How to play Penalty Bluff
One rule decides every kick: both players pick a zone in secret, and if the picks match, it is a save. This page covers that rule and everything built on it.
The kick
The shooter taps a zone and confirms with Shoot!; the keeper taps a zone and confirms with Dive!. Neither sees the other's pick until both are locked in. Same zone: saved. Different zones: goal.
There is no aiming, timing or luck in the result. A keeper who guessed right always saves, and a shooter who went the other way always scores. You swap roles every kick.
Zones
The goal is split into zones in a row: three in Classic, five in Pro. They are numbered left to right as seen from behind the ball, so zone 1 is on the left whether you shoot or keep. Online, both phones show the same view, so zone 1 means the same to both of you.
More zones means more goals: with random picks, the keeper would save one kick in three in Classic and one in five in Pro.
Match formats
Shootout
The default: five kicks each (or three), taking turns. It stops as soon as one side can no longer catch up: in a shootout of five, 3–0 after three kicks each is over, because the trailing player has only two kicks left.
Level after the regular kicks, it goes to sudden death in pairs, in the same order as before. If one player scores and the other does not, the match ends after that pair; otherwise another pair follows. Missing first is not the end: the other player still has to score.
First to N goals
A race to 3, 5 or 10. The score is checked at the end of every pair, so the second shooter always gets to answer. The match ends mid-pair only when the reply can no longer change anything: in a race to 3, 3–1 after the first shooter's kick is over, but 3–2 is not. Level on 3–3 or more, it continues in pairs until one side leads at the end of a pair.
Who shoots first
A coin toss on screen decides. In a rematch, the other player starts.
Tricks
Tricks are an optional rule, switched on in the match settings. Once per match, the keeper can use a long reach: a dive that covers two neighbouring zones, aimed by tapping between them. Once per match, the shooter can use a power shot, which beats a long reach. Against a normal dive into its zone, a power shot is saved like any shot. The scoreboard shows which tricks each side still has.
| Keeper | Normal shot | Power shot |
|---|---|---|
| Normal dive, right zone | Saved | Saved |
| Normal dive, wrong zone | Goal | Goal |
| Long reach, ball in its two zones | Saved | Goal |
| Long reach, ball elsewhere | Goal | Goal |
In Classic, a long reach spans zones 1–2 or 2–3, so it always covers the centre. Timing is a game of its own: see when to use the power shot and the long reach.
Modes
Play vs computer: quick match
Choose the zones, the format, tricks on or off, and an opponent: Rookie, Amateur, Pro or Legend.
Play vs computer: career
A ladder of computer rivals. League 1 has six rivals and a Cup final with Classic rules; League 2 has six more and a Cup final, with tricks. Each win unlocks the next rival, and the League 1 Cup opens League 2.
Every rival has a habit you can work out. Some also give themselves away: a shooter glances towards a zone, a keeper shifts his weight. Some tells are honest, some lie. Before you win you see a rival's name, level and whether he gives himself away with a glance; beat him and his dossier opens, naming the habit.
Two players: take turns
Two people, one phone. The first player picks, then a Pass the phone screen covers everything until the second taps It's me and picks. Picking makes no sound, so nobody can hear where you went. Both picks are revealed together.
Online
Online matches use Classic rules: three zones, a shootout of five, tricks on. Each pick has a 10-second clock.
Random opponent pairs you with another player who is waiting. If nobody turns up after a short wait, the game says so and offers Play a bot instead. The bot is labelled as a bot and never passed off as a person.
Play a friend creates a room with a six-character code and an invite link like penaltybluff.com/r/K7P2MQ. The link opens the game right in the browser, with no install and no account; or your friend types the code under Join by code. Codes skip 0, O, 1, I and L, so they are hard to misread. A rematch needs both players to agree, and the other player shoots first. A room closes after an hour without activity.
How the computer plays
The computer is honest. It picks at the start of the kick, before you do, and seals its pick; that is what "Opponent has picked" means. It never sees your choice. Against a truly random player, any level saves one kick in three on average in Classic, no more.
People are not random, though. Several small predictors each guess your next pick a different way: how often you use each zone, what you do after a goal or a save, whether you switch after going the same way twice. The computer trusts whichever have been right about you lately, dives where you are most likely to shoot and shoots where you are least likely to dive. Now and then it picks at random, so it cannot be read back.
The Rookie has one fixed habit and does not learn. Amateur, Pro and Legend read you with more predictors at each level, and Pro and Legend remember your picks from earlier matches on this device. To fight back, read how to read your rival.
Coins and the locker room
Matches pay coins: for playing, more for winning, and extra for goals, saves, a goal down the middle, a clean sheet and a first win over a career rival. Quick back-to-back rematches pay less.
Coins buy kits for your keeper and shooter, and balls, in the Locker room, at 150 to 600 coins. A few items also need a player level or a league Cup. You can try anything on first. It is all cosmetic: nothing that affects a kick is sold.
There are no accounts. Progress is stored on your device, in the browser on the web, so clearing the site's data resets it.
Filming and sharing
Clean frame for filming, in Settings, hides hints and buttons around the goal. You lock a pick by tapping the same zone twice.
After a match, Share makes a result card: the score and each player's row of kicks as goals and saves, with no picks shown, so it spoils nothing. Against the computer it also says how many of your kicks it read. After a match against the computer or online, if one of your habits is too strong to be chance, the end screen names it in a short scout report.
Rules questions
What happens if time runs out online?
The server picks a random zone for you, never with a trick, and the kick goes ahead. Miss three picks in a row and it is a technical defeat. If neither player picks on the first kick, the match is cancelled and does not count.
What if my connection drops?
The game reconnects and puts you back in your seat. The clock keeps running, and a player who is offline for two picks in a row loses on a technical defeat.
Can a match end in a draw?
No. Shootouts go to sudden death and races continue in pairs until someone leads. Only an online match that is cancelled because neither player picks in time has no winner.
What if both tricks meet on one kick?
The power shot wins: it is a goal, whichever zones the reach covers.
That is the whole rulebook. The rest is reading people.