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How scoring works: Bracket City

Your game score comes from your own puzzle result. Your party rank compares that score with your party's submissions for the same day.

Quick summary

Solve the nested clues from the inside out; every wrong guess, peek or revealed answer costs points off a perfect 100. In a party, a higher Total Score ranks higher.

How to score well

Solve the innermost clues first — an answer only counts once nothing is bracketed inside its clue.
Think before you type: each wrong guess costs 2 points.
A peek costs 5 points but a revealed answer costs 15, so peek before you reveal.
Every finished puzzle counts — even revealing everything beats not finishing.

How ranking works in parties

Higher Total Scores rank higher within the party.
Unsolved (DNF) entries earn 0 points for the day.
Tied scores share the same competition rank (1, 1, 3).

Example

In a 3-player party Alice scores 100, Bob scores 72, Carol logs a DNF. Alice earns 3 points (1st), Bob earns 2, Carol earns 0.

How to submit your score

iPhone and iPad

Solve the puzzle, then tap Share Results to copy your result. Paste it into PuzzleParty. On a computer, paste it at puzzleparty.app/paste.

Android

Solve the puzzle, then tap Share Results to copy your result. Paste it into PuzzleParty. On a computer, paste it at puzzleparty.app/paste.

Technical scoring data

{
    "ranking": {
        "tie_algorithm": {
            "key": "competition_ranking",
            "display_name": "Competition ranking"
        }
    },
    "examples": [
        "A clean solve with no wrong guesses, peeks or reveals scores 100 and earns the maximum game score.",
        "Four wrong guesses, one peek and one revealed answer score 72 (100 \u2212 8 \u2212 5 \u2212 15), which normalizes to about 0.78.",
        "A puzzle finished by revealing every answer scores 0 but still counts as solved, with the 0.2 floor."
    ],
    "rule_text": "Your score is Bracket City's Total Score, from 0 to 100. In regular mode you start at 100 and lose 2 points per wrong guess, 5 per peek and 15 per revealed answer; in hard mode the score is your keystroke efficiency minus the same peek and reveal penalties. Higher scores earn a better game score: 100 earns the maximum and 0 earns the 0.2 solved floor, linearly in between. Every shared puzzle counts as solved; only a manual-entry DNF scores 0.",
    "edge_cases": [
        "There is no failure state in the game itself \u2014 every finished puzzle produces a share and is treated as solved.",
        "Hard-mode scores can carry a decimal (88.4); they rank on the same 0\u2013100 scale as regular-mode scores.",
        "Kingmaker and Puppet Master both score 100 and tie in the party ranking.",
        "A manual-entry DNF (didn't finish the puzzle) is the only unsolved state; it scores 0.0 and is excluded from score averages.",
        "Archive puzzles share with their own date; the party's late-entry rules decide whether they count."
    ],
    "measurement": {
        "metric_key": "score",
        "metric_label": "Points",
        "scoring_type": "higher_better"
    },
    "human_review": {
        "checklist": [
            "Verify rule_text matches the parser: score = the shared Total Score, every parsed share solved.",
            "Verify the 0 / 100 bounds in rule_text and examples match scoring_config in GameSeeder (change all of them if Open Decision 1 picks other bounds).",
            "Verify the penalty numbers (2 / 5 / 15) still match The Atlantic's game before publishing.",
            "Verify edge_cases cover hard-mode decimals, the 100 tie and the manual-DNF-only failure state."
        ],
        "machine_verifiable_scope": [
            "measurement.scoring_type",
            "absolute_scoring.method",
            "absolute_scoring.solved_floor",
            "absolute_scoring.unsolved_score",
            "absolute_scoring.range.best",
            "absolute_scoring.range.worst_solved",
            "ranking.tie_algorithm.key",
            "party_ranking.normalization_summary"
        ]
    },
    "party_ranking": {
        "normalization_summary": "Within a party, players are ranked on this game using higher Total Scores first (up to 100), with unsolved entries ranked last. Each player earns one point for every party member they beat, plus one. Players who don't solve the puzzle earn zero points for this game."
    },
    "schema_version": 1,
    "absolute_scoring": {
        "range": {
            "best": 1,
            "worst_solved": 0.2
        },
        "method": "higher_better",
        "scoring_type": "higher_better",
        "solved_floor": 0.2,
        "unsolved_score": 0
    }
}