Ladder 11

The cards

Ladder 11 uses one deck of 108 cards, a face-down draw pile and a face-up discard pile.

• 

  Red number cardsCount: 24

  Numbers 1 to 12, two of each, in Red with the mountain symbol. These are natural cards: they fill sets, runs, color groups and color runs. Left in your hand they cost 5 points for numbers 1 to 9 and 10 points for numbers 10 to 12.

• 

  Yellow number cardsCount: 24

  Numbers 1 to 12, two of each, in Yellow with the star symbol. These are natural cards: they fill sets, runs, color groups and color runs. Left in your hand they cost 5 points for numbers 1 to 9 and 10 points for numbers 10 to 12.

• 

  Green number cardsCount: 24

  Numbers 1 to 12, two of each, in Green with the tree symbol. These are natural cards: they fill sets, runs, color groups and color runs. Left in your hand they cost 5 points for numbers 1 to 9 and 10 points for numbers 10 to 12.

• 

  Blue number cardsCount: 24

  Numbers 1 to 12, two of each, in Blue with the moon symbol. These are natural cards: they fill sets, runs, color groups and color runs. Left in your hand they cost 5 points for numbers 1 to 9 and 10 points for numbers 10 to 12.

• 

  Wild cardsCount: 8

  Colorless cards. A Wild stands in for a number card inside a group, as long as the group also holds at least one natural card. It costs 25 points if left in your hand.

• 

  Skip cardsCount: 4

  Colorless cards with no number. A Skip is never part of a group. You play it by discarding it and naming a player who loses their next turn. It cannot be taken from the discard pile, and it costs 15 points if left in your hand.

108 cards in all.

• 

  Draw pileCount: 1

  The face-down cards left after the deal. You may draw the top card at the start of your turn.

• 

  Discard pileCount: 1

  A face-up pile that starts with one card. Only the top card matters: at the start of your turn you may take it instead of drawing, unless it is a Skip.

Everyone is dealt 10 cards and the next card is turned face up to start the discard pile. The rest is the draw pile.

Your hand is always shown sorted: by color in the order Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, then by number from low to high, then Wilds, then Skips. There is nothing to sort and no sort button.

Goal

Ladder 11 is a climbing game played over several hands. Every player has a ladder of goals called rungs. On your turn you try to lay down the groups that your current rung asks for, and then to get rid of the rest of your cards.

When a hand ends, everyone who laid down their rung during that hand moves up one rung, whether or not they won the hand. Everyone who did not lay down stays on the same rung and tries it again. Players can therefore be on different rungs at the same time.

Cards left in your hand when a hand ends count against you, so a low total is good. How the whole game ends depends on the Rungs option chosen when the table was set up: with 11 rungs, laying down the top rung wins at once; with 10, 7 or 5 rungs, the game ends after the hand in which someone completes the last rung, and the lowest total wins. See How the game ends.

Setup

The first dealer is chosen by chance. The cards are shuffled and dealt one at a time, clockwise, starting with the player to the dealer's left, until everyone holds 10 cards. The next card is turned face up to start the discard pile, and the cards that remain form the draw pile. The player to the dealer's left takes the first turn.

Everyone starts on rung 1 with a total of 0. In each later hand the deal passes one player to the left.

Two openings are worth knowing:

• If the first card of the discard pile is a Wild, the first player may take it like any other discard.
• If it is a Skip, the first player loses their first turn and counts as just skipped (see Skips). With two players, the dealer therefore takes the first turn.

A turn

Every turn follows the same order.

1. Draw one card. Take the top card of the draw pile (a blind draw), or take the top card of the discard pile unless it is a Skip.
2. If you have not yet laid down in this hand, you may lay down your rung, all at once.
3. Once your rung is down, you may hit as many times as you like: add single cards to any group on the table.
4. Discard one card, face up on the discard pile. This ends your turn.

You cannot lay down or hit before you have drawn, and you cannot lay down after you discard, because the discard ends the turn. A hit that uses your last card ends the hand without a discard.

