Darts Checkout Calculator

What This Calculator Solves

In 501 and 301, the leg doesn't end when your score hits zero — it ends when you hit zero on a double, and your last dart has to be the exact double (or the bullseye, which counts as double 25) that brings you to nothing. Working out which combination of up to three darts gets you there, without overshooting or landing one short of a legal double, is where a lot of finishes get thrown away at the oche. This calculator searches every legal combination for you and returns the one that finishes in the fewest darts.

What You Need Before You Start

• Your remaining score — whatever's left after your last visit, from 2 up to the maximum 3-dart checkout of 170.
• That's it. The calculator assumes a standard double-out finish (the most common format in competitive 501/301), not a master-out or straight-out variant.

The Logic Behind the Finish

A dart can score a single (1-20), a double (2 to 40, in steps of 2), a triple (3 to 60, in steps of 3), the outer bull (25, counts as a single), or the bullseye (50, counts as a double). The calculator searches one-dart, then two-dart, then three-dart combinations, stopping as soon as it finds a legal one — so it always suggests the fewest darts possible, never more than necessary. When more than one combination finishes in the same number of darts, it favors the conventional approach of taking the biggest scoring throw first (a triple 20 whenever the rest of the score can still be finished from there), which is also how most players actually attack a checkout: bank the big number early, leave a clean double for last.

A Few Things Worth Knowing

Not every score between 2 and 170 has a valid 3-dart finish. Seven numbers — 159, 162, 163, 165, 166, 168, and 169 — can't be checked out in three darts under any combination, because no set of up to three legal throws sums to them while leaving a valid double for the last dart. Players sometimes call these "bogey numbers," and the calculator will tell you plainly when your score is one of them rather than force a combination that doesn't actually work. This tool also always assumes a fresh visit of three darts available; it doesn't account for how many darts you've already thrown this turn or track match score, only the arithmetic of the checkout itself.