Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2: how to play dice, score properly and know when to stop

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2: how to play dice, score properly and know when to stop All right, I finally understand the dice game properly, and one of the rules that hadn't clicked for me was what happens after you roll again. You can't just decide you don't like the new dice and bank the points you had before. That new throw has to give you something you can score, too. If that has been confusing the hell out of you, this should help. Starting a game Look for a dice player at a tavern or camp. The tavern in Troskowitz is an early place to look once you're free to explore. Speak to the player and choose an available wager. Check the target score before starting: different matches can have different targets. You and your opponent take turns with six dice. The aim is to bank enough points to reach or exceed the target before they do. You don't have to land on the number exactly. Before playing, you can replace ordinary dice with special ones you've collected. Badge games also let you bring a badge, provided you meet the game's requirements. Start with a cheap ordinary game while you're learning. You don't need fancy equipment to understand the rules. What the score displays mean There are three amounts to keep separate: - Your overall score: points you have already banked on earlier turns. - Your current turn's points: everything you have earned since this turn began, but have not banked yet. - Your selected points: what the dice you've currently highlighted are worth. For example, suppose your overall score is 1,200. You have built up 350 during this turn and are highlighting another 100. Banking now adds 450, putting your overall score at 1,650. If you continue instead and then bust, you lose that turn's 450. Your earlier 1,200 stays safe. How a turn works 1. Roll the dice. 2. Select a scoring die or combination from that throw. 3. Choose Score and pass to bank the turn, or Score and continue to throw the unselected dice again. 4. After another throw, select another valid scoring result before you can bank or continue. 5. If the new throw has nothing that scores, you bust and lose the unbanked points from the entire turn. On a controller, move the cursor to a die and use the select button to hold it. The usual select input is X on PlayStation and A on Xbox. Use the on-screen labels for Score and pass, Score and continue, Help and any badge action, especially if you've changed the controls. Selecting the dice doesn't bank the turn. Score and continue doesn't bank it either. To keep those points permanently, use Score and pass. The rule that caught me Let's say you already have 600 points in the current turn and choose to roll the two remaining dice. They come up 2 and 4. That's a bust under the normal rules. You can't say, "Never mind, I'll just keep the 600." You accepted the risk when you chose to roll again. If those dice come up 1 and 4 instead, you can select the 1 for another 100 and pass, banking 700. The 4 doesn't have to score. You just need a valid scoring selection from the latest throw. A badge that lets you recover from a failed throw can change that situation. Without an applicable effect, a throw with no score ends the turn. What scores Single dice: - One 1: 100 points. - One 5: 50 points. - A lone 2, 3, 4 or 6: nothing. Three of a kind: - 1-1-1: 1,000. - 2-2-2: 200. - 3-3-3: 300. - 4-4-4: 400. - 5-5-5: 500. - 6-6-6: 600. Every additional matching die doubles that combination's score: - Four / five / six 1s: 2,000 / 4,000 / 8,000. - Four / five / six 2s: 400 / 800 / 1,600. - Four / five / six 3s: 600 / 1,200 / 2,400. - Four / five / six 4s: 800 / 1,600 / 3,200. - Four / five / six 5s: 1,000 / 2,000 / 4,000. - Four / five / six 6s: 1,200 / 2,400 / 4,800. Straights: - 1-2-3-4-5: 500. - 2-3-4-5-6: 750. - 1-2-3-4-5-6: 1,500. Those are the ordinary combinations. Badges can introduce extra scoring rules. Open Help at the table if you need the game's reference. A pair of 1s is worth 200 because each 1 scores individually. A pair of 5s is worth 100 for the same reason. A pair of 4s is worth nothing by itself. Three pairs are not a special scoring hand under the normal rules. You can score several separate results from one throw. A roll of 1, 3, 3, 3, 5, 6 lets you take 100 for the 1, 300 for the three 3s and 50 for the 5. That's 450, leaving the 6 unused. Don't add the individual value of a die again when you've already used it in a combination. Three 1s are 1,000 total, not 1,300. You cannot build a combination across different throws Suppose your first throw gives you one 1. You hold it for 100 and roll the rest. Your next throw gives you two more 1s. Those two score 200. They don't combine with the earlier held 1 to become a 1,000-point triple. The three dice