If the draw pile runs out, the discard pile, except its top card, is shuffled to make a new draw pile.

Sets, runs, color groups and color runs

Every rung asks for one or more groups. There are four kinds.

• A set is cards that all stand for the same number, in any colors. Two cards of the same color and number are fine.
• A run is cards that stand for consecutive numbers, one card per number, in any colors. The numbers go up from the first card. A run stays between 1 and 12: there is no wrapping round from 12 to 1, and no number appears twice.
• A color group is cards of one color, with any numbers. Repeated numbers are allowed.
• A color run is a run in which every card is also the same color.

A Skip is never part of a group, either when you lay down or when you hit.

Wilds

A Wild can stand in for any card in any group. In a set it stands for the set's number. In a run it stands for the number of the place it fills. In a color group or a color run it also stands for that group's color. You can use more than one Wild in a group.

There is one limit, the one-natural rule: every group must hold at least one natural card, that is, at least one number card. A group made only of Wilds is not allowed.

The ladder

The ladder has eleven rungs. You climb them in order, starting at rung 1, and you can lay down only your own current rung. Each rung lists the groups you must put down together, at exactly the sizes shown.

The table below lists the eleven rungs, the groups each one asks for and how many cards it uses.

The Rungs option decides how many rungs a game uses, always counted from the bottom. With 5 rungs you play rungs 1 to 5; with 7, rungs 1 to 7; with 10, rungs 1 to 10; with 11, the whole ladder. See Table options.

In each example below, the hand is shown after drawing, so it holds 11 cards, and it is sorted. Cards are written as a color letter (R, Y, G or B), a number and a copy letter that tells the two identical cards apart: R5a is Red 5, copy a. A Wild is written as W and a number.

Rung 1: two sets of 3

You need 6 cards. The two sets can be the same number or different numbers.

Rung 2: a set of 3 and a run of 4

You need 7 cards: three of one number, and four in a row.

Rung 3: a set of 4 and a run of 4

You need 8 cards.

Rung 4: a run of 7

You need 7 cards in a row. The cards can be any colors.

Rung 5: a run of 8

You need 8 cards in a row.

Rung 6: a run of 9

You need 9 cards in a row. This is the largest lay-down in the game.

Rung 7: two sets of 4

You need 8 cards. As in rung 1, the two sets may be the same number.

Rung 8: a color group of 7

You need 7 cards of one color. The numbers do not matter, and repeats are fine. After this, only cards of that color, and Wilds, can be hit onto the group.

Rung 9: a set of 5 and a set of 2

You need 7 cards. A set of 2 is a complete group on this rung, but it still needs a natural card.

Rung 10: a set of 5 and a set of 3

You need 8 cards. With 10 rungs, this is the last rung of the game.

Rung 11: a color run of 7, the summit

You need 7 cards in a row, all of one color. This is the hardest rung, the summit. It exists only when the game is set to 11 rungs. Laying it down wins the game at once.

Laying down

You lay down your rung once per hand, on your own turn, after drawing, and all at once. You may not lay it down in pieces over several turns.

• Put down exactly the groups your rung lists, each at exactly its size: no more and no fewer cards.
• If you hold more cards that fit, add them as hits straight afterwards, in the same turn. The table ends up the same as if you had laid down more.
• Every group must be valid, and must hold at least one natural card.
• The credit is immediate: once the rung is down, you climb when the hand ends, even if someone else wins the hand.
• A group that grows by hits counts only for the rung you laid it for. It never counts towards a higher rung.

Hitting

Once your own rung is down in this hand, you may add single cards to any group on the table, yours or another player's, as many times as you like in a turn. You can start hitting on the same turn you lay down.

• A set takes a card of its number, or a Wild.
• A color group takes a card of its color, or a Wild.
• A run takes the next number up from its top card, or the next number down from its bottom card, or a Wild at either end. You say which end.
• A run stops growing at 1 on the low end and at 12 on the high end. A run from 1 to 12 takes no more cards.
• A Wild you hit stands for the number the end gives it, the number of the set, or the color of the group, and is fixed from then on.

