Rock, Paper, Scissors is a classic game where two (or more) players pick one of the three items. Rock beats Scissors, Scissors beats Paper, and Paper beats Rock. Classically used to settle arguments in a more interactive way than a coin flip, Rock Paper Scissors allows for strategy and mind games to win. But what are the best ways to guarantee a win?
Strategies
When playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, there are three possible outcomes: a win, a draw, and a loss. The best strategy to win Rock Paper Scissors is to be completely random. This allows you to win 33.33% of the time. For humans it can be very hard to be random, we tend to pick the next hand in the list and we let our past games influence our choices. To remain random, you need to avoid letting your past games influence your choices.
Research
According to Neural decoding of competitive decision-making in Rock–Paper–Scissors, most players tend to favor Rock as their first choice. The research tracked 480 games per player. This showed that a majority of the players 51%, picked Rock as their most played hand. After that Paper was played most by 34% of the players and a small minority with 15% of the players favored playing Scissors most.
To exploit this strategy it’s best to pick Paper as your first move. The research also confirmed the Win-Stay and Lose-Shift dynamic, where winners tend to stay with their hand and losers tend to shift their hand forward by one. This means a player who loses using Rock will likely switch to Paper, a Paper player will switch to Scissors, and a Scissors player will move to Rock.
How to win
In summary, it’s statistically best to start with Paper, and to pick your next hand completely randomly, not relying on the previous outcome of the game. However, if your opponent just lost to you, you can predict they’re likely to switch to the next hand.
Now that you know the best strategy to win, try your luck online for free on Bloob.io Rock Paper Scissors. Available for 2-4 players, or against bots. With gamemodes such as a race, survival, and a best of series where you play a set amount of rounds.
