Ligretto is a card and speed game for several players. The game can be played by anyone who’s 8 or older. The object of Ligretto is to get rid of as many cards as possible to collect the highest number of points.
Note
- Ligretto is sold in a box.
- The number of players determines the number of boxes to play with.
- There are 3 boxes of different colors: blue, green and red.
Number of players | Number of boxes |
Up to 4 players | 1 |
Up to 8 players | 2 |
Up to 12 players | 3 |
Contents of a Box
- 4 decks of cards

The Deck
- A deck differs from another as it has different symbols and colored backs. The symbols are pyramids, spheres, cubes and crystals.
The cards
- A deck contains 40 cards, of 4 different colors, numbered from 1 to 10.
Setup
- Take 1 deck of cards each.
- Shuffle your deck.
- Draw 3 cards, which you will line up one by one, the number visible in front of you. This is the row.
- For a 3-player game, the row consists of 4 cards.
- For a 2-player game, the row consists of 5 cards.
- Draw 10 cards, which you will place, number visible, to the right of the row. This is the Ligretto draw pile.
- Keep the rest of the cards hidden. Those cards are your hand.
Object of the Game
- The object of the game is to earn the maximum number of points.
- To do this:
- Play the cards in ascending order and in the same suit.
- Play all the cards in your row.
Gameplay
- Ligretto is a speed game, therefore everyone plays at the same time. There are no turns.
- At the signal “Ligretto” the game begins.
- At the start of the game, everyone who can play places the “1” card in the center of the table.
- Since the players are playing at the same time, sometimes several cards are played simultaneously.
- Then play your cards by placing them in ascending order and in the same suit.
- The played card can be taken from the row, the Ligretto draw pile or the hand.
- As soon as a card from the row is played, it must be replaced by a card from the Ligretto deck.
- If a player cannot play a card from their row nor play a card from their Ligretto deck, they must play a card from their hand.
- To do this, they draw 3 cards.
- The 3 drawn cards are discarded.
- Only the top card of the discard pile can be played.
- As long as the player does not find their card, they continue to draw 3 cards from their hand and discard.
- If the player’s hand is exhausted, the player takes back the discard pile.
- The cards played will eventually form a stack.
- As soon as a stack reaches 10 cards, it is considered complete.
End of the Round
- As soon as a player uses up their Ligretto draw pile, they announce “Ligretto Stop!”.
- Then, you proceed to counting the points.
Counting the Points
- Sort the played cards by symbol.
- Every card played earns 1 point.
- Each unplayed card from the Ligretto draw pile causes the player to lose 2 points.
- Add up the points won and lost.
- Play again
End of the Game
- When the score determined at the beginning of the game is reached.
- When the tricks determined at the beginning of the game are played.
Expert Variation
- You can add cards from the Ligretto hand and draw pile to the row.
- The cards are placed on top of each other in descending order and in different colors.