How to Play Qwirkle Cubes Board Game: Rules and Instructions

Objective of Qwirkle Cubes

The objective of Qwirkle Cubes is to score the most points by playing cubes of matching colors and symbols.

Setup

You need a piece of paper and a pencil/pen to keep score.
Place all of the cubes in the bag.
Each player randomly draws six cubes from the bag.
Once you have drawn your cubes, you will roll them to create your starting hand. Your hand is placed in front of you on the table where the rest of the players can see.
The oldest player starts the game.

Initial cubes that a player drew — To start the game this player drew these cubes and rolled them.

Playing Qwirkle Cubes

To begin your turn you will choose which of your cubes you want to re-roll. You can choose any number of cubes to re-roll including keeping all of your cubes on their current side. Once you have chosen which cubes you want to re-roll, you will roll all of the chosen cubes. Re-rolling cubes can change the shapes on your cubes, but it cannot change the color.

Choosing which dice to re-roll — This player has decided to keep the three dice on the left and re-roll the dice on the right.

A player's dice after re-rolling some of their dice — After re-rolling their chosen dice, the player has these six dice. They currently have two blue dice and three starburst symbols.

First Turn of Game

On the first turn of the game the first player must play as many cubes as they can that share a color or shape. If the player only has one cube that they can play, they must re-roll all of their cubes until they are able to play at least two cubes.

Playing the first cubes in Qwirkle Cubes — To start the game the first player will play their three starburst symbols as it is the largest group of matching cubes that they had.

All Other Turns

Outside of the first turn, you will determine which cubes you want to play to the grid in the middle of the table. All of the players will play to the same grid. You can play any number of cubes (at least one) on your turn. All of the cubes that you play have to either be the same color or shape. You must play all of your chosen cubes to the same line which connects to cubes that have already been played. For more details on playing cubes, check out the Playing Cubes section below.

If you cannot play any cubes to the grid, you must re-roll all of your cubes until you have at least one cube that you can play.

End of Turn

After you have finished playing cubes, you will score the cubes that you played. See the Scoring in Qwirkle Cubes section below for more details.

Finally you will draw new cubes from the bag. You will draw cubes until you have a total of six cubes. After drawing the cubes, you will roll the new cubes and add them to your hand.

Play then passes to the next player clockwise/left.

Playing Cubes

For the first turn in the game the player can play two or more cubes that share the same color or shape. Since there are no cubes yet in the grid, they don’t have to follow any other placement rules.

After the grid is started, players need to start following placement rules when they add cubes to the grid. As players add more cubes to the grid, you will start creating an interconnected group of lines that look somewhat like a crossword puzzle.

Second player playing cubes — The second player decided to add three blue cubes to the grid on their turn.

Placement Rules

You can play between one and six cubes on your turn. All of the cubes that you play have to either be the same color or shape. When you place cubes in the grid, they must all connect to the same line vertically or horizontally. You cannot play cubes that connect diagonally. When two or more cubes are connected in a grid, they form what is called a “line”. Every cube in a line has to either share the same color or shape.

If a line consists of cubes of the same shape, you cannot add two cubes of the same color to the line.

How to correctly play cubes of the same symbol — Here are two examples of groups of cubes with the same symbol. The player on the left played their cubes incorrectly as there are two red diamond cubes in the line. The player on the right played their cubes correctly since each of the diamonds are different colors.

If a line consists of cubes of the same color, you cannot add two cubes of the same shape to the line.

How to correctly play cubes of the same color. — These two players have played three cubes of the same color. The player on the left played the cubes incorrectly since there are two circles in the line. The player on the right played their cubes correctly since each cube is a different symbol.

When you play cubes you can either add cubes to create a new line, or you can add cubes to a line that has already been created. All cubes that you play must touch at least one cube that was already in the grid. If you play multiple cubes on your turn, they must both be added to the same line, but they do not have to be played next to one another.

Adding a new line to the grid in Qwirkle Cubes — The second player has decided to add three blue cubes to the grid. They placed two cubes above the starburst symbol, and one cube below it.

Empty Spaces

As you grow the grid, you will eventually create areas where it is impossible to play any cubes. These spaces will remain empty of the rest of the game.

Places where you can't play any cubes — The third player added three circle symbols to the top of the grid. No cubes can be played below the red or purple circles because it would be impossible for a cube to match the color or symbol of the cube above and below it.

Scoring in Qwirkle Cubes

Once you have finished playing the cubes on your turn, you will score points based on how many cubes you placed and where you placed them.

Count up the number of cubes in the line that you played to. This includes any cubes that were already played before your turn. You will score one point for each cube.

Scoring in Qwirkle Cubes — To begin the game the first player played the four circle cubes. They will score four points since they played four cubes. The second played the purple square, purple diamond, and purple starburst. They will score four points since there are four cubes in the line that they played to.

Scoring the addition of a cube to a line — The third player just added the top purple cube to the line on the right. They will score five points since there are five cubes in the line that they added the cube to.

Scoring cubes — The next player added the three new cubes at the top of the grid. They will score four points.

When you play a cube, it may become part of two different lines. For these cubes you will score points from both lines that it is part of.

Scoring from two lines on the same turn — This player added the top two cubes and the bottom cube to the blue line. They ended up adding cubes to two different lines so they will score both lines. They will score five points from the top line (five cubes). The blue line scores four points. This player scores a total of nine points on their turn.

Should you create a six cube line where all of the cubes are the same shape or color, you have created a Qwirkle. Each Qwirkle is worth twelve points, six for the cubes and six bonus points. You can never create a line that has more than six cubes in it.

Creating a Qwirkle — The current player added the yellow and green cubes in the top right corner. The line across the top of the grid now features one cube of each of the six colors. This player has completed a Qwirkle. They will score twelve points for the Qwirkle.

You will add up the points you scored from each line that you added a cube(s) to. Add the points you earned this round to your total points.

End of Game

Players will keep taking turns playing cubes until the draw bag runs out of cubes. Once there are no cubes in the bag, players will no longer draw cubes to replace those that they play.

Qwirkle Cubes ends when one player plays the last cube from their hand. They will receive six bonus points for playing the last cube.

Calculate the points that each player scored during the game. The player that scored the most points wins the game.

Qwirkle Cubes FAQs

If you have any questions about how to play Qwirkle Cubes, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Qwirkle Cubes Components

90 cubes (15 of each color)
Draw bag
Instructions

Year: 2009 | Publisher: MindWare | Designer: Susan McKinley Ross

Genres: Dice, Family, Tile Placement

Ages: 6+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 45 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light-Moderate | Luck: Moderate

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