WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Squid Game season 2.
Many of the children’s games inSquid Gameseason 1 return in season 2, which also sees the addition of brand-new deadly games. After three years of waiting,Squid Gameseason 2premiered on Netflix on July 11, 2025.Lee Jung-jae returns as Squid Game winner Seong Gi-hun, now seeking to stop the competition from within. However, that means he has to go through the games again.
Theend ofSquid Gameseason 1confirmed that Gi-hun was now on a mission against the games' organizers. While season 2 had a lot of action and saw Gi-hun working with mercenaries and hired guns to bring down the games, Squid Gamedidn’t lose track of what made the first season so interesting.The games were deadly as ever, with season 2 including both games seen inSquid Gameseason 1 and new challenges.
8Ddakji
Episode 1
Ddjaki is the game thatThe Salesman (Gong Yoo)plays in bothSquid Gameseason 1 and 2 to recruit potential players for the Squid Game. According to the LA County Library, “Ddakji is a traditional South Korean game played with folded paper tiles which are also called ddakji.“In the world ofSquid Game, it is only played by The Salesman and ispunishable by slaps to the face when the player losesand can’t repay his debts.
In this way,ddjaki acts as a foreshadowing precursor to the actual circumstances of the Squid Game. The Salesman slapping the recruiting players if they lose is sort of a cautionary maneuver that hints that players who lose the game are vulnerable to getting hurt and even worse, ending up dead.
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Squid Game season 2’s ending is an even bigger cliffhanger than season 1, and it leaves Gi-hun even worse off after his plan to stop the tournament.
Although ddjaki is a simple children’s game that involves throwing a colored envelope and trying to flip the other envelope on the ground, it is used as the primary game to recruit players for the Squid Game. It is also how Gi-hun and his associates are able to find The Salesman years later.
“Bread and Lottery” is the title ofSquid Gameseason 2, episode 1, and is a new recruiting game used by The Salesman in the opening episode of the new season. The Salesman purchases 100 pastries and 100 lottery tickets and offers them to apparently random people out in public in broad daylight. Per the typical recurring process of The Salesman, hetargets persons who appear to be at a great financial disadvantage, some of whom could be homeless. He walks up to them and offers them the choice of bread-based food or a scratch ticket.
Many people take the lottery ticket and immediately scratch it only to learn that they made the wrong decision when their lottery ticket was worthless and as a result ended up with nothing. The Salesman emphasizes this point by stomping on all the unchosen pastries that were perfectly good and edible but were often seen as less valuable than the lottery tickets.
It shows how easily hope can be marketed and sold to no avail, which is essentially the root of all gambling.
The point in Squid Game that The Salesman makes with his break and lottery game is thatpeople will often choose risk with a higher reward than a guarantee of lesser value, even when they are desperate. It shows how easily hope can be marketed and sold to no avail, which is essentially the root of all gambling.
6Jokenpô
The third game introduced inSquid Gameseason 2 occurs toward the end of the first episode in which The Salesman forces Mr. Kim and Woo-seok to play to determine which one of them will survive. Jokenpô, otherwise known as Rock Paper Scissors, is pretty self-explanatory. However, the Salesman adds a twist to it. They play “Jokenpô minus one,” where they initially play two hands at the same time and must remove one of their picks every round.
Mr. Kim let Woo-seok win, choosing to die to save his friend’s life.
What is left results in a tie or an advantage over the other person’s selection. Paper covers rock, rock smashes scissors, and scissors cut paper. It’s one of the most basic and common kids' games ever played.Woo-seok tragically beats his boss Mr. Kim in Jokenpô, which results in The Salesman killing Mr. Kim and sparing Woo-seok after he catches both of them following him.
5Russian Roulette
Russian Roulette is another extremely common and well-known game that is by no means a children’s game as it is incredibly dangerous. The Salesman introduces this game to Gi-hun as a way to determine, or rather let “fate” decide, how their conflict should end inSquid Gameseason 2, episode 1. The Salesman also plays this game in conjunction with Jokenpô with Mr. Kim and Woo-seok earlier in the episode.
Gi-hun and The Salesman take turns firing a 6-gauge revolver into their own heads with only one bullet loaded. The initial shot has a 5/6 chance of it not being loaded but as the game goes on, the odds of the bullet being loaded goes up. The Salesman and Gi-hun play the game honorably, which remarkably results in 5 straight blanks and the final loaded bullet being taken by The Salesman, killing him.This is how Gi-hun is able to make contact with the Front Manand reenter the Squid Game.
4Red Light, Green Light
Episode 3
Squid Gameseason 1 viewers will instantly recognize the iconic game Red Light, Green Light. Asthe ceremonial first game of the Squid Game, the rules are very simple: move forward from one side of the map to the other while the music plays and after the announcement of the words “Green light.” Upon the announcement of the command “Red light”, players must stop moving and be completely still to stay in the game.
In the world ofSquid Game, players who fail to be completely still during the “Red Light” phases are shot and killed instantly by pink guard snipers. A motion detector in the giant doll at the far end of the map scans the players and determines who is moving and thus, who is eliminated each round.The game has a zero-tolerance policy for any sort of movementduring the Red Light phases so many players are instantly shot dead for tripping, shaking, or even being pushed by other players.
3Six-Legged Pentathlon
Episodes 4-5
One of the new games inSquid Gameseason 2 is a six-legged pentathlon that involves several mini-games. As the second round in this current version of the Squid Game, which was Dalgona in season 1, players are required to team up in groups of five and designate one player to each mini-game.Teams of five are then adjoined by their legs,hence the term “six-legged”, which forces them to walk together in a circle from station to station. Teams have five minutes to complete all five mini-games of the pentathlon and cross the finish line to stay alive, while losers are killed on sight upon failure.
2Mingle
Episodes 5-6
Mingle is the third official game inSquid Gameseason 2 and is another brand-new game in the series. The rules, like most other games in the series, are quite simple.Players all pool together on a giant merry-go-round type of platform until it stopsand a number is called out over the intercom.
Players then divide into groups based on whatever number is announced and seek refuge in the various small chambersaround the circumference of the room. Players who fail to reach a door or who do not meet the exact numerical requirements for each round are killed on sight by armed pink guards. Because split-second decisions are made, several betrayals occur in Mingle.
1Special Round (Lights Out)
Episodes 6-7
The Squid Game in season 2 gets cut short because of the revolt led by Gi-hun and several other contestants. But before that, they had the usual “Special Round.” The Special Game, or Lights Out, is not officially regulated but is very much a part of the Squid Game dynamics.Players are given forks with their meals after a vote led to a drawand a revote that would take place the next day.
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Rather than allow contestants to sleep on their decisions, the Squid Game overseers allow players to keep their forks, which many use to ambush and kill opposing contestants in the night. Because it is the only game that contestants aren’t forced to play inSquid Gameseason 2, it is the most gruesome one to watch since it is basically just mass murder.
Squid Game
Cast
Squid Game is a South Korean series released in 2021 that follows numerous financially struggling participants who are invited to partake in children’s games with deadly outcomes. As they compete, they vie for a substantial cash prize, all while navigating lethal challenges orchestrated by mysterious figures.
