Playing Yahtzee with friends and family is definitely fun, but if you find yourself wanting to play by yourself, you should try Yahtzee Solitaire.
If you’re not familiar with Yahtzee Solitaire, you should know that this is a creative and challenging way to test your Yahtzee skills and find ways to improve your game.
So, what makes Yahtzee Solitaire different and how do you play it? This guide gives you all the essentials and more.
To put it simply, Yahtzee Solitaire is a single-player Yahtzee game while the classic mode is played with a group. So, if you’ve ever played it the conventional way, chances are you already know how the Yahtzee Solitaire mode works.
To play classic or solitaire Yahtzee, you need to have a set of five dice and a scorecard. The scorecard has 13 different dice patterns, each with a blank box for scoring.
These scorecards are made up of two sections namely the Upper and Lower sections. The Upper Sections are composed of six number patterns such as rolling five threes, while the lower sections consist of more complex combinations such as three of a kind. For this single-player game, you take a total of 13 turns.
Each round is divided into two phases: assembly and scoring. You roll all five dice to begin the assembly step, in which you get two tries to modify your roll. During modification, you get to choose which dice to keep and re-roll the rest. Make sure to be strategic when choosing keepers.
After your two modification attempts, you proceed to the scoring stage where you can choose the pattern you want to score with. Any pattern is eligible as long as its score box is empty. You’ll fill this box with the corresponding score in the pattern scoring rules until all boxes are filled.
To get the final score, simply add all the points you obtained, then add 35 points if your Upper Section scores add up to 63.
Here’s what you should know about corresponding scores per pattern.
To get the score of the patterns in the Upper Section, you just need to add the value of all the dice. If you roll five threes, you get 15 points, and so on.
If you roll three or four of a kind, you get to add all their value to get your score. A full house is composed of three and two equals 25 points. A small straight is made of four or more equals 30 points, while a large straight is a set of five equals 40 points.
You get a Yahtzee if you get five equals, equivalent to 50 points whereas you get a Chance if you get any other combination to score the total value of all dice.
You get an additional 100 points when you roll a Yahtzee. However, it does not count toward the requirement for the Upper Section bonus.
You can utilize the Yahtzee roll as a Joker if you‘ve previously scored the Yahtzee and the equivalent value pattern in the Upper Section. As a Joker, you can instead use the Yahtzee as a Full House, Small Straight, or Large Straight.
Yahtzee may be a fun game, but it is also a game of strategy. You can play Yahtzee Solitaire online against an automated opponent. With Yahtzee Solitaire, you can train yourself, come up with strategies, and improve your overall Yahtzee game.