Rules & Scoring

How a Match Works

1. Challenge another player from the dashboard or accept an incoming challenge.
2. Each match has 4 rounds. Players alternate between setter (picks the word) and guesser (guesses letters).
3. The challenger guesses first in round 1; roles swap each round.
4. After all rounds, the player with the most points wins.

Round Rules

• The setter picks a secret word (3-28 letters) and an optional category hint.
• The guesser guesses one letter at a time.
• Correct guesses reveal all instances of that letter in the word.
• Wrong guesses add a body part to the gallows. 7 wrong guesses and the guesser loses the round.
• Guess all letters before 7 wrongs and the guesser wins the round.
• Words can contain letters, spaces, and hyphens. Spaces and hyphens are revealed from the start.
• Words are checked against English and Dutch dictionaries (~370K + ~386K words). If a word is not found, you'll get a warning but can still proceed.
• Offensive words are blocked outright.

Scoring

Points are awarded at the end of each round based on performance:

If the guesser wins:

Points = (7 - wrong guesses) × word length

A perfect round (zero wrong guesses) earns a 2x multiplier.

If the setter wins:

Points = 7 × word length

The setter is rewarded when their word stumps the guesser completely.

Match Outcome

• Win: The player with the higher total score wins the match.
• Draw: Equal scores after all rounds.
• Forfeit: Leaving a match counts as a loss.

Streaks & Leaderboard

• Consecutive match wins build your win streak. A loss or draw resets it.
• Your best streak is tracked permanently.
• The scoreboard ranks players by total points (all-time), win rate (min. 10 matches), or weekly/monthly points.

Limits (Beta)

• Maximum 50 concurrent games across all players.
• Only one active game per player pair at a time.
• Maximum 10 pending outgoing challenges per player.
• Challenges expire after 24 hours if not accepted.