Rather learn by playing? Your first game in the app is a guided one — Nori and Mochi sit at the table and teach every rule below the moment it matters. This page is here for reference, and for settling arguments.
The idea
Everyone has a cup with five dice. You roll, you peek, and you keep your dice to yourself. The table then takes turns making claims about all the dice combined — "there are at least three 4s out there" — and each claim has to be bolder than the last. Sooner or later someone says liar, the cups lift, and the dice settle the argument.
The game is also known as Dudo or Cachito in Peru and Chile, where it comes from, and it's the dice game played in pirate films and westerns. The app plays the classic ruleset below.
Two to six players. Five dice and a cup each; in the app, your phone is the cup. Up to thirty dice start in play, and the number only ever goes down.
A round, step by step
-
Roll
Each player rolls their five dice under their cup. Only you see your own.
-
Bid
The opening player calls a quantity and a face — "three 4s" means at least three dice showing 4 across every cup on the table, wild 1s included.
-
Raise or call
The next player must either raise the bid or call the previous player a liar. There's no passing and no folding.
-
Reveal
On a call, every cup lifts and the face is counted. If there are at least as many as the bid claimed, the challenger loses a die. If there are fewer, the bidder does.
-
Wild 1s
Ones count as any face — until someone bids 1s directly. Then ones stop being wild for the rest of the round.
-
Survive
Whoever lost the die opens the next round. Lose your last die and you're out. The last player with dice wins.
What counts as a raise
| More dice | Any higher quantity, of any face. 3 × 4s → 4 × 2s is a legal raise, even though 2 is a lower face. |
|---|---|
| Same count, higher face | The same quantity on a higher face. 3 × 4s → 3 × 6s. |
| Not a raise | Fewer dice, or the same quantity on the same or a lower face. The app's bid composer greys these out so you can't make them by accident. |
| Bidding on 1s | 1 is the lowest face, so it's raised like any other. But the moment anyone bids 1s directly, ones stop being wild for the rest of the round — and every earlier bid is suddenly worth less than it was. |
An example round
Three players, fifteen dice. You lift your cup and see:
You open with three 4s. Two 4s and a wild 1 are already under your cup, so the bid is true before anyone else's dice are counted. Nori raises to four 4s — with ten dice under the other cups, one more 4 or 1 is more likely than not. Mochi switches to four 6s: same count, higher face. Now it's back to you.
You hold one 6 and one wild 1, so Mochi's bid needs two more 6s or 1s among the ten dice you can't see. Roughly a coin flip — but Mochi bids big when the dice are thin. You call liar.
The cups lift:
Across all fifteen dice there are two 6s and one wild 1: three, one short of the bid. Mochi was bluffing — one 6 and a lot of hope. Mochi hands over a die, and opens the next round with four.
Optional rules
The classic ruleset is the default. These are house rules you can switch on when you set up a table; the guided first game keeps them off.
| Wild 1s off | A 1 is just a 1. Simpler counting, lower bids. |
|---|---|
| Calza | Any player who isn't the last bidder — and isn't the one on turn — can call calza: a claim that the standing bid is exactly right. Spot on, and the caller wins a die back, up to their starting five. Wrong, and they lose one. Either way the caller opens the next round. |
| Palifico | The round after a player drops to their last die is a palifico round: they open it, 1s aren't wild, and once they've bid, the face is locked — everyone else can only raise the count. |
Ways to play
| Play vs AI | Two to six seats. Five characters who each play differently, at three difficulties — relaxed, balanced and ruthless. |
|---|---|
| One phone, pass it around | Play in Person on a single phone. Each player peeks, rolls and hands it on; press and hold to see your own dice and nothing else. |
| Everyone on their own phone | Play in Person at the same table, with each phone as a private cup. Shake to roll, bid out loud. |
| Private room | Create a room, share the four-letter code, and up to six players join from anywhere — the app carries the table between phones. |
The ghost seat
Knocked out early? In the app you stay at the table as a ghost. Every bid that follows, you call bluff or legit, and the app keeps score of how often you were right — a good way to learn the reads without a die on the line.
Ready to play? The guided first game takes about five minutes.
