Category Sprint

How to play

Every answer must begin with the letter shown. Type one per category; Enter moves to the next empty slot rather than ending the round.

Capitals, punctuation and a leading “the” or “a” are ignored, so you never lose a point to typing.

Two kinds of category, and we say which is which

Closed categories — an animal, a job, something you can eat — have a real answer list behind them, and the game judges what you type. There are 10 of them, holding 1038 answers between them.

Open categories — a reason to be late, something you would take camping — have no list at all, because no browser-sized list could ever be right about them. There are 10, and each carries a tickbox: type your answer, tick it, and it scores on your word.

That is a deliberate choice rather than an unfinished feature. A checker that refused a perfectly good answer because it was not on somebody's list would be worse than no checker at all, because you could not tell which of you was wrong. The result sheet marks every point that rested on your own judgement.

Rules and controls — Zerdly's preset

• Every answer starts with the letter shown. That is the one rule the game can always check, and it applies to open and closed categories alike.
• One answer per category, and you may change it until time.
• An answer counts once per round. SALMON is honestly both an animal and a food — which is precisely why it cannot be both at once.
• A closed category is judged against its list. An open one scores only once you have ticked it.
• 10 points a slot, with a point for each letter past 7. Checked and vouched-for answers are worth the same.
• When the round ends you are shown every slot, what it scored, and why.

Why a real answer can still be refused

The closed lists are written by hand. They are long enough that the answers most people reach for are on them, and no list of that size can hold everything — so occasionally a perfectly good answer will miss.

That is why the result sheet always shows you several answers we did have for the letter. It turns “not on our list” from an argument into a piece of information.

Presets

• Solo Sprint — Two minutes, one letter, six categories — mostly ones the game can check for you. The quickest way in, and the one where the score means the most.
• Untimed Party — No clock, and the sheet turns over: mostly open categories, where nothing is on a list and the point is to think of something good rather than something checkable. A different question, not a longer one.
• Pass and Play — Two to four people, one device, the same sheet each. Hand it over when your turn ends; the screen clears in between so nobody reads ahead. Nothing is scored as a personal best.
• Daily Set — One sheet a day, the same for everybody, built from the date. Same shape as Solo Sprint, same two minutes.

Tips

• Fill the open categories first. They cannot refuse you, so they are guaranteed points — and they are the ones that dry up when the clock gets loud.
• Do not stall on one slot. Every category is worth the same, