How to play Perudo

Perudo is the boxed version of Dudo, a bluffing game with centuries of history in South America. Two to six players each need five dice and a dice cup. The aim is to be the last player with any dice left. The foundation is the same as Liar's Dice, but Perudo comes with fixed rules for wild ones, exact calls and special rounds.

Everyone shakes their cup and turns it upside down on the table, dice hidden underneath. You only peek at your own. The starting player bids on what all the dice on the table show combined, for example four fives.

Ones are wild and always count as the value being bid. If someone bids four fives, both fives and ones count towards the total.

The next player must either raise or challenge. A raise increases the quantity, or keeps it and raises the value. Ones follow their own rules: to switch the bidding to ones, you may halve the quantity, rounding up. After five threes, three ones is enough. To move back from ones to another value, the quantity must be at least doubled plus one.

If you think the last bid is too bold, you call dudo. All cups come up, and you count the dice showing the bid value, wild ones included.

• If the bid holds, meaning at least that many dice show the value, the challenger loses a die.
• If it falls short, the bidder loses a die.

Any player except the bidder may instead call calza, a claim that the bid is exactly right. If it is, the caller gets back a die they have lost, up to the maximum of five. If not, the caller loses one. Whoever lost or regained a die starts the next round.

The first time a player is down to a single die, the next round is a palifico round. That player opens the bidding, and ones are not wild. Players who still have more than one die may only raise the quantity, not change the value. Players on their last die bid freely.

Lose your last die and you are out. The winner is the player left with dice at the end. Keep in mind that the wild ones push bids higher than gut feeling suggests, so count them in before you call dudo.

Perudo builds on Dudo, and many people use the two names interchangeably. Strip away the wild ones, calza and palifico, and you are left with classic Liar's Dice. A common house rule is to leave calza out until everyone is comfortable with the bidding. If you would rather have a quicker bluffing game, Mia gets by with two dice.

Perudo is Liar's Dice with the house rules made official. Wild ones, the halving rule for ones, calza and palifico are fixed parts of the game, while in the classic game they are optional extras. Learn Perudo and you effectively know both. The classic game without the additions is described on the Liar's Dice page.