YOUR FIRST TABLE

One game.
Step by step.

Start with a solo game against four bots to learn the controls at your own pace. This walkthrough explains what to look for on the table and why a move might be legal. Keep the complete rules nearby for special cases.

Open a practice game

Open Dead Last in your browser and follow the prompts to choose your player name. Choose the main Play action to open solo setup. You play against four bots, so you can practise without organising a room or waiting for other people. The browser needs an internet connection to load the game initially.

Arrange your visible cards

In setup, select one card from your hand and one from the face-up row, then use Swap to exchange them. Repeat if you want another swap, or keep the deal as it is. Use Start Game when your arrangement is ready. The face-down row is deliberately hidden.

Try leaving a 2 or 10 face-up if you are dealt one. They can be played on any pile later, making them useful when you reach the table-card stage. You do not have to make this swap to play; it is simply a helpful first experiment.

Read the table before selecting a card

The opponent panels tell you who is still in the match and show their public table cards. Your hand is below your two table rows. In the middle, distinguish the draw pile from the discard pile: drawing replenishes your hand, while the discard pile determines legal moves.

In the screenshot, the visible top card is a 3, and the recent-turn text says Casey played two 3s after Jo played two 9s. The 3s are invisible, so the earlier 9 still sets the ordinary rank requirement. From the displayed hand of 7, queen and jack, the queen and jack can beat that 9; the 7 cannot. Looking only at the visible 3 would give you the wrong answer.

Make your first move

Wait for your turn, select a legal card from your hand, then use Play. If you hold several cards of the same rank, you can select and play those together. Selecting a queen and a jack together does not form a legal group, even if either is legal on its own.

For that screenshot, playing the jack keeps the higher queen for later. The draw pile shows one card remaining, so the game draws that card to replenish the hand. Once the draw pile runs out, the focus changes: cards you shed are no longer automatically replaced.

Practise a pickup and a burn

If you have no legal move, use the pickup action to take the pile into your hand. It is a normal part of the game, not the end of the match. On later turns, matching ranks can help you shed that larger hand efficiently.

When you play a 10, watch the discard pile disappear. You get another action if you still have cards. An empty pile lets you play any rank, so this is a chance to clear a low card that was difficult to play before the burn.

Notice when your playable row changes

Your face-up cards become available only after the draw pile and your hand are empty. Your face-down cards come last. Choose one hidden card at a time; an illegal reveal means picking up the pile and clearing the new hand before continuing with hidden cards.

Once your last card is legally resolved and no cards remain in any of your rows, you are safe. The other active players continue until only one remains. You do not need to be the first player out to avoid being Dead Last.

What to try in your next game

Pay attention to one idea at a time: first the effective top under a 3, then the lower rule after a 7, then the extra action after a burn. When those feel familiar, read the strategy guide or invite friends to a private room.