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How scoring works: Clues By Sam

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

Faster solve times improve your Clues By Sam score. Party ranking compares your normalized score with other solved entries from the same puzzle date.

How to score well

  • Solve the puzzle as quickly as you can for the best score.
  • Mistakes only matter as a tiebreaker when two players finish in the same time.
  • A solve in 30 seconds or less earns the maximum normalized score of 1.0.
  • Even the slowest solved entry still beats an unsolved entry because solved scores have a floor above 0.0.

How ranking works in parties

  • Your rank compares your score to other party submissions for the same Clues By Sam puzzle date.
  • Ties use competition ranking (1, 1, 3).
  • Ranks can move as more party members submit.

Example

If you finish in 2 minutes with 1 mistake, your score is better than someone who took 5 minutes with 0 mistakes, because time is the primary metric.

Technical scoring data 
{
    "ranking": {
        "tie_algorithm": {
            "key": "competition_ranking",
            "display_name": "Competition ranking"
        }
    },
    "examples": [
        "A solve in 30 seconds or less normalizes to 1.0 (perfect).",
        "A solve in 272 seconds (~4:32) normalizes to approximately 0.66.",
        "A solve in 600 seconds or more normalizes to 0.2 (solved floor).",
        "Two players finishing in 120 seconds are ranked by who had fewer mistakes."
    ],
    "rule_text": "Clues By Sam uses time as the primary scoring metric. Faster solve times produce better scores. Mistakes serve as a tiebreaker when two players finish in the same time.",
    "edge_cases": [
        "Entries without a recorded time (time_seconds is null) receive a raw score of 9999 and the solved floor of 0.2.",
        "An unsolved entry receives 0.0 even though the slowest solved entry still receives the solved floor.",
        "Mistakes encode as a fractional tiebreaker (mistake_count * 0.0001) so they only matter when times are equal."
    ],
    "measurement": {
        "metric_key": "time_seconds",
        "metric_label": "Time",
        "scoring_type": "time_based"
    },
    "human_review": {
        "checklist": [
            "Verify rule_text clearly explains that faster times score better with mistakes as tiebreaker.",
            "Verify examples match the 30s-600s time range and the solved floor behavior.",
            "Verify edge_cases explain that missing time defaults to 9999 and mistakes encode as fractional tiebreaker."
        ],
        "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": "Party ranking uses peer min/max normalization so each solved score is compared to that party's best and worst solved results for the day."
    },
    "schema_version": 1,
    "absolute_scoring": {
        "range": {
            "best": 1,
            "worst_solved": 0.2
        },
        "method": "time_based",
        "scoring_type": "time_based",
        "solved_floor": 0.2,
        "unsolved_score": 0
    }
}