Blog · 2026-09-25

How Krillion scoring works: the five rarity tiers explained

Krillion is trivia turned inside out. In a normal quiz the question is hard and there is one right answer. In Krillion the prompt is easy — "name a country in South America" — and there are dozens of right answers. What matters is which one you give. The more obvious your answer, the fewer points it scores. The rarer it is, the deeper it takes you.

The five tiers

Every accepted answer on Krillion Unlimited sits in one of five rarity tiers:

• 🫧 Plankton — 10 points. The answers almost everyone reaches for first. Brazil. Shark. Pizza.
• 🐟 Schooler — 30 points. Well known, but you had to think for a second. Colombia. Dolphin. Lasagna.
• 🦑 Rare — 60 points. Most people know it exists; few say it under pressure. Paraguay. Manta ray. Cassoulet.
• 🏮 Deep Cut — 85 points. You know your stuff. Guyana. Oarfish. Khachapuri.
• 🌟 One in a Krillion — 100 points. One answer per prompt, the deepest cut of all. It usually comes with a fun fact.

Seven prompts, so a perfect dive is 700 points. Every point is ten metres of depth, which is why the results screen talks about the twilight zone and the hadal trench rather than percentages.

How we decide what is rare

The original game uses statistics from its own players: an answer that few people give is rare by definition. That is the honest way to do it, and we don't have a million players. Our tiers are editorial estimates instead — each answer bank was drafted with a language model, then checked against a set of rules (a country's national dish or capital can never be below Schooler, the Krillion answer must be unique, and so on) and spot-checked by hand. It is not perfect. If you think an answer is mis-tiered, the reveal screen shows the whole bank, so at least you can see the reasoning. Tell us and we'll fix it.

Hints cost points, not the round

When the 25 seconds run out you are not automatically sunk. You can flip up to three hints on a single 60-point answer: the first letter, then a few more letters (or a whole word), then the answer itself. Each flip buys you fifteen more seconds of air and takes 10%, 25% or 45% off whatever you finally score. A rescued 60 with all three hints is 33 points — better than a miss, worse than a Schooler you found yourself.

Ready? Today's dive is here, and the scoring page has the full tables.