Krillion Strategy Guide
In most quizzes you win by knowing the answer. In Krillion you win by knowing an answer that nobody else came up with. Nearly every prompt has hundreds of correct replies, and the less common yours is, the further your krill sinks. This guide shows how the points work, using real entries from our answer sheets.
- One round, step by step
- The six tiers
- Example: a fruit
- Example: a bird of prey
- Example: a city starting with B
- How we judge answers
- Ways to play
- Habits that score
- Questions
One round, step by step
A daily dive is seven rounds, one per category: nature, geography, film and music, food, sport and games, science and technology, and everyday life. A new set unlocks at 00:00 New York time, and every player gets the same seven prompts that day.
In each round you see a prompt such as "Name a bird of prey" and a 25-second timer. Type your answer and press Go. If it is not on our sheet you can try again, up to three tries while the timer is running. If the timer hits zero, whatever is in the box is checked anyway; an empty box means you ran out of air and the round scores nothing.
Each point is worth 10 metres of depth. Seven rounds at up to 100 points each give 700 points, which lands you exactly on rock bottom at 7,000 m. After the seventh round you see your depth, the ocean zone you reached and a row of coloured squares to share, which shows how you did without giving away any answers.
The six tiers
The tier of every answer is fixed in advance, so the same answer always scores the same for everyone.
| Tier | Points | Sinks you | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plankton | 10 | 100 m | The five answers players type most often. |
| Schooler | 30 | 300 m | The next popular group, roughly places 6 to 25. |
| Too Clever | 15 | 150 m | Hand-picked: the "weird" answer everyone uses to look clever. |
| Rare | 60 | 600 m | The next band down the list, answers you can still recall under time pressure. |
| Deep Cut | 85 | 850 m | Everything further down the sheet, plus correct answers our sheet missed. |
| One in a Million | 100 | 1,000 m | Hand-picked jackpots, one or two per prompt, each with a fun fact. |
| Not on the sheet | 0 | 0 m | Wrong, too general, breaks the prompt's rule, or nothing typed in time. |
Example: "Name a fruit."
This sheet accepts more than 320 fruits. Apple and Banana are Plankton, worth 10 each, because almost everybody starts there. Mango, Kiwi and Lime are Schoolers at 30. Durian is the classic trap: it is the famously smelly fruit people pick to sound adventurous, so it is Too Clever and pays only 15. Lychee and Rambutan score a Rare 60, while Feijoa and the Brazilian Pequi are Deep Cuts at 85. The jackpots are the Medlar, which is traditionally eaten only once it starts to rot, and the Cherimoya, which Mark Twain called the most delicious fruit known to men. Each is worth the full 100.
Example: "Name a bird of prey."
Eagle and Owl are Plankton. Kestrel, Merlin, the Secretary bird and the Harpy eagle are all Schoolers: they feel unusual, yet plenty of players know them. The Lammergeier is Too Clever, and typing its other name, Bearded vulture, leads to the same entry. The Gyrfalcon, Saker falcon and Philippine eagle are Rare. The Taita falcon of East Africa is a Deep Cut. The jackpot is the Bat hawk, a raptor that hunts bats at dusk and swallows them whole in flight.
Example: "Name a city that starts with B."
Prompts with a rule are where answers get thrown out. Boston and Berlin are Plankton; Bern and Bergen are Schoolers; Bratislava is the Too Clever pick. African and Central Asian capitals such as Bamako, Banjul and Bishkek score Rare, while Besançon, Bahir Dar and Bujumbura are Deep Cuts. The jackpots are Bergamo and Bukhara. A city starting with any other letter scores zero, no matter how obscure it is.
Put together, a dive of Banana (10), Kestrel (30), Bamako (60), Feijoa (85), Durian (15), an empty box on round six (0) and Bukhara (100) is 300 points. Your krill stops at 3,000 m, well inside the midnight zone.
How we judge answers
First we look your answer up on the sheet. The lookup ignores capital letters, accents, a leading "the" or "a", a plural ending and small typos, and it knows the category word in the prompt, so "Medlar fruit" finds Medlar. If the answer is not on the sheet, an AI referee checks whether it is real and fits every part of the prompt. Correct answers that our long list missed are rare by definition, so they score a Deep Cut. Each verdict is saved, which means the next player to type the same thing gets the same result. Think we got one wrong? Tell us on the contact page.
Ocean zones on the way down
- Sunlight zone, 0 to 200 m. Seven Plankton answers (70 points) already take you past it.
- Twilight zone, 200 to 1,000 m. The light fades; the deepest no-limits freedive reached 214 m.
- Midnight zone, 1,000 to 4,000 m. The only light is made by animals. Anglerfish live around 2,000 m.
- Abyssal zone, 4,000 to 6,000 m. Near-freezing water over plains of mud and metal nodules. You need about 57 points a round to get here.
- Hadal zone, 6,000 to 7,000 m. The trenches, named after Hades. Mostly Deep Cuts and jackpots.
- Rock bottom, 7,000 m. Seven jackpots: a perfect dive.
Ways to play
Today's dive. Seven shared prompts, once a day. It counts toward your streak, and once enough people have played you see what share of players typed the same answer as you.
Unlimited. Random sets from the whole library, back to back. Good for practice; your streak is never touched, and each set can be sent to a friend.
Themes. Chapters of seven prompts on one subject. Play the subject you are best at, or the one you keep losing points on.
Answer archive. Every past daily dive with its common answers, a sample of the rare ones and the jackpots. Any of them can be played from Past dives in the game menu.
Habits that score
- Count to one, then discard. The answer that arrives instantly is the one the crowd typed. It is worth 10.
- Suspect the clever pick. If an answer feels like the well-known weird choice (Durian, Lammergeier), it is probably Too Clever.
- Narrow the category in your head. Not "a fruit" but "a fruit from South America"; not "a city" but "a city in West Africa". The narrower your search, the rarer the result.
- Mine your own life. Your job, hobbies, hometown and travels hold answers most players never type.
- Respect the rule. A starting letter, a letter count or a region is absolute. A sure Rare beats a risky guess worth zero.
- Keep an eye on the timer. 25 seconds allows one or two second thoughts, not five.
- Study the sheets. After each dive, tap the prompts and scan the Rare and Deep Cut lists. Patterns repeat across similar prompts.
Questions
Do typos count against me?
No. Capital letters, accents, plurals, a leading "the" or "a" and small slips are all forgiven, and common alternative names are on the sheet, so "bearded vulture" finds Lammergeier.
Can I play the same daily dive twice?
No, each daily dive is played once. Days you missed can be played from Past dives, and Unlimited and the themes can be replayed as often as you like.
Who decides if an answer missing from the sheet is right?
An AI referee checks that it is real and fits every part of the prompt. Correct ones score a Deep Cut, and the verdict is saved so everyone gets the same result for that answer.