Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock Online: How to Play, All 10 Rules and the Hand Signs

Rock paper scissors has one well-known problem: between two people who know each other, it ties a lot. With only three throws, there is a one-in-three chance of a draw every round. Rock paper scissors lizard Spock fixes that by adding two more throws, which drops the chance of a tie to one in five and makes every throw beat two others and lose to two others. It is also a lot more fun to say out loud.

This guide covers where the game came from, how to play lizard Spock with all ten rules, how to make the two new hand signs, and how to play rock paper scissors lizard Spock online with your real hand in Rock Paper Shoot.

Where rock paper scissors lizard Spock comes from

The five-gesture version was invented by Sam Kass and Karen Bryla, who wanted a version of the game with fewer ties. It reached a huge audience in 2008, when Sheldon Cooper explained it in an episode of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory — complete with the famous breathless recital of all ten rules — and it has been a geek-culture staple ever since.

Spock, of course, is the half-Vulcan science officer from Star Trek, and his hand sign is the Vulcan salute: the hand held up flat, with the fingers split into two pairs — index and middle together, ring and pinky together — and a wide gap between the middle and ring fingers. It traditionally comes with the words “live long and prosper”. The lizard is a simpler, more homemade sign: your hand shaped like a sock puppet’s mouth. (Star Trek and The Big Bang Theory are mentioned here only as the origin of the references; Rock Paper Shoot is not affiliated with either.)

How to play lizard Spock: the ten rules

Every throw beats exactly two others and loses to the other two. Here is the complete set, with the verb for each — the game announces the winner the same way, as in “Spock vaporizes rock”.

The order above is the traditional recital, and it chains: each line’s loser is the next line’s winner, which is what makes it possible to rattle off in one breath. Every one of the ten pairings appears exactly once, and a draw only happens when both players pick the same throw.

An easier way to remember it

Ten rules sound like a lot, but you only need to remember two things for each throw: what it beats.

• Rock beats scissors and lizard — it crushes both.
• Paper beats rock and Spock — it covers rock and disproves Spock.
• Scissors beats paper and lizard — it cuts paper and decapitates lizard.
• Lizard beats Spock and paper — it poisons Spock and eats paper.
• Spock beats scissors and rock — he smashes scissors and vaporizes rock.

If you prefer pictures, place the five throws round a circle in the order rock, scissors, lizard, paper, Spock: each throw beats the next two along the circle and loses to the two before it.

Making the lizard and Spock hand signs

Rock, paper and scissors stay exactly as you know them. The two new signs are:

• Lizard — the sock puppet. Keep your four fingers straight and together, then bring your thumb up underneath so the thumb tip touches the tips of your index or middle finger. From the side it looks like a little mouth.
• Spock — the Vulcan salute. Hold your hand up flat with all four fingers straight, keep index and middle pressed together and ring and pinky pressed together, and open a clear V-shaped gap between the middle and ring fingers. Thumb out is fine.

The Vulcan salute is famously tricky; plenty of people can only do it on one hand, or need to hold the fingers in place with the other hand first. Practise in front of a mirror for a minute and it usually clicks.

How the webcam recognises lizard and Spock

In Rock Paper Shoot your webcam finds 21 points on your hand — every knuckle, joint and fingertip — on your own device, and a small geometric classifier decides which throw you are making. For the classic three it simply checks which fingers are straight and which are curled. The two new signs need a little more:

• Spock is “paper, plus a gap”. The game measures the sideways gap between each pair of neighbouring fingers. If all four fingers are straight and the middle–ring gap is much wider than the gaps on either side (and wide enough on its own, relative to the size of your palm), it reads Spock. A flat hand with evenly spread fingers is still paper.
• Lizard is “fingers together, thumb at the tips”. It checks that your thumb tip is touching or nearly touching the index or middle fingertip, that your fingers are close together, and that they are mostly straight — so a fist, where the thumb also sits near the fingers, does not count as a puppet.

All of these are measured as ratios within your own hand, so it works with either hand, at any distance from the camera and at a natural tilt. A small preview window shows the throw it is reading before SHOOT, so you can adjust your Vulcan gap until it turns into Spock. Without a camera, keys 4 and 5 (or the on-screen buttons) throw lizard and Spock.

Playing rock paper scissors lizard Spock online

Lizard-Spock is a switch on the main menu — Classic (3) or Lizard-Spock (5) — and it applies to every mode:

• Classic Duel — best of five against the computer glove, on a “Rock… Paper… Scissors… SHOOT!” beat.
• Reflex — the glove throws first and you must BEAT IT, LOSE TO IT or TIE IT before the timer runs out. With five throws there are two right answers for “beat it” and “lose to it”, but you have to work out which two, fast.
• Online duel — create a room, send the invite link or code to a friend, and both of you throw on a shared beat. The room creator picks Classic or Lizard-Spock for both players.

One detail worth knowing: in the classic three-throw mode, a Vulcan salute counts as paper (it is an open hand, after all), and a lizard does not count as a throw at all. So if you switch back from Lizard-Spock, your Spock habit will not cost you a round, but your sock puppet will. The modes themselves are compared in duel mode vs multiplayer mode, and the tracking in general in an online rock paper scissors game with real hand tracking.

Live long and play

Rock paper scissors lizard Spock started as a fix for too many ties and became a piece of pop culture. Playing it with your real hand is the best way to learn the rules — after a few rounds of the glove announcing “Lizard poisons Spock”, they stick. It is free, runs in your browser, and needs no download or account. Play Rock Paper Shoot and flip on Lizard-Spock.