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How scoring works: Pips Easy

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

Pips Easy is scored on how fast you place the dominoes to solve the board. Your time falls into one of seven score brackets (1.0 down to 0.4), or a 0.2 floor if slower than 5 minutes. Beat 20 seconds and you also earn the 🍪 cookie badge -- it doesn't change your score.

How to score well

Solve the puzzle as quickly as possible -- 20 seconds or less is a perfect score and a 🍪 cookie.
Plan domino placements before committing so you avoid wasted moves.
Even a slow solve earns at least 0.2 -- there is no failure state in Pips.
The cookie is a bonus badge for speed, not a score multiplier.

How ranking works in parties

Your score is compared to other party members who solved the same day's Pips Easy puzzle.
There is no secondary tiebreaker -- players who tie on time share the same rank.
Ties are broken using competition ranking.

Example

You solve Pips Easy #310 in 0:15 (15 seconds). Your time beats the 20s Easy cookie threshold, so you earn a 🍪 cookie and a normalized score of 1.0. A partymate who finished in 0:42 scores 0.9 with no cookie.

How to submit your score

On iOS, tap Share → PuzzleParty. On Android, copy your result and paste it into PuzzleParty.

Technical scoring data

{
    "ranking": {
        "tie_algorithm": {
            "key": "competition_ranking",
            "display_name": "Competition ranking"
        }
    },
    "examples": [
        "Solving Pips Easy in 0:15 (15 seconds) earns a normalized score of 1.0 and the \ud83c\udf6a cookie (under the 20s Easy threshold).",
        "Solving in 0:20 earns 1.0 but no cookie -- the cookie threshold is strict (under 20s).",
        "Solving in 0:42 (42 seconds) earns 0.9 -- very fast, no cookie.",
        "Solving in 3:00 earns 0.5 -- slower but scored.",
        "Solving in 6:00 earns the 0.2 solved floor."
    ],
    "rule_text": "Faster solve times produce better normalized scores. Scoring uses a step-function bracket table: 20 seconds or less earns 1.0, up to 40 seconds earns 0.9, up to 60 seconds earns 0.8, up to 90 seconds earns 0.7, up to 2 minutes earns 0.6, up to 3 minutes earns 0.5, up to 5 minutes earns 0.4. Any solved time slower than 5 minutes earns the minimum solved score of 0.2. Pips has no failure state, so every shared entry is solved. Beating 20 seconds also earns the derived \ud83c\udf6a cookie badge on Easy, but the cookie never changes the score.",
    "edge_cases": [
        "The \ud83c\udf6a cookie is DERIVED from time (under 20 seconds on Easy), not trusted from the emoji in the share text.",
        "The cookie boundary is strict: a solve at exactly 0:20 does NOT earn the cookie.",
        "The cookie never affects the normalized score -- it is an informational badge only.",
        "Pips has no failure state, so there are no unsolved entries; the 0.0 score is unreachable in practice.",
        "Solved entries never score below 0.2, regardless of how slow the time is.",
        "Times at exactly a bracket threshold (e.g., exactly 20s, 40s) receive that bracket's score (inclusive)."
    ],
    "measurement": {
        "metric_key": "time_seconds",
        "metric_label": "Time to solve",
        "scoring_type": "time_based"
    },
    "human_review": {
        "checklist": [
            "Verify rule_text reflects the time-based scoring behavior and the 20s Easy cookie threshold without ambiguity.",
            "Verify examples are readable and match expected outcomes for the 20s-300s range.",
            "Verify edge_cases make clear the cookie is derived (strict under-threshold) and never affects the score."
        ],
        "machine_verifiable_scope": [
            "measurement.scoring_type",
            "absolute_scoring.method",
            "absolute_scoring.solved_floor",
            "absolute_scoring.unsolved_score",
            "absolute_scoring.brackets",
            "ranking.tie_algorithm.key"
        ]
    },
    "party_ranking": {
        "normalization_summary": "Within a party, players are ranked on Pips Easy by faster completion times first. There is no secondary tiebreaker -- the \ud83c\udf6a cookie is derived from time itself, so it carries no extra ranking information. Each player earns one point for every party member they beat, plus one."
    },
    "schema_version": 1,
    "absolute_scoring": {
        "method": "time_based",
        "brackets": {
            "20": 1,
            "40": 0.9,
            "60": 0.8,
            "90": 0.7,
            "120": 0.6,
            "180": 0.5,
            "300": 0.4
        },
        "scoring_type": "time_based",
        "solved_floor": 0.2,
        "unsolved_score": 0
    }
}