How to play Carioca

What you need

Two to seven players. Two full decks — 52 cards plus two jokers each — for two or three players; three decks from four players up.

Twelve cards each, dealt at the start of every round. What's left becomes the draw pile, and one card is turned face up to start the discard pile.

A cut for dealer before the first deal: everyone draws one card and the highest deals. The deal then passes around the table each round.

The goal

Carioca is a low-score game: the winner is the player with the fewest points once the last round is done.

Each round has its own objective — a set of combinations you must put on the table. Get rid of every card in your hand and you score nothing at all for that round. Any cards still in your hand when someone else finishes count against you.

How a turn works

Every turn is the same three steps, in this order:

1. Draw one card — either the top of the face-down deck or the top card of the discard pile.
2. Lay, if you can. If your hand holds the round's objective, put it on the table. Once your objective is down, you can also add single cards to any combination already on the table — yours or an opponent's.
3. Discard one card, face up. Your turn ends.

The two combinations

Every objective in the game is built from just two shapes:

• Trio — three cards of the same rank, in any suits. 7♥ 7♠ 7♣.
• Escala — four cards of the same suit in sequence: 4♠ 5♠ 6♠ 7♠. Runs wrap around, so J Q K A is valid.

Jokers are wild and can stand in for any card you're missing — but only one joker per combination.

The nine rounds

You play the rounds in order. The objective is the same for everybody in that round.

Carioca is played with different sets of rounds depending on who taught you. This is the nine-round set used in the app, and House Rules let you change the special rounds at the end — turn Escala Sucia or Escala Real off, or add an optional Escala de Color: a 13-card run in a single colour, red or black.

Laying your objective

You must lay the whole objective at once — you can't put down half of it and finish later. Two timing rules shape the race:

• You can't lay on your first turn of a round. You have to complete one full draw-and-discard cycle first.
• On the turn you lay your objective, you can't extend anything else. Adding to other combinations starts on your next turn.

Going out

Once your objective is on the table, you shed your remaining cards by adding them to combinations already laid — anyone's.

Play your last card and the round ends immediately. That's the Carioca. You score zero; everyone else adds up whatever is still in their hand.

Scoring

Only the cards left in your hand at the end of a round count — and they count against you.

Scores add up across all nine rounds. Lowest total wins.

Double Down

An optional house rule. Declare it before your first draw of a round and the stakes swing both ways: go out and the round scores you −20 instead of zero; fail to go out and your leftover penalty is doubled.

Play it on iPhone and iPad

Carioca Chile plays all nine rounds against the computer or against other people — online, nearby over local Wi-Fi with no internet at all, or by passing one device around the table. There's a built-in tutorial and a coach that will explain the round you're stuck on.

Free with optional $2.99 unlock · online and nearby multiplayer always free.