Roll five dice up to three times a turn, keep what you want, and score it in one of thirteen categories.
Thirteen rounds against a bot, with a hint button for when the right box is not obvious.
Roll all five dice, then choose which to keep and roll the rest. You get three rolls in a turn.
When you are done rolling, score the dice in one of the thirteen categories. Each category can only be used once, so a wasted one is gone for the rest of the game.
The upper section counts a single number, so threes scores three points per three. Reach sixty three across the upper section and you get a thirty five point bonus.
The lower section pays for combinations: three and four of a kind, a full house, small and large straights, chance, and five of a kind for the fifty point Yahtzee itself.
Score sixty three or more in the top six boxes, which works out as three of each number. It is worth thirty five points and usually decides close games.
It is worth another hundred points, and you can use it as a wild card in the box you need.
Early, and in a box you were never going to fill. Taking a zero in ones costs you almost nothing, while leaving a large straight empty until the last round often costs forty.
It suggests which dice to keep, and which box to score in, based on what is still open on your card.
Yahtzee was sold to Milton Bradley in the 1950s by a couple who had been playing it on their yacht, and the dice combinations have barely changed since.
It looks like a luck game and plays like a probability one. The decision every turn is whether to chase a big score or lock in a safe one, and the upper bonus is usually what the answer hinges on.
Keeping a pair over a single high die is nearly always right on the first reroll, and knowing when to abandon a straight is what separates a good card from an average one.