Bowling rules
Ten frames. Bonuses for strikes and spares. A perfect game is 300.
The strike X scores 10 plus the next two balls (7+3) for 20.
The spare 7/ scores 10 plus the next ball (9) for 19, running total 39.
The open 9- scores 9 as it is, running total 48.
How many frames are in a game?
A game is ten frames, and you get up to two balls in each.
- Strike
- All ten pins on the first throw is a strike. The frame ends there.
- Spare
- Clear all ten across both balls and it is a spare.
- Open frame
- Leave any standing after both balls and it is an open frame.
How bowling is scored
- Open frame
- you score the number of pins you knocked down.
- Spare
- ten, plus the pins from your next one ball.
- Strike
- ten, plus the pins from your next two balls.
- Tenth frame
- A strike or spare in the tenth frame earns bonus balls, up to three deliveries in that frame.
A strike frame is worth up to 30. Three strikes in a row (a turkey) make the first frame 30, and the three frames add up to 60 even if every ball after them misses. Twelve in a row make 300.
Terms
- the gap between the 1 and 3 pins (1 and 2 for left-handers). The best place to strike from.
- Split
- pins left standing with a gap between them. The 7-10 is the hardest of them.
- Gutter
- the ball drops into the channel beside the lane. That ball scores nothing.
- Turkey
- three strikes in a row. This game calls it out on screen.
Modes in this game
- Full game
- Ten frames. Alone or against bots. A perfect game is 300.
- Blitz
- Three frames. Same rules as the full game, with bonus balls in the last frame. A perfect game is 90.
- Spare challenge
- Solo practice. Ten common leaves come up one after another. Knock every pin down with one ball to clear a leave. Your record is how many of the ten you cleared.
The spare challenge deals the ten leaves below in order. The red dots are the pins still standing, and the numbers under each rack are their pin numbers. A few have names that come from their shape — four pins clustered like a pail, the bucket (2-4-5-8); one lonely gap, the baby split (3-10); a diagonal row, the picket fence (1-2-4-7); and one pin at each corner, the 7-10, the hardest of them all.