Why a tiny miss can cost so much
A dartboard’s numbered wedges are arranged to make accuracy matter. The highest-value wedge, 20, sits between 1 and 5—not between two other high numbers. A dart aimed at the narrow triple-20 band that strays sideways into a neighboring wedge can therefore score only triple 1 or triple 5. The aim was not merely to hit the board, but to hit a small target within the right wedge.
The rings multiply both success and failure
A thin outer band doubles a wedge’s number; a thin inner band, closer to the center, triples it. The triple-20 band is especially valuable because it scores 60, but its neighbors make a near miss costly: the same band in wedge 1 scores 3, and in wedge 5 scores 15. A dart that drifts farther inward or outward may still score the wedge’s ordinary value, while one that lands outside the scoring area scores nothing.
This creates a useful tension: the player must balance a high reward against a small margin for error. Aiming at a less valuable area can be safer, but it gives up points. On a standard board, even a dart that looks close to the bull’s-eye can land in a sharply different scoring zone—the wires separating the wedges decide the result.