Skips

A Skip is never laid down and never hit. To play it, discard it and name another player. That player loses their next turn.

• You must name a player when you discard a Skip, as long as one of the other players can be chosen. You cannot name yourself, or someone who is not in the hand.
• If every other player is protected, you may discard the Skip without naming anyone, and it does nothing.
• You can never take a Skip from the discard pile. A Skip left in your hand costs 15 points when the hand ends.
• A Skip discarded as your very last card ends the hand, and the player it named is not skipped.

Protection. A player who has just been skipped is protected. They cannot be skipped again until they have finished a turn that they actually took. Protection starts the moment a Skip names a player, not when their turn is lost, and a lost turn does not end it. So nobody ever loses two turns in a row to a Skip, and no second Skip can be aimed at a player who already has one waiting.

Going out

You go out when your hand becomes empty. That can happen by discarding your last card, or by hitting it onto a group. A hit that empties your hand needs no discard. You cannot go out without having laid down your rung first.

When a player goes out, the hand ends at once, and every other player counts the cards left in their hand.

Scoring a hand

When a hand ends, every player who still holds cards counts them and adds the points to their running total. The player who went out holds nothing and adds 0. Cards in groups on the table are worth nothing. A low total is good.

The table below says what each card left in a hand is worth.

Climbing is separate from scoring. Everyone who laid down their rung in the hand moves up one rung, whatever their total. Everyone who did not lay down stays on their rung. Skip protection is cleared at the end of every hand.

How the game ends

How a game ends depends on the Rungs option. The table below shows what is different; the sections after it give the details.

With 11 rungs: the summit

With 11 rungs, the moment a player lays down rung 11, a color run of 7, that player wins the game. The hand does not finish, nobody has to go out, no cards are counted, nobody's total changes and nobody else climbs. There are no ties to settle.

With 10, 7 or 5 rungs: the last rung is a normal rung

With 10, 7 or 5 rungs, laying down the last rung does not end the game. The hand carries on until a player goes out, as in any other hand.

When the hand ends, find the players who have completed the last rung. Several players can do so in the same hand. A player does not win just by going out: a player who has completed the last rung and has a lower total can win even if somebody else went out.

• If nobody has completed the last rung, play goes on with a new hand.
• If one player has, that player wins.
• If several have, the lowest total, counting the points of the hand just ended, wins.
• If the lowest total is shared, those players, and only those players, play a tie-break hand.

The tie-break hand

A tie-break hand is dealt like any other hand, but only to the tied players. Everyone in it plays the last rung. No points are added, and nobody climbs. The first player to go out wins the game. If a tie-break hand ends with nobody out, another tie-break hand follows with the same players.

Table options

Ladder 11 has one rule option, Rungs, which this guide also calls the number of rungs. It is a list of four choices, shown in this order: 11, 10, 7 and 5. The default is 10.

With 11 rungs, laying down rung 11 wins the game at once (the summit rule). With 10, 7 or 5, the last rung is an ordinary rung. The hand is completed, the lowest total wins, and a tie is replayed. See How the game ends.

Every table also has the usual settings for how long a turn may take:

• Real-time table: a turn timer of Relaxed (45 seconds), Normal (30 seconds, the default) or Fast (15 seconds).
• Turn-based table: a time per turn of 12, 24 (the default) or 72 hours, and what happens when the time runs out: a bot plays the turn (the default) or the player forfeits. See Running out of time and leaving.
• Bots: a seat can be given to a bot, with a level of Easy, Normal or Hard. See Bots.

Ladder 11 hands are hidden, so a table cannot be played with several people sharing one screen.

Bots

A Ladder 11 table can include bots. A bot sees only what a player in its seat would see: its own hand, the groups on the table, the top of the discard pile and how many cards each other player holds. It never sees another hand or the draw pile.

