Here’s How To Play Gonggi From Squid Game Season 2
Do you have the skills to survive the Korean children’s game going viral on TikTok?
Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers for the Squid Game Season 2.
The second season of Squid Game upped the stakes with new players attempting to survive the deadly tournament. While Red Light, Green Light makes a bloody return as the first trial, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and the rest of the contestants are forced to play all-new games for the remainder of their time.
The Netflix drama takes inspo from popular children’s activities in Korea. Some of the games from Season 1 are well-known in the U.S., like tug-of-war and marbles, but the second trial in Episodes 4 and 5 of Season 2 revolve around a six-legged pentathlon with a mini-game named gonggi (or gong-gi) that really confused yet captivated many. One fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “This game intrigued me the most!”
The trial involving colorful pebbles is similar to American jacks, but instead of bouncing a ball in the air, the player must toss a piece while picking up others from the ground in a certain order. If you miss or drop a pebble, you must start all over again. Since there is a time-limit to the pentathlon and contestants who fail to complete all five children’s games are shot, there’s no room to make a mistake.
If you’re still fuzzy on the rules of gonggi, here’s how to play the viral Squid Game challenge.
There Are 5 Rounds In Gonggi
To begin, start with your five gonggi pebbles on the ground or table. Pick up each piece, one by one. You must toss the last pebble you picked up into the air before grabbing your next one, and catch it before it hits the ground. After picking up all five pebbles, drop them back onto the ground or table.
The second round requires picking up two pebbles at a time, while still tossing a pebble in the air before picking them up. Once you’ve gotten all five in your hand again, drop those back down.
The third round is, you guessed it, picking up three pebbles and then picking up the last remaining one, while also tossing a piece into the air and catching it before it falls.
With all five pieces in your hand, toss the last pebble you picked up into the air and drop the remaining four on the table for round four. Pick those right back up before catching the pebble in the air. If you successfully complete all four rounds, you’re ready to move onto the final step of the game.
Holding the five pebbles in your palm, toss those into the air and catch all them on the backside of your hand. If you drop just one, you have to start all over again from the beginning. With the pebbles on the back of your hand, toss them into the air and catch them once again in your palm. If you have all five safely in your hand, you have completed gonggi and can move onto the next game in the pentathlon.
Your Fave K-Pop Idols Have Been Playing Gonggi For Years
Gonggi is “air” in Korea, so you really have to master how you toss your pebbles and catch them. TikToker @stellahmoon says that back in the day, kids used rocks or stones to play gonggi, but now, you can find plastic, colorful pieces with weight in them called gonggitdol. Those are the red, purple, blue, yellow, and green pebbles you see in Squid Game.
Even though the Netflix series has made gonggi viral on TikTok, the game has been around for years. In 2020, BTS played gonggi as part of the group’s game show, Run BTS, and a resurfaced video of Jisoo from BLACKPINK proved she could have easily survived the trial.
If you’d like to see how you’d fare in the game, you might want to get yourself a gonggi set or find five grape-sized rocks to play at home. Hopefully, you’re just as good as Player 388 — who actually had a stunt double for filming.
