← Rock Paper Scissors Ninja

How to Play: the Complete Rules

Updated August 2026 · Reading time ~4 minutes

Rock Paper Scissors Ninja is a hidden-information strategy board game for iPhone — the schoolyard duel everybody already knows, played as a battle of armies in the same family as Stratego. Every rule below is exactly what ships in the game.

The numbers: a 7×6 board, 14 pieces per player — 12 fighters (4 rock, 4 paper, 4 scissors), 1 flag, 1 trap — one square of movement per turn, and a 15-second turn clock online. Most matches finish in a few minutes.

What kind of game is this?

Each side fields 12 weapon-carrying ninjas plus a stationary flag and a stationary trap. You see your own weapons; your opponent sees only identical soldiers. The goal: find and capture their flag before they find yours.

Only you can see your own ninjas' weapons One hidden square is a trap

How does setup work?

How do pieces move and fight?

What happens on a tie?

Same weapon on both sides? Both players secretly pick again and the pieces clash a second time, repeating until someone wins. The winner keeps the weapon it won with — a tie is the one way a fighter can change its weapon mid-match.

How does the trap work?

Step on an enemy trap and your piece is destroyed instantly. The trap is never revealed and never consumed — it keeps catching attackers all match. Since flags and traps both never move, reading which motionless piece is which is the heart of the game.

How do you win?

Capture the enemy flag (immediate win) or eliminate every enemy piece. Bluffing matters: let them believe your scissors are a rock, park fighters as fake flags, and watch which of their pieces never moves.

Who can you play?

Free to download and play; this version has no ads and no in-app purchases. Currently on the Israeli App Store. גרסה עברית של המשחק והדף הראשי — בעמוד הבית.

Download on the App Store