Hi everyone!
I’m the No. 1 ranked Skull King player in the world on the BGA all-time list as of the moment that this guide is being published. I wanted to share my knowledge of the game with those who want to learn and improve at it. This is a fairly long read, but even reading it in part can help you advance your mastery of the game.
There’s a misconception that Skull King is a chaotic game based mainly on luck that is too random to develop any sort of strategy. While luck plays a role, I’ve been able to consistently win at least 60-65% of my games on BGA over the course of hundreds of games played (compared to the average win rate in 3-player games of barely over 30%). This is impossible to achieve with luck alone, thus below you’ll find some of the main tips I’ve used to get to the No. 1 rank and the key mistakes I see from lower-ranked players.
I go over four key aspects of the game:
1) Which game settings to play with;
2) How to bid correctly;
3) Which mistakes to avoid in the playing phase;
4) A bonus section on how to use Pirate Powers (optional, but I highly recommend playing with this setting).
At the end, I also add some exercises for you to try out and solve for yourself. Have fun reading!
IMPORTANT: Please note that while I am a very strong Skull King player, this post at the end of the day is just my opinion. I do not claim to have the objective facts about all aspects of Skull King strategy, but rather am sharing my own experience and advice. Enjoy, and feel free to comment if you see things differently or have questions! I would be very happy about any sort of engagement.
TOPIC 1: WHICH GAME SETTINGS SHOULD YOU CHOOSE (HOW MANY PLAYERS? KRAKEN, WHITE WHALE, LOOT, PIRATE POWERS?)
I’ll get straight to the point: if you want to minimise luck, maximise the role of skill, increase your rating and genuinely get better at Skull King, you are best off sticking only to 3-player games. Yes, I know some of you may be used to games with more players. Yes, I know you may straight up dislike the 3-player format for one reason or another.
However, there is little debate that this is the best format if you want to grow your rating and mastery level. It is the preferred format of most high-ranked players (myself included) and the one in which they have the greatest chance of converting a skill advantage into a win. Why, you may ask? I could probably write a separate post solely about that, but the main reason is simple – 3-player games minimise the role of unpredictable behaviour by your opponents. If you can never be sure that someone won’t ruin your bid with overly ambitious play or illogical moves even in 3-player games, it follows that in 5- or 6-player games, these things are entirely outside of your control. You will also very rarely be the last person to play in any given trick, so the amount of “guaranteed” tricks you can win by playing a strong card last will rarely exceed 0 or 1, meaning that to make a decent bid in 5- or 6-player games, you would need to hope that your opponents play into your hands and don’t “overhit” your strong cards that you play in the middle of the trick (spoiler alert: they often will). Not to mention that a good portion of 5- or 6-player games I have seen involved raging players who are far behind ruining the game for the opponents by making silly moves, or just straight up quitting the game entirely (of course, with just 3 players, all of this is far less likely). The list goes on, but trust me, you are best off sticking to 3-player.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you feel that 3-player games (or any of the below suggestions) are simply not for you, there is no implication in my post of forcing anyone to do anything. Thanks to the game publishers and BGA developers, many game modes are available on BGA for everyone to enjoy. This post is only a summary of my suggestions for those wishing to improve at the game.
So, what about all the other stuff (Kraken, White Whale, Loot, Pirate Powers), then? Should you include them in your games or stick to the basic version? I’ll keep it simple: ideally you’ll be playing with Loot and Pirate Powers, and without the Kraken and White Whale. This seems oddly specific, and some of you may not like this, so it’s time for another explanation.
The Kraken and White Whale add almost no strategic value to the game. Yes, it’s fun to destroy people’s bids at the end of the round by playing these cards to blow up people’s Pirates or force them to win tricks they didn’t want, but here’s the fundamental problem with all of this: it levels out the playing field way too much. If you want to beat weaker players at this game with decent consistency, you simply cannot afford to play with cards that make the game’s nature more random. There is no particularly “skilled” way to use these cards; they will usually be tossed into a random trick closer to the end of the round, destroying your (or someone else’s) hopes of making their bid. There is no way to plan around these cards in a “skilled” way, either: you have absolutely no way of knowing whether your opponents have one of these cards or not until one is played – making Pirates and the Skull King far less of a planning tool in how many tricks you can bid or win. The game becomes reduced to “gotcha” moments where someone unexpectedly whips one of these cards out to trip up another player who didn’t even misplay their hand in any serious way. As much as I like the Kraken and White Whale, I only use them in unrated games, or ones I play in real life with my family. I would recommend the same to anyone trying to improve.
The Loot and Pirate Powers, on the other hand, do not detract from the skill-based element of the game and even slightly enrich it. The Loot is just an Escape that has an additional gimmick of giving +20 points if you make your bid that round. Having more Escapes is nice and makes bidding zero more viable, if played correctly. While Pirate Powers will be discussed in greater detail towards the end of the guide, they primarily allow for greater planning and strategy rather than make the game more chaotic, contrary to popular belief. I will note that if you REALLY hate Loot and Pirate Powers for whatever reason, you don’t need to play with them. But they are simple to learn, and will make it easier to beat weaker players as you improve.
Now, to the interesting part.
TOPIC 2: HOW TO BID CORRECTLY IN SKULL KING?
IMPORTANT NOTE: The following advice on bidding is written with 3-player games in mind. I do not recommend playing any other type of games for reasons I have described above. If you do decide to play with more players, part of this advice will not be directly applicable.
