Yacht strategy: how to score more, and what a good score is

We had each of our computer levels play 500 games against itself, which gives 1,000 filled cards a level. These are the scores they got. The card is the Yahtzee-style one, so the same numbers hold for Yahtzee.

• Easy, which keeps whatever number it has most of and grabs the biggest score each turn: 161 on average, and half its cards under 143.
• Medium, which plans the card but looks only one roll ahead: 220 on average.
• Hard, which works out the odds of every reroll: 239 on average. One game in ten it scored under 179, one in ten over 310, and its best was 529.
• Perfect play, worked out by computer for a single player: 254.6 on average. Nobody gets that, because it means the best keep and the best row on every single roll.

Both, but more skill than it looks. In 1,000 games of Hard against Easy, with fair dice for both, Hard won 848, Easy won 149 and 3 were draws. The dice can swing any single game, and Easy still wins about 1 in 7. Over ten games the better player nearly always comes out ahead.

Going first makes no difference. In 2,000 games of Hard against Hard, the player who rolled first won 974 and the second 1,015, with 11 draws. That's as close to even as dice get.

Most turns start the same way: keep the dice that are worth building on and roll the rest. Here's what each start gives you with two rolls left, if you keep chasing the same number.

• A pair: two in three times (66.5%) you'll end with three of a kind or better. A Yacht only 2.8% of the time, about 1 in 36.
• Three the same: about half the time (51.7%) you get a fourth. A Yacht 9.3%, about 1 in 11.
• Four the same: a Yacht 30.6% of the time, about 1 in 3.
• Four in a row open at both ends, like 2-3-4-5: a large straight 5 in 9 times (55.6%).
• Two pairs: reroll the odd die. A full house 5 in 9 times with two rolls.

Yes, early. 63 is three of each number, and the bonus is worth more than a full house. But it's harder than it sounds. Hard earned it on 35% of its cards, Medium on 28% and Easy on fewer than 3 in 100.

So play the top rows for three of a kind in the first half of the game, and treat a fourth die as money in the bank: a fourth 6 pays for missing a 6 somewhere else. To check where you stand, add three of each number for the top rows you have left to what you've got. If that comes to under 63, you need fours to make it, and the open top rows become better places to put a weak roll.

Every game has a roll that fits nothing. A zero in Ones costs you very little, since Ones is worth 5 at most and averages under 2 with good play. A zero in Yacht costs much more: the 50 you might still roll, and every 100-point bonus for an extra Yacht after it.

Chance is your other safety net. Five random dice add up to 17.5 on average, and good play gets about 22 out of Chance, so spending it on a so-so roll early leaves you nowhere soft to land later. The full list of rows and what each is worth is in the rules guide.

Easy chases a Yacht every turn, and it does roll more of them. It scored a 50 in the Yacht row on 46% of its cards, against 34% for Hard. It still averaged 78 points less a game, because every turn it chases is a turn it isn't filling a row well.

So chase a Yacht when the odds are with you: four the same with a roll or two left, or three the same early in the game when the row they'd fall back to (three of a kind, or that number's top row) is still open.

Yes. Our card scores the same way as Yahtzee: 13 rows, a 35-point bonus at 63, a 25-point full house, straights for 30 and 40, 50 for five the same and 100 for each extra one. So every number on this page holds for a game of Yahtzee at home. (Yahtzee is a Hasbro trademark, and we have no link with Hasbro.)

Easy is beatable from your first game. Medium is a good test of the top-row plan: beat its 220 and you're playing well. Hard plays every roll by the odds, and it never sees the dice before they land, so beating it means scoring around 240 or more.

It’s free in your browser, with no sign-up. Play Yacht against the computer, with a friend on the same screen, or send a friend a link and play online. Or tap Quick match to play someone new.

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