How to play Durak +

Durak is one of the most popular card games in Russia and much of Eastern Europe. Its name means "fool": there is no winner, only a loser, the last player still holding cards. Players attack each other, and the defender must beat every attacking card or pick them all up. Durak + offers the classic game plus popular rule options, for two to six players.

It is a game of skill because so much is visible: the trump is face up and every card picked up is seen by all. Good players remember what has gone and save trumps for when they matter.

How to play on skill.games

When you open the game, the settings popup appears. Choose a difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard or Crazy) and any rule options (see Modes below), then press PLAY.

• The table: the computer players sit round the top, with tags showing their cards and role. The stock and trump are on the left, the discard pile on the right.
• Playing a card: tap it. If it can do only one thing, it is played at once. If it could beat several attacking cards, it lifts and those cards glow: tap the one to beat. You can also drag a card onto the table.
• Buttons: TAKE (red) picks up the cards when you defend. BEATEN or DONE (green) ends your throwing in. TRANSFER and SHOW appear when those rules are on. SORT switches your hand between BY RANK and BY SUIT.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game, starts a new one or turns the sound off. The game is saved at every turn, so you can press CONTINUE later. The results screen says YOU'RE SAFE, YOU'RE THE FOOL or DRAW, with your statistics: wins, losses, draws, win rate and streaks.

Rules

The cards. The standard game uses 36 cards, 6 up to ace in each suit (the 52-card option uses 2 to ace). Aces are high.

The deal. Each player gets six cards. The next card is turned face up under the stock; its suit is trump for the whole game, and it is the last card drawn. A trump beats any card of another suit.

Who starts. The player holding the lowest trump attacks first. Play goes clockwise, and each attack is aimed at the next player in that order.

A bout.

1. The attacker plays any one card.
2. The defender beats it with a higher card of the same suit, or with any trump if it is not a trump. A trump can only be beaten by a higher trump.
3. When everything on the table is beaten, the attacker and then the other players may throw in more cards of any rank already on the table. The defender must beat each new card too.
4. When nobody throws in any more, the bout is beaten off: the table goes to the discard pile and the defender attacks next.

Taking. A defender who can't or won't beat the cards presses TAKE. The others may first add more cards of ranks on the table. The defender picks up everything and the player after them attacks next.

Limits. A bout holds at most six attacking cards, never more than the defender held when it began, and never more unbeaten cards than the defender can still cover.

Refilling. After each bout, everyone draws back up to six from the stock: the bout's first attacker first, round the table, the defender last.

Going out. Once the stock is empty, a player who runs out of cards is safe. The last player left holding cards is the durak, the fool. If the last players go out at the same moment, it is a draw.

Strategy tips

• Lead low. Attack with your weakest non-trumps early; they are the hardest to use later.
• Save your trumps. A high trump spent on a 7 early is usually wasted. Keep trumps for the endgame, when the stock is gone.
• Sometimes taking is right. Picking up two low cards can beat spending a trump.
• Attack in pairs. With two cards of one rank, lead one and throw in the other, so the defender must beat both.
• Remember what was taken. Everyone saw the cards a player picked up.
• Count the trumps. A 36-card deck has only nine; know how many are still out.
• Plan the finish. Don't leave yourself one awkward card at the end.

Difficulty levels

• Easy: the computer leads low, beats with the cheapest card it can, and sometimes leads at random, takes needlessly or skips a throw-in.
• Normal: it remembers the cards that have gone, chooses leads by their cost, saves high trumps on cheap attacks, and only defends if it can beat everything on the table.
• Hard: everything Normal does, plus it weighs how big its hand would grow after taking, plays the endgame carefully and holds trumps back from throw-ins.
• Crazy: everything Hard does, plus once twelve or fewer cards remain in the stock it looks ahead, trying each option against many possible spreads of the unseen cards. It never peeks at your hand.

Modes

All options are set in the settings popup. Statistics are kept separately for each combination of players, deck, throwing-in style and transfer.

• Players: 2 to 6, you plus up to five computer players.
• Deck: 36 cards (classic) or 52 cards for longer games.
• Throwing in: Throw-in is the game above. Classic allows one attacking card per bout: the defender beats it or takes it.
• Transfer: a defender who has beaten nothing yet may pass the attack to the next player by adding a card of the same rank. That player must hold at least as many cards as are then on the table.
• Show a trump: with Transfer on, showing the trump of that rank passes the attack on without playing it.
• First bout: limit the game's first bout to five cards.
• Who throws in: anyone, or only the defender's two neighbours (three or more players).
• Computer's cards: Open cards shows their hands face up.