This is by far the most misunderstood aspect of the game, and by far the most important. If you make an illogical bid, it will often not matter how well you play your hand and you will simply miss your bid. I cannot stress this enough as the amount of people I see bidding unrealistically high (or, perhaps even more often, unrealistically low) who then act shocked in the chat at having missed their bid (or worse, blame other players) is staggering.
There is too much ground to cover on bidding to include it all in one forum post, but here are the main tips to keep in mind:
TIP #1: In non-early rounds (Round 4 and later), DO NOT bid zero without having a near-guaranteed zero hand. I see this far, far too often and it is probably the number one mistake that both beginners and fairly advanced players make. They seem to forget that the points lost from failing a zero bid are FAR greater than the points gained from failing any other bid, whereas the points gained from making a zero bid are usually around the same as points gained from making a typical bid of 2-3 tricks + a bit of bonuses.
What is a “near-guaranteed zero bid”, you may ask? A better understanding will come with experience, but the best advice I can give you is do not bid zero if you are unsure. Odds are that you are overestimating your chances of making the zero bid successfully. You simply cannot afford to gamble like this unless you are quite sure that the bid will be successful.
Meanwhile, to help you, below are the main guidelines to bid zero more safely & profitably. Please note that these are rules of thumb rather than absolutes:
1) If you have any trump cards (black Jolly Roger suit) in Rounds 1-3, or 2+ trump cards in Rounds 4-10, do not bid zero.
2) If you have any face cards (Pirates, Mermaids, Skull King) in any round, do not bid zero.
3) If you have no Escapes / Loot in Rounds 4-10, do not bid zero.
4) If you have cards of all three non-trump suits, and at least in two of those suits the cards are fairly high-numbered, do not bid zero. This one can be tricky to grasp, but it is very important. High-numbered cards of several suits make it nearly impossible to keep losing tricks without accidentally taking one in between, even if you have a couple Escapes / Loot.
5) If you are far ahead of other players in terms of overall points and the game will end in a few rounds, do not bid zero (unless the zero bid is incredibly easy to complete). There is no need to risk!
6) If you are the player leading the first trick, especially in Rounds 6-10, do not bid zero. Even if you lead with an Escape / Loot, it is fairly likely that both your opponents have one too and your bid will fail immediately if they play those. An exception to this rule might be if you have at least 2-3 Escapes / Loots, as then it becomes unlikely that both opponents have one too.
There are more tips, but sticking to the above will save you 90% of the pain caused by people ambitiously bidding zero and failing.
TIP #2: The next bidding tip is to generally bid a bit higher than what feels natural, at least for most players. Why? There are two main reasons. First, you simply get more points from higher bids, so even if making a bid of 2 tricks is a bit less likely than making a bid of 1 trick, it can still be the better choice. Second, underbidding is a more common mistake than overbidding at all player levels. For whatever reason, people are overly optimistic about their ability to lose tricks when needed and overly pessimistic about their ability to win tricks when needed.
Of course, I have no way of knowing if you are currently in the “underbidding” or “overbidding” camp, or a bit of both depending on the situation. To help you, I describe some typical-looking hands, and the right bid with an explanation attached.
(Round 4) Your hand: black 4, green 13, yellow 12, Escape.
The correct bid is 2 tricks. Seems natural, but many players would make the error of bidding 1 trick here. Why? Very simple: they underestimate the chances of winning a trick with their high non-trump coloured cards, using lazy thinking along the lines of “Well, they are not trumps, so surely I can get rid of them without winning a trick.” First of all, that entire line of thinking is questionable – you need to think of how to win more tricks, not less (since higher bids give you more points). But more importantly, a bid of 1 trick exposes you too much to lower bids by your opponents. If one of your opponents bids 0 tricks, or if both of them bid 1 trick (both extremely likely scenarios), it is almost certain that you will exceed your unambitious bid of 1 trick and end up regretting it. Players tend to assume that both opponents are likely to bid something similar to them, which is simply not true. Your opponents will typically bid a bit lower than necessary and will often toss out ridiculous zero bids as discussed in the previous tip – take advantage of their errors by bidding a bit higher yourself.
(Round 7) Your hand: black 13, green 11, green 10, yellow 13, yellow 4, purple 12, Escape.
The correct bid is 3 tricks. This may seem obvious to some players, but many will bizarrely bid 2 tricks in situations like this. Think about it: 3 out of 7 tricks is less than half, and one of them (the black 13) is essentially guaranteed. You need to win just 2 tricks of the remaining 6, and have four extremely high coloured suit cards to do so. The odds are in your favour, especially since zero bids and low (1-2 trick) bids are extremely common. The only way for you to regret your 3-trick bid is for both opponents to bid 3+ AND for both of them to have better cards than you. Needless to say, this scenario is unlikely, making 3 tricks the obvious (perhaps not at first sight) bid.
(Round 9) Your hand: Tigress, Mermaid, black 6, green 6, green 4, yellow 13, yellow 4, purple 12, purple 2.
The correct bid is 3 tricks. Many players would be tempted to overbid and go 4 tricks here, given two Pirate / Mermaid cards, a trump, and a few high coloured cards. Bidding 4 tricks is not necessarily a terrible mistake, but it is overly ambitious since a bid of 3 is nearly guaranteed to work. Having a Tigress always allows you to be more open to bidding lower, since you can play it as an Escape if you find yourself winning too many tricks. The strategy here is simple: get your 3 tricks with the Mermaid, black 6, and Tigress. Preferably leave the Tigress for the end of the round, since if you accidentally win a trick with one of your two high non-trump cards, you can compensate by tossing the Tigress away as an Escape. Notice that bidding 4 tricks would require you to win a trick with one of your two high non-trump cards, which despite being very possible, is unnecessary since making a bid of 3 tricks is almost guaranteed by following the general strategy I described. No need to make a bid that is 50% likely to work, when you can make one that is 90% likely to work.
(Round 1) Your hand: green 9.
The correct bid is either 0 tricks or 1 trick, depending on who plays first. If one of your opponents plays first, the correct bid is obviously 0. If you play first, the correct bid, quite strangely, is 1. This may seem absurd to newer players, but the probability that both your opponents have either a lower green, or a yellow, or a purple card (or an Escape / Loot) is close to 40%. Since a bid of 1 pays out twice as much as a bid of 0 in Round 1, the math will be in your favour by bidding 1 trick. This applies to any coloured card in the first round (only if you are the person going first, of course), unless said card is below 6 or 7, at which point the math will turn against you and 0 becomes the more profitable bid.
Hopefully, this helps clear up some misconceptions. There is no possible way for me to perfectly fine-tune your bidding in one article (and I obviously make mistakes myself), so the rest of your learning will come from playing your own games and hopefully reflecting on your bids afterwards. Needless to say, just because you didn’t make your bid doesn’t make it a bad bid – luck plays a role too. The goal is to analyse whether the bid was realistic.
TIP #3: The last tip I would give is to pay attention to the bids of your opponents. Far too often, players focus exclusively on their own bid and fail to notice what is happening around them.
For instance, assume that Player A leads the trick, you act second, and Player B goes third. If you and Player B have both made your bids, you cannot afford to play a card that beats whatever Player A led with. You desperately need to play a lower one, even if that costs you an Escape – since Player B will quite obviously force you to win the trick and miss your bid if the card you play is higher than Player A’s. This is a simple example, but the general principle applies everywhere – for example, if you are leading a trick in Round 10 and both your opponents are extremely close to their bids, you can afford to play a weaker card and still expect to take the trick with it a decent proportion of the time. Think of the tricks taken to tricks bid ratio as a hunger bar: the more of their bid someone has fulfilled, the less likely they are to try to beat your card in the current trick.
I get into the details of the playing phase itself below, but just keep in mind that looking at your opponents’ bids is not done nearly enough. Doing so will automatically give you a massive edge over most players.
TOPIC 3: WHICH MISTAKES TO AVOID IN THE PLAYING PHASE?
Now we’ve arrived in the most interesting part: the playing phase. This may seem to be the most important area to master, but by bidding correctly, you will have guaranteed most of your success before a single card is laid on the table. Nevertheless, it is key to play your cards right to convert your bids to points and, hopefully, more victories at Skull King.
TIP #1: Position is everything.
This is, by far, the most important thing to realise in the playing phase. But first – what do I even mean by “position” here?
Your position is determined by the order in which the players act within a trick. Consequently, in a 3-player game, you can have 3 possible “positions” – first, second, or third (last). It is not hard to guess which of these three positions is typically the best. If you thought it was third position (last to play), you are correct. I refer to playing last as being in position, and playing first or second as being out of position.
Playing last (being in position) is almost always better for an incredibly simple reason – once you lay down your card, you know who won the trick with 100% certainty. There is no need for you to predict what the other players may do or whether your strong trick-winning card will be overhit by an even stronger card of the next player. The trick ends with you.
Seems straightforward, so why mention this at all? Because again and again, I see that even fairly strong players fall into the trap of not caring about position, or not caring about it enough. They will carelessly play strong trumps, Mermaids etc. while in first or second position, somehow assuming that opponents are unlikely to overhit it with an even higher trump or Pirate. Needless to say, this assumption is often wrong and can screw up the bid.
The above advice about position also means that, as a general rule, it is better for you if the player seated to your right (the one going immediately after you), rather than the player to your left, wins a trick. This is because the former option would leave you in position for the next trick, whereas the latter would make you play that trick out of position.
Does this mean that you should never aim to win a trick when out of position? Of course not. If there are not many tricks remaining in a round and you still need some tricks to make your bid, it is time to start playing your strong cards no matter what, rather than waiting for position when the round is almost over. Additionally, playing high non-trump cards with the hopes to win a trick (for example, a yellow 13) when out of position is often a good idea, as long as you are not 100% reliant on winning that trick in order to make your bid.
Keep position in mind and you will be on your way to eliminate most of your problems at the playing table.
TIP #2: Don’t rush to win all your tricks.
This one is fairly simple, but I can’t tell you how often I see this mistake. Someone will bid 2 tricks in Round 10, and then rush to win the first 2 tricks, somehow expecting that they are guaranteed to lose the remaining 8. It doesn’t work like that, sorry. Opponents will have Escapes, Loot, low cards, and all sorts of crap they will throw your way to make you exceed your bid. Needless to say, those in a big hurry to make their bid often end up exceeding it by quite a lot. There is a famous expression in my native language which translates roughly as “If you rush, you will make people laugh.” Try not to be that player
To the best of your ability, spread out the tricks that you win fairly evenly throughout the round. This will already happen naturally if you follow the first tip in this section: playing your strong cards in position (when you are last to act). You will almost never be in position for several tricks in a row, meaning that the game already “forces” you to spread out your winning tricks. Don’t try to resist this, as that would only be detrimental to your success.
TIP #3: Try to reduce the number of suits in your hand, if you can.
This one may not be intuitive, although it is a fairly universal rule across most trick-taking games, especially those that have trumps. If you have cards of several suits (especially in later rounds), and are indifferent between which suit to play, try to play the suit in which you have less cards. This will “clear out” your hand, leading you to have less suits – which gives you two important advantages: a) You will now be able to play the black trump suit and win tricks when the suit that you don’t have is played; b) You will now be able to discard unnecessary non-trump cards of other suits when the suit that you don’t have is played.
As you can see, reducing the number of suits in your hand generally improves flexibility, as you gain more opportunity to win tricks when you need to (by playing black trumps), as well as the opportunity to lose tricks when you need to (by discarding non-trump cards).
That’s about it – if you generally follow these three simple tips, you will avoid the vast majority of basic mistakes lower-rated players (and advanced players, too) make at the playing table. Now to the final part.
BONUS TOPIC: HOW TO BEST USE PIRATE POWERS?
Earlier in the post, I recommended playing with Pirate Powers, claiming that they increase your odds of pulling off a skill-based victory over less experienced opponents. It is now time for me to back this statement up. I will briefly introduce the five Pirate Powers (apologies to those already familiar with them), analysing their typical uses and advantages they will give you. Please note that the powers can only be used immediately after you win a trick with that Pirate. The powers are listed in order from least to most useful (in my personal opinion).
Juanita Jade: Allows you to see the deck (i.e., the cards that are not in play). Not as helpful as it seems, since it doesn’t tell you which cards any specific opponent has or which cards they will decide to play. Perhaps the best use for it is to check for the presence of Skull King in the deck, which would then allow you to lead tricks with Pirates safely, without fear of losing it to the king of the seas.
Rascal of Roatan: Allows you to bid an additional 20, 10, or 0 points, which you gain if you make your bid, and lose if you don’t make your bid. This is not a lot of points, but I would try to take advantage of this card whenever you get it. It is best to bid the extra points only when you are fairly certain that the bid will be made: for example, you take your last needed trick with the Rascal of Roatan, and your last remaining card is an Escape, giving you nearly 100% certainty of getting the 20 point bonus. It does not need to be quite that extreme, but you need to be fairly sure – otherwise the Pirate’s ability becomes fairly pointless or even detrimental.
Bendt the Bandit: Gives you 2 random cards from the deck that were not in play this round, and makes you to discard any 2 cards (including the 2 cards you just got) in return. This is a unique ability, but it is slightly overrated, since you will rarely get anything game-changing. Perhaps the best use of this Pirate is being able to discard stronger cards like other Pirates or black trumps, which can help you make lower bids if you feel that you are going over.
Rosie D’Laney: Allows you to choose who leads the next trick. The most underrated Pirate Power by quite a big margin. Naturally, its best use is being able to put yourself in position (make yourself play last) for the next trick, making it the only possible way to be in position for two consecutive tricks. In rare cases, you may want to use it in order to play first (e.g. if you desperately need to win more tricks and want to set the led suit colour by playing first), or to make a player who bid 0 tricks play first, giving him a decent chance to fail his bid – but these are fairly niche / rare uses.
Harry the Giant: Allows you to change your bid by 1 trick in either direction, if you so wish. By far the most overpowered Pirate, and one that is unfortunately often played incorrectly. Many players treat his power as if it doesn’t exist – they play him in the first part of the round, when there is no way to tell whether you will be matching, exceeding, or going below your bid. Save Harry for the last tricks when the picture is much clearer, and he will help you make your exact bid nearly every time. This Pirate will have you playing on “easy mode” if you use him right. The best thing about Harry is that, unlike the other four Pirates, his power works even if he is played in the last trick of the round. This means that if you’ve made your bid and have Harry as the last card in your hand, you’re guaranteed to make your bid no matter what the other players have – as if you win the last trick, you’ll raise your bid by 1, and if you lose the last trick, you’ll keep your bid intact.
SUMMARY
If you’ve gotten this far, congratulations! Hopefully you’ve learned something new and are ready to return to playing with a fresh feeling about the game and its strategy.
IMPORTANT: I need to note, once again, that while I would consider myself one of the best Skull King players in the world and have backed this up with results on BGA, it is not impossible that other top-ranked players may have a different approach to some of the things I discuss in this post. To avoid unsubstantiated claims, I have tried to keep the suggestions relatively straightforward and uncontroversial. I would welcome anyone with experience in Skull King to comment on here, and debate or ask questions about potential areas of disagreement. I would be extremely happy to have all forms of engagement under this post if people are interested.
On this note, thank you for reading! As promised, below are a few exercises for you to practice bidding if you found the main article interesting. I haven’t included answers here to avoid spoilers, but simply shoot me a direct message with the number of tricks you would bid for any of these hands and I’ll let you know whether, in my view, this would be a favourable bid to make or not.
EXTRA BONUS: BIDDING EXERCISES TO PRACTICE
a) (Round 1) Your hand: black 1. You are in third (last) position for the trick.
b) (Round 3) Your hand: Tigress, green 11, purple 3. You are in third (last) position for the first trick.
c) (Round 5) Your hand: black 2, yellow 12, yellow 11, purple 4, Escape. You lead the first trick.
d) (Round 8) Your hand: Skull King, Harry the Giant, Juanita Jade, black 14, black 12, green 14, green 7, purple 9. You lead the first trick.
e) (Round 9) Your hand: black 4, green 12, green 8, yellow 12, yellow 11, purple 4, purple 3, purple 1, Loot. You are in second position for the first trick.
As mentioned, shoot me a message if you'd like to check your answers with me.
Once more, thank you for reading and most importantly, have fun playing Skull King!
