Monopoly GO: Pickups Events Explained

Pickups is one of several scoring setups that Monopoly Go rotates through for its solo banner events — the big milestone events that sit at the top of your game board and typically run for two or three days at a time. Each scoring type has its own set of tiles that count for points, and this one is the only scoring setup on Monopoly Go where the scoring tiles themselves move. You score by landing on any tile with the event pickup icon on it, and every time you land on one, is jumps to a new position somewhere else on the board. But it is also the event type that can give you the best chances to score big if many of the pickup icons are close together, especially if they are huddle close to a railroad.

This guide covers how the scoring actually works, and what you should be looking for. If you've landed here from one of our individual event pages, everything here applies to that event — we keep the event pages lean so we can give you the milestones, rewards, and our specific take on how far to push, and we leave the full strategy breakdown in one place.

How scoring works

Points come from one tile type only: any tile with the event pickup icon on it.

• Pickup tiles — 2 points each

Whatever base points you score, they're multiplied by whichever dice multiplier you used for that throw. So a pickup tile landed with a x10 multiplier is 20 points, and the same tile landed with a x20 is 80 points. That's the whole scoring system.

Here's the important part: the pickup icons aren't fixed to specific tiles on the board. They're placed randomly, and every time you land on one, that icon moves to a new position. So the board you're looking at right now is not the board you'll be looking at after your next scoring landing. This is the defining feature of pickup events, but it is also the feature that gives you the best opportunity to score big.

Reading the board every time it resets

Because the a pickup icon moves when it is landed in, often you can find "hot zones" on the board to aim for. In a Chance, Tax & Utility event, the Go corner is always the best section. In a Corners event, the four corners never move. But in a pickup event, your best targets are wherever the icons happen to be huddled together right now, and that changes as you play through the event.

What you should be looking for each time the board resets:

• Clusters of two or three icons close together. This is the single most important thing. If you can see three pickup icons within four or five squares of each other, a high multiplier roll in that direction has a real chance of hitting one of them especially if you are about 7 tiles away from the middle of the cluster. Isolated icons on their own are much harder to target, which means this isn't really the type of event to use auto roll on.
• Icons near a railroad. Even though railroads don't score for this event type, they still score for the tournament running alongside. An icon sitting one square from a railroad is a better target than an icon in the middle of nowhere, because if your roll overshoots slightly you still get tournament points.
• Icons near a chance tile or shield tile. Chance tiles can send you forward to the next railroad or give you extra dice, which means landing one a square short of a pickup icon isn't a wasted roll. Based on the multiplier that you used, shield tiles restore missing shields you've lost to Bank Heists, and then return the left over dice back to you.

Playing the multipliers

The strategy for multipliers in pickup events is different from everything else. In Chance, Tax & Utility events, you know exactly where the scoring section is, so you can plan your big rolls ahead of time. In pickup events, your opportunities appear and disappear as you progress through the event, so you have to react to what's on the board in front of you rather than turning on auto roll and waiting for the points to roll in.

A few things worth knowing:

• Take your shot when the board looks good, not when you think it will. If you see a good cluster right now, use the multiplier that matches the opportunity.
• Don't waste a high multiplier on an isolated icon. A single pickup tile sitting on its own with nothing near it is the worst possible target for a x100 roll. You either hit exactly that square or you score nothing. Keep your multiplier low when the board has no clusters.
• Auto roll is a trap in pickup events, even more than in the scarce scoring types. The board is changing constantly, and auto roll can't read the board. You'll burn through your dice blindly while the best opportunities reshuffle past you.
• Be patient with bad boards. Sometimes after a reshuffle the icons will land in terrible positions — scattered, isolated, nowhere useful. When that happens, roll at a low multiplier until the next scoring landing resets the board again. Your goal during a bad board is to get to the next reshuffle without spending much.

What else you can score while playing

Pickup events don't exist in isolation. There's a tournament running at the same time scoring on railroads, and there may also be a dig event, a partner event or a racer event live in parallel. Every one of those gives you something to pay attention to beyond the pickup icons themselves.

Railroads are the obvious one. Four of them, midway along each side of the board, ten squares apart. Even though a railroad landing doesn't score for the pickup event, it triggers Shutdown or Bank Heist and earns you tournament points, which matters if you care about your leaderboard position.

Partner events add partner tokens to the board as an extra tile type to watch for. Racer events add flags. Neither of those interacts with pickup scoring directly, but both give you something useful to aim for when making your decision as to what multiplier to use for the next roll.

Boosts that pair well with this event type

Some boost events are more useful than others when a pickup event is running:

• High Roller — raises your multiplier cap, which is valuable in any scoring type. In pickup events specifically, a higher cap lets you capitalize harder on the good setups when they appear. When you can see a cluster of three icons taht are about 7 tiles away, especially if a railroad and other event tiles are close, that's the moment to think about using a higher multiplier.
• Cash Boost — straightforward, more game cash per roll. Good for saving up for landmark upgrades.
• Builder's Bash — discounts on landmark upgrades, pairs well with Color Wheel Boost if you can line them up. Load up on hotels during Bash, then spin the wheel during the Color Wheel window.
• Mega Heist — boosts cash and tournament points from Bank Heists. Since you'll be landing on railroads opportunistically during pickup events whenever the board is bad, Mega Heist makes those fallback landings worth more.

For current boost timings, check the daily events schedule, and our Boost Events Explained page has the full breakdown of what each one does.

FAQs

Why do the pickup icons move around?

It's the core mechanic of this event type. Landing on a pickup tile triggers a reshuffle of the icon that you landed on to a new position.

Should I use auto roll in a pickup event?

No. This is one of the worst event types for auto roll. The board is changing after every scoring landing, and you need to be actively reading it each time to pick your moments. Auto roll ignores everything that matters in this scoring type.

What's the best possible roll in a pickup event?

A high multiplier landing on a pickup icon that sits in the middle of a cluster. The cluster matters more than the individual tile, because it means even a slightly off roll still has a chance of catching an icon. A single pickup tile hit with a x10 is worth 20 points, but a cluster gives you multiple shots at that 20 points on the same roll.

Why does this event type feel more random than others?

Because it is. The moving icons mean you can't plan your multipliers ahead of time the way you can with fixed scoring tiles. You react to what's on the board, and sometimes the board gives you nothing to work with for a little while.

Final thoughts on pickup events

The thing to remember about pickup events is that they reward reading the board in front of you rather than planning moves in advance. Every scoring landing resets the picture, so strategy in this event type isn't about working out a plan and sticking to it — it's about making smart decisions in the moment, cluster by cluster, reshuffle by reshuffle. Save your big multipliers for when the board is in your favor, keep it steady when it isn't. For the specific event you're playing, head back to the event page for the milestones and my take on how far to push. For everything happening on Monopoly Go today, our daily events schedule has the full list.