Qwirkle scoring: how to count your points

The one rule

When you place tiles, you score one point for every tile in every line you made or extended — including the tiles that were already on the table before your turn.

So a line is not worth what you added to it. It is worth its whole length, counted after your tiles are in place. Add one tile to a line of three and you score four, not one.

Count each line your placement touches, add those counts together, and that is your turn.

Tiles that score twice

This is the part that gets missed. A tile sits in a row and in a column at the same time. If your placement creates or extends a line in both directions, you count both lines, and your tile is counted once in each.

There is no double-counting penalty and no cap. A single well-placed tile that takes a row from four to five and a column from three to four scores 5 + 4 = 9 points on its own — better than most three-tile turns.

A Qwirkle is worth 12 points

Complete a line of six and you have made a Qwirkle. It scores six points for its six tiles, plus a six-point bonus: twelve points in total.

Say "Qwirkle" out loud when you do it. That is not a rule, but it stops anyone missing it, and twelve points is a lot to lose track of.

One turn can make more than one Qwirkle. A tile that completes a row of six and a column of six scores twelve for each — twenty-four points from a single tile. It does not happen often, but it decides the game when it does.

The six-point bonus for going out

Once the bag is empty, the first player to play their last tile ends the game and adds six points. Those six sit on top of whatever the final placement scored, and they change the winner often enough that it is worth keeping a tile you know you can play rather than dumping your awkward ones early.

Worked examples

Five turns, scored step by step.

1. Opening the game. You lay three blue tiles — a blue circle, a blue square and a blue clover. That is one line of three tiles, so three points.
2. Extending a line. There is a row of four red tiles on the table and you add a fifth. The row is now five tiles long, so you score five — not one.
3. Crossing two lines. You place a single green diamond so that it takes a row of green tiles from three to four and, at the same time, takes a column of diamonds from two to three. That is 4 for the row and 3 for the column: seven points.
4. Completing a Qwirkle. A row has five yellow tiles in it and you are holding the missing sixth shape. Placing it makes the row six long: 6 points for the line and 6 for the Qwirkle, so twelve.
5. Two tiles in one turn. You add two tiles to the same column, taking it from three tiles to five. That is 5 for the column. One of those tiles also extends a row to three, worth 3. The turn is worth eight.

Scoring mistakes to avoid

If a Qwirkle game feels low-scoring, one of these is usually why.

• Scoring only the tiles you placed. The line is worth its full length, including everything that was already on the table.
• Forgetting the second direction. If your tile sits in a row and a column that both qualify as lines, both of them score.
• Scoring a Qwirkle as six. It is twelve: six for the tiles, six for the bonus.
• Missing a double Qwirkle. One tile can complete a line of six across and a line of six down. That is twenty-four points.
• Scoring a trade. Swapping tiles back into the bag ends your turn with nothing.
• Forgetting the going-out bonus. Six points, awarded at the exact moment everyone has started packing up.

Qwirkle scoring: frequently asked questions

Counting this in your head for four players is how points go missing.