Decrypto

Your team can see its four words. The other team can only see what you say about them, and they write every word down.

Players3–8, standard game: 4 to 8 Wherearound one table Gearthe box, two note sheets, pens Moodbrainy, competitive

Verdict: good with the right crowd Einar · 1 rules simulation · updated August 3, 2026 · 30 minutes a game

How to play Decrypto

Try a round Ways to play

Goal: Transmit codes to your team while learning enough from the opposing clues to intercept theirs. Two Interception tokens win; two Miscommunication tokens lose.
Set up: For the standard game, split 4 to 8 players into two teams. Each team hides four numbered keywords behind a screen, takes a code deck and note sheet, and chooses its first Encryptor.
Play: Each Encryptor draws a three-digit code and gives three public clues in that order. Both teams write a guess; from round two onward, the opponent reads its interception guess first. Reveal the code, award tokens, and file each clue under its actual number.
Finish: Complete both teams' turns before checking victory. End when a team reaches two Interceptions or two Miscommunications, or after round eight. If endings collide, score each Interception as plus one and each Miscommunication as minus one, then guess opposing keywords if still tied.
Easy to miss: Clues must use public meaning and be clearly separated. Do not use spelling, pronunciation, screen position, private references, a keyword or its translation. A clue cannot be changed after reading or reused later.

Rules sourceScorpion Masqué: Decrypto English rulebookChecked August 3, 2026

Try a round: The sheet

The other team’s screen, back to you, and their note sheet with nothing on it. Press next and listen to a round.

You're on the white team. Here are your words

Behind your screen are four words, numbered 1 to 4. Say they're OCEAN, PIANO, CANDLE and STAMP. Your whole team can see them for the whole game. The other team never can. That's the setup. Everything after this is people talking.

Each round one of you is the Encryptor. You draw a card with a three-digit code on it, three of those four numbers in some order, like 4-2-3. Your job is to say three clues out loud, in that order, so your teammates can work out the code. For 4-2-3 you might say "envelope, keys, wax." Your team hears envelope and thinks stamp, so 4. Keys, piano, 2. Wax, candle, 3. They write down 4-2-3, you flip the card, they're right, and nothing happens. Nothing happening is good.

Now do it again, because the other team wrote that down

The other team heard "envelope, keys, wax" too. They don't know your words, but once the code is revealed they know envelope meant 4, keys meant 2 and wax meant 3, and they write each one under its number on their sheet.

From round two onward, before your team says its guess, the other team says theirs. If they hit your code exactly, they take an Interception token. Two of those and they've won. If your own team gets your code wrong, you take a Miscommunication token. Two of those and you've lost.

So the second time you have to clue STAMP, "envelope" is gone, since a clue can never be reused, and "postage" would sit right next to it on their sheet. Something like "collector" still points at stamp for a teammate who can see the word, and means very little to a team whose column 4 says only "envelope." Every round the sheet across the table gets fuller, and your clues have to get stranger without losing your own people.

The rules you need before the first clue

Clues are about meaning. No spelling, no rhymes, no "the one on the left."
You can't say the word, a translation of it, or anything only your team would get.
Say the three clues separately and in order. "Envelope. Keys. Wax." Not a sentence.
Once a clue is out loud it stays. No take-backs, and no using it again later.

How it ends

Let both teams finish the round before you check. Two Interceptions wins, two Miscommunications loses. If nobody has won by the end of round eight, or both things happen in the same round, count each Interception as plus one and each Miscommunication as minus one. Still level? Each team guesses the other's four words.

Only three of you? The box has a version for that. Two people encrypt, and the third tries to intercept them twice inside five rounds.

We've played this once, as a controlled rules simulation with four people rather than a real night, so this page can teach you the rules and can't yet tell you how it feels at a table. The words above are practice words, not anyone's game.