BriscolaHeroes
Classic briscola, the powers of Italian folklore.
Every card is born a woodcut — and earns its portrait by playing.
Classic briscola, the powers of Italian folklore.
Every card is born a woodcut — and earns its portrait by playing.
The game you know. The heroes you don't.
Briscola Heroes is the traditional Italian card game — 40 cards, four suits, every rule your grandparents taught you — with one twist: Aces, Threes and face cards are heroes of regional folklore, each with a unique power fueled by Energy.
The number cards stay exactly as they've always been, so the game you learned at the kitchen table is still right there underneath. But now the Janara can silence your opponent's play, the Befana peeks at their hand, and Pulcinella swaps one of your cards for one of theirs, at random.
Meet the cast
Click a card to see the portrait it earns by playing.
← Drag to explore →
…and 15 more heroes to discover in the game.
One resource rules them all
Every match begins with 2 Energy. Spend it to unleash a hero's power when you play the card.
Only the trick winner earns +1 Energy. Every trick is a fight for the fuel behind your next move.
Energy caps at 8 — hoarding gets you nothing. Time your powers for the tricks that matter.
Out of Energy? Every card still plays as classic briscola. Powers are the bonus, never the barrier.
At most three powers can trigger in a single trick — chains are explosive, but never endless.
A journey through Italy
Each hand is played in one of Italy's great piazzas, and each one changes the game in its own way. Start in Piazza San Marco and travel all the way to the Palio of Siena — twelve piazzas, all unlocked by playing.
The first power played each hand costs 1 less Energy.
Coppe powers cost 1 less Energy.
The Palio: whoever wins trick 10 gains +3 points.
Your voice at the table
Every season new decks join the table. Tell us who deserves a card next.
Thank you! Here's how the table is voting:
A living year
Every season brings its own challenge: a full deck of forty repainted cards, sold only during the event, earned by playing — and kept forever.
The screen goes dark: forty cards in Baroque candlelight, and the Uomo Nero himself knocking on the glass.
The heroes at the Alpine markets, snow and lantern gold. From December 24th to 26th everyone plays with the deck, as a gift.
The Befana's coal comes alive: a deck carved in anthracite and embers.
Twenty regional masks of Italy take the table, from Pantalone to Burlamacco.
New to the game?
Briscola is Italy's best-loved trick-taking card game: 40 cards, four suits and one trump suit — the briscola. Two players, 120 points in the deck, and victory from 61 points up.
The Ace is worth 11 points, the Three 10, the King 4, the Knight 3 and the Jack 2. Every other card is worth zero: the points you capture with your tricks decide the match.
Each player receives three cards, and the next card is turned face up: its suit is the briscola — the trump — for the whole hand. After every trick both players draw back up to three cards.
You are never forced to follow suit. The trick goes to the highest briscola played — or, if nobody played one, to the highest card of the suit that opened. The winner collects the points and leads the next trick.
In Briscola Heroes every one of these rules stays exactly as tradition teaches — the folklore heroes and their powers are the twist on top. Free to play, online, in Italian and English.
History and regional variants of the game: briscola on Wikipedia.
"Everything is earned by playing.
Gameplay is never for sale."
No boosters, no power upgrades, no paid shortcuts — and never ads during a match. Purchases are cosmetic only: the cards you win with are the same cards everyone else has.
Questions, answered
It helps, but no. The base game is classic two-player briscola — 40 cards, 120 points, first to 61 wins — and the app teaches it as you play. If you already know briscola, you'll feel at home in the first hand.
No. All 20 heroes are in every deck from the start, for every player. Powers cost Energy earned during the match, not money. Progression is earned only by playing; purchases are optional cosmetic finishes.
Yes. Matchmaking looks for a human opponent online first. If nobody is available within a few seconds, you play against a folklore character controlled by the game — always clearly labeled, never pretending to be human.
iOS and Android, available now. You can play right away: an anonymous account is created automatically, and you can optionally link Apple or Google to keep your progress safe across devices. Practice matches work offline; online matches need a connection.
Online matches run on servers that cost money every month: ads are what pay for them and keep the game free for everyone. One ad at most every three matches, never during a hand. If you would rather not see them, the Mecenate purchase removes them forever — and supports the servers directly.
Your profile — nickname, avatar, level, statistics, rating — is stored on your device and synced to our servers (Firebase, EU region) to validate online matches and keep rankings fair. The free version shows one ad at most every three matches, never during play — the Mecenate purchase removes them forever. No other tracking, no sale of data. Details in the Privacy Policy.