Ammo and budget calculator
How many gel balls do you need for a party? Plug in the players, the game length and how trigger-happy they are. Ammo prices come from each brand's own refill pack, linked below. Planning a foam game instead? Darts work differently.
Your shopping list
- Rounds to have on hand
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- Ammo cost
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- Per player
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- Full hopper/mag loads per player
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The rate is a planning assumption, not a measurement: nobody publishes real-world rounds-per-minute for backyard play. Electric gel blasters on full-auto can empty a hopper fast; pump and slide-action foam blasters fire far fewer rounds per minute.
Foam darts: count darts, not shots
Foam darts are picked up and fired again, so a foam game doesn't burn through thousands of rounds the way gel does. What you need is enough darts to fill every blaster, plus spares for the ones that vanish under the deck. A workable plan: each player's blaster capacity, times two (one load in the blaster, one in their pocket), plus a refill pack for the group. A Commander RD-6 holds 6, a Shockwave RD-15 holds 15, a Flipshots Flip-32 holds 32 (per Hasbro). At the Elite 2.0 refill price we found (source), darts cost about 34ยข each. Call an ammo pickup break every round.
Picking blasters for kids? See best Nerf blasters for kids.
How to use the numbers
- Gel beads ship dry. They have to soak in water before play; follow the soak time on the pack, and start the night before for a morning party. Dry beads won't feed or fire properly.
- Hydrated gel beads don't keep. Soak what you'll use that day. Leftover hydrated beads dry out or break down; dry beads in a sealed bag keep far longer.
- Electric blasters need charge. Battery life from the spec table tells you whether one charge covers your game; plan a charging station at half time if not.
Compare ammo cost across every blaster in the spec table, or start from a ready-made party loadout. Running the game itself? See backyard war rules and the Nerf war planning guide, and print free targets for warm-up rounds.