A property trading board game with stocks, bonds and contracts
Invest Up starts as a familiar game of dice, deeds and rent, then turns the players into a market. You can own a piece of another player, lend them money, and write deals that pay out turn after turn. It is free, it runs in the browser, and it is played for virtual money only. The full rules cover every detail; this page is the tour.
Property trading
Roll, move and buy the cities, airports and utilities you land on. Complete a colour set to double its base rent, then build houses and a hotel to raise it much further. Mortgage property for half its price when you need cash.
Trades are where games are won. One offer can combine properties, cash and stock with agreement terms: a contract, a rental, a share of a colour set's rent, a buyback of such a share, or a bond that is moved, ended or newly issued. The other player accepts or rejects the whole package. Bots make and answer trade offers too. See the full rules for what a trade can carry.
Stocks in other players
This is a stock market board game where the companies are the other players. Invest cash in a rival and the money goes to them; in return you hold a stake that is a percentage of that player's cash. If their cash grows, your stake is worth more. If they spend it, your stake shrinks. When you sell, you receive your percentage of their current cash.
You cannot invest in yourself. Each player decides whether to open their stock to other players, and it starts closed, so taking outside money is a choice. Stock also counts as a trade asset, so a stake can change hands as part of a bigger deal. Stocks are explained in the full rules.
Bonds
A bond is a loan between players. Each player sets the terms other players can lend to them on: a rate from 0% to 200% and a payment every 1 to 20 turns. Buy a player's bond and your principal goes to them; they then pay you the coupon on that schedule. Each player decides whether to open their stock, and their bonds, to other players. Both start closed.
Bonds do not mature. A bond keeps paying until it is ended in a trade or wiped by a bankruptcy, and it can be traded to another player. A trade can also issue a brand new bond with its own rate and period. The host can close the bond market, and then bonds move only by direct agreement in a trade.
Contracts, rentals and colour-set equity
- Contracts: one player pays the other a fixed amount per turn, for up to 10,000 turns, paid every 1 to 20 turns. Either side of the trade can be the payer.
- Rentals: hand a property to another player for a number of turns or permanently, paid upfront or per turn. While it is rented, the renter collects its rent.
- Colour-set equity: sell a share of the rent a colour set earns (or of other income, such as GO income), permanently or for a number of turns, and buy it back later. The host can switch equity off, and can decide whether a set with a pledge on it can still be traded (with disclosure) or not at all.
Play against bots
No friends online right now? The host can fill empty seats with bots, and a room with one human and bots is a full game. There are four bot personalities, Conservative, Balanced, Aggressive and Gambler, plus a "Me" bot. Each has its own style of buying, investing and trading, and bots propose and answer trades like any other player. If you would rather play only people, the lobby list has a "No bots" filter.
Play with friends
To play a board game online with friends free, create a lobby and send them its code. They type it into Join by code and they are in. Nobody needs an account: a guest plays with just a display name.
- Private rooms: the host can make a room private, so it is not listed on the menu. Anyone with the code can still join.
- Friends list: signed-in players get a friends list and can invite a friend to a lobby, or to watch a game.
- Watch: games in play on the menu have a Watch button, so you can follow a game without taking a seat.
- Room size: 2 to 6 seats, bots included.
Reconnecting
Connections drop. If you disconnect, or leave a running game for the menu, your seat is kept for 3 minutes. Come back in time and you pick up where you left off, with the whole game restored on your screen. After that your seat is made bankrupt so the table can keep playing.
A fair turn clock
Nobody should be able to stall a game, and nobody should be rushed. The turn clock is on by default and designed so that at a normal pace you never see it.
- 30 seconds of free thinking time at the start of every turn, with no clock on screen.
- Then a 3:00 reserve, which refills whenever you finish a turn yourself. It widens to 5:00 while you are in debt.
- Any other player can hand you +1:00 once per turn when a decision is worth it.
- If time runs out, the game rolls, buys an unowned property you can afford, and ends your turn. It never bids, mortgages, sells or trades for you.
- Removal is possible only after 3 auto-played turns in a row, or when your time runs out while you are in debt. It takes a majority of the human players still in the game (bots do not vote), capped at the number of votes that can be cast, or the vote running out while you are still away.
Desktop and phone
The full game runs in your web browser, on desktop or phone. There is nothing to download.
Virtual money only
Every dollar, stock and bond in Invest Up is virtual. Nothing in the game is real money, and nothing here is investing or trading advice. Play with friends free or learn more about Invest Up.