Scoring

Thanks for checking out our puzzles! If you’ve registered as a competitor (or are thinking about it), you probably want to know how our scoring system works.
Note that the system below will apply to most puzzles, although occasionally we may publish a different type of puzzle with tweaks or different bonus incentives. We’ll be very clear about it when that happens, so you can otherwise expect the below to apply.
 

Submitting a correct answer: 1 Point

If you submit a correct answer to the given week’s puzzle by the deadline, you get one shiny point.

Speed bonus: Up to +0.5 Points

Quicker than everyone else? That’s going to be your key to competing for top spots.
  • The fastest correct answer each week will receive a bonus of 0.5 points.
  • The rest of the fastest 10% of correct answers will receive a bonus of 0.4 points.
  • The rest of the fastest 20% of correct answers will receive a bonus of 0.3 points.
  • The rest of the fastest 30% of correct answers will receive a bonus of 0.2 points.
  • The rest of the fastest 50% of correct answers will receive a bonus of 0.1 points.

Submit an incorrect answer, or puzzle feedback: 0.5 Points

If you submit an incorrect answer, you will still receive 0.5 points for your submission. Consistency of participation is key, even if you don’t always get it right!
This also means if you can’t figure it out, please still submit something. Whether it be your best attempt, or even some feedback for us to read about what you couldn’t figure out. As long as you submit something of substance, we’ll award half a point for it.

Break the puzzle: 2x Score Multiplier + Bonus Prize

And finally, if you submit a correct answer which deals more damage than the puzzle specifies, two awesome things happen:
First of all, the score you earned otherwise for that puzzle becomes doubled. (So yes, a fastest-submission “puzzlebreaker” answer gets you (1 + 0.5) x 2 = 3 points!)
And secondly, each player who broke the puzzle gets a special puzzlebreaker prize direct from us to you.
Note also that if you claim that your solution is a puzzlebreaker, but it isn’t, your answer will be marked incorrect. This even applies if your answer otherwise matched the true solution, but you submitted it as a puzzlebreaker due to a math mistake or poor block. Double-check everything!

Tiebreakers

While we aim for a scoring system that tries to make ties rare near the top of the leaderboard, they still happen. Thankfully, we have a simple answer for that.
Any ties in points on the leaderboard will be re-ranked based on how many times you were the fastest, second fastest, third fastest, etc… in descending priority, on puzzles within the season.
Example: If you and the person next to you are tied, and you were the fastest once this season, and they never were, then you place higher than them. If you and that person each were the fastest once, but you were the second fastest once, and they never were, then you place higher than them.
These tiebreakers are actively reflected on the leaderboard, so the spot you’re in is the spot you’re in.