When to Draw More Tickets in Ticket to Ride

Drawing tickets is the boldest move in Ticket to Ride. It costs a whole turn, it forces you to keep at least one new goal, and it can swing your score by 20 points either way. Strong players draw tickets more than new players expect, and at better moments. This lesson is about those moments.

The rule, exactly

On your turn you may draw 3 tickets from the top of the ticket deck and keep at least 1. Returned tickets go to the bottom of the deck, in any order you like. You can only return tickets from this draw, never ones you already held. If fewer than 3 tickets are left, you draw what there is.

What is in the deck you draw from

The ticket deck has a memory. At the start of the game, every player is dealt 4 tickets and returns the ones they do not keep to the bottom. So the top of the deck holds tickets nobody has seen, and the bottom holds tickets someone already turned down.

With 33 tickets in the current box:

In a 5-player game, a few mid-game draws can reach the returned tickets. Those were rejected for a reason, often because they ran away from someone’s plan. They may not fit yours either.

When a draw is nearly free

Your railroad changes the math. Early on, a random ticket asks for a whole new path. Later, if your trains already run through many cities, a random ticket is often half built.

Picture a railroad running from Seattle through Helena, Omaha, Chicago, and Pittsburgh to New York. A new ticket from Denver to Pittsburgh is worth 11 points. Your line already reaches Omaha and Pittsburgh, so you need only the 4-train route from Denver to Omaha. Four trains, one claim, 11 ticket points plus 7 route points.

That is the kind of draw you are hoping for. It happens most often when:

• Your railroad is long, and especially when it crosses the map. A long ticket kept at the start makes later draws much better.
• Your railroad passes through busy cities that show up on many tickets, such as Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and Chicago.

When a draw is a trap

The same draw is a trap when:

• You are short on trains. If you have fewer than about 15, a new ticket you cannot finish is likely.
• Someone else is short on trains. The game can end within a few turns of anyone reaching about a dozen. You may not get the turns to build.
• Your current tickets are not done. New goals before old ones are finished stack up risk.
• Your network is small or split. Then every new ticket is a fresh build.

The endgame lesson explains why a failed ticket costs double its value compared with finishing it. A late draw that keeps one bad ticket is often the move that turns first place into third.

Which ticket to keep

You must keep at least 1 of the 3. Choose by cost, not by value.

1. For each ticket, count the new trains it needs, given what you already own and what you already plan to build.
2. Keep every ticket that is already complete. A ticket your trains already connect is free points. It happens more than you think with a long railroad.
3. Keep the cheapest of the rest if you must keep one more. A 5-point ticket that needs 2 new trains is better than a 17-point ticket that needs 12 you do not have.
4. Keep more than one only when the second one shares track with the first or with your current plan.

Count turns as well as trains. Each new route takes drawing turns before you can claim it. A ticket that needs three separate routes is three claims plus the draws behind them.

Reading other players’ draws

When a rival draws tickets, notice it. They now have new goals, most likely near the railroad they already have, because that is what makes a draw worth it. A player who keeps all 3 new tickets is confident their network covers them. A player who draws tickets late with few trains left may be taking a risk you can punish by ending the game sooner.

A simple timing guide

• Opening: draw only if your starting tickets were weak and you have not built much. Usually, wait.
• Midgame: the best time, once your first tickets are done or nearly done.
• Late game: only if your network already covers much of the map and nobody is close to the end.

Our Ticket to Ride strategy guide has a short checklist for ticket draws that pairs well with this one.