How to Play Castle Darts

Key Takeaways

• Castle darts are very easy to play and beginner-friendly
• Can be played by two or more players
• The aim of castle darts: First to build all 15 blocks of the castle, is the winner
• Players cannot be eliminated from the game 

Number of Players

Castle darts needs at least two players, but can be played with more.

It is a better game and more fun playing with more than one other player. 

Who Goes First?

There are a few ways you can decide who goes first, playing castle darts:

1. Closest to the bull – players throw for the bull and whoever gets closest goes 1st, next closest 2nd and so on
2. Players throw for the highest score with their offhand – same rules apply, the player with the highest score starts the game, the next goes second etc. 
3. Draw names out of a hat

What is the Objective of the Castle Darts Game?

The objective of castle darts for each player is to fully build their castle, by hitting their number on the board, before any of their opponent’s in the game. 

How to Play Castle Darts?

Before playing castle darts, everyone in the game is assigned a number.

To assign numbers, the traditional is for each player to throw one dart at the board with their off hand and see what number it lands on. This will be the player’s number throughout the game.

It is important to note, castle darts is a race to the finish style game, however players cannot be eliminated.

Race to the finish style games, like the castle game, chase the dragon darts, 301 and 501 are great if competition fuels your performance.

A player’s scores cannot go below zero, and it will be good to remember when it comes to using some game strategy. (More on the further down) 

To play castle darts:

1. Players either aim for their own number, which helps build their castle, or 
2. Use some/all of their three darts to knock down some of the other players castles 

What Are the Rules of Castle Darts?

The rules of Castle darts is straight forward and simple to understand:

• Each player has three darts per round
• A castle requires 15 blocks to build.
• Throwing a dart in your own number is used to build the castle  
• Landing in your opponent’s number is used to knock blocks away
• Players can choose to go for their own number or the numbers of other players
• The first player to build out the castles in the 15 blocks, wins 

Blocks are like points in the game:

• Singles are worth one block (one point)
• Doubles are worth two blocks (two points)
• Triples are worth three blocks (three points)

Here’s a quick example:

Player A has built 6 blocks and Player B has 3 blocks built. 

It is the throw of player A:

1. They go for their number (11) and miss with the first two darts but hits a triple 11 (three blocks) with the last dart
2. Player A now has 9 blocks built

Player B’s turn to throw:

1. Player B is trailing far behind, so decides to try and bring down player A’s castle by going for the number 11
2. They manage to hit a double 11 (two blocks) and a single 11 (one block)
3. All together, this removes three blocks from player A’s castle and brings them back down to 6 blocks 
4. Player B remains on 3 blocks

How to Score Castle Darts?

One of the great things about castle darts, aside from being fun and competitive, is that ts incredibly easy to score. 

You will have to draw a pyramid style scoresheet, with 15 blocks. 

The base of the castle should have 5 blocks, the next row up should have 4, then 3,2 and 1 block at the top of the pyramid. 

• Write the player’s name and their game number above the castle scoresheet
• Starting in the bottom left block, when a player lands in their number, write a dash in the block
• Every time they land a dart, the next block gets a dash
• When someone earns 15 dashes in the 15 blocks, they have won the game
• When someone scores in any other player in the game, a dash is removed from one of the blocks of the player 

Tips and Strategies Playing Castle Darts

Make the Throws Count

As I mentioned earlier, scores in the game don’t fall below zero, and so considering this, there’s not much point wasting a dart to take out a player on a score of 2 below. 

The score is so low that they are really not much threat at that moment. Also, say you hit a treble, it’s kind of a waste of three blocks because the maximum they can lose is still only two. 

You are better off, either going for other players who have bigger scores, or concentrating on your own scores.

Timing 

However, with that being said, it is important to get your timing right.

If you leave players too long, without going after them, their score can rocket and potentially close to a finish with 2/3 triples.

Join Forces

If there are players with really high scores and not far off winning, you might want to join forces with the other players to get rid of some of the threat.