How to Play the Mastermind Board Game

Codemaker vs Codebreaker 2 players ages 8 and up

The Mastermind game has been around since the 1970s and is still on the market today for good reason. It is a challenging game of logic and deduction. It is also the game that my 12 year old can beat me at—and won’t let me forget. Mastermind fits right in with our puzzle solving games like Codenames, Word Hunter and Mystery Train.

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The Mastermind Pieces

First, Mastermind is a two player game. We’ve tried playing with teams but it really only works as a two player game.

The game board is simple with a hidden 4 hole area and slots for guesses. There are pegs in 6 different colours. There are also smaller pegs to give clues with.

Setting Up

The set up is the easy part. The Codemaker chooses four coloured pegs and places them in the hidden slots.

Playing

Now comes the hard part: figuring out the code. The codebreaker chooses four pegs and places them in the first open slot in the order that she thinks is the code.

Next, the codemaker will give clues. He will put a white peg in if the colour is correct but not the spot. A red peg shows that a peg is the right colour and in the right spot.

After, looking at the response, the codebreaker will then guess again. Following that, the codemaker will again indicate how many pegs are the right colour and how many are in the right spot.

This continues until either the codebreaker correctly guesses the code or runs out of guesses.

Scoring Mastermind

The player who is the codemaker gets one point for every guess row that the codebreaker uses. If the codebreaker uses all 10 rows and still hasn’t broken the code, the codemaker gets 11 points.

On the other hand, if the codebreaker can point out any mistakes his opponent made in the clues that were given, the codebreaker gets 3 points and the round is played over.

The score is kept by using the extra set of holes on the side of the board.

Second Round

After the score of the first round has been done, all the pegs are returned to the bins on the side and the players switch roles. The codebreaker is now the codemaker and the fun starts all over again.

Winning Mastermind

The player who is the first player to reach 30 points is the winner.

Alternatively, you can play to a certain number of rounds and the player with the most points at the end of those rounds is the winner.

Changing the Difficulty Level

To make Mastermind a little easier, make the rule that the codemaker can’t reuse the same colour in the code. So if the first colour is pink then pink can’t be used again in that code.

On the other hand, if you want to make Mastermind even more challenging, the codemaker can leave one or more spaces empty. This is treated like another colour, adding to the difficulty.

What We Like

We love that this game is rather simple but challenging at the same time. It really makes you think and plan but in a fun way. Also, we like that we can play a full game or even just one code depending on the time you have.

What We Don’t Like

First, depending on who you are playing with, the codebreaker’s turn can be very long. (This can be a good thing if you’re trying to do a non-thinking task at the same time.) On the other hand, this can make it boring for the codemaker.

Second, in our copy of this game, the clue pegs are very small and rather hard to manipulate.

Is Mastermind Worth Adding to your Family Game Shelf?

Mastermind is a game of skill and scientific thinking—without knowing it. My kids love the fact that they can stump the grown ups. The joy and pride they take in besting us brings mixed feels of pride and sorrow—they have grown so much and are so smart now. If you have kids over the age of 8 we highly recommend adding Mastermind to your Family Game Shelf.

You can get your copy of Mastermind here. Canadians can get their Mastermind here.

Other games to play if your kids love puzzle games are Word Hunter, Clue Jr, and our line of print-and-play escape rooms all with fun themes like Puppies, campfire and road trip. Check them out in our Family Game Shelf shop here.

If you’re looking for more games for your shelf, read our reviews here. And check out our dice games and cards games too.

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