How to play
Six hints · Seven guesses · 195 countries to collect
The basic loop
Every round shows you the silhouette of a mystery country. Your job is to identify it using a text input that autocompletes country names. You have up to seven guesses. With each wrong guess, a new hint is revealed, so the longer you take, the more information you have to work with — but the goal is still to land the answer with as few guesses as possible.
If you correctly identify the country at any point in those seven guesses, it gets added to your atlas. If you run out of guesses, the country is revealed, and you can try again with a different country.
The six hints, in order
- Hint 1 — Climate & Terrain. A short phrase describing the country's climate and dominant landscape. Useful for ruling out half the planet at a glance.
- Hint 2 — Borders. The number of land borders the country has. Island nations show as zero. Highly diagnostic for narrowing down by region.
- Hint 3 — Region. The geographic subregion (e.g. "Western Europe", "Sub-Saharan Africa", "Southeast Asia").
- Hint 4 — Known for. A one-line cultural or historical association — what the country is most internationally recognized for.
- Hint 5 — Capital. The capital city. For most players this is the moment of recognition.
- Hint 6 — Flag. The flag itself. By this point, if you don't have it, the round is meant to teach rather than challenge.
Skipping a country
If you're truly stuck or simply don't want to play this country right now, hit the "Skip this country" button under the guess input. Skipped countries get added to a short-term avoidance list so you won't see them again in your next several rounds — they'll come back later once your atlas has grown a bit. Skipping doesn't break your streak (only losing a country does that), and skipped countries aren't added to your atlas.
Daily streaks
Your streak counts the number of consecutive days you've correctly identified at least one country. Playing once a day keeps it alive. Missing a day resets it to zero. If you sign in with a Google account or magic-link email, your streak syncs across devices so you can play on phone and desktop without losing progress.
Tips for tougher rounds
- Read the silhouette geometrically, not patriotically. Long coastline plus narrow shape suggests Chile or Vietnam. Compact and inland suggests landlocked Central African or Central Asian nations.
- Use the border count aggressively. Zero borders eliminates everything continental. One border eliminates nearly every country except small enclaves and certain peninsular nations.
- Don't burn guesses on near-duplicates. If the silhouette looks like it could be either of two countries, guess the more common one first — the wrong-answer hint will usually rule one out.
- Capitals are gifts. Capital cities are uniquely diagnostic. If you know Reykjavík, you know the country in one click.
Your atlas
Every country you've successfully identified is permanently saved to your atlas. Tap the 🗺️ badge in the header to browse it grouped by continent. Locked countries are shown with a padlock and an obscured name until you collect them. Once collected, you can tap any country to open its dedicated detail page with facts about its geography, climate, currency, languages, and more.
The world map at the top of the game also colors in collected countries on the actual world map — a satisfying way to watch your coverage of the globe grow over weeks.