Love Letter: Strategies & Tips to Win the Princess’s Heart

Love Letter is an elegantly simple game of deception, deduction, and luck that requires players to outmaneuver each other to win the heart of the Princess. This light-weight game combines a surprising amount of concrete strategy with fun social deduction, making it one of the more popular filler games out there. I’ve played hundreds of games of Love Letter both online and with my family and friends, and I manage to win the affections of the Princess more often than most. Whether you’re a newcomer seeking to grasp the basics or a seasoned player looking to refine your tactics, these strategies will help you turn the tide in your favor and deliver that coveted love letter.

Prioritize staying in the round

There are two ways to win a Love Letter round: having the highest card at the end of the round or being the last player remaining. Both scenarios require that you’re still in the game at the end of the round – you have to be in it to win it. Therefore, your first priority should almost always be to protect yourself from elimination.

If another player knows what card you have (through a Priest or some form of deduction) then you should almost always prioritize playing that card before they get another turn. Otherwise, they’re likely to hit you with a Guard, or Baron and knock you out of the round. It might hurt a bit to ditch a high card like a King or Countess, but it’s better than getting eliminated.

The only time you might want to consider not prioritizing staying in the round is if you are 100% confident that you can eliminate the player who is currently in the lead. For example, let’s say you play a Priest on the leader and learn that they have the Princess. You are left with a Baron in your hand, and another player plays a Priest on you that turn. On your next turn, you draw a Guard. You have three options here:

• Play the Guard on the leader and eliminate them from the round
• Play the Baron on another player and hope they also have a Guard
• Play the Guard on the player who knows you have a Baron, hoping to eliminate them

Depending on how far into the round you are, each of these options has merit. The first option ensures that the current leader won’t win the round, so at least you aren’t losing any more ground to them even if you lose. The second option is almost never a good choice, but it might work early in the round if most of the Guards still haven’t been played. The final option is high risk but high reward, and might be worth it if you can narrow down the odds on what card they’re holding – which leads me to my next tip.

Target players who have information about you

The most dangerous player in the game is the one who knows the most about what card you’re holding. If a player uses a Priest on you, they immediately become your number one threat. In many cases, this is most easily dealt with by simply playing the card they saw on your next turn, but this isn’t always possible (Princess) or desirable.

As soon as another player knows what card I have, I like to subtly nudge other players towards attacking them. Encourage players to use Guards, Barons, Princes, Priests, etc. on that player to interfere with their plans, put them on the defensive and potentially eliminate them from the round before they get another turn. If they’re unsuccessful, you can use all of the information you learn to try to eliminate them yourself.

Play for the end of the round

Many new players like to hold on to high cards (King, Countess, Princess) through the entire round, thinking that it makes them more likely to win in the end. However, those high cards are targets for other players and they’re usually fished out before the round ends if they’re being held too long. Remember that the winner is whoever has the highest card at the end of the round, not who holds a high card the longest.

It’s usually safer and more effective to have lower-numbered cards at the beginning of the round because you’re less of a target and you can use them to learn more information about what other players are holding.

Obviously, you can’t discard the Princess. However, if I’m dealt the Countess at the beginning of a round I will frequently discard her to throw other players off the scent and make myself less of a target. I can then hope to draw and hold another high-ish card for the end of the round (or just win by eliminating other players).

Know the tactical opportunities of each card type

The unique abilities of each card type in Love Letter bring a lot of variety and interesting combinations to the game. Knowing the little tricks and tendencies of each card type is critical to winning.

Guard

Guards are a great way to eliminate other players, but they usually rely on combinations with other cards, deductive reasoning, and/or luck. Near the beginning of a round, I like to try to hold a Guard and play something else (like a Priest or a Handmaid) until I have more information. If you’re forced to play a Guard on an early turn, here is the order in which I’d recommend ‘randomly’ guessing:

• Handmaid – These are some of the most valuable cards, so try to eliminate them before they’re used
• Baron – Players are hesitant to play Barons, so they are more likely to be held in a player’s hand
• Priest – Relatively low value, but there are two of them in the deck
• Prince – Unless you have the Princess, you should try to keep these cards in play so she can be eliminated

Priest

Priests have the obvious function of looking at another player’s card, but that’s not all they can do. Looking at a player’s card puts pressure on them to get rid of that card on their next turn, which can cause them to make suboptimal plays. For example, you might see that they have a Baron, so they are virtually forced to play the Baron and risk elimination on their next turn.

Baron

Barons are, in my opinion, the trickiest cards to play with. Unless you’re 100% confident that your card is higher than an opponent’s you risk eliminating yourself on your turn. In general, I avoid playing the Baron unless absolutely necessary. Remember, avoiding elimination is paramount! One useful trick is to play a Prince on yourself, allowing you to discard the Baron and draw a new, less dangerous card.

If you do play a Baron and you aren’t sure of any cards in your opponents’ hands, it is generally best to play it against the current leader. Also, remember that if you win a Baron contest then other players learn a lot of information about your remaining card. For example, if you eliminate an opponent because your card is higher than their Prince, everyone else immediately knows you have either a King, Countess, or Princess. Yet another reason to avoid playing the Baron unless absolutely necessary.

Handmaid

Handmaids are some of the most powerful and desirable cards in the game. They’re simple and effective, keeping you safe for an entire turn. They become more powerful at higher player counts because you’ll be protected for longer.

Prince

The Prince becomes more useful late in the game when players are more likely to be holding the Princess. They’re also a high enough card that they can often win a round since the higher cards are usually fished out by then. Try to hold a Prince for later in a round when you have more information, then play it if you know someone has the Princess or just hold onto it in hopes of winning with the highest card.