would have needed to appear together in the same throw. The same goes for extending a straight. Holding 1-2-3-4-5 and then rolling a 6 does not turn it into a full straight. That lone 6 scores nothing, so you bust unless a badge effect changes the outcome. You also can't hold a useless pair of 2s and keep throwing until you find the third. Every selection you set aside has to score now. Why you sometimes get all six dice back If you score with all six dice during the same turn, the game lets you roll all six again. They can have scored across several throws; they don't all have to form one combination. For example: - First throw: hold three 4s for 400. Three dice remain. - Second throw: hold a 1 and a 5 for 150. One die remains. - Third throw: the last die rolls a 5 for 50. You've now scored with all six, making 600 for the turn. You can bank it or continue with a fresh six-dice throw. The 600 carries forward, but it is still at risk. Bust later in that same turn and you lose it along with anything else you've added. Do you have to select every scoring die? No. You can leave a scoring die in the pool and roll it again, as long as the dice you do keep form a valid score. Say the first throw is 1, 5, 2, 2, 4, 6. You could keep the 1 and 5 for 150, leaving four dice. Or keep just the 1 for 100 and roll five dice. The second choice gives up 50 immediate points for another die on the next throw. That can be worth considering while you're trying to build a turn. If the 150 would already win the match, take it and pass. When to bank The number of dice you're about to throw matters as much as the points you've collected. With one ordinary die, only a 1 or 5 scores. That's a one-in-three chance of surviving the throw and a two-in-three chance of busting. With two ordinary dice, neither can form a triple or straight, so you need at least one 1 or 5. The bust chance is four out of nine, about 44%. Those figures are for fair ordinary dice without badge effects. Loaded dice change them. If you've built a decent turn and you're down to one or two ordinary dice, banking is often sensible. Don't risk 800 just because another 50 sounds easy. There isn't one magic banking number for every match. Look at the target, your opponent's score, your dice and your badge: - If banking wins the game, bank. - If you're ahead, avoid unnecessary low-dice risks. - If you're far behind and your opponent is close to winning, a larger turn may be worth the risk. - If you have all six dice available again, your options are much better than when you have one left, but a bust is still possible. Special dice and badges Special dice don't all have the same probabilities. A valuable-sounding name doesn't automatically mean it's good for your plan. Dice that favour 1s and 5s are useful because those faces score alone. Dice favouring other numbers generally need combinations to pay off. The Weighted die strongly favours 1s. The Favourable die is biased toward 1s and 5s. Choose your actual set before the match; merely having better dice in your inventory isn't enough. Some older tips describe Saint Antiochus' die as a guaranteed 3. Don't build your strategy around that claim on current versions. It can roll other numbers. A Devil's Head face works as a wildcard in a scoring combination. Check the selected-points preview before committing it rather than treating the symbol as an ordinary 1. Badges come in tin, silver and gold tiers, and badge games match the tier. Read the effect and its allowed uses before wagering it. Some activate automatically; others require you to use them at the right moment. You can lose a wagered badge if you lose the game. Two effects worth understanding: - Doppelganger doubles the value of the latest throw, not all the points accumulated through several throws. - Gold Warlord doubles the current turn's score and can be used once per game. For a Doppelganger example, if you had 500 from earlier throws and just rolled a 200-point selection, doubling that throw makes the turn 900: 500 plus 400. It does not make it 1,400. Resurrection badges offer another throw after a failed one, within their usage limits. That's an exception you deliberately bring to the table, not something an ordinary game gives you for free. If a scoring button is unavailable Check what you've selected. Did you highlight an extra non-scoring die? Have you selected only two 3s? Are you trying to count a die held from an earlier throw as part of a new triple? Deselect the extra dice, select only a valid score from the latest throw, and check the selected-points display. If the throw genuinely contains no scoring result, it is a bust. That's the part I wasn't fully understanding before. Every time you choose to roll again, you're putting that whole turn's points back at risk. Get a new scoring result and you can decide again. Get nothing and the turn is gone.