Durak Express is Durak, the Russian game in which the last player holding cards is the fool, for two to six players, each on their own phone, in both of its classic forms: Podkidnoy, where everybody throws cards in, and Perevodnoy, where a defender can pass the attack on.
About Durak Express
Durak is the card game of Russia and the lands around it, and a table of friends can play it for an evening. Durak Express keeps the game and drops the table: one phone hosts, the others join it with a short code, and nothing needs a server or an account. Bots take any empty seat, so one phone and a few bots is a game too.
Each player holds six cards, and the card turned up under the stock sets the trump. The lowest trump attacks first; the player to the attacker's left defends, beating each card with a higher card of its suit or with any trump, or picking everything up. While the defender beats, the others may throw in cards of a rank that is already on the table. When the bout is over the hands are refilled to six from the stock.
In Perevodnoy the defender may instead pass the attack to the next player with a card of the same rank. When the stock is gone, a player with no cards is safe, and the last one holding cards is the durak. A game is one deal, three, five, or play until somebody is the durak three times.
Made for the journey
- No internet, no mobile data. The phones talk to each other directly, so a game carries on through tunnels, ghats and stretches with no signal at all.
- Everyone on their own phone. Nobody passes a handset round, and nobody sees a hand that is not theirs.
- Short of players? Bots take the empty seats, each with a setting for how closely it follows the play.
- A dropped link is not the end of the hand. A phone that loses the connection can join the same table again.
- No sign-in and no real money. Install it, open it, play.
How playing together works, and tips for trains, buses and flights
Features
- Durak for two to six players, each on their own phone, with the 36-card pack or all 52
- Both Podkidnoy and Perevodnoy in the one game, chosen when the table is made
- Attack cards laid out in columns, with the beating card over each, the trump and the stock count
- What is wrong with a raised card said before anything is pressed
- A series: one game, three, five, or until somebody is the durak three times
- Quick game: save a table of bots, and open it in one tap
- Bots to fill any seat
- Connects over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or Google Nearby, with no internet
- No sign-in, no server, no real money