I’m the No. 1 ranked Skull King player in the world on the BGA all-time list as of the moment that this guide is being published. I wanted to share my knowledge of the game with those who want to learn and improve at it. This is a fairly long read, but even reading it in part can help you advance your mastery of the game.
There’s a misconception that Skull King is a chaotic game based mainly on luck that is too random to develop any sort of strategy. While luck plays a role, I’ve been able to consistently win at least 60-65% of my games on BGA over the course of hundreds of games played (compared to the average win rate in 3-player games of barely over 30%). This is impossible to achieve with luck alone, thus below you’ll find some of the main tips I’ve used to get to the No. 1 rank and the key mistakes I see from lower-ranked players.
I go over four key aspects of the game:
1) Which game settings to play with;
2) How to bid correctly;
3) Which mistakes to avoid in the playing phase;
4) A bonus section on how to use Pirate Powers (optional, but I highly recommend playing with this setting).
At the end, I also add some exercises for you to try out and solve for yourself. Have fun reading!
IMPORTANT: Please note that while I am a very strong Skull King player, this post at the end of the day is just my opinion. I do not claim to have the objective facts about all aspects of Skull King strategy, but rather am sharing my own experience and advice. Enjoy, and feel free to comment if you see things differently or have questions! I would be very happy about any sort of engagement.
TOPIC 1: WHICH GAME SETTINGS SHOULD YOU CHOOSE (HOW MANY PLAYERS? KRAKEN, WHITE WHALE, LOOT, PIRATE POWERS?)
I’ll get straight to the point: if you want to minimise luck, maximise the role of skill, increase your rating and genuinely get better at Skull King, you are best off sticking only to 3-player games. Yes, I know some of you may be used to games with more players. Yes, I know you may straight up dislike the 3-player format for one reason or another.
However, there is little debate that this is the best format if you want to grow your rating and mastery level. It is the preferred format of most high-ranked players (myself included) and the one in which they have the greatest chance of converting a skill advantage into a win. Why, you may ask? I could probably write a separate post solely about that, but the main reason is simple – 3-player games minimise the role of unpredictable behaviour by your opponents. If you can never be sure that someone won’t ruin your bid with overly ambitious play or illogical moves even in 3-player games, it follows that in 5- or 6-player games, these things are entirely outside of your control. You will also very rarely be the last person to play in any given trick, so the amount of “guaranteed” tricks you can win by playing a strong card last will rarely exceed 0 or 1, meaning that to make a decent bid in 5- or 6-player games, you would need to hope that your opponents play into your hands and don’t “overhit” your strong cards that you play in the middle of the trick (spoiler alert: they often will). Not to mention that a good portion of 5- or 6-player games I have seen involved raging players who are far behind ruining the game for the opponents by making silly moves, or just straight up quitting the game entirely (of course, with just 3 players, all of this is far less likely). The list goes on, but trust me, you are best off sticking to 3-player.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you feel that 3-player games (or any of the below suggestions) are simply not for you, there is no implication in my post of forcing anyone to do anything. Thanks to the game publishers and BGA developers, many game modes are available on BGA for everyone to enjoy. This post is only a summary of my suggestions for those wishing to improve at the game.
So, what about all the other stuff (Kraken, White Whale, Loot, Pirate Powers), then? Should you include them in your games or stick to the basic version? I’ll keep it simple: ideally you’ll be playing with Loot and Pirate Powers, and without the Kraken and White Whale. This seems oddly specific, and some of you may not like this, so it’s time for another explanation.
The Kraken and White Whale add almost no strategic value to the game. Yes, it’s fun to destroy people’s bids at the end of the round by playing these cards to blow up people’s Pirates or force them to win tricks they didn’t want, but here’s the fundamental problem with all of this: it levels out the playing field way too much. If you want to beat weaker players at this game with decent consistency, you simply cannot afford to play with cards that make the game’s nature more random. There is no particularly “skilled” way to use these cards; they will usually be tossed into a random trick closer to the end of the round, destroying your (or someone else’s) hopes of making their bid. There is no way to plan around these cards in a “skilled” way, either: you have absolutely no way of knowing whether your opponents have one of these cards or not until one is played – making Pirates and the Skull King far less of a planning tool in how many tricks you can bid or win. The game becomes reduced to “gotcha” moments where someone unexpectedly whips one of these cards out to trip up another player who didn’t even misplay their hand in any serious way. As much as I like the Kraken and White Whale, I only use them in unrated games, or ones I play in real life with my family. I would recommend the same to anyone trying to improve.
The Loot and Pirate Powers, on the other hand, do not detract from the skill-based element of the game and even slightly enrich it. The Loot is just an Escape that has an additional gimmick of giving +20 points if you make your bid that round. Having more Escapes is nice and makes bidding zero more viable, if played correctly. While Pirate Powers will be discussed in greater detail towards the end of the guide, they primarily allow for greater planning and strategy rather than make the game more chaotic, contrary to popular belief. I will note that if you REALLY hate Loot and Pirate Powers for whatever reason, you don’t need to play with them. But they are simple to learn, and will make it easier to beat weaker players as you improve.
Now, to the interesting part.
TOPIC 2: HOW TO BID CORRECTLY IN SKULL KING?
IMPORTANT NOTE: The following advice on bidding is written with 3-player games in mind. I do not recommend playing any other type of games for reasons I have described above. If you do decide to play with more players, part of this advice will not be directly applicable.
This is by far the most misunderstood aspect of the game, and by far the most important. If you make an illogical bid, it will often not matter how well you play your hand and you will simply miss your bid. I cannot stress this enough as the amount of people I see bidding unrealistically high (or, perhaps even more often, unrealistically low) who then act shocked in the chat at having missed their bid (or worse, blame other players) is staggering.
