The Netflix series The Devil’s Plan captivated its audience with a dazzling display of intelligence, cleverness, and teamwork.
The competition series will have audiences’ heads spinning trying to understand the rules of each game. While the overall rules of The Devil’s Plan are clear, each match has its own distinct guidelines and tricks. It’s either fend for yourself or create alliances to advance.
With each Main Match, all the contestants will participate in the hopes of winning more pieces. The downside is that the two players with the lowest pieces are sent to prison and cannot take part in the Prize Match. Pieces are the main way to survive in The Devil’s Plan as the Main Match games could force someone to be eliminated.
The Prize Matches allow all remaining contestants to try and win a new game to add value to the final prize number. The grand prize can be worth up to 500,000,000 won or less depending on how many Prize Matches are won. To help understand the games, here’s a detailed breakdown.
The Virus Game is a game of hidden identities in The Devil’s Plan
Among the 12 contestants, there are some hiding as terrorists seeking to kill off the civilians, as a virus also threatens elimination with some players fighting to uncover who is who.
The best way to describe the Virus Game is it’s similar to the Mafia Game. Each contestant is given a title and responsibilities in the game. The objective is to uncover who has each role in order to weed out the best way to survive and win pieces.
Each contestant picked a number from one through 12. Two terrorists are spreading a virus among the other 10 civilians. If five is infected, the virus spreads to four and six. But among the 10 civilians are two researchers looking for a cure. One who has antibodies and can heal, a police officer, the fanatic, and a reporter. Each player can decide among themselves to reveal who they are or keep it a secret to their advantage.
Each terrorist can save an infected or use a bullet to kill a player. For them to win the game, one of them has to stay alive with the antibody player. If the civilians kill both terrorists, the civilians win. No one will know who has antibodies, not even the player. They can still infect others, but heal after every round. Each player still infected by the next round is killed off.
The researchers complete tasks to create an antidote every round, but only if they find the player with antibodies. If they develop the cure, the civilians win a piece with the researchers gaining an extra. The officer is allowed to kill off a player with every round in the hopes of killing the terrorist. Win or lose, the officer only cares about winning a piece. But the more time in the game without killing the terrorist, the fewer pieces they receive. The fanatic is the same, the earliest it’s killed off, the more pieces it wins. The journal must uncover everyone’s identities, and if still alive gain an extra piece.
The first Prize Match is as simple as a puzzle – but with a twist
While two contestants are in prison, the remaining 10 venture to the Cooperative Puzzle match where teamwork is important in adding value to the final grand prize.
One of the Prize games in The Devil’s Plan involves something as simple as solving a puzzle. Similar to a Roundabout, the contestants pick a number from one to 10. The goal is to solve a puzzle in each round that raises in difficulty. But the Roundabout continuously spins pushing each contestant to try and solve the puzzle before their turn ends.
Here’s the kicker, if a player solves the puzzle, whoever the Roundabout stops at and the puzzle is pointing to wins a piece. This means that the solver of the puzzle doesn’t get anything unless still facing the puzzle by the end of the round. This rule applies for all Prize Matches. If one level ends up in failure, the game is automatically lost and no prize money is added.
The Rules Race is one of the most complex games in The Devil’s Plan
Using a board game, the contestants must advance to win a safety spot from elimination in The Devil’s Plan Episodes 3 and 4.
The only way to win the game is by strategizing their own rules that can be an advantage or disadvantage until crossing the finish line. Each player must create a personal rule using a series of colored blocks. Blocks of the same color cannot be used more than once. The sentence must also be a cause and effect without using the same subject twice.
Furthermore, the sentence must make clear who it’s meant to affect and make sense in the grans scope of the game. Once the rules are registered, the order of players is determined by how many words are used in the personal rule. The one with the least goes first with the others playing rock, paper, scissors.
Each player rolls the dice consisting of one, two, two, three, prison, and escape prison. If in prison, a player cannot leave unless rolling the escape prison side and they are given an extra turn. A special dice consists of one, two, two, three, three, and three. But it’s only used when a special rule is activated. On the board, a player can land in “office.” It allows you to either gain an escape prison card, roll again, or register or change the group rule. The rule applies to all players and must be chosen from each of the three colored sections.
But if a player lands in office thanks to the group rule, they receive no benefits. The first to make it to the finish wins three pieces, with the second getting two, and the third getting one. The 10th place will give up one piece, the twelfth will give up three, and the 12th will give up five. If a player has no pieces by the end, they are eliminated.
A game of memory has the contestants scared in The Devil’s Plan
After the Rules Race, the remaining contestants must use their brains to memorize as many details as possible to add to the grand prize.
One of the games in The Devil’s Plan seems easy enough, but it requires great memory. After one elimination, two more contestants went to prison. The nine remaining contestants took part in the Fragments on Memories game for the Prize Match.
Within 20 minutes, the players must try to remember every detail of a photo. In a separate room, each player will be called to answer questions. Out of 10, one player can answer correctly or give up their pass to the next player and forfeit their turn. One wrong answer is an automatic failure of the game.
