The goal of Dominogue is to score enough points to win each round. You score points by playing domino chains. At first, you have 3 chains to play, and the points scored during each chain are added to your total score. Beat the target score and you move to the next round. But if you’re out of chains to play and don’t have enough points, the game is over.
A chain score is composed of two components: pips and multiplier (“mult”). At the start of each chain, you have 0 pips and 1 mult.
Each piece will score you pips equal to the number on each side of the piece. For example, a 5-2 piece will score 7 pips. Some pieces may also increase your mult. One example are “cart” pieces, which are pieces that have the same number of pips on both sides (like a 4-4). All carts give you +1 mult.
When all your pieces are scored, your total chain score will be your final pips times your final mult. This will be added to your round score, and you can then play your next chain (if you still need more points this round).
While building your chain, you can tap on pieces on either edge of the chain to bring them back to your hand. Nothing is final until you tap the Play Chain button, which will lock-in your chain and start the scoring.
You can also discard pieces from your hand. By tapping the Discard button, you can then select 1 or more pieces from your hand to discard them. You’ll automatically get back the same number of pieces from your remaining deck. You have a limited number of discards on each round.
When you win a round, you also get some money. If you have chains left to play when you win, your reward is bigger, so keep that in mind. Money can be used in the shop later.
The rounds will get more difficult over time, so you won’t be able to rely just on your pieces to keep winning. That’s where jokers come in.
Jokers are special equipment you can have to boost your chains. Each joker has a different effect. Some effects trigger on specific pieces (e.g. “+20 pips to each piece played that has a 5 on it”), and other trigger based on your chain as a whole (e.g. “+5 mult if your chain has no carts”). Note that jokers won’t modify your pieces, they will just score additional pips or mult when they trigger.
Scoring happens in this order: each piece scores in sequence, from left to right. If a joker triggers on a specific piece, it will trigger immediately after the piece’s base scoring. After all the pieces are scored, the jokers that trigger based on the whole chain will execute next. Jokers always trigger left to right as well, so the order you position them is relevant. You can reorder your jokers before you play each chain.
Another way to boost your scores is by using upgraded pieces. You start the game with a full domino deck of normal pieces. Pieces can have different materials (such as wood, bone or foil) and each material gives the piece a different bonus. Pieces can also have a band, which also gives them bonuses.
You can buy different pieces to increment your deck and jokers in the shop.
The shop appears before each round after round 1. In it, you have the option to buy booster packs (of pieces or of jokers), and to buy loose items (pieces or jokers).
The content of booster packs is random, so you can get something very useful or something that doesn’t really make sense within your strategy. You’ll have to pay the cost before seeing what’s in them. The loose items are pieces and jokers for sale directly on the shop, and you know what you’re buying beforehand.
Finally, the shop also sells effects. These are changes to how the game works, and each effect is available for purchase for a few consecutive rounds, so you can decide when (or if) to get them. Once you purchase an effect, it will last until the end of your run. If you decide to not get an effect on the last shop in which the effect is available, it is gone forever.
Some times in between rounds, you may also be offered upgrades. Upgrades appear after the round, before the shop. There are different upgrades, like changing a piece’s material or band, transforming a piece’s side into a wild card, or transforming one piece into another.
Each upgrade will inform you how many pieces you can upgrade, and there will be a random selection of pieces from your deck available to upgrade each time. You can choose to upgrade them or not.
Lastly, some rounds are considered special rounds. These are rounds with an increased difficulty. The shop before a special round will let you know what’s coming. For example, a special round can disable all material bonuses, or can limit how many chains you can play, or disable some of your jokers.
There is no final round, so you can keep playing for as long as you can make it to the next one. Keep incrementing your deck, improving your jokers and refining your strategy to see how far you get! Once the game is over, everything is lost, but that’s an opportunity to try again and see what other ways you can find to make it even further.
When the game is over, you will also see what was the random seed used to generate all the random events within your run. If you want to replay the same seed, you can copy it and start a seeded run. This means you’ll get the same items in the shops, the same upgrades, and other random events. Keep in mind that your choices may also affect which random events actually happen in the first place, so as you diverge from what you did on your original run, things can look a bit different.
You can also generate a random seed yourself and give it to a friend, so you two can play the same game and see who can win more rounds with the same “luck”. Any combination of uppercase letters and numbers with a length of 12 characters is a valid seed.
That’s all you need to know to get started! If you think something is missing or could be explained better, please let me know by reaching out to help@dominogue.com.