In GeoDrop everyone gets the same eight places each day. For each one you drop a pin on a world map with no labels, only coastlines and faint country borders, and the game tells you how far off you were. Each pin scores up to 1,000 points, so a perfect day is 8,000. Here is how those points are worked out, and what the scoring rewards.
The board gives you the country
Every place comes with its country on the departures board, or both countries for a place on a border. So the question is rarely which country. It is where in that country, and that is where the points are won and lost.
Each day draws eight countries, every country as likely as any other, and then one place in each. A small country comes up as often as a huge one. In a small country almost any pin inside the border scores well; in a big one, a pin in the middle can be well over a thousand kilometres from the place.
From distance to points
The distance is measured on the globe, not on the flat map, and the points follow a fixed curve, straight lines between these marks:
| Distance off | Points |
|---|---|
| 0 to 25 km | 1,000 |
| 100 km | 940 |
| 250 km | 840 |
| 500 km | 700 |
| 1,000 km | 500 |
| 2,000 km | 260 |
| 4,000 km | 90 |
| 8,000 km | 10 |
| 12,000 km or more | 0 |
Two things stand out. Anything within 25 km scores the full 1,000, so you never need the exact spot. And halving a big miss wins back far more than halving a small one: cutting a 1,600 km miss to 800 km is worth 224 points, while cutting a 100 km miss to 50 km is worth 40. Getting the right part of a country matters much more than polishing a pin that is already close.
Each pin also gets a verdict on the board: LANDED within 25 km, ON TIME within 150 km, DELAYED within 500 km, DIVERTED within 1,500 km, and LOST beyond that.
Lakes, islands and regions
Not every place is a point. Lakes, islands, island groups, deserts, mountain ranges, bays and big parks have an edge, and a pin is measured to that edge. A pin anywhere on the lake, the island or the region is 0 km off and scores 1,000. For those, aim inside the outline rather than for its middle. Cities, peaks and buildings are measured to their point.
The clock
The first three places give you 20 seconds each, the next three 22 and the last two 25. When time runs out, a pin you have placed is dropped for you. With no pin on the map, the round scores 0.
Habits that win points
- Place a pin early. Tap your best guess in the first few seconds, then move it as you think. A rough pin on the clock beats a perfect one that never lands.
- Zoom to the country first. The map starts on the whole world. Zoom in on the country you were given before you aim; the zoom goes as deep as ×512.
- Use the borders and the coast. The map has no names, but it has coastlines and faint borders. A town on a coast, near a border or on a big lake is easy to place once you see the shape.
- Commit to the likelier spot. If the place could be in either of two regions, a pin dropped halfway between them usually scores less on average than a pin in the more likely one, because points fall fastest close to the target.
- Mind the far north and south. Like most flat world maps, this one stretches the land near the poles, so a gap that looks big up there can be fewer kilometres than the same gap near the equator.
After each pin, and after the day
After each drop the map frames your pin and the true place together, and you can pan and zoom around before moving on, which is the best way to learn the map for next time. Once your whole run has finished, and enough people have played, the boarding pass at the end shows where the average of the day's other pins landed for each place and ticks each one where you beat it.
A place does not come back within 60 days, and no country is dealt two days in a row, so every day is new. You get one go a day, and the next eight places open at midnight New York time.