Five Dice strategy: how to plan a 250-point game
Yatzy looks like pure luck. Five dice, three rolls, thirteen boxes. But two players with the same rolls can finish a game a hundred points apart, and the difference is almost entirely in two decisions: which dice to keep, and which box to fill. This guide covers both, with the odds that matter, so your next game of Five Dice can head for 250 points rather than 150.
Where the points are
A Five Dice score sheet has thirteen boxes. The fixed-value ones are easy to read: Full house 25, Small straight 30, Large straight 40, Yatzy 50. The rest score the total of the dice: Ones to Sixes count only the matching dice, while Three of a kind, Four of a kind and Chance count all five.
On top of that sits the bonus. If Ones through Sixes add up to 63 or more, you get 35 extra points. That bonus is worth more than a Full house, and it is the single biggest thing that separates good games from average ones.
The bonus: think in "par"
The number 63 is no accident: it is exactly three of each number (3 + 6 + 9 + 12 + 15 + 18). So treat three of a number as par for each box.
- Three fours in Fours? You are on par.
- Four sixes in Sixes? You are 6 points ahead, which can cover a weak Twos and Ones later.
- Two fives in Fives? You are 5 behind, and you will need to make it up somewhere.
The bar under the left column shows your running total. Keep a rough count in your head of how far above or below par you are; it tells you how much risk you can take on the small numbers. Being ahead on Fives and Sixes matters most, because that is where the big numbers are.
The sacrifice box
Sooner or later a turn goes wrong and nothing fits. You still have to fill a box, and it will score little or nothing. Decide in advance where that goes:
- Chance is your safety net. Save it for a bad turn with a decent total rather than filling it early with a mediocre roll.
- Ones is the cheapest place for a zero: the most you can lose there is 5 points, and the bonus is still reachable without it.
- Yatzy is the right place for a zero late in a game. A five of a kind comes up in roughly one turn in 22 when you chase it hard, so with only two or three turns left, its 50 points are unlikely to arrive.
- Four of a kind is a reasonable zero in the middle of a game if your left column is going well.
What you should almost never do is zero a straight early. Straights are among the most reliable points on the sheet once you know how to chase them.
The odds that decide what to keep
You don't need to calculate anything at the table, but knowing a handful of numbers changes your choices.
Straights. Keep runs that can grow at both ends. With 2-3-4-5 kept, a 1 or a 6 makes the Large straight, so each roll has a one-in-three chance, and with two rolls left you get there 56% of the time. With 1-2-3-5 kept you need exactly a 4, so the chance drops to about 31% over two rolls. Whenever you can, keep 3-4-5 and build outwards.
Full house. Two pairs are a better start than three of a kind. With two pairs you roll one die and win on either of two numbers: 56% over two rolls. With three of a kind you need the two other dice to pair up, which happens only about 28% of the time over two rolls.
Yatzy. Chasing five of a kind from scratch, keeping your most common number each time, lands it in about 4.5% of turns. Once you hold four of a kind, the last die comes up right one time in six per roll, so about 31% over two rolls. Chase it when the left column also benefits: four sixes that miss the Yatzy still make a strong Sixes box.
Chance. Five random dice average 17.5. Anything above 22 is a good Chance; anything below 18 is usually better placed somewhere else.
A turn, step by step
Say your first roll is 6-6-3-4-2 early in a game.
- You could keep the sixes and chase Sixes or a Three of a kind.
- You could keep 2-3-4 and chase a straight.
With the left column wide open, the sixes are worth more. Two sixes are only 12, but every extra six adds 6 points towards the bonus, and you still have Four of a kind and Yatzy as fallbacks. Late in the game, with Sixes already filled and both straights open, the 2-3-4 is the better keep.
The general rule: early in the game, play for the left column and the high sums; late in the game, play for whatever fixed-value boxes are still open.
The house rule for a second Yatzy
Five Dice has one rule that differs from some printed versions: once your Yatzy box has been filled, any later five of a kind scores 50 in whichever box you put it in. That changes late-game planning in two ways.
- Even a zero in the Yatzy box keeps this rule alive, so a late scratch there isn't a dead end.
- A late five of a kind can rescue a box you were about to zero, such as a missing Large straight or Full house, for a full 50 points.
What a 250 game looks like
You don't need a perfect game to reach 250. A typical strong sheet looks something like this:
- the bonus (35) on top of 65-70 points in the left column,
- both straights (70),
- a Full house (25),
- Three and Four of a kind with high dice (around 45 together),
- a Chance of about 22,
which comes to about 260 without a single Yatzy. Every Yatzy on top is a bonus. Seen that way, the game is less about lucky rolls and more about not wasting the ordinary ones.
Quick checklist
- Count your left column against par (three of each number).
- Keep Chance free for a bad turn.
- Zero Ones first; zero Yatzy only late.
- Keep straights open-ended; prefer two pairs for a Full house.
- Early game: big numbers and the bonus. Late game: the open fixed boxes.
Five Dice: Roll & Score plays free in your browser, with no timer and no pressure. Every level is one full sheet, so each game is a fresh chance to try these ideas out.
