Ranked
liar's dice.

Ranked liar's dice is liar's dice with a score kept. You are seated with real players, every finish moves an Elo rating, and the rating puts you on a ladder. This page explains how that works in Pips & Lies: the four ladders, how a rating moves, what the tiers mean and how seasons work. If you have never played, read how to play liar's dice first.

What ranked means

• You queue, and the game seats you. You pick a ladder, and the match starts when enough players are waiting.
• The rules are fixed. How many dice you hold and whether ones are wild are set by the ladder, so a rating always means the same thing.
• Your finishing place is what counts. Winning is best, but every place moves your rating: second is better than third, and anything is better than last.
• Private tables never count. A table you open for friends does not touch your rating, trophies or statistics.

The four ladders

Wild ones and straight ones are different games, so each has its own queue and its own rating. They are never mixed into one number. The 1v1 is a third game with its own rating, and Overall adds up the two multiplayer ladders.

How a rating moves

The rating is Elo, adapted for tables of up to six. Everyone starts at 1000.

• Every finish is scored against each opponent. Come second at a table of five and you count as beating the three below you and losing to the winner. The results are averaged over your opponents, so a six-player match moves your rating about as much as one head-to-head game.
• Who you beat matters. Beating a higher-rated player moves you more than beating a lower-rated one, and losing to a lower-rated player costs more.
• The first fifteen matches move faster. Until a rating is established it changes about twice as quickly, so you reach your level sooner. After that a rating has to be earned.
• Steps are gentle on purpose. Liar's dice has a lot of luck in it, so a single match is not allowed to swing a rating wildly.
• Leaving is losing. Walk out of a ranked match and you finish last. A dropped connection gets 45 seconds to come back.

The tiers

A rating also gives you a tier, so you can see where you stand without knowing the number.

The bands are set for the spread that dice actually produce, not borrowed from chess. With luck in every match, even a much stronger player cannot win nearly all of them, so ratings stay close to 1000. That is why a Legend is 1130 and not 2000.

Leaderboards

Every ladder has a board: the top 100 on Overall, wild ones, straight ones and the 1v1, for the current season and for all time. Five rated matches put you on it.

Seasons

A season opens a fresh ladder for every ranked mode. It starts at 1000, on top of your career rating, which never resets.

• Play ten matches to place.
• The top three win prizes that are never sold, on multiplayer Overall and in the 1v1, which has its own podium.
• Showing up is rewarded too. A banner after five matches, dice after fifteen and an avatar after thirty.

Live events run alongside the seasons. Each event deals a different game, with its own rules, its own rating, its own board and its own prizes.

Around the ladders

• Statistics track how often your bids hold when someone calls them, how many of your own calls land and how you bid on every face. They are kept apart for wild ones and straight ones, because they are different games, and show your percentile among ranked players on every ladder.
• Trophies are fourteen achievements with five tiers each, plus six legendaries. Trophy points unlock banners, cups and dice.
• Cosmetics are worn at the table. The rarest are never for sale: they come from podiums, ratings, events and trophies.

How to start

1. Open play.pipsandlies.com in your browser, or get the app.
2. Sign in with your Pips & Lies account.
3. Pick a queue: wild ones or straight ones (three to six players), or the 1v1 (two).
4. Play. After your first matches you have a rating, a tier and a place on the board.

A queue starts when enough players are waiting. To find opponents, the Discord is where players arrange tables. To learn what a safe bid looks like first, the odds tables cover both rule sets.