Detonate is played in rounds. On your turn, you either roll the die or grab the lowest-value tile. If you decide to grab the tile, you’re out for the remainder of the round but you’ve locked in points. If you decide to roll, you want to avoid rolling an explosion number. If you roll an explosion number, you receive zero points and are out for the round.

On your first turn, the explosion number is one. On your second turn, the explosion numbers are now one and two, and so on. You want to keep rolling and stay in the round to collect a high-value tile, but don’t want to roll an explosion number and collect nothing.