One of the most important aspects of time series is their degree of stochasticity vs. chaoticity. Since the discovery of chaotic maps, many algorithms have been proposed to discriminate between these two alternatives and assess their prevalence in real-world time series. Approaches based on the combination of “permutation patterns” with different metrics provide a more complete picture of a time series’ nature, and are especially useful to tackle pathological chaotic maps. Here, we provide a review of such approaches, their theoretical foundations, and their application to discrete time series and real-world problems. We compare their performance using a set of representative noisy chaotic maps, evaluate their applicability through their respective computational cost, and discuss their limitations.