How to actually play Gonggi, the Squid Game trial with rules leaving us stumped

It’s actually incredibly simple once you get the rules down

1 day ago | UPDATED 18 seconds ago

Red Light, Green Light is easy to follow, and the Dalgona trial is pretty self-explanatory, but the rules and motions of Squid Game’s Gonggi have a lot of us stumped.

Most of us were addicted to Squid Game in 2021 because the unique trials almost always had fatal consequences. Almost always this involved a spray of bullets from the masked guards, but once in a while, we got death by falling or by physical fight. Season two of Netflix’s hit show is more of the same, with new games being introduced to keep us on the edge of our seats.

In episode three, Seong Gi-hun and his fellow competitors were forced to take part in a six-legged pentathlon which involved completing five separate mini-games that are popular in South Korea. These included Ddajki, the envelope game The Recruiter uses, flying stones, spinning top, and Jegi, a game that involves kicking a toy in the air.

The other mini-game is Gonggi, spelt Gong-gi on the show’s subtitles.

What are the rules Gonggi and how do you play?

I’m not going to lie, I watched the six-legged pentathlon a number of times and struggled to grasp the concept of Gonggi, which only became more difficult when Kang Dae-ho did what could only be described as sorcery. Seriously, how was he so good?

As explained in the Netflix show and in the YouTube tutorial above, Gonggi is a playground game with five distinct stages. Each time you pick up one of the five stones, you need to throw the ones in your palm in the air first. Naturally, it requires great hand-eye coordination.

Below is an easy-to-follow guide:

Round one: Drop the stones and then pick them up one by one while ensuring you chuck them in the air each time
Round two: Drop the stones and then pick them up two at a time, again chucking them up in the air in between pickups
Round three: After dropping the stones again, pick three up at once and then the remaining one in between throwing
Round four: Throw one stone in the air and then immediately drop the other four. You need to catch the thrown stone before picking the others back up
Round five: With all five stones in your hand, throw them up, flip your hand over, and then catch them on your fingers
The last stage of the game is to throw the five stones up from your fingers and catch them in your palm.

Dae-ho: a Gonggi professional 🙆🏻‍♀️ #SquidGame2 pic.twitter.com/QVyWcCzLeR

— Squid Game (@squidgame) December 29, 2024

The only punishment for losing is a deep shame, but if you want to live your Squid Game fantasy you could ask a family member to hold you at gunpoint.

Squid Game is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Featured image credit: Netflix