Chase the Dragon rules: single, double, treble, next number
Chase the Dragon is Around the Clock for people who have got good at Around the Clock. Every number has three rungs — its single, its double, its treble — and you climb all three before you are allowed to move on.
Play Chase the Dragon, 20 → 1 + Bull →
How it works
The classic run starts at the top of the board and works down: S20, D20, T20, S19, D19, T19, S18 … all the way to the 1, and then the bull to finish. That is the order this board calls 20 first: every number from the top of the board down to the foot of the range — the classic run, and the ladder everybody has practised.
You have to hit the rung you are on. Nothing else on the board counts, and there is no partial credit — a treble 20 while you are looking for the single 20 does not skip you ahead, it just is not the target.
Every dart that does land on the current rung moves you up one, so a good visit can clear three rungs and a hot arm can go S19 → D19 → T19 in one throw. First player to the top of the ladder wins the leg.
The full ladder is sixty rungs plus the bull. That is a proper session, which is why the board offers shorter ones.
Why the ladder is worth practising
It is the only common darts game that makes you throw at the single, the double and the treble of the same number in a row, which is exactly the skill an X01 finish needs: find the treble for the score, then find the double beside it for the out.
It also punishes the thing most players never practise — moving. Half the difficulty is that the target changes ring under you three times per number rather than staying put for a whole visit.
The bull finish is the part people forget. Sixty rungs of numbers and then one dart at the middle of the board with the leg on it is a different game entirely, which is why it is the classic ending.
House rules this board plays
The part no other rules page has, because no other site implements them. Each one opens the setup screen with that rule already set.
- The quick ladder, 20 down to 16 Fifteen rungs and the bull instead of sixty-one — the scoring corner of the board, and a game that finishes inside a pint rather than an evening. Set it up →
- A blank visit costs you a rung The rule the pub’s ladder plays. Three darts with nothing in them drops you back one rung — which on this ladder means losing the treble and going back to the double of the same number, a real punishment rather than a rounding error. Nobody can be pushed off the bottom. Set it up →
- Climb it instead, 11 up to 20 Start at the 11 and finish at the top of the board: the same rungs the other way round, from the foot of the range up to the 20, so the hardest number on the ladder is the last one rather than the first. Much the harder finish. Set it up →
- Deal the ladder The two runs above are both muscle memory by the third number — the rung after this one is known before it is shown. So: the same numbers dealt in a random order, once per game — nobody knows which number is next until the rung above opens, so a dealt ladder is one nobody has practised. The deal is made when the match starts and carried with it, so an undo, a resume, a phone scoring from the other side of the room and the TV all climb the one ladder, and the card names the rung after this one because on a dealt ladder nothing else can. Set it up →
- No bull to finish The ladder ends on the treble of its last number. Quicker, and it means the game is decided by the same skill it was played with. Set it up →
- Best of three legs One ladder is a coin toss on who got the early trebles. Three of them is a match. Set it up →
Common questions
- What is Chase the Dragon? Around the Clock with three rungs on every number: its single, then its double, then its treble, before you are allowed to move on. The classic run is 20 down to 1 and then the bull.
- How many rungs are in a full ladder? Sixty, plus the bull to finish — three beds on each of the twenty numbers. The quick ladder of 20 down to 16 is fifteen rungs and a game that finishes inside a pint.
- Does a treble count while you are on the single? No. There is no partial credit and nothing skips you ahead: only a dart in the rung you are on moves you up, so a treble 20 while you want the single 20 is simply not the target.
Play it
Chase the Dragon is one of the twenty modes in Friendly Fire Casper, a free darts scoreboard that runs in a browser and keeps working when the wifi drops. It scores the game for you, undoes the dart you typed wrong, remembers who won, and can put the board on a TV while everybody scores from their own phone.