The game of Whirligo is for 2, 3, or 4 players. The Shaker is used by shaking the balls in the large end and then by up-ending it, three different colored balls appear in the stem. The moves depend on the sequence of these colors.

As the colored balls in the Shaker match the colored dots on the player's path, the player can add counters to his spiral path. The winner is the player who can make his spiral path of counters reach the winning post at the center of the board first.