The best darts for beginners

The short answer: start with a 22g to 24g set of entry tungsten with a machined grip — that is the band most players settle into and the material that lets three darts share a treble bed. Brass is a perfectly honest cheaper start if you are not sure the hobby will stick. And if your board is electronic, the only correct answer is soft tip, whatever the weight.

Almost everything written about beginner darts over-complicates it, because the equipment variables that matter to a good player barely register for a new one. Three things decide whether a beginner set helps or hinders: the tip type matches the board, the weight is near the middle of the normal range, and the barrel gives your fingers something to find. Everything else — scallop patterns, point taper, flight shapes — is a preference you cannot have yet because you have not thrown enough darts to have one.

Steel-tip darts are normally sold between about 18g and 30g, and the bulk of the market sits between 21g and 26g. Starting in the 22g to 24g band is the standard recommendation for a sound reason: it is heavy enough to fly flat without a lob, light enough that your arm is not fighting it by the third leg, and central enough that you can move in either direction once you know which way you want to go.

Quick picks

Tap any row to jump to the full write-up.

#	Product	Best for	Price
1	Best overall for beginners Red Dragon Amberjack 2 Steel Tip Darts Entry tungsten at a sane weight with a grip you can actually feel.	Anybody who intends to keep playing	$52.00View on Amazon
2	Best budget start Viper Cold Steel Steel Tip Darts A sensible brass set for finding out whether darts sticks.	A first set when nobody is sure how much it will get used	$99.86View on Amazon
3	Best for a heavier throw Winmau Simon Whitlock Steel Tip Darts A heavier signature set for players who throw hard and flat.	Adults who find light darts float on them	$94.95View on Amazon
4	Best for an electronic board Viper Sinister Soft Tip Darts The right tip type if your board is plastic, which it should be in a family house.	Households on a soft-tip electronic board	$73.99View on Amazon

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1. Best overall for beginners

Red Dragon Amberjack 2 Steel Tip Darts

Red Dragon

The single most useful thing a beginner set can do is be made of tungsten rather than brass. Tungsten is denser, so the same weight needs a slimmer barrel, so three darts fit in a treble bed without knocking each other out. That is not a refinement — it is the difference between a tight three-dart group scoring and a tight three-dart group deflecting onto the floor.

The Amberjack sits at the bottom of the tungsten market and gets the beginner specification right. The weights offered sit in the band most new players settle into, the grip is machined aggressively enough to tell you where your fingers are without shredding them, and the flights and stems included are standard sizes you can replace for small money from anywhere.

The honest caveat is that cheap tungsten is an alloy, not pure tungsten, so the barrel is thicker than a premium dart at the same weight. You will notice that if you get good. You will not notice it in your first year, and by then you will know what you actually want.

What we like

• Tungsten alloy, so slimmer barrels than brass at the same weight
• Weights in the band most new players settle into
• Machined grip that tells you where your fingers are
• Standard stems and flights, replaceable for pennies

Worth knowing

• Alloy rather than high-percentage tungsten, so barrels are thicker than premium
• Supplied flights are the first thing you will wear out
• Costs several times a brass set

Who it’s wrong for

A household buying darts for an electronic board. These are steel tip and will wreck plastic segments.

$52.00·View on Amazon

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2. Best budget start

Viper Cold Steel Steel Tip Darts

Viper (GLD Products)

There is a respectable case for starting in brass. It costs a fraction of tungsten, it throws perfectly well, and the only real penalty is barrel thickness — which matters when you are grouping three darts in a treble, and most beginners are not yet doing that. Spending little to find out whether the hobby takes is not a compromise; it is a reasonable decision.

Viper's steel-tip sets are the straightforward version of this. The barrels are knurled rather than smooth, which is what you want while you are learning where to hold a dart, and the weights are marked honestly. Replacing the flights is cheap and you will be doing it often, because flights are the consumable in darts regardless of what you spend.

The thing to watch is that brass is soft. Points blunt, and a blunt point is the second-biggest cause of bounce-outs after bad board wire. A cheap point sharpener solves it and costs almost nothing.

What we like

• Costs a fraction of any tungsten set
• Knurled barrels give real feedback while learning grip
• Honest weight marking
• No regret attached to replacing them

Worth knowing

• Brass means thicker barrels — harder to group three in a treble
• Points blunt faster than tungsten and need sharpening
• You will outgrow them if you stick with the game

Who it’s wrong for

Somebody who already knows they will play weekly. Buy tungsten once instead of brass twice.

$99.86·View on Amazon

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3. Best for a heavier throw

Winmau Simon Whitlock Steel Tip Darts

Winmau

Weight preference is personal and it is not a skill ladder — plenty of excellent players throw light and plenty throw heavy. What matters is that the dart matches your throw. If you push the dart rather than lob it, a heavier barrel gives you a flatter trajectory and a lot less compensation to think about, and light darts will feel vague in your hand forever.

