Full guide: trump, attack and defence, throwing in and drawing cards, and how to avoid being the durak. Controls on muta.pro and tactics for beginners.
Durak is a card game played with a 36-card deck. The goal is to be the first to get rid of all the cards in your hand. Players take turns attacking the opponent, who defends. Once the draw deck runs out, the player whose hand empties first wins. Whoever is left holding cards last is the durak. In a two-player game a draw is also possible — if both run out of cards at the same time.
Each player is dealt six cards. The bottom card of the deck is turned face up and placed crosswise under the draw pile — its suit becomes the trump suit and beats any other suit. On muta.pro you play as the fox 🦊, the opponent as the octopus 🐙. On the left you can see who is attacking and who is defending, how many cards are left in the deck and what the trump is.
During your attack phase, click a card in your hand — it goes onto the table as an attacking card. Your opponent must beat it. On muta.pro you attack and defend in turn, the roles switching round after round.
When defending, click the card you beat with: a higher card of the same suit or any trump. The defending card is placed over the attacking one at a slight angle.
A card beats an attack if it is of the same suit and higher in rank, or if it is a trump while the attack was not. A trump always beats a non-trump card.
If every card on the table has been beaten, you may throw in more — but only of ranks already on the table. A round holds up to six attack–defence pairs on the table.
Beaten everything on the table — press ✓ Beaten and the cards go to the discard pile. Couldn’t beat it — press 🖐 Take and pick up everything on the table into your hand.
After each round, hands are replenished from the deck up to six cards (while it still has cards). Once the deck runs out, there is no more drawing — it becomes a race to an empty hand.
A few typical attack–defence pairs on the table. The trump in the examples is hearts ♥; trump cards are marked with a gold border. The defending card lies over the attacker at a slant — just as in the game.
The game continues until the draw deck runs out and someone’s hand becomes empty. Victory (You won!) if you have run out of cards while the opponent still has some. Defeat (You are the durak) if you are the last one left holding cards. If both got rid of their cards at the same time — a draw 🤝. There is no point score: all that matters is who empties their hand first.
Don’t beat small attacks with trumps — save them for big cards and decisive rounds.
While drawing is still on, play off your weak cards in attacks so you end up with a strong hand at the finish.
Keep track of how many trumps have come out. If you hold the highest trump, you control the endgame.
Taking cards is costly — your hand grows. Sometimes it is better to give up one card than to pick up the whole table.
Every beat is a trade: you spend one of your cards so you don't have to pick up someone else's. A weak player thinks "what can I beat this with", a strong one thinks "what does it cost me". Beat with the smallest sufficient card of the same suit and preserve the gap in rank.
An attacking 8♠ can be beaten with either the nine or the king. Beat it with the nine — the king will come in handy in your own attack.
If a card can be beaten by either a low or a high card, always take the lower one of the same suit. Save your high cards and trumps for your own attack and the endgame.
Beating with a non-trump card is almost always better: an ordinary suit is easily replenished on the draw, whereas trumps decide who beats last once the deck runs out.
If you can only beat the attacking card with a trump and the opponent can still add more — it is often better to pick up one card than to burn two or three trumps on a mixed-suit pile.
A pair of cards of the same suit is safer than a lone ace: a singleton gets knocked out, but with a pair you beat twice and spend no trump.
Covering a small non-trump card with a trump early in the game is a gift to your opponent. Save that trade for the endgame, when a trump equals tempo.
In pass-on Durak, defence isn't only about beating. With a card of the same rank as the one in the attack, you pass the attack on to the next player without spending a single card to beat it. But passing on is a double-edged move.
Against an attacking 6♦ you add your own 6♣ — the attack "on sixes" moves on to the next player instead of being beaten.
Passing on is especially valuable when you have nothing to beat with but you hold a spare card of the attacking rank. You get rid of a card and hand the problem to your neighbour.
Passing on increases the number of cards in the attack. If the next player beats it and adds cards of their own, even more cards may come back to you than before.
Passing on with a trump in the endgame flips the roles: you discard a trump and force the defence onto an opponent who has few cards left.
You may only add ranks already on the table. Hold such cards in advance to finish off a defender who is running out of trumps.
If the opponent has 1–2 cards and no draw left, a pile-in of mixed ranks will almost certainly force them to take.
Once no cards are left in the deck, there is no more drawing — and the price of every card rises sharply. Here the winner is not the one with the stronger hand, but the one who counted the trumps that came out and knows whose trump is the last.
If the trump ace and king haven't come out yet, their holder dictates the endgame: they beat last and add the finishing card.
Keep track of how many trumps have been played and which high ones remain. There are only eight or nine in a game — that is genuinely countable.
Before the deck runs out, discard lone cards of "dead" suits: in the endgame, without a pair, you only take with them.
In the endgame it matters who attacks. Sometimes it's worth taking an extra card earlier to seize the attack at the right moment.
Most losses in Durak are not bad luck but typical errors in judging a card's price. Here are the ones that cost games most often: