Farkle (10,000) rules & scoring: the six-dice game

In Farkle you roll six dice and chase as many points per turn as you can. The sting is in the choice: keep rolling to grab more, or stop and bank your points? Because roll nothing even once, and everything from that turn is gone. The first player to reach 10,000 points wins.

Farkle is played with many house variants. Some tables score three pairs or four-of-a-kinds differently, or not at all. This page describes the classic 10,000 scoring, so agree on your table's variants before you play.

What do you need?

You don't need much for a game of Farkle:

• Six dice: regular six-sided dice. If you have none on hand, you can roll dice online. Set the count to six so you throw all the dice in one go.
• Pen and paper to keep track of each player's score, or print the free Farkle score sheet further down this page.
• Two or more players: the more players, the more exciting the race to 10,000.

Objective of the game

The first player to roll up 10,000 points wins. You collect points by taking scoring combinations out of your rolls. Each turn you may keep going as long as you keep scoring, but you have to pick the right moment to stop and write down your points. Pushing on too greedily can cost you an entire turn's worth of points.

Scoring

The core of Farkle is easy to grasp. A single 1 and a single 5 always score, and three of a kind brings in a solid chunk of points. The other single dice (a lone 2, 3, 4, or 6) are worth nothing at all.

For three of a kind there's a handy rule of thumb: three of a kind = the number times 100. Three 4s are 400 points, three 6s are 600. The only exception is three 1s: those are worth not 100 but 1,000 points.

How does a turn work?

Every turn follows the same rhythm:

1. Roll all six dice. At the start of your turn you roll all the dice at once.
2. Set aside at least one scoring die. From every roll you must set aside at least one scoring die (or combination). A die you have set aside no longer takes part.
3. Stop or keep rolling? Now you get to choose. You may stop and write down the turn points you've collected, or keep rolling with the remaining dice to grab more points.

If you keep rolling, the pattern repeats with the dice you have left. That's how you build up your turn total step by step, but every extra roll is a gamble too, because one bust costs you everything.

Example turn

Say you roll 1-1-5-3-2-4. The two 1s are worth 200 points and the single 5 another 50, so 250 in total. You set those three dice aside and reroll the remaining three to keep scoring. If you roll something that scores, you add it on; if you roll nothing (a farkle), you lose this turn's 250 points. If you're satisfied, you stop and write down 250.

Hot dice and the farkle

Two rules create the tension in Farkle:

• Hot dice: if you have scored with all six dice, you may roll again with all six. The points from those new rolls keep stacking onto your turn total, so you can build a huge lead in a single turn.
• Farkle (bust): if a roll produces no scoring dice at all, you have farkled. You instantly lose all the points from that turn and your turn is over immediately. The points you already wrote down in earlier turns stay on the board, of course.

That is why Farkle is about nerve and timing. Our guide to dice probabilities shows how likely a good roll is, which helps you judge when rolling on is still worth it. If you like this push-your-luck dilemma, try Pig too. It's the same gamble with one die and one decision, so it's quick to teach. Pickomino has the same dilemma with eight dice and a row of tiles to win.

Other names: 10,000, Zonk, Zilch

Farkle is a folk game with many names. The same six-dice, press-your-luck game turns up as 10,000 (also written Ten Thousand or Dice 10,000, after the score you play to) and as Zonk, Zilch, Greed, Hot Dice, Squelch, and Dix Mille in French. Boxed editions have used the spelling Farkel as well. If you learned it as "the 10,000 dice game" or as Zonk, the rules on this page are the ones you already know.

A couple of nearby games are cousins rather than nicknames: Cosmic Wimpout (published in 1976) and the various Farkel Party sets ship with their own dice and their own scoring tables. So when two people at the table learned the game under different names, spend two minutes comparing scoring charts before the first roll. Single 1s, single 5s, and the three-of-a-kind values are nearly always identical; the differences hide further down the table, in four of a kind, straights, and the penalties.

Common variants

Farkle has many house rules; every friend group plays it just a bit differently. Agree before the game which ones you're using and how many points you're playing to. The shorter 5,000 variant uses the same rules but ends at the halfway point. These are the extras you'll come across most often:

Four, five, and six of a kind are the ones people argue about, because two incompatible schemes are in circulation. Settle on one before the first roll:

• Flat values. Four of a kind is 1,000, five of a kind 2,000, six of a kind 3,000, the same points whatever number is showing. This is what most printed rule sheets use, and it is the easier one to remember.
• Doubling. Every die beyond the third doubles the three-of-a-kind score: four of a kind is twice the triple, five of a kind four times, six of a kind eight times. Four 1s are 2,000 that way, five 1s 4,000, and six 1s a game-ending 8,000, while six 2s are still worth only 1,600.

The rest of the table is steadier. Three pairs and four of a kind with a pair are both 1,500; two three-of-a-kinds in one roll are usually 2,500. Sources disagree about the full straight (1 through 6 in a single roll): the widely printed value is 1,500, but reputable rule sets also list 2,500 and 3,000, so agree on the number first.

One optional rule takes points away: three farkles in a row costs you points. The usual penalty is −1,000, though you'll also see −500. It keeps players from banking 50 points and coasting, and it makes a cold streak painful. These are all optional. In the base game only single 1s, single 5s, and three of a kind score.

Opening threshold and winning

Many groups play with an opening threshold: the first time you write down points, you must score at least 500 (sometimes 1,000) points in a single turn. If you don't make it, you write nothing down yet and try again on your next turn. That keeps someone from getting on the scoreboard with just 50 points.

The game is won as soon as a player reaches 10,000 points or more. A common agreement: as soon as someone passes 10,000, the other players each get one last turn to try to top it. After that, whoever has the highest total wins.

Grab six dice, or set the online dice roller to six, and start your race to 10,000. For more games, browse all dice games, from Yahtzee to the party classic Bunco.

Free printable Farkle score sheet

Farkle needs nothing but a running total per player, so a sheet of paper does the job. A ruled one keeps the turn-by-turn history readable, which helps when somebody wants to know how the leader got there. Print the blank sheet below for up to four players and twelve turns, with the scoring chart underneath so nobody has to reach for a phone mid-game. The print button leaves the rest of the page out.