Game modes · Mini game · unrated
Beat It
In Beat It darts you only ever play against one number, the score of the visit before yours. Beat it and your total becomes the target for the next player. Fall short and you lose a heart. Quick to explain at a party, and still tense on league night.
- Two or more players, also in teams or with bots
- 1 to 10 lives, shown as hearts
- Classic bar or Sudden Death, plus bonus life, tie rule and Up / Down
- Unrated, so it never touches your average
- T20Dart 1
- T19Dart 2
- 20Dart 3
The rules
How Beat It darts works
Each player gets three darts to score more than the visit right before theirs.
- The first visit sets the barEvery leg starts at 0, so any score beats it. Whatever the first player throws is the first target.
- Score more or lose a heartYour three darts have to add up to more than the bar. Manage it and your total is the new bar. Fall short and one of your hearts breaks.
- A weak visit is the next player’s chanceEven when you fall short, your total becomes the new bar. A bad visit leaves the next player an easy target, so nobody is out of it for long.
- The last heart decides itLose your last heart and you are out of the leg. Whoever still has a heart at the end wins it. Play a single leg, or first to 2, 3 or more.
An example game
How the bar climbs and drops
Six visits, three players. Each card shows the bar the player had to beat, their three darts and the bar they leave for the next player.
- Anna20 · 20 · 2060BeatenNext bar: 60
- BenT20 · 5 · 166BeatenNext bar: 66
- Cleo19 · 7 · 1541Life lostNext bar: 41
- Anna18 · 4 · 2042BeatenNext bar: 42
- BenT20 · 20 · T20140BeatenNext bar: 140
- CleoT20 · 20 · 25105Life lostNext bar: 105
Why nobody runs away with it: a big visit puts the next player under pressure. As soon as someone falls short, though, the bar drops back to their score.
Setting · Lives
Every life is a heart
Set 1 to 10 lives with the slider. The scoreboard shows them as hearts, so everyone in the room can see who is safe and who is one bad visit from going home.
- Three livesAnnaBest visit 81
The default. Full hearts are the lives you have left, so everyone sees at a glance who is in danger.
- A heart breaksBenBest visit 60
Fall short and a heart shakes and empties to an outline. Lost lives stay on the card, so you can always see how many there were.
- Up to tenCleoBest visit 140
From six lives up, the hearts get smaller and sit closer together. Ten still fit in one row, even on a phone with six players.
Setting · Who loses a life
Sudden Death: the lowest visit loses a life
Switch Who loses a life from Short of the visit before to Sudden Death and the bar is gone. Every round each player throws one visit, and the lowest score loses a life. Two players level at the bottom both lose one. If everyone is level, nobody does.
- The lowest loses a life
- Anna85
- Ben41
- Cleo60
Everyone throws one visit, then the round is scored. Ben’s 41 is the lowest, so one of his hearts breaks.
- Level at the bottom
- Anna45
- Ben45
- Cleo100
Two players share the lowest score, so both lose a life. Cleo is safe with 100.
- All level
- Anna60
- Ben60
- Cleo60
If everyone throws the same score, there is no lowest. Nobody loses a life and the next round starts.
With three lives, Sudden Death is the pub game Knockout. With one life it is Sudden Death in its purest form: the lowest score of every round goes straight out. Both are in the app’s game search, so you can open Sudden Death or Knockout with the rules already set. Bonus life, the tie rule and Up / Down belong to the classic rule and are hidden in Sudden Death.
Settings · Extra rules
Three extra rules to switch on
All three are off by default and belong to the classic rule, where you play against the visit before yours. Turn on any one of them, or all three at once.
- Bonus life100+, 140+ or 180
- T20Dart 1
- T20Dart 2
- 20Dart 3
140Bonus life!Beat the bar with a big enough visit and you get a lost heart back. You never get more than you started with, so it helps a comeback, not the leader.
- A tie is enoughOn or offTo beat60=Visit60
- 20Dart 1
- 20Dart 2
- 20Dart 3
BeatenMatching the bar is enough to beat it, so fewer hearts break and games last longer. The opening bar of 0 is the exception: three misses still cost a heart.
- Up / DownOn or offTo beat ↑60Ben scores 45 and loses a heartStay below ↓60Same bar, now going down
- 19Dart 1
- 12Dart 2
- 5Dart 3
36Stayed belowEach lost heart switches the direction and leaves the bar where it was. Going down, your visit has to stay below the bar and every dart has to score. One miss costs a heart.
Up / Down only switches direction if the new direction can still be played. Against a bar of 3 you can’t stay below it with three scoring darts, so the game keeps going up.
In the game
What you see on screen
Everything you need is in the middle of the screen, big enough to read from the oche.
- The bar: the big number in the middle, with To beat above it. In Up / Down an arrow shows the direction. When it points down, the label reads Stay below.
- In Sudden Death: the big number is the lowest visit of the round so far, with Lowest above it. The line underneath tells you how many more you need to get past that player, for example 15 more to get past Ben.
- What you still need: the line under your visit shows it, for example 42 to go or At most 59. Once you have done it, it switches to Beaten.
- Your darts: three small darts on your card show how many you have left in the visit. Each thrown dart turns grey.
- A wrong dart? Tap its chip and correct it, as in every other mode. Hearts and bar update with the correction.
- Your best visit stays on your card for the whole game, so everyone can see who has the bragging rights.
Setup
Start a game
Open Party & duels in the game setup and pick Beat It. The rest of the setup works like any match.
- PlayersTwo or more at your board, plus bots at your level if you like. With teams on, teammates share their hearts and throw alternate visits.
- Uneven teamsTwo against one? You choose the order. With Every side once, the lone player throws every visit of their side. With Every player once, everybody throws once per round, so the bigger team gets more visits.
- Who loses a lifeShort of the visit before (the classic, the default) or Sudden Death. See Sudden Death.
- Lives1 to 10 on a slider, 3 by default. See every life is a heart.
- Bonus life fromNone, 100+, 140+ or 180. See bonus life.
- A tie is enoughOff by default. See the tie rule.
- Up / DownOff by default. See Up / Down.
- HandicapsGive each player their own number of lives, for example 5 hearts for a beginner and 3 for everyone else. A bonus life never takes anyone above their starting number.
- LegsOne leg, first to 2, first to 3, or more. Every leg starts from a bar of 0 with full hearts. There are no sets in mini games.
- Who throws firstThe first player in the list, a bull-off or random. From the second leg on, the next player starts.
- UnratedBeat It doesn’t count towards your average, statistics or leaderboards. Only your wins are recorded.
Tips
How to keep your hearts
- Score, don’t gamble. Against a low bar, a steady 45 on the big numbers is worth more than a wild shot at the treble.
- Set a big target. Put 100 on the board and the next player has to beat it under pressure. Most of the time they won’t.
- Down a heart? Go big. With bonus life switched on, a visit over the bonus mark beats the bar and wins your heart back as well.
- Going down, keep it on the board. In Up / Down every dart has to score, and a single 1 still counts. Aim at the small numbers so the next player has almost no room.
- Use it as a warm-up. You practise scoring under pressure, and not one dart counts towards your average.
Game modes
More ways to play
More games played for hearts: in Follow the Leader the player before you picks the field you have to hit. In Higher or Lower you play against two bars at once, over the high one or under the low one.
Who wins at Beat It darts tonight?
Open the app, pick Beat It under Party & duels and throw the first visit. Play with friends at your board, in teams or against a bot at your level.