The Devil’s Plan Episode 5 is a game of Secret Numbers
The contestants must either trust everyone or no one as they must look for clues on what each other’s numbers are to avoid elimination.
For Episode 5, eleven contestants remained and the Secret Numbers game is one of strategy and trust. Each contestant will go to the dealer to select a numbered card. But not even the contestant will know their number. To figure out their number and each other, they are each given a set of four tickets.
The tickets include addition, multiplication, division, and a zero. To find out information, two players have to agree to go into the booth and forfeit the same card. If using the addition card, they will be given the sum of their numbers. A sum greater than 180, it will be displayed in a range from 180 to 199. If less than 20, the range is three to 20.
The multiplication card only reveals the final digit of the multiplied total. For the division card, the quotient of the larger number is divided by the smaller number. But the remainder will not be included in the number given. The Zero ticket reveals how many zeroes in both of the contestant’s numbers. Using a piece, the contestants can purchase more tickets within the 120-minute time frame.
Here’s the trick. All contestants must fill out an answer sheet with their guesses of their and others’ numbers. If they guess their number correctly, they win five points, if not they lose five points. Each correct guess of another’s number wins points and leaving a person blank has no penalty. But if they guess wrong, they lose a point. Guessing all numbers correctly earns five points total.
The game gets harder. If contestants guess another person’s number correctly, the said player loses points based on how many people were right. The contestants with four or fewer points get a penalty. Four or fewer lose one piece, while negative one or less lose two, and the lowest loses three.
The contestants put their English skills to the test in Episode 6
For the Prize Match, the remaining contestants must work in unison to piece together English words to add to the prize money.
The Word Tower game is simple to understand compared to the Main Match. For this round, the contestants must work together to put together words using wooden blocks. The words have to follow a given theme like animals or cities. Before time runs out, each contestant must stack the word vertically in front of them to win more prize money. Each round is 10 minutes long.
The Devil’s Plan Episode 7 has the contestants think of a necessary strategy
For the following Main Match, the remaining contestants take part in a game called Zoo where certain patterns and combinations can lead to victory.
The Netflix series has developed complex rules for the Zoo game. Each contestant will meet with the dealer to select three random animal cards and a personal condition. The contestants will choose the order of their cards and one card to be revealed to the others. In the game, the cards are snake, lion, parrot, monkey, and elephant.
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Next is the game board made up of 25 tiles and four sets of animals added into beet boxes labeled A and B. Four tiles will be randomly selected from each box and put up for auction with each contestant bidding for their desired list of tiles. The contestant with the highest bid will get to decide the order of the tiles on the board. But there’s a trick. The box with the least bids is the winner and the losing tiles are eliminated.
Each contestant will meet the dealer and decide how many of their 30 coins they will use to bid. Furthermore, the coins are not returned after each bid. For the players to win points, they must strategize the right placement of the tiles on the board to create their pattern horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and also backward. Each match is a given point, but if the contestant meets their personal condition by the end of the game, their points are doubled. Those with two or more points by the end gain a piece while others lose one.
The Scale Game is a perfect opportunity for Mathematicians
In The Devil’s Plan Episode 8, the Scale Game is all about weight and numbers as the contestants must accurately uncover the weight of different cube elements.
For the Prize Match, the contestant must balance a scale using different weighted colored cubes while also figuring out each of the colors given weights. Each team is given two cubes of red, yellow, green, blue, and purple with each cube possibly weighing between one and 20 grams. They are given a clue about one cube.
By placing the cubes on the scale, the contestants can deduce their weight while trying to keep it balanced. A secondary scale is used to help determine clues, but doesn’t need to be balanced or matter in the final outcome. The numbers the contestants choose are in the order they go. Each contestant has five minutes to place two cubes on the scale. While placing cubes on the scale, both sides cannot have the same pattern. If the contestants balance the scale and calculate each weight correctly, they win more prize money.
A game of territory and Tetris leads to a battle in The Devil’s Plan
Laying Grass is the fifth Main Match game in The Devil’s Plan where contestants must use Tetris pieces to create a territory fulfilling a certain parameter to not be eliminated.
Using grass Tetris pieces, the contestant must develop a territory to create the largest square. Choosing randomly the order they go in, each contestant will be given an initial piece to start and a face tile. There are a total of 96 pieces in a given order and each contest follows the order on their turn. But each contestant is also given a tile exchange coupon.
They can choose any tile of the next five. The tile after the chosen one becomes the next contestant’s, but the preceding tiles before the chosen one cannot be used until all following tiles have been used. Exchanging a piece buys an exchange card. When placing the first tile on the board, it must touch at least one side of the contestant’s face tile. All following touching tiles placed by the contestant become their territory.
On the board are special benefits. If a contestant encloses the benefit with their tiles they win that benefit and the tole becomes part of their territory. The benefits include winning a piece, stealing a tile, or a stone piece that doesn’t allow other contestants to use the space. To avoid elimination, the contestants must create a 5×5 square. A 6×6 square wins them a piece while a 7×7 wins them two. An 8×8 wins them three and any contestant who fails to get to 5×5 gives up one piece. A 3×3 territory forfeits two and a 2×2 loses three.
