How to play Qwirkle, a game of mixing and matching
Watch the Video
Read the Rules
The aim of the game
To win, score the most points, by placing tiles in lines of similar shapes or colours.
To set up
In Qwirkle there’s 36 different tiles and 3 copies of each.
- To set up, each player draws 6 tiles at random.
- Keep these hidden from your opponent.
- Next declare the largest number of tiles in your hand that are either the same shape or colour, excluding duplicates. The player with the highest value goes first and places these tiles down in a line.
- If you’re tied, the oldest player begins and play proceeds clockwise.
To play the game
Your turn has 3 steps:
- Place or discard tiles
- Score points
- Refill your hand
To place tiles, select as many as you like from your hand that are either the same shape or colour and place them all in the same line.
- Lines can be horizontal or vertical and must be tiles of the same colour, or the same shape, without any duplicates.
- Apart from the very first player, at least one of your tiles must be added to an existing line.
- You can place your tiles at either end of a line in any order you wish, as long as they meet the rules.
- If you can’t or don’t want to place tiles, you may discard some from your hand and redraw new ones from the bag, before mixing your discarded ones back in.
After placing tiles, score 1 point for every tile in the column and/or row they are part of.
If ever you complete a row of all 6 colours or shapes, you’ve made a Qwirkle! A Qwirkle scores 12 points, 1 point for every tile in the line, plus 6 bonus points.
Finally, after placing and scoring, draw back up to 6 tiles.
Game end
When the bag is empty, keep playing until one player has placed all of the tiles in their hand. They score 6 bonus points and the game ends immediately.
The player with the most points wins!
Like the sound of that?
Pick a copy of Qwirkle from the Happy Piranha store!