How to Play Knockout Darts

In this post we will be going over how to play knockout darts. Knockout darts is a quick and simple game played between friends. It is widely regarded as one of the easiest games to learn in darts due to its rather intuitive nature. The fact that it has very few rules that can be altered makes the game more enjoyable along the way.

Knockout Darts Rules

• Each player throws three darts each turn.

The goal is to throw a higher score than the player that preceded you got.

• If a player fails to score more points than the person prior to them, they receive a “Strike” (Usually a “X” on the scoreboard)
• Once a player receives three strikes, they are out of the game.

Note: Knockout Darts is a form of “Killer” except substitutes lives that you lose with strikes that you gain. This means the game may be familiar to those already experience in the “Killer” format of playing darts.

There will need to be an agreement made between you and the players you are playing with prior to starting the game on what happens if the player throwing matches the previous score hit. Some rules list this as a tie and therefore no strike is given. However, some choose to follow the principle that you must beat the score of the player before you and therefore a strike is awarded. This all comes down to personal preference of how to play the game.

Knockout Darts Scoring

There is no need to keep an official score of how much any player has score in this game. All that must be remembered is what the player throwing before you scored so you can beat it!

An official scoring of how many strikes each player has is advised though. This makes keeping track of things less chaotic. Not doing this often leads to arguments so just make a note and simplify this for everyone involved.

Knockout Darts Strategy

Given how straightforward this game is there is very little strategy involved.

It does not matter if you start first or second in this game as the only goal is to beat the score of the player throwing prior to you. There is no advantage given based on starting position.

The only thing that matters is to score as highly as possible.

Do not settle for just beating your opponent’s score. If you beat it with your first two darts, then make sure you make the third dart count. After all you will still want the player following you to have a challenge when they step up to the board.

Final Thoughts

To wrap up how to play knockout darts we wanted to leave you with this. This game is meant to be fun and not taken too seriously. There is nothing important at stake so do not treat it like it is a life-or-death situation. If you slip into the one and gain a strike, then take it on the chin, have a laugh with your peers and move on. Nothing takes the fun out of the game more than when people take the game too seriously at the wrong times.