Every accepted country in Farflung has a rarity. The rarity decides how much the answer adds to your total. It is an editorial judgement about how obvious the country is for that clue, not a measurement of geographic distance.
The five tiers
The tiers run from Common to Farflung. The table is generated from the same configuration the game imports, so the distances on this page and the distances in a round are the same values.
| Tier | Distance | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 40 km | The answer most players reach for first. |
| Uncommon | 55 km | A second thought, and a better one. |
| Rare | 70 km | A country that takes a little digging. |
| Elusive | 85 km | The answer that makes people look twice. |
| Farflung | 100 km | The gem. The answer almost nobody names. |
How a gem works
A gem is the least obvious accepted answer for a clue. It is usually the Farflung tier, but the label describes the answer rather than the tier: if a clue has two Farflung answers, both are gems. Every prompt in our bank has at least one.
Gems are not tricks. They are countries that genuinely satisfy the clue, but sit further from the first association. German is an official language in Germany, and also in Luxembourg. The second fact is true, less obvious and worth more.
Three worked examples
Clue
A country where German is an official language
Germany is the first country most players name. Luxembourg is the gem: German is one of its three official languages, alongside Luxembourgish and French.
Clue
A country that borders France
Germany is the obvious border. Monaco is the gem on the Mediterranean edge, and Brazil also counts because French Guiana is part of France.
Clue
A country that has hosted the Summer Olympics
The United States is the easy answer. Finland hosted in 1952 and sits in the Rare tier, which is the kind of answer that moves a score without feeling obscure.
Why the score uses kilometres
The game calls the points kilometres because the fiction is an expedition: a better answer takes you further from camp. The number is still a score. It does not measure the distance between your pin and the answer, and it does not reward a country for being physically far from the clue’s most obvious answer.
Fixed values keep clues comparable. A clue with a long list of small island answers would otherwise be worth less than a clue about large continental countries, for reasons that have nothing to do with the player’s geography knowledge. The tier system asks a simpler question: how surprising was this answer?
The five tiers add 40, 55, 70, 85 and 100 km respectively. A perfect round of five Farflung answers scores 350 km.
When the values change
The values live in one configuration object, and the game imports that object directly. There is no second copy in the page copy or in the answer tables. If we recalibrate a tier, this page changes with the game.
We rechecked the distances against three live expeditions before launch. The official how to play page names the tiers but does not publish the distances, so the numbers are our calibration rather than a copied specification. If a later calibration changes them, the version note on this page will change too.