Foxglove Farkle

What is Farkle?

Farkle is an old folk dice game, also played as Ten Thousand, Zilch and a dozen other names. Everyone knows someone who learned it at a cabin or a family reunion. The rules fit on a napkin, but the decision at the heart of it (one more roll, or bank it?) keeps a table arguing for hours.

We made Foxglove Farkle because we wanted a version that plays fast on a phone, shows you the real odds instead of hiding them, and lets you pick the house rules you grew up with. It's free, it runs in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and there's nothing to download.

How to play

1. Tap Roll to throw all six dice.
2. Tap the dice you want to set aside. At least one die from every roll must score. Picked dice lift up, and the turn total updates as you pick.
3. Now choose. Bank adds your turn total to your score and passes the dice. Roll throws the dice you did not set aside to score more.
4. If a roll has nothing that scores, that is a farkle. You lose every point from that turn, and the dice pass on.

Set aside all six dice in one turn and you get hot dice: all six come back and you can roll them again, keeping your turn total. It can happen more than once in a turn.

The Pick the scorers button selects every scoring die for you, and the Roll button always shows your chance of a farkle with the dice you would throw.

What scores

2s, 3s, 4s and 6s only score in threes or more. A combination only counts when the dice come up in the same roll: a 1 from one roll and two 1s from the next are three single 1s (300), not three 1s (1,000). Three pairs, a straight and the other six-dice sets need all six dice in one throw.

Classic is the scoring most people play today. Old style is the older way, where four, five and six of a kind keep doubling (six 1s is 8,000). You can choose either for races in Settings.

House rules you can switch on

• 500 to start: you need 500 in a single turn before you can bank for the first time.
• 350 a turn: every bank needs at least 350.
• Three farkles in a row cost 500 points.
• Game to 5,000 for a shorter race, instead of 10,000.

In a race, the first player to reach the target sets the bar, and everyone else gets one last turn to beat it. The highest score wins.

Ways to play

• Ten Turns: a solo game. Bank as much as you can in ten turns. Your best goes on the leaderboard.
• Daily Posy: ten turns with the same dice for everyone today. Keep the same dice as a friend and you will roll the same numbers next. Your first try each day goes on the daily board, and you can share your row of flowers without giving the dice away.
• House players: race one to three of our five. Clover keeps everything and banks early, Barley is careful, Fennel pushes his luck, Sorrel is sharp, and Marsh knows the odds of every roll and the state of the race.
• Pass and play: two to four people on one device.
• Play a friend: online with a four character room code. The host picks the house rules, and the host's device rolls for both of you so the dice always match.

When to roll and when to bank

This is the whole game, so we did the math for you. The light bulb shows which dice to keep and whether to roll or bank, with the average value of rolling on from here and the farkle chance. We work it out exactly, for every possible roll that could follow, not with a rule of thumb.

Played as well as possible with Classic scoring, a turn is worth about 600 points on average. Our expert house player gets there. Keeping every scorer and banking at the first decent total, the way most of us start, is worth closer to 500.

Tips and strategy

• Keep fewer dice early. From a first roll of 1 1 5 2 3 4, keeping just one 1 and rolling five dice is usually worth more than keeping all three scorers and rolling three.
• Bank with two or one dice left unless your turn total is small. With one die, two farkles out of three.
• Hot dice change everything. If the last two dice are both scorers, take them both: all six dice come back and the risk drops to 2.3%.
• Five or six dice left? Roll. Even with a big total, the farkle risk is low and the chance of a big set is real.
• Play the race, not just the turn. When someone is near the target and you are far behind, you need bigger turns. When you are well ahead, bank sooner.

Fair dice, every time

Every roll uses your browser's secure random numbers, so each face comes up exactly one time in six, and a six-dice farkle happens 2.3% of the time, as the math says it should. The house players get the same dice you do and never peek. The Daily Posy uses fixed dice for the day so everyone plays the same game.

Awards, looks and stats

Sixteen awards wait in the garden, like banking 2,500 in one turn, hot dice twice in a turn, six of a kind, a straight, 5,000 in Ten Turns and beating Marsh. Most of them earn new dice or a table cloth. Stats track your best turn, your average bank, how often you farkle and your record against each house player.

Controls

Tap Roll, tap dice to set them aside, then tap Roll or Bank. Tap the tray during a roll to skip the tumble. On a computer, press Space to roll, 1 to 6 to pick dice, P to pick every scorer, B to bank, H for advice and Esc for the menu. Settings has quick or instant rolls, numbers on the dice and high contrast.

Questions