There is too much ground to cover on bidding to include it all in one forum post, but here are the main tips to keep in mind:
TIP #1: In non-early rounds (Round 4 and later), DO NOT bid zero without having a near-guaranteed zero hand. I see this far, far too often and it is probably the number one mistake that both beginners and fairly advanced players make. They seem to forget that the points lost from failing a zero bid are FAR greater than the points gained from failing any other bid, whereas the points gained from making a zero bid are usually around the same as points gained from making a typical bid of 2-3 tricks + a bit of bonuses.
What is a “near-guaranteed zero bid”, you may ask? A better understanding will come with experience, but the best advice I can give you is do not bid zero if you are unsure. Odds are that you are overestimating your chances of making the zero bid successfully. You simply cannot afford to gamble like this unless you are quite sure that the bid will be successful.
Meanwhile, to help you, below are the main guidelines to bid zero more safely & profitably. Please note that these are rules of thumb rather than absolutes:
1) If you have any trump cards (black Jolly Roger suit) in Rounds 1-3, or 2+ trump cards in Rounds 4-10, do not bid zero.
2) If you have any face cards (Pirates, Mermaids, Skull King) in any round, do not bid zero.
3) If you have no Escapes / Loot in Rounds 4-10, do not bid zero.
4) If you have cards of all three non-trump suits, and at least in two of those suits the cards are fairly high-numbered, do not bid zero. This one can be tricky to grasp, but it is very important. High-numbered cards of several suits make it nearly impossible to keep losing tricks without accidentally taking one in between, even if you have a couple Escapes / Loot.
5) If you are far ahead of other players in terms of overall points and the game will end in a few rounds, do not bid zero (unless the zero bid is incredibly easy to complete). There is no need to risk!
6) If you are the player leading the first trick, especially in Rounds 6-10, do not bid zero. Even if you lead with an Escape / Loot, it is fairly likely that both your opponents have one too and your bid will fail immediately if they play those. An exception to this rule might be if you have at least 2-3 Escapes / Loots, as then it becomes unlikely that both opponents have one too.
There are more tips, but sticking to the above will save you 90% of the pain caused by people ambitiously bidding zero and failing.
TIP #2: The next bidding tip is to generally bid a bit higher than what feels natural, at least for most players. Why? There are two main reasons. First, you simply get more points from higher bids, so even if making a bid of 2 tricks is a bit less likely than making a bid of 1 trick, it can still be the better choice. Second, underbidding is a more common mistake than overbidding at all player levels. For whatever reason, people are overly optimistic about their ability to lose tricks when needed and overly pessimistic about their ability to win tricks when needed.
Of course, I have no way of knowing if you are currently in the “underbidding” or “overbidding” camp, or a bit of both depending on the situation. To help you, I describe some typical-looking hands, and the right bid with an explanation attached.
(Round 4) Your hand: black 4, green 13, yellow 12, Escape.
The correct bid is 2 tricks. Seems natural, but many players would make the error of bidding 1 trick here. Why? Very simple: they underestimate the chances of winning a trick with their high non-trump coloured cards, using lazy thinking along the lines of “Well, they are not trumps, so surely I can get rid of them without winning a trick.” First of all, that entire line of thinking is questionable – you need to think of how to win more tricks, not less (since higher bids give you more points). But more importantly, a bid of 1 trick exposes you too much to lower bids by your opponents. If one of your opponents bids 0 tricks, or if both of them bid 1 trick (both extremely likely scenarios), it is almost certain that you will exceed your unambitious bid of 1 trick and end up regretting it. Players tend to assume that both opponents are likely to bid something similar to them, which is simply not true. Your opponents will typically bid a bit lower than necessary and will often toss out ridiculous zero bids as discussed in the previous tip – take advantage of their errors by bidding a bit higher yourself.
(Round 7) Your hand: black 13, green 11, green 10, yellow 13, yellow 4, purple 12, Escape.
The correct bid is 3 tricks. This may seem obvious to some players, but many will bizarrely bid 2 tricks in situations like this. Think about it: 3 out of 7 tricks is less than half, and one of them (the black 13) is essentially guaranteed. You need to win just 2 tricks of the remaining 6, and have four extremely high coloured suit cards to do so. The odds are in your favour, especially since zero bids and low (1-2 trick) bids are extremely common. The only way for you to regret your 3-trick bid is for both opponents to bid 3+ AND for both of them to have better cards than you. Needless to say, this scenario is unlikely, making 3 tricks the obvious (perhaps not at first sight) bid.
(Round 9) Your hand: Tigress, Mermaid, black 6, green 6, green 4, yellow 13, yellow 4, purple 12, purple 2.
The correct bid is 3 tricks. Many players would be tempted to overbid and go 4 tricks here, given two Pirate / Mermaid cards, a trump, and a few high coloured cards. Bidding 4 tricks is not necessarily a terrible mistake, but it is overly ambitious since a bid of 3 is nearly guaranteed to work. Having a Tigress always allows you to be more open to bidding lower, since you can play it as an Escape if you find yourself winning too many tricks. The strategy here is simple: get your 3 tricks with the Mermaid, black 6, and Tigress. Preferably leave the Tigress for the end of the round, since if you accidentally win a trick with one of your two high non-trump cards, you can compensate by tossing the Tigress away as an Escape. Notice that bidding 4 tricks would require you to win a trick with one of your two high non-trump cards, which despite being very possible, is unnecessary since making a bid of 3 tricks is almost guaranteed by following the general strategy I described. No need to make a bid that is 50% likely to work, when you can make one that is 90% likely to work.