The Devil’s Plan has the contestants memorizing faces in Episode 9
While two contestants are in prison, the remaining take part in the Montage game for the fifth Prize Match.
The Prize Match rules always seem to be easier to understand. For Montage, each contestant receives a buzzer. They must look at a series of faces and try to memorize them as much as possible within three seconds. If they see the same face again, they press the buzzer. The player that presses the fastest wins a piece. If they are wrong they are penalized a point, but the game continues. When the total points reach below negative ten, the game has failed. If no one presses their buzzer on a duplicate, the game also ends.
Si-won and Seok-jin play a Secret Chamber game to win pieces
Having strategized to go to prison together after the Laying Grass game, Seok-jin and Si-won uncover a secret chamber where they can play Blind Gomoku for 10 pieces or elimination.
Both contestants were in cahoots from the start, with Seok-jin learning the passcode to the prison safe using the combined pieces. They find a secret chamber and a door. The door led to failure or salvation as only one palyer could play Blind Gomoku each day.
The rules of the game are not so easy. On a grid, the one contestant will play against an unknown staff player. Each one will either play as black or white using pieces placed on the grid. But the trick is how the pieces look. The objective of the game is to get five of the same black or white pieces in a row or diagonal or parallel.
But the player has to remember where they placed the pieces as each piece is a different color and shown on the top and sides. Only the bottom of the piece shows they true black or white color and is blind to the player. If the contestant gets to five pieces in a row first, they win 10 pieces. If the staff player wins first, the contestant is eliminated.
Equation Hi-Lo is a game of mathematical poker
For the sixth main match, the remaining contestants took part in a poker-style game where they had to create a mathematical equation to get close to one or 20, and then bet against the others.
It’s time for some poker but with a brain-teasing twist. Equation Hi-Lo is similar to poker but the contestants are given number cards and plus, minus, division, multiplication, and a square root card. Based on what they receive, they have to formulate an equation closest to one of 20. They then best high or low based on the results of their equation.
Each contestant must give pieces worth five betting chips and receive three cards – addition, subtraction, and division. Contestants will also receive four cards from one through 10, each colored gold, bronze, black, or silver. The color of the card also helps later on determine the final worth and winner.
One ante bet will be made by each player before receiving their hidden card. Only the player can see the card. If the card is a multiplication or square root, they must give up the card until they get a number. Two more open cards are dealt for everyone to see. If one of the cards is a square root, they receive another number card.
When an open card is a multiplication, the player must give up one of their addition, subtraction cards, or multiplication card for a number. The same applies if the player gets a second multiplication or square root as their second open card, they discard it until they get a number. The round begins when a player makes their desired bet. The following player can either match or raise the bet. But the bet cannot exceed the lowest amount of chips a player has. A player can also fold and not take part in the game.
After everyone has the same bet or fold, they are given their open card and make their equations. They then get a 20 or one chip in their hand to bet high or low. Among the low betters, the person closest to one wins, the same goes for the high betters. The game continues until contestants with no more chips are eliminated.
Four Player Three in a Row is like Connect-Four
On a four-by-four grid, the contestants must use stacked colored blocks to get a set of three, while also working against an unknown player.
The Four Player Three in a Row game was one of the board games in the living room. For the game, the contestants aim to be the first to place three same-colored pieces in a row. The last three contestants are joined by an unknown fourth player. Each contestant will play the game on their own in a room seeing the results of the other players. For each round, each contestant’s colored blocks will be switched, as well as the order.
The rules are rather easy to follow. During the player’s turn, they can place a new piece or move a piece on the board. Players can stack their colored block on another piece, but cannot exceed the three-piece height limit on one square. Only the current top piece counts and can be moved, only if it’s their corresponding colored piece. The piece can be moved one square in any direction. If a player cannot move their colored piece or place one, they pass their turn.
In the end, the contestants must win all rounds against the mystery player to win. The person who wins each round gets pieces, and the person who doesn’t gets eliminated.
The Devil’s Plan finale games test the contestants’ strategy
Only two contestants remain, and to find the winner they take part in the Nine Men’s Morris, Hexagon, and Dice Poker.
Nine Men’s Morris was another board game in the living room. Each player is given nine white or black markers. After each round, the player with the most markers chooses who goes first. Each player must place a marker on one of the designated spots on the board. If a player gets three in a row, they can remove one of their opponent’s markers.
But if the opponent has three together in a line, they cannot be taken away, and the player must choose another marker. They also cannot move a marker once on the board until all markers have been placed. When they are, the player can only move the marker to a neighboring dot. Once a player has three pieces left, they can move on the board freely until they get a straight line to eliminate the other’s markers. Once one player has more of the opponent’s markers, they win the round.
Hexagon throws anyone into trouble if they don’t have a good memory. On a hexagon grid, the players are given a series of numbers they must try to memorize before time’s up. The numbers will be replaced by letters and a Target number is revealed. Each player must hit the buzzer and say three letters that could add up to the Target number. Each right answer is a point, and every wrong is minus a point. The players must also try and find all possibilities before going to the next round and have the most points.
The final two contestants were unable to play the Dice Poker game, as the results of Hexagon had a clear winner.
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