How to play Barricade

Barricade is a race across a 9×9 board. On each turn you either step your pawn toward the far side or drop a wall to slow your rival down. Here is everything you need, rule by rule.

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The game in four steps

  1. StartYour pawn starts in the middle of your edge. Your opponent starts on the opposite edge.
  2. Take a turnEach turn, either move your pawn one square or place one wall.
  3. BlockWalls make your opponent take the long way round, but you may never seal anyone in.
  4. WinThe first pawn to reach any square on the far side wins.

1The goal

Each player has one pawn and 10 walls. Your pawn starts in the middle of your edge of the 9×9 board, and you win by reaching any square on the opposite edge. In online games the board turns so you always start at the bottom.

Blue starts at the bottom and races to the top row. White starts at the top and races to the bottom row. Each goal row is tinted in its player’s color.

2Your turn

Players take turns. On your turn you do exactly one of these:

  1. Move your pawn one square, or
  2. Place a wall somewhere on the board.

You can’t skip a turn, and you can’t do both. If nothing at all is legal for you, which almost never happens, your turn is skipped.

Option 1: step your pawn. The dots show every square Blue can move to.
Option 2: place a wall. Here Blue drops a wall right in front of White.

3Moving your pawn

Your pawn moves one square at a time: up, down, left or right. It can’t move diagonally, can’t move through a wall and can’t leave the board. Moving sideways or even backwards is allowed, and sometimes the way round is the fastest way.

The dots show where Blue can step. The wall on the right blocks that way.

4Placing walls

A wall is two squares long. It goes in the groove between squares, lying flat or standing up, and blocks that groove for every pawn, including yours.

  • You have 10 walls for the whole game (5 each in 2v2). Once they’re gone, you can only move.
  • A wall stays where it is for the rest of the game, except in the Hammer and Shifting Walls modes.
  • Walls can’t cross or overlap another wall.
  • A wall can pass through the gap where two other walls meet.
Blue’s wall blocks White’s way down, so White has to go round it.

Where a wall can go

✕ Not allowedCrossing another wall.
✕ Not allowedOverlapping another wall.
✓ AllowedThrough the gap between two walls.

5The golden rule

You may never seal a pawn in. Every wall must leave every pawn at least one path to its goal, however long. The game won’t let you place a wall that breaks this rule, so you can’t do it by mistake.

✕ Not allowedThe red wall would shut Blue in the corner with no way out.
✓ AllowedA wall that leaves a way out is fine, even if it’s a long way round.

6Jumping

Two pawns can’t share a square. When your pawn is face to face with another pawn, you can jump it:

  1. Jump straight over it, landing on the square behind.
  2. If a wall or the edge of the board is behind it (or, in 2v2, another pawn), jump diagonally to the square on either side of it instead.
  3. If one of those sides is blocked too, only the open side is left.

A jump is your move for the turn, and you can only ever jump one pawn.

Straight over White to the square behind.
A wall behind White: jump diagonally, left or right.
A wall on the right as well: only the left is open.

7Winning

The first pawn to reach any square of its goal row wins straight away. You also win if your opponent resigns, runs out of time, or leaves an online game and doesn’t come back within 60 seconds.

The game is a draw if the same position comes up three times, or if nobody can move.

Blue steps onto the top row and wins.

82v2 and 4 players

Four players, one on each side of the board, in two teams. You and the player opposite you are a team. Turns go round the board, and the first of your team to reach their goal wins the game for both of you. Each player has 5 walls. 2v2 is played against the computer or with friends on one device, in Classic and Center Race.

4 players (free-for-all): four players, one on each side, each on their own. Play it online, against the computer or with friends on one device. The first to reach their goal wins. Anyone who resigns, runs out of time or leaves is out: their pawn leaves the board, their turns are skipped, and the others play on until someone reaches their goal or only one player is left. Each player has 5 walls.

Blue and Red are a team against White and Gold. Each pawn races to the far side, tinted in its color.

9Game modes

Every mode uses the rules above, with one twist:

Classic

The rules on this page: the first pawn to reach the far side wins.

Center Race

Everyone races to the glowing square in the middle of the board instead of the far side.

Capture the Flag

Touch the far side to grab your flag, then bring it back to your own starting side to win.

Fog of War

You only see the other side’s walls once your pawn is within two squares of them. Your own walls are always visible.

Hammer

Once per game, use your turn to smash any wall on the board, yours or your opponent’s.

Shifting Walls

Up to three times per game, use your turn to pick up one of your own walls and put it somewhere else.

10Playing on screen

  1. To move, click or tap one of the glowing squares next to your pawn.
  2. To place a wall, point at the groove between squares. A dotted wall shows where it will go, and how much it slows each side down.
  3. Click to place it. On a touch screen, tap once to see the wall and tap again to place it.
  4. Premove: during the other side’s turn, tap a move or a wall to queue it. It plays the moment your turn starts.

Keyboard:P show shortest pathsF flip the boardU undo (against the computer)? these rules← → step through a finished game

11Playing online

  • Find a match pairs you with someone who picked the same mode and clock. One-on-one matches are rated, and every month starts a new season.
  • Your rating starts at 1000 and goes up when you win a rated game and down when you lose; beating a stronger player earns more points. Your rank follows your rating: Iron (below 1000), Bronze (1000), Silver (1200), Gold (1400), Sapphire (1600), Emerald (1800), Diamond (2000), Master (2200) and Grandmaster (2500 and up).
  • Invite a friend gives you a link and a code to share. Games with friends aren’t rated.
  • Chat with the other players during and after an online game. Mute it whenever you like, and report anyone who is abusive.
  • Tournaments pair you again and again for a set time. A win scores 2 points, or 4 once you’ve won two in a row, and a draw scores 1.
  • Online games always have a clock: 3, 5 or 10 minutes each. If you lose your connection, you have 60 seconds to come back.
  • To play online, sign in with Google and pick a username. The username is the name other players see.

12Tips

  • Save your walls. They’re worth the most late in the game, when a single wall can force a long detour.
  • Count the steps. Turn on Show shortest paths to see each pawn’s fastest route and who is really ahead.
  • Your walls block you too. Before placing one, check it slows your opponent down more than it slows you.
  • Practise endgames with the daily puzzle and Puzzle Rush.

More in the strategy guide: eight tips on when to race, when to wall and how to win the endgame.

Ready to play?

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