Yacht
Play Yacht with automatic scoring, a clean digital score sheet, and quick access to the rules and strategy tips for every five-dice combination.
Yacht Rules: How to Play and Score | Cubiri
Goal and turn structure
Score as many points as possible across 12 scoring categories. A game lasts 12 scoring turns for each player because every category may be used exactly once. Each turn begins with five six-sided dice and allows no more than three rolls.
Rolling and holding dice
Roll all five dice to start a turn. After the first and second rolls, you may hold any dice you want and reroll the others. Held dice may be changed before the next roll. You may stop early when you are satisfied with the result; a third roll is optional, not compulsory.
Number categories
Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives and Sixes score only dice showing the selected face. Add those matching dice and ignore the rest. For example, 5-5-5-2-1 scores 15 in Fives. Yacht has no Upper Section bonus, so these six boxes contribute only the points actually rolled.
Combination categories
- Full House: three dice of one value and two of another; score the sum of all five dice.
- Four of a Kind: at least four matching dice; score four times the matching face value. A fifth die never adds to this category.
- Little Straight: exactly 1-2-3-4-5; score 30 points.
- Big Straight: exactly 2-3-4-5-6; score 30 points.
- Choice: any five dice; score the sum of all five dice.
- Yacht: five matching dice; score 50 points.
Choosing a score
After your final roll, choose one category that has not yet been used. The current dice score only according to that category. If the roll does not qualify for the category you choose, record 0 there. Once a category is filled, including with zero, it cannot be used again in that game.
Ending the game
The game ends when all 12 categories are filled. Add every recorded category score. There are no extra Yacht bonuses, Joker rules or hidden section bonuses in this ruleset. In multiplayer play, the player with the highest total wins.
About Yacht
Yacht is a traditional five-dice game that predates Yahtzee®. The commercial game Yahtzee, introduced in 1956, developed from earlier five-dice games including Yacht. Cubiri uses the traditional Yacht rules and scoring described on this page.
Yacht Strategy Tips for Higher Scores | Cubiri
Keep flexible dice early
After the first roll, prefer holds that leave several categories available. A pair or three matching dice can grow toward Four of a Kind, Full House or Yacht, while useful consecutive values can develop into one of the two exact straights.
Respect exact straights
Little Straight needs exactly 1-2-3-4-5 and Big Straight needs exactly 2-3-4-5-6. Duplicates break the combination. When four needed values are present, hold them and reroll the duplicate or unrelated die.
Use Choice as insurance
Choice accepts any roll, so it is a useful safety category when a planned combination misses. Do not spend it automatically on a weak total, because a later roll with several Fives or Sixes can turn Choice into a strong score.
Value high Four of a Kind rolls
Four of a Kind scores only the four matching dice. Four Sixes are worth 24, four Fives 20 and four Fours 16 regardless of the fifth die. High matching faces therefore make especially efficient scores in this category.
Choose zeros deliberately
A zero can be the correct damage-control choice late in the game. Compare the open categories and sacrifice the one that is hardest or least valuable to complete from the remaining opportunities rather than destroying a strong score elsewhere.
Read the whole scorecard
Before committing a score, check every open category. A roll aimed at Yacht may become a strong number score, Four of a Kind, Full House or Choice instead. The best category is the best use of the final dice, not necessarily the target you had before rolling.