(Round 1) Your hand: green 9.
The correct bid is either 0 tricks or 1 trick, depending on who plays first. If one of your opponents plays first, the correct bid is obviously 0. If you play first, the correct bid, quite strangely, is 1. This may seem absurd to newer players, but the probability that both your opponents have either a lower green, or a yellow, or a purple card (or an Escape / Loot) is close to 40%. Since a bid of 1 pays out twice as much as a bid of 0 in Round 1, the math will be in your favour by bidding 1 trick. This applies to any coloured card in the first round (only if you are the person going first, of course), unless said card is below 6 or 7, at which point the math will turn against you and 0 becomes the more profitable bid.
Hopefully, this helps clear up some misconceptions. There is no possible way for me to perfectly fine-tune your bidding in one article (and I obviously make mistakes myself), so the rest of your learning will come from playing your own games and hopefully reflecting on your bids afterwards. Needless to say, just because you didn’t make your bid doesn’t make it a bad bid – luck plays a role too. The goal is to analyse whether the bid was realistic.
TIP #3: The last tip I would give is to pay attention to the bids of your opponents. Far too often, players focus exclusively on their own bid and fail to notice what is happening around them.
For instance, assume that Player A leads the trick, you act second, and Player B goes third. If you and Player B have both made your bids, you cannot afford to play a card that beats whatever Player A led with. You desperately need to play a lower one, even if that costs you an Escape – since Player B will quite obviously force you to win the trick and miss your bid if the card you play is higher than Player A’s. This is a simple example, but the general principle applies everywhere – for example, if you are leading a trick in Round 10 and both your opponents are extremely close to their bids, you can afford to play a weaker card and still expect to take the trick with it a decent proportion of the time. Think of the tricks taken to tricks bid ratio as a hunger bar: the more of their bid someone has fulfilled, the less likely they are to try to beat your card in the current trick.
I get into the details of the playing phase itself below, but just keep in mind that looking at your opponents’ bids is not done nearly enough. Doing so will automatically give you a massive edge over most players.
TOPIC 3: WHICH MISTAKES TO AVOID IN THE PLAYING PHASE?
Now we’ve arrived in the most interesting part: the playing phase. This may seem to be the most important area to master, but by bidding correctly, you will have guaranteed most of your success before a single card is laid on the table. Nevertheless, it is key to play your cards right to convert your bids to points and, hopefully, more victories at Skull King.
TIP #1: Position is everything.
This is, by far, the most important thing to realise in the playing phase. But first – what do I even mean by “position” here?
Your position is determined by the order in which the players act within a trick. Consequently, in a 3-player game, you can have 3 possible “positions” – first, second, or third (last). It is not hard to guess which of these three positions is typically the best. If you thought it was third position (last to play), you are correct. I refer to playing last as being in position, and playing first or second as being out of position.
Playing last (being in position) is almost always better for an incredibly simple reason – once you lay down your card, you know who won the trick with 100% certainty. There is no need for you to predict what the other players may do or whether your strong trick-winning card will be overhit by an even stronger card of the next player. The trick ends with you.
Seems straightforward, so why mention this at all? Because again and again, I see that even fairly strong players fall into the trap of not caring about position, or not caring about it enough. They will carelessly play strong trumps, Mermaids etc. while in first or second position, somehow assuming that opponents are unlikely to overhit it with an even higher trump or Pirate. Needless to say, this assumption is often wrong and can screw up the bid.
The above advice about position also means that, as a general rule, it is better for you if the player seated to your right (the one going immediately after you), rather than the player to your left, wins a trick. This is because the former option would leave you in position for the next trick, whereas the latter would make you play that trick out of position.
Does this mean that you should never aim to win a trick when out of position? Of course not. If there are not many tricks remaining in a round and you still need some tricks to make your bid, it is time to start playing your strong cards no matter what, rather than waiting for position when the round is almost over. Additionally, playing high non-trump cards with the hopes to win a trick (for example, a yellow 13) when out of position is often a good idea, as long as you are not 100% reliant on winning that trick in order to make your bid.
Keep position in mind and you will be on your way to eliminate most of your problems at the playing table.
TIP #2: Don’t rush to win all your tricks.
This one is fairly simple, but I can’t tell you how often I see this mistake. Someone will bid 2 tricks in Round 10, and then rush to win the first 2 tricks, somehow expecting that they are guaranteed to lose the remaining 8. It doesn’t work like that, sorry. Opponents will have Escapes, Loot, low cards, and all sorts of crap they will throw your way to make you exceed your bid. Needless to say, those in a big hurry to make their bid often end up exceeding it by quite a lot. There is a famous expression in my native language which translates roughly as “If you rush, you will make people laugh.” Try not to be that player
To the best of your ability, spread out the tricks that you win fairly evenly throughout the round. This will already happen naturally if you follow the first tip in this section: playing your strong cards in position (when you are last to act). You will almost never be in position for several tricks in a row, meaning that the game already “forces” you to spread out your winning tricks. Don’t try to resist this, as that would only be detrimental to your success.
TIP #3: Try to reduce the number of suits in your hand, if you can.
This one may not be intuitive, although it is a fairly universal rule across most trick-taking games, especially those that have trumps. If you have cards of several suits (especially in later rounds), and are indifferent between which suit to play, try to play the suit in which you have less cards. This will “clear out” your hand, leading you to have less suits – which gives you two important advantages: a) You will now be able to play the black trump suit and win tricks when the suit that you don’t have is played; b) You will now be able to discard unnecessary non-trump cards of other suits when the suit that you don’t have is played.