King

Playing with the King can be tricky. It’s high enough to win a lot of rounds, but it can also leave you trapped. The trickiest combination is King+Princess. If you get it early in a round then it’s a high-risk and high-reward scenario – you swap cards with another player, and since both players know what each other has then it often becomes a race to see who gets a Guard first. Since there’s a good chance you swapped for a Guard, the odds are in your favor. Still, you risk the other player drawing a guard and eliminating you before you can reveal them as the Princess.

To mitigate that risk, you should usually swap with the player to your right. It’s pretty common to swap the Princess away, so if you’re playing with other experienced players they’ll often guess that the player you swapped with now has the Princess. Swapping with the player to your right allows the other players to use Guards against them.

If you get the King+Princess combo late in a round then your options are limited. I often get caught in this scenario, and the ‘choice’ is either to discard the Princess and lose, or give the Princess to another player who will then win because they have the Princess. In this situation, you should first see if you can ‘use’ the King on a player protected by a Handmaid – that way you’ll get to keep the Princess. Otherwise, try to trade with the player who is furthest behind in overall points. It’s preferable to feed them a win than to contribute to someone who is doing better.

Countess

The Countess is a great card to pull late in a round but is very difficult to hold onto if you draw her early. The chances that you’ll draw a Prince or King are high – especially in low player count games. If I’m dealt the Countess at the beginning of a round or draw her very early on then I often like to discard her as soon as possible – even when I’m not forced to. This throws other players off and makes them waste turns guessing ‘Prince’ and ‘King’ with their Guards, while simultaneously discouraging them from playing a Baron against you.

Princess

In my experience, you’re very unlikely to win a round if you’re dealt the Princess to start a hand. Your options are limited, because you can really only have one choice of card to play instead of picking from two.

Use as much misdirection as you can to throw other players off. I like to guess ‘Princess’ on other players near the end of a round to make other players think that I’m not holding the Princess. You should also try to eliminate Princes from the game, since they can make you lose on the spot. If you get a Guard and one or both Princes are still in play, guess ‘Prince’ to try to remove them from the game.

Try to eliminate players that are in the lead

There is an unwritten but nearly universally understood rule in Love Letter that other players should gang up on the player currently in the lead. The game goes on until someone reaches the goal score, so as long as you’re preventing someone else from winning you give yourself a chance.

For this reason, games usually end up really close. For example, when I play four-player games online it’s pretty common to have final scores of 4-3-3-3. Everyone understands that winning a round for yourself is the most important thing, but the second most important is stopping the leader from adding to their lead.

To that end, direct the vast majority of your attacks toward the leader. Hit them with Guards, Priests, Barons, Princes, etc. You won’t always be successful, but the constant pressure from you and others greatly reduces their chances of success.

Play Handmaids early and often

I touched on this earlier, but Handmaids are some of the best cards in the game. This is especially true in games with higher player counts since they buy you more time to be safe from attacks. You should almost always play a Handmaid to keep yourself safe and in the round. The possible exception is when you’d be left holding a low value (1-3) card with little to no chance of drawing a higher one on the next turn.

Look for unusual behavior from your opponents

Once you play enough Love Letter you get to know the flow of the game and what kind of behavior to expect from your opponents. This is especially true if you play with the same people over and over again, but it holds for playing against random players as well. When you see odd behavior from your opponents that should be a hint that they have a difficult hand.

For example, it’s not common for someone to play a Baron on the first turn because they’re essentially giving themselves a 50/50 chance of elimination. Therefore, you can usually conclude that they either had both Barons in their hand or a Baron and the Princess. In either case, the player was forced to play a Baron against their will.

Play to your outs – no points for second place

Every round of Love Letter is winner-take-all. You don’t get any consolation prize for coming in second, so you always have to be playing for a win. For example, let’s say you just drew the last card in the draw pile and you’re holding a King and a Priest. The Princess and the Countess are still in play somewhere, so there is no way the King (or the Priest) will win the round for you.

In this scenario, you should play the King and swap your Priest for another player’s card. If it’s the Princess, then you’ve won the round! If it’s the Countess, then there’s a chance that the Princess was removed from the game at the beginning of the round and you still win. If it’s another card, then you lose – just like you’d have lost if you kept the King. Playing the Priest and keeping the King doesn’t earn you any bonus points just because the King is closer in value to the Princess than the Priest.

CHECK IT OUT: If you enjoy games like Love Letter you should check out my strategy guides to Family and Party Games

Let other players do the work for you

Throughout the course of the game, players will learn information about their opponents. If Player 2 plays a Priest on Player 4, Player 4 now has some added pressure on them. You should now direct your attention and attacks to Player 3, because:

• Player 4 is already under pressure and will be forced to react to it
• Player 2 is exerting the pressure, so if you eliminate them it removes the pressure from Player 4

Additionally, if Player 4 can’t react appropriately to Player 2’s pressure (they can’t discard a Princess, for example), then Player 2 will need to spend an additional turn attacking Player 4 with a Guard or Prince to take advantage. That’s one more turn that Player 2 isn’t attacking you.

Probabilities change as the round progresses

Most new players assume that the percentage chances of players holding a card in their hand is simply 1/(the # of cards remaining). However, the probabilities change as a round progresses because some cards are more likely to be held than others. For example, Guards and Handmaids are almost always played quickly. The Princess is never played and is therefore far more likely to be in someone’s hand at the end of a round than any other card.

When you’re using a Guard and trying to guess what card a player is holding, take that into account. Higher cards become much more desirable near the end of a round, so they’re more likely to be kept. Early in a round, however, you’re better off guessing Priest, Baron, Handmaid, or Prince since there are 2 of them.