Five Dice

1–5 hold / release a dieR / Space rollA–H, J–V select a categoryEnter confirm the scoreEsc clear selection

How to play Five Dice

The kitchen-table dice classic: five dice, three rolls, and a scoresheet of thirteen boxes to fill.

  1. Each turn starts with all five dice rolled for you. Click dice to hold them, then roll again — up to two re-rolls per turn.
  2. When you're done rolling (or out of rolls), pick a category to score. Every open category shows exactly what it would score right now — the arithmetic is done for you, the choice is yours.
  3. Each of the thirteen categories can be used once. If a turn goes badly, you'll have to take a zero somewhere — picking which zero is a skill of its own.
  4. After thirteen turns the sheet is complete and your total is in.

Scoring

Upper section — ones through sixes score the sum of matching dice. Total 63+ across the six boxes (three of each face) and you earn a 35-point bonus.

Lower section — three and four of a kind (sum of all dice), full house (25), small straight (30), large straight (40), five of a kind (50), and chance (sum of everything, no requirements).

Roll a second five-of-a-kind after banking the first 50 and it's worth +100 — and it can stand in for a full house or straight if those boxes are still open.

Keyboard controls

Playable start to finish without touching the mouse: 1–5 hold or release each die, R (or Space) rolls. To score, press a category's key — shown next to each open row, A–H down the upper section, J–V down the lower — then Enter to confirm the highlighted score, or Esc to change your mind. Scoring locks a box for the rest of the game, which is why it takes two keys.

Tips

  • The bonus is the game. 63 upper points equals three-of-each-face; every upper box below that pace needs paying back later. Take fours, fives, and sixes seriously early.
  • Zeros are a resource. Ones and twos make cheap dump boxes — a zero in ones costs you 3 points of pace; a zero in large straight costs 40.
  • Keep pairs, chase the third. Two rolls to turn a pair into three of a kind succeed more often than intuition says.
  • Straights want the middle. 2-3-4-5 extends both ways; holding 1-2-3-4 can only grow one way.
  • Score early when it's there. A first-roll full house doesn't get better — bank it and save your luck.

The daily dice

Switch to Daily mode and every player shares the same seeded roll stream — same fate, different choices. Fill the sheet, then copy a spoiler-free result to share. And like everything here, it passes the alt-tab test: the game saves after every roll and every score, so you can leave mid-turn when your build finishes and pick the sheet back up whenever.

Frequently asked questions

Is Five Dice the same as Yahtzee?

It plays the same game. The roll-three-times, score-thirteen-categories dice game is a public-domain classic (Yacht and Yatzy long predate the trademark); Yahtzee is Hasbro's brand name for it, so ours is simply called Five Dice. Rules, categories, and scoring here match the version most people learned.

What are the rules of Five Dice?

Each turn you roll five dice up to three times, holding any dice you like between rolls. Then you score the result in one of thirteen open categories — each can be used exactly once, and if nothing fits you must take a zero somewhere. After thirteen turns the sheet is full and the total is your score.

How does the upper-section bonus work?

The upper section scores ones through sixes by adding up matching dice. If those six boxes total 63 or more — the equivalent of three of each face — you earn a 35-point bonus. Chasing that bonus early is most of the game's strategy.

What happens if I roll a second five-of-a-kind?

If your five-of-a-kind box already holds 50, each additional five-of-a-kind is worth a 100-point bonus, and the roll can also stand in for a full house or straight at full value if those boxes are still open.

Do I have to use all three rolls?

No. You can score immediately after any roll — and sometimes should, when the first roll already fits a category you want. The three rolls are a budget, not an obligation.

Is every player's daily game the same?

Everyone shares the same dice fate: the Daily Dice number seeds the roll stream identically for all players. Your choices decide which dice you actually see, so scores differ — that's the game — but nobody gets luckier starting conditions.

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