As you can see, reducing the number of suits in your hand generally improves flexibility, as you gain more opportunity to win tricks when you need to (by playing black trumps), as well as the opportunity to lose tricks when you need to (by discarding non-trump cards).
That’s about it – if you generally follow these three simple tips, you will avoid the vast majority of basic mistakes lower-rated players (and advanced players, too) make at the playing table. Now to the final part.
BONUS TOPIC: HOW TO BEST USE PIRATE POWERS?
Earlier in the post, I recommended playing with Pirate Powers, claiming that they increase your odds of pulling off a skill-based victory over less experienced opponents. It is now time for me to back this statement up. I will briefly introduce the five Pirate Powers (apologies to those already familiar with them), analysing their typical uses and advantages they will give you. Please note that the powers can only be used immediately after you win a trick with that Pirate. The powers are listed in order from least to most useful (in my personal opinion).
Juanita Jade: Allows you to see the deck (i.e., the cards that are not in play). Not as helpful as it seems, since it doesn’t tell you which cards any specific opponent has or which cards they will decide to play. Perhaps the best use for it is to check for the presence of Skull King in the deck, which would then allow you to lead tricks with Pirates safely, without fear of losing it to the king of the seas.
Rascal of Roatan: Allows you to bid an additional 20, 10, or 0 points, which you gain if you make your bid, and lose if you don’t make your bid. This is not a lot of points, but I would try to take advantage of this card whenever you get it. It is best to bid the extra points only when you are fairly certain that the bid will be made: for example, you take your last needed trick with the Rascal of Roatan, and your last remaining card is an Escape, giving you nearly 100% certainty of getting the 20 point bonus. It does not need to be quite that extreme, but you need to be fairly sure – otherwise the Pirate’s ability becomes fairly pointless or even detrimental.
Bendt the Bandit: Gives you 2 random cards from the deck that were not in play this round, and makes you to discard any 2 cards (including the 2 cards you just got) in return. This is a unique ability, but it is slightly overrated, since you will rarely get anything game-changing. Perhaps the best use of this Pirate is being able to discard stronger cards like other Pirates or black trumps, which can help you make lower bids if you feel that you are going over.
Rosie D’Laney: Allows you to choose who leads the next trick. The most underrated Pirate Power by quite a big margin. Naturally, its best use is being able to put yourself in position (make yourself play last) for the next trick, making it the only possible way to be in position for two consecutive tricks. In rare cases, you may want to use it in order to play first (e.g. if you desperately need to win more tricks and want to set the led suit colour by playing first), or to make a player who bid 0 tricks play first, giving him a decent chance to fail his bid – but these are fairly niche / rare uses.
Harry the Giant: Allows you to change your bid by 1 trick in either direction, if you so wish. By far the most overpowered Pirate, and one that is unfortunately often played incorrectly. Many players treat his power as if it doesn’t exist – they play him in the first part of the round, when there is no way to tell whether you will be matching, exceeding, or going below your bid. Save Harry for the last tricks when the picture is much clearer, and he will help you make your exact bid nearly every time. This Pirate will have you playing on “easy mode” if you use him right. The best thing about Harry is that, unlike the other four Pirates, his power works even if he is played in the last trick of the round. This means that if you’ve made your bid and have Harry as the last card in your hand, you’re guaranteed to make your bid no matter what the other players have – as if you win the last trick, you’ll raise your bid by 1, and if you lose the last trick, you’ll keep your bid intact.
SUMMARY
If you’ve gotten this far, congratulations! Hopefully you’ve learned something new and are ready to return to playing with a fresh feeling about the game and its strategy.
IMPORTANT: I need to note, once again, that while I would consider myself one of the best Skull King players in the world and have backed this up with results on BGA, it is not impossible that other top-ranked players may have a different approach to some of the things I discuss in this post. To avoid unsubstantiated claims, I have tried to keep the suggestions relatively straightforward and uncontroversial. I would welcome anyone with experience in Skull King to comment on here, and debate or ask questions about potential areas of disagreement. I would be extremely happy to have all forms of engagement under this post if people are interested.
On this note, thank you for reading! As promised, below are a few exercises for you to practice bidding if you found the main article interesting. I haven’t included answers here to avoid spoilers, but simply shoot me a direct message with the number of tricks you would bid for any of these hands and I’ll let you know whether, in my view, this would be a favourable bid to make or not.
EXTRA BONUS: BIDDING EXERCISES TO PRACTICE
a) (Round 1) Your hand: black 1. You are in third (last) position for the trick.
b) (Round 3) Your hand: Tigress, green 11, purple 3. You are in third (last) position for the first trick.
c) (Round 5) Your hand: black 2, yellow 12, yellow 11, purple 4, Escape. You lead the first trick.
d) (Round 8) Your hand: Skull King, Harry the Giant, Juanita Jade, black 14, black 12, green 14, green 7, purple 9. You lead the first trick.
e) (Round 9) Your hand: black 4, green 12, green 8, yellow 12, yellow 11, purple 4, purple 3, purple 1, Loot. You are in second position for the first trick.
As mentioned, shoot me a message if you'd like to check your answers with me.
Once more, thank you for reading and most importantly, have fun playing Skull King!
the strong player has a 86% bid accuracy in round 10 and not much worse in 8 or 9. She's very good at capturing the bonuses
Although it can definitely be fun in casual games.