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How scoring works: MapTap

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

Five places a day on a globe — the closer your tap, the more points, and the last three rounds are worth double and triple. In a party, the highest final score ranks highest.

How to score well

  • Zoom in before you tap — a few hundred kilometres is the difference between a 90 and a 99.
  • Save your care for rounds 4 and 5: each point there is worth three.
  • Even a guess in the right country is worth something — MapTap floors a right-country tap at 25.
  • Every finished day counts — there's no losing, only longer flights.

How ranking works in parties

  • Higher final 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 948, Bob scores 815, Carol logs a DNF. Alice earns 3 points (1st), Bob earns 2, Carol earns 0.

How to submit your score

iPhone and iPad

Tap all five places on the globe, then tap Share your score. Choose PuzzleParty in the share sheet. On a computer it copies the result — paste it into PuzzleParty or at puzzleparty.app/paste.

Android

Tap all five places on the globe, then tap Share your score. Choose PuzzleParty in the share sheet, or paste the copied result 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 990+ day (about the top 1% of MapTap games) earns the maximum game score; a 996 and a 991 both normalize to 1.0 but the 996 ranks higher in the party.",
        "An 850 beats an 815 \u2014 higher final scores always rank higher.",
        "A 480 still counts as a completed, ranked result with the 0.2 solved floor."
    ],
    "rule_text": "Your score is MapTap's final score: five taps, each scored 0\u2013100 by how close you landed, with rounds 3, 4 and 5 counting double, triple and triple \u2014 up to 1,000. Higher scores earn a better game score: 500 or below earns the 0.2 solved floor and 990 or above earns the maximum. A negative 'antipode' score counts as 0. Every shared day counts as solved; only a manual-entry DNF scores 0.",
    "edge_cases": [
        "There is no failure state in the game itself \u2014 every finished day produces a share and is treated as solved.",
        "When a day's total is under 50, MapTap turns it into a negative 'antipode' score; it is shown as shared, scored as 0 and ranks below every non-negative day.",
        "A manual-entry DNF (didn't finish the day) is the only unsolved state; it scores 0.0 and is excluded from score averages.",
        "The share has no year, so the date is the most recent matching day; a MapTap+ replay of a missed day counts on that day's date, and the party's late-entry rules decide whether it counts."
    ],
    "measurement": {
        "metric_key": "score",
        "metric_label": "Points",
        "scoring_type": "higher_better"
    },
    "human_review": {
        "checklist": [
            "Verify rule_text matches the parser: score = the shared 'Final score', negative antipode scores count as 0, every parsed share solved.",
            "Verify the 500 / 990 bounds in rule_text and examples match scoring_config in GameSeeder (change all of them if Open Decision 2 picks other bounds).",
            "Verify examples use realistic 0\u20131000 integer scores and the higher_better direction.",
            "Verify edge_cases cover the antipode clamp, the manual-DNF-only failure state and year-less dates."
        ],
        "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 final scores first (up to 1,000), 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
    }
}