How do you play Snakes and Ladders?
Players take turns rolling a die and moving that many squares, and the first player to reach square 100 wins. Ladders carry you up the board and snakes send you back down.
The board has ten rows of ten squares. Square 1 is at the bottom left and the path zigzags upward, changing direction on every row. Two to four players can play, and each seat can be a human or the computer, so you can play solo or pass one screen around with friends.
How do snakes and ladders work?
| Foot of a ladder | End your move there and you climb straight to the top of the ladder. |
|---|---|
| Snake's head | End your move there and you slide down to the tail. |
| Passing by | Snakes and ladders you only walk past have no effect. |
| Shared squares | Any number of pieces can share a square. Nobody gets captured or bumped. |
| Exact 100 | When on, you need the exact roll to land on 100. Roll too high and you stay put. When off, any roll that reaches 100 wins. |
| Extra roll on 6 | When on, rolling a 6 gives you another roll in the same turn. |
Does the board change every game?
Pick New each game for 7 ladders and 7 snakes in fresh spots every time, or Classic board (the default) for one fixed layout with 7 ladders and 7 snakes.
New boards are not thrown together at random. The squares gained on ladders and lost on snakes have to roughly balance, and the game calculates how many rolls a solo player needs on average to finish. Only boards that take between 24 and 40 rolls are used. Snakes and ladders never cross or crowd each other, so every square number stays readable, and snake heads never bunch up into a wall.
How many turns does a game take?
With two players, Exact 100 and Extra roll on 6 turned on, the winner needs 22 to 23 turns on average. A single player on the classic board needs around 35 rolls to reach 100.
More players means a better chance that someone gets lucky, so the winning turn count drops to 18 or 19 with four players. A bad run of snakes can make any game much longer.
Is there a way to win more often?
- It is all luck. You never choose a move, so kids and adults play on equal terms.
- Want shorter games? Turn off Exact 100 and turn on Extra roll on 6.
- Want to watch? Set every seat to CPU and turn off fast mode to see the board play itself.
- Race a friend on the same board. Share result sends a link that starts with the same board and rules.
Where does Snakes and Ladders come from?
The game is believed to come from an old board game in India that showed good deeds as ladders and bad deeds as snakes. It reached England in the late 1800s and spread around the world from there.
This version of Snakes and Ladders has no money or betting of any kind. Your fewest turns to win, your win count and your settings are saved in this browser only.