Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock: Rules

Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock adds two gestures to the classic game and, with them, ten possible outcomes instead of three. It was designed to fix a specific complaint — that experienced players tie far too often — and it does fix it, at the cost of making the game harder to read. Here are all ten rules, the reason the variant exists, and what the extra throws do to strategy.

The ten rules

Every gesture beats exactly two others and loses to exactly two others. That symmetry is the whole design.

The gestures: Rock is a fist, Paper a flat hand, Scissors the usual two fingers, Lizard a sock-puppet hand with the fingers and thumb meeting, and Spock the Vulcan salute — fingers split between middle and ring.

What each gesture beats, at a glance

• Rock beats Lizard and Scissors. Loses to Paper and Spock.
• Paper beats Rock and Spock. Loses to Scissors and Lizard.
• Scissors beats Paper and Lizard. Loses to Rock and Spock.
• Lizard beats Spock and Paper. Loses to Rock and Scissors.
• Spock beats Scissors and Rock. Loses to Lizard and Paper.

Why the variant exists

It was invented by Sam Kass with Karen Bryla, and reached a mass audience through The Big Bang Theory, which is why most people meet it as a television joke rather than a design fix.

The stated problem it solves is ties. In the classic game, two players picking uniformly at random tie one time in three. Between people who know each other well, the rate climbs higher still, because they converge on the same reads. Five gestures drop the random-play tie rate to one in five, which means a noticeably larger share of rounds actually resolve.

That is the entire mechanical benefit. It does not make the game deeper in any strategic sense — it makes it terminate faster.

What two extra throws do to strategy

The counter-strategies that work in the three-gesture game rely on human biases: the tendency to open with rock, the win-stay/lose-shift reflex, the reluctance to repeat a throw three times. Those biases still exist here, but they are diluted across five options instead of three.

Two practical consequences:

• Reads are worth less. Correctly predicting that an opponent will not repeat narrows the field from four to three rather than from two to one. The information is the same; it buys less.
• Spock is over-thrown by new players. It is the novelty gesture and the one people are pleased to remember, which makes it the most over-represented opening among people who have just learned the variant. Lizard and Paper both beat it.

As with the classic game, all of this evaporates against a computer opponent drawing at random. There is no bias to exploit and no pattern to find. See how to win at Rock Paper Scissors for the documented biases and where they stop applying.

Does Gift Club have Lizard Spock?

No — Rock Paper Scissors on Gift Club is the classic three-throw game, played as a streak against the house rather than head-to-head. Each won round advances a multiplier ladder and the real decision is when to stop rather than what to throw. If you came here looking for a five-gesture version to play in the app, it is not there, and this page would rather tell you that than let you find out after installing.

Common questions

What are the five hand signs?

Rock (fist), Paper (flat hand), Scissors (two fingers), Lizard (fingers and thumb meeting, like a sock puppet), Spock (Vulcan salute).

How many possible outcomes are there?

Ten winning combinations, plus five ties — one for each gesture matched against itself. Twenty-five total pairings.

Does it reduce ties compared to the original?

Yes. Uniform random play ties one round in five here, against one in three in the classic game. That was the design goal.

Is there a best opening throw?

Against a newcomer, something that beats Spock — Lizard or Paper — since Spock is the gesture new players reach for. Against an experienced player or any software, no.

Keep reading

• How to Win at Rock Paper Scissors — the research on human bias, and its limits.
• Rock Paper Scissors — the Gift Club game — the multiplier ladder and the cash-out decision.
• Every Gift Club game guide