is far from uniform.

A 7 shows up on one roll in six; a 2 or a 12 on one roll in thirty-six. Since every player may use the white sum on every turn, a two-player game of about 24 turns shows you about 24 white sums, so you can expect roughly four 7s but well under one 12.

One white die plus one colored die

On your own turn you can combine either white die with a colored die, so you get two shots at each color. The chance that a specific colored row offers you a specific number N in action two is:

The numbers at the ends of the rows are the hardest to hit either way. The first box in every row is the rarest roll, so you will almost always skip it, and the last box is rare too, which is why the game only lets you attempt it after five crosses.

How much a skip really costs

Because the nth cross is worth n points, a skip costs more the deeper the row is. A row that ends with 8 crosses scores 36; the same row with one more cross scores 45, a 9-point difference that is nearly two penalties.

Game length

Two locks need at least 12 crosses across two rows, and only the active player gets a second action, so games are short. In 20,000 simulated two-player games between two copies of the computer opponent used on this page, the average game lasted 24 turns (12 per player), about a quarter of games ended on a fourth penalty rather than a second lock, and the average score was 66.5 points with roughly one game in six passing 90. That lines up with the publisher’s 15-minute estimate.

Qwixx Strategy

1. Never skip more than one number early

With a row at two or three crosses, take numbers that skip zero or one box and pass on the rest. Every skipped box removes a future cross worth more than the one you are taking now. The computer opponent on this page follows this exact rule, and it is enough to score consistently in the 60s.

2. Concentrate on two rows

The scoring is triangular, so depth beats breadth. Two rows at 10 crosses (55 each, 110 total) crush four rows at 5 crosses (15 each, 60 total). Pick the two rows that your early white sums favor and pour your crosses into them. Use the other two rows only for free white-dice crosses that skip nothing. It is the same logic as protecting the upper bonus in Yahtzee or banking early in Farkle: commit to the plan that compounds.

3. Pick one row rising and one row falling

If your two main rows are red and green, the same white sum of 7 helps both of them at different stages, and your colored-dice options stay diverse. Two rows running the same direction compete for the same numbers.

4. Use the passive white-dice action every time it is cheap

You get this action on every opponent’s turn, so it roughly doubles your chances to cross. A free cross that skips nothing is almost always right. A passive cross that skips two boxes usually is not, because there is no penalty for passing when you are not the active player.

5. Count to five before you dream of a lock

The lock is worth two crosses at once and shuts your opponents out, but it only becomes legal at five crosses in the row. If your opponent has five crosses in green and you have two, their lock will kill your row. React by either racing the same row when the numbers are cheap or by shifting your effort to a row they have neglected.

6. Treat penalties as a 5-point purchase

A penalty costs 5 points, which is less than the future value of skipping three or four boxes in a row you care about. Your first penalty is often correct to take, much as a deliberate zero-point turn can be in Pig. Your third is dangerous, because a fourth ends the game, possibly while you are behind, and your opponent knows it.

7. Watch the opponent’s sheet in the endgame

Once one row is locked, the next lock ends the game. If you are ahead, push toward a second lock even at the cost of a couple of skipped numbers. If you are behind, avoid locking; every extra turn is worth several points to the player with the longer open rows.

8. Prefer the colored die that matches your deepest row

In action two you choose which colored die to use. A cross in a row with 8 crosses is worth 9 points; the same cross in a row with 2 is worth 3. When two options skip the same number of boxes, take the one in the longer row.

Common Mistakes

• Marking every white sum. Beginners fill all four rows with cheap crosses and end with four short rows.
• Forgetting that the lock needs five crosses. Crossing the 12 or the 2 with fewer than five crosses is illegal; the online game simply will not offer it.
• Using both actions in the same row when it skips numbers. Two crosses in one turn feel productive, but a second cross that skips three boxes trades a lot of future points for a little now.
• Ignoring the penalty count. At three penalties one more ends the game for everyone.
• Combining two colored dice. Action two is always one white die plus one colored die.

Variants and House Rules

Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag and Gamewright have published a long series of official variants. Most are alternative score pads used with the same six dice.

• Qwixx Deluxe (2013). Dry-erase boards and markers instead of a paper pad; the Gamewright edition supports up to eight players. Qwixx XL (2013) is the same game with larger dice and pad.
• Qwixx gemixxt / Qwixx Mixx (2014). Two new pads. In one, the numbers stay in order but each row is split into colored segments; in the other the numbers are shuffled within each row and the locking number moves. Both keep the base rules.
• Qwixx: The Card Game (2014). Designed by Benndorf with Reinhard Staupe. A 55-card deck replaces the dice, and playing several cards at once lets you make multiple crosses.
• Qwixx Big Points (2015). Adds bonus fields between rows that can be crossed when a number you already crossed in a neighboring row comes up again; bonus crosses count toward both rows.
• Qwixx: Das Duell (2016). A two-player version in which the players share one scoring area.
• Qwixx Connected (2019). Two modes on new pads: “the steps,” a fifth scoring track built from black-bordered numbers, and “the chain,” in which crossing a circled number forces you to cross its linked number immediately.
• Qwixx Longo. Eight-sided dice, rows running 2 to 16, two locking numbers per row and a six-cross lock requirement.
• Qwixx Double (2022), the 10-year Limited Edition (2022), Qwixx X-Change (2024) and Qwixx Express, a standalone two-player game where both players roll at once.

Popular house rules: playing to a fixed number of turns instead of two locks, or treating the penalty as minus 10 to make skipping cheaper by comparison. Agree on them before the first roll.

Glossary

• Active player: The player who rolled the dice this turn and who alone may use the colored dice.
• Cross: A mark on a number in a row.
• Lock: The symbol after the final number of a row. Crossing it closes the row for all players and counts as one cross.
• Penalty box: One of four boxes worth minus 5 points; marked when the active player crosses nothing.
• Skipping: Crossing a number to the right of unmarked numbers, which can then never be crossed.
• Triangular scoring: The 1, 3, 6, 10, 15 sequence in which each cross adds one point more than the last.

Play Qwixx Online on Dice.now

The game at the top of this page is a free fan re-creation of Qwixx built for learning and practice. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag or Gamewright; the official game is available from Gamewright in North America and from NSV in Europe, and we encourage you to buy a copy if you enjoy playing here.

Here is exactly what our version does. You play against one computer opponent, alternating as the active player. After a roll the game highlights every legal white-sum cross on your sheet; click a cell to take it or press Skip white sum. It then highlights every legal white-plus-colored combination for action two, which you can take or end with Done. On the computer’s turn you still get the white-sum action as a passive player, and the computer’s choices appear in the log. The five-cross lock rule, immediate removal of a locked die, simultaneous locking in action one, the minus 5 penalty and both ending conditions are enforced automatically. Both sheets show live totals, your best score is stored on your device only, and the dice use your browser’s cryptographic random number generator. Ready? Roll the dice.