This set sits at the heavier end of the normal range with a grip pattern that suits a firm, front-weighted hold. The tungsten percentage is higher than entry alloy, so the barrel is slimmer than the weight would suggest, which is exactly what you want when you are throwing hard enough to actually group.

It is more dart than a complete novice needs, and buying it before you know your throw is a gamble. Buy it as a second set once you have discovered that the 22g darts in your first set feel like paper.

What we like

• Higher tungsten percentage, so slim barrels at a heavy weight
• Flat trajectory suits a firm, pushed throw
• Grip pattern designed for a front-weighted hold
• Quality stems and flights in the box

Worth knowing

• Too heavy for many beginners, especially children and smaller adults
• Signature pricing above plain equivalents
• The wrong first purchase if you do not know your throw

Who it’s wrong for

A first-ever set. Start in the middle of the weight range and move outward once you know which direction to move.

$94.95·View on Amazon

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4. Best for an electronic board

Viper Sinister Soft Tip Darts

Viper (GLD Products)

If your board is electronic, this is not a preference, it is a requirement. Steel tips smash plastic segments and will ruin an electronic board quickly, and most people only learn that after they have done it. Soft-tip darts have a flexible plastic point that seats in the segment hole and triggers the score.

Within soft tip the beginner considerations are the same as steel: a weight in the middle of the range, a grip you can feel, and replaceable consumables. The consumable here is the tip itself rather than the flight — they snap, you keep a bag of spares, and that is simply how soft tip works.

The limitation is transferability. Soft-tip darts are lighter overall because board regulations cap the weight, so a throw grooved on soft tip needs some adjustment on a pub bristle board. That is a real cost, and it is a much smaller one than a steel spike in a family living room.

What we like

• Correct tip type for electronic boards — will not destroy segments
• Safe around children and rented walls
• Mid-range weight suitable for new players
• Spare tips cost almost nothing

Worth knowing

• Useless on a bristle board
• Lighter than steel tip, so the throw transfers only partly
• Tips snap regularly and need replacing

Who it’s wrong for

A bristle board. Soft tips will not stick in sisal — see steel tip vs soft tip.

$73.99·View on Amazon

#ad · We earn a commission on qualifying purchases. How this is funded · Price as of November 9, 2026

Tungsten is denser than brass, so a tungsten dart of a given weight has a slimmer barrel. That is the entire argument, and it only cashes out when you start grouping — three slim darts fit in a treble bed, three fat ones knock each other loose. A beginner who is still spraying the board gains nothing from it.

• Buy brass if you want to find out whether darts becomes a habit, or if the set is for a child who will change weight preference as they grow anyway.
• Buy entry tungsten if you already know somebody in the house will throw weekly. It is the cheaper route overall because you will not buy twice.
• Do not buy premium tungsten yet. High-percentage barrels with specialized grips are a reward for knowing your throw, not a shortcut to one.
• Keep the points sharp either way. A blunt point deflects off wire that a sharp point would have slid past, and brass blunts faster.
• Budget for flights and stems. They are the consumables, they cost very little, and running worn flights undoes the money you spent on barrels.

The board matters more than the darts, and specifically the wire on it matters more than the darts. A beginner throwing good darts at a stapled budget board will get more bounce-outs than an average player throwing bundled darts at a thin-wire board. If you are buying both at once, spend on the board first — best dartboards for beginners covers that end, and our dartboard buying guide walks the whole decision.

You also need the geometry right, because a board hung at the wrong height trains a wrong throw. The bull sits at 5ft 8in and the throw line is 7ft 9.25in back, measured along the floor. Dartboard height and distance has the governing-body figures and the soft-tip variations, and a throw line marker costs almost nothing and removes the argument.

Finally, protect the wall. New players miss the board, and a surround or a cabinet is cheaper than filling and repainting plaster. For a steel-tip board that is a necessity rather than a nicety; for soft tip it is cosmetic.

1. Decide steel tip or soft tip, based on who lives in the house. This decides the dart aisle entirely.
2. Buy the board first, prioritising wire construction over brand.
3. Buy a mid-weight set — 22g to 24g steel, or mid-range soft tip. Brass if you are testing the hobby, entry tungsten if you are not.
4. Add a surround or cabinet and a throw line marker. Both are cheap and both prevent something annoying.
5. Throw for a month before changing anything. Preferences formed in the first week are noise.
6. Then move weight in whichever direction the darts felt wrong, by two grams at a time.

If you already know you want steel tip and want the wider survey, best steel tip darts covers the whole range rather than the beginner end of it.