How to play King of Tokyo

2–6 players Low — press-your-luck dice game

What is King of Tokyo?

King of Tokyo is a press-your-luck dice game by Richard Garfield in which two to six players each control a giant monster battling for dominance of the city. Every turn you roll six custom dice up to three times, keeping the faces that best serve your strategy — claws to wound rivals, hearts to heal, energy to buy power cards, and numbers to build toward Victory Point bonuses.

The pivotal tension is Tokyo itself: moving in scores extra points and lets you strike every opponent at once, but you cannot heal while you hold the city, and a single bad round can send you scrambling to yield your throne. Games are fast, the swings are dramatic, and no two turns ever feel quite the same.

Setup

Place Tokyo — put the Tokyo City board tile in the center of the table. If playing with five or six players, also place the Tokyo Bay tile beside it. Tokyo Bay is a second zone that works like Tokyo City: the monster inside cannot heal and scores 1 bonus VP at the start of their turn (instead of 2). When the City is vacated, the Bay occupant must immediately move into the City.
Place the 6 custom dice in the center of the table — they are shared by all players.
Set up the shop — shuffle the power card deck and deal three cards face-up to form the shop.
Each player chooses a monster and takes: - Their monster board and matching standee - Set the life dial to 10 - Set the Victory Point dial to 0 - Start with 0 energy cubes
No monsters begin inside Tokyo. The youngest player goes first.

How to play

Play passes clockwise. On your turn, take these steps in order:

Roll the dice — roll all six dice. You may reroll any number of them up to two more times (three rolls total), setting aside any faces you want to keep between rolls. You are never forced to reroll.

Resolve the kept dice: - Number faces (1, 2, 3) — three of a kind scores that number in Victory Points; each additional matching die beyond three adds 1 VP. - Claw faces — each claw deals 1 damage. If you are inside Tokyo, you damage every monster outside; if you are outside, you damage the monster(s) inside Tokyo. - Heart faces — each heart heals you 1 life point, up to your maximum of 10. You cannot heal while you occupy Tokyo. - Energy faces — each energy gives you 1 energy cube to spend on power cards.

Enter or yield Tokyo — if your claws dealt damage and Tokyo City (or Tokyo Bay) is empty, you must move your monster in and immediately score 1 VP. If you are outside Tokyo and your claws hit the monster currently inside, that monster's controller may choose to yield: they leave Tokyo and you must move in (scoring 1 VP for entering). A monster in Tokyo scores 2 bonus VP at the start of each of their turns.

Buy power cards — spend energy cubes to purchase one or more face-up power cards from the shop. After any purchase, refill the shop to three cards. Some cards are permanent (kept in front of you); others are one-time effects discarded after use. You may also discard the entire shop for 2 energy and draw fresh cards.

A monster eliminated by taking damage to 0 life is out of the game.

How to win

You win instantly the moment you reach 20 Victory Points, or if you are the last monster standing after all others have been knocked to 0 life. Both paths are live throughout the game — a player in Tokyo can sprint to 20 VP while others race to kill them before they get there.

Strategically, treat Tokyo as a calculated risk: the bonus VP and area-wide damage are powerful, but your inability to heal makes every claw rolled against you more dangerous. Yield the city when your health drops low enough that one bad roll from your opponents could eliminate you — living to fight another round is worth more than the throne. When rolling, weigh whether finishing a three-of-a-kind number run outweighs the claws that would soften a dangerous rival; sometimes the right play is to pivot mid-reroll entirely.