Chuck Darts coaches you in two places: between throws, while you're at the oche, and after the game, when there's time to reflect. They're different tools and they work differently.
Between throws — the advisor
The in-game advisor is instant, works offline, and is always right: it's real darts maths, not a guess. It never invents a checkout that doesn't exist.
Set how much help you want in Settings → In-game coaching:
Off — nothing. Just the numbers. A league night with no hand-holding.
Assist — your checkout route when you're on a finish, and a warning when you're stuck on a bogey number: a score you cannot check out in one visit. Quiet the rest of the time.
Which numbers those are depends on the finish rule. Playing double out, the bogeys are 169, 168, 166, 165, 163, 162 and 159. Playing straight out, most of those become finishable and only 169, 166 and 163 are not — so in a straight-out game the coach will happily set you up for a 159, and is right to. (Corrected 2026-08-12: this page gave the double-out list unconditionally, which stopped being harmless once the coach itself learned the finish rule.)
Coach — everything Assist does, plus it tells you what to aim at on every visit, including when you can't finish: "Aim to leave 32."
Start on Coach while you're learning the finishes, then drop to Assist once you're hitting them. You can change it any time.
The setting follows your account, so it applies on your phone and on the web scoreboard alike. On the web the advice appears on the active player's card — and only for the player it belongs to.
Per-dart coaching (Coach mode)
On Coach, X01 games use a per-dart pad — you tap each dart instead of entering the visit total. That extra tap buys you two things.
A plan with a contingency. Darts strategy isn't one perfect throw, it's knowing what to do when the throw misses. On 117 the advisor says T19 · S20 · D20 — and tells you what to do if that first dart drops into the single. Land a 7 instead and the advice instantly becomes T20 · Bull, because 110 is still a finish. The recovery line becomes the plan, automatically, after every dart.
Better leaves. The advisor prefers numbers whose misses stay alive. On 32, missing D16 leaves 16, then 8, then 4 — always even, always a double. On 10, missing D5 leaves 5: odd, no double, and a dart burned getting back. So with two darts on 10 it will tell you to throw S2 to leave 8, then D4 — the same one attempt at a double, but a miss leaves you on 4 instead of dead on 5. With three darts it says take D5 first, because a miss still leaves you two darts to recover with.
On the last dart of a visit with no finish available, it does what a good player does: throws to leave a good number. From 41 it says T3 — leaving 32.
Per-dart entry also records exactly where your darts land, which is what powers your heat map and your real per-double hit rates.
It learns your doubles. Out of the box the advisor steers you toward D16, the textbook double. Once you've thrown enough darts at a double for the number to mean something, it steers you toward your best one instead — so a player who lives on D10 stops being coached onto D16.
Or pin one. Settings → Gameplay has a favourite-double picker (D16, D20, D10, Bull, or any other). Routes on the pad lean that way even in Assist. The stream overlay has the same picker in its gear menu, so a D16 player on 36 is told S4 · D16 on the broadcast too. Leave either on Auto and nothing changes.
Two things it deliberately will not do. It won't chase a hot streak: hitting your first two darts at D3 is not evidence, and the advisor weighs a hit rate by how many darts are behind it, so a handful of lucky darts never outranks a double you've thrown at a hundred times. And it won't coach you with someone else's numbers — when you're scoring on behalf of a guest, the advice falls back to the textbook double, because your miss pattern isn't theirs.
This only works from per-dart data, so it improves as you use the Coach pad. Turns entered as a visit total leave no record of which darts went where.
Cricket coaching
Cricket asks a different question — not how do I finish, but what am I throwing at? The advisor answers it on your turn, and only on your turn.
It works down four priorities, in this order:
- Win. One number left and the points already yours: "Close bull to win." It will not say this while you're behind — closing out when you're behind doesn't win the game, it just removes your own way back into it.
- Shut it down. A number your opponent has closed and you haven't is an open wound: every dart they land there is points you can't answer. The advisor sends you there before anything else.
- Score. Behind on points, with a number you own and they don't? That's the only way back. "Score on 20 — you're 60 behind and they can't answer."
- Next. Nothing to defend and nothing to bank: take the biggest number you still owe.
It works down from the 20s and leaves the bull for last, the way players actually play. The bull is worth 25 a hit, but it's the smallest target on the board — ranking purely by points would have you opening on it.
Cut-throat is a different game and gets different advice. There, points are damage you hand to everyone who hasn't closed the number, and the lowest score wins. So the advisor looks for the number that hits the most opponents at once: "Score on 19 — puts points on all 3 players still open on 19."
No-score cricket is a pure race, so it simply sends you to the number you're closest to finishing.
After the game — the coaching report
Once you've played five games, Chuck Darts can generate an AI coaching report: three specific tips drawn from your actual numbers — your three-dart average, checkout percentage, and the doubles you attempt most but hit least. Every tip cites a real statistic from your play.
The doubles it names come from replaying the darts you actually threw: a dart counts as an attempt when you were sitting on that double, and as a hit when it landed. One honest caveat — in a straight-out game, finishing 40 with two single 20s records that first dart as a missed D20; nothing in the data can tell deliberate play from a drift off the wire. The numbers are best read as a ranking of your doubles against each other, which is exactly how the advisor uses them.
Reports refresh every few hours, or sooner once you've played a couple of new games. The report tells you what to practise; the advisor helps you do it at the board.