Controls

You play by rolling and holding dice. Tap to roll all five dice, hold any you want to keep, and reroll the rest, up to three rolls per turn. Then choose a category to score.

Twelve categories are all you have to work with:

• Number categories score the total of the dice showing that number, from ones up through sixes. They are your dependable, low-risk boxes.
• Combination categories reward specific patterns: straights, a full house, four of a kind, a free-choice box, and the yacht itself, which is all five dice matching.

There are no bonuses and no catch-all safety nets, so a poor roll often means scoring a low value or a zero somewhere.

The game lasts twelve rounds until the card is full, and the highest total wins. The computer sharpens across eight levels.

Tips

• Respect that there are no bonuses. Unlike its descendants, this game gives no reward for reaching a number threshold, so you don't need to pile points into the number boxes, freeing you to play each turn on its own merits.
• Protect the yacht category. Five of a kind is rare and worth a lot, so avoid dumping a bad roll into that box early, since keeping it open leaves the door open for a big score.
• Use the free-choice box as a safety valve. The choice category accepts any dice, so save it for a turn that fits nothing else rather than spending it on a mediocre roll you could have scored elsewhere.
• Hold toward the likeliest combination. After the first roll, keep the dice that give you the best chance at a strong category rather than chasing a rare pattern that seldom lands.
• Know when to take a zero. With no safety nets, you will sometimes have to sacrifice a category, so plan to zero out your least valuable box on a genuinely bad turn.
• Look at the whole card before scoring. The best place for a roll depends on what is still open, so check your remaining categories before committing, especially in the later rounds.

Frequently asked questions