• Easy plays a random legal move.
• Normal, the mid level, collects the cards it needs. It lays its rung down as soon as it can, using as few Wilds as it can. It hits whenever a card fits. It takes the discard only when the card brings it closer to its rung or fits a group on the table. It discards the card that costs it least, and it plays a Skip at the player who is furthest along.
• Hard, the expert level, plays in the same spirit but more carefully. It counts the cards it has not yet seen, to judge how likely a good draw is, and uses that to decide what to discard and whether the discard pile is worth taking. It picks the lay-down that leaves it the fewest cards and points once every hit that then fits is made, and it always lays down when it can.

Spectators

Where spectators are allowed, a spectator watches the table but takes no part. A spectator sees the same public information as the players: the groups on the table, the top of the discard pile, every player's rung, total and number of cards, and, when a hand ends, the cards left in each hand. A spectator never sees any player's hand or the draw pile.

Running out of time and leaving

If your turn timer runs out, the game plays a plain move for you so the table can go on. If you have not drawn yet, it draws the top card of the draw pile. Then it discards your heaviest card that is not a Wild. Heaviest means the most points when counted against you, so a Skip comes before numbers 10 to 12, and those come before numbers 1 to 9. A Skip discarded this way is aimed at the first player who can be named. If your hand holds only Wilds, a Wild is discarded. The game never lays down or hits for you, because a player who ran out of time should not be helped to a rung.

At a real-time table, a seat that times out three times is taken over by a bot. At a turn-based table, the table's setting decides: either a bot plays the turn, or the player forfeits.

If you forfeit or leave, the whole game ends at once, not just your part in it. The player who left is ranked last. The other players are ranked by how many rungs they have completed, most first, then by the lowest total, then by seat order, and the first of them wins. The hand in progress is not scored, and everyone's hand is shown.

Quick reference

A turn: draw one card, optionally lay down your rung, optionally hit, then discard one card.

• Card points left in hand: numbers 1 to 9 are 5, numbers 10 to 12 are 10, a Skip is 15, a Wild is 25.
• Every group needs at least one natural card. A Wild keeps its value until the hand ends.
• Lay down once per hand, all at once. Hit only after your rung is down.
• A Skip makes a player lose a turn. A player just skipped is protected until they have taken a turn.
• 11 rungs: lay down rung 11 and you win. 10, 7 or 5 rungs: the hand ends, and the lowest total among those who completed the last rung wins.

Glossary

Climb

Moving up one rung after a hand in which you laid down your rung. You climb whether or not you won the hand.

Color group

Cards of one color with any numbers, repeats allowed. Rung 8 asks for a color group of 7.

Color run

A run in which every card is also the same color. Rung 11, the summit, asks for a color run of 7.

Forfeit

Leaving a game in progress. It ends the whole game at once, and the player who left is ranked last.

Group

A set, a run, a color group or a color run. Every rung asks for one or two groups.

Hit

Adding one card from your hand to a group on the table, after your own rung is down in that hand.

Lay down

Putting your whole rung on the table at once. You can do it once per hand, on your own turn, after drawing.

Natural card

A number card. Every group needs at least one natural card, so Wilds alone are not enough.

Protection

The safeguard of a player who has just been skipped. They cannot be named by a Skip again until they have finished a turn they actually took.

Run

Cards that stand for consecutive numbers, one card per number, in any colors. A run stays between 1 and 12.

Rung

One goal on the ladder, such as two sets of 3 or a run of 7. There are eleven rungs, and the Rungs option decides how many your game uses.

Set

Cards that all stand for the same number, in any colors.

Skip

A colorless card you discard to name a player who loses their next turn. It can never be part of a group or taken from the discard pile.

Summit

Rung 11, a color run of 7. In a game of 11 rungs, laying it down wins the game at once.

Tie-break hand

An extra hand played by only the players who share the lowest total after the last rung is completed. The first player out wins.

Wild

A colorless card that stands in for any number, and in a color group the color as well. It keeps that value for the rest of the hand, and every group needs at least one natural card.

Play Ladder 11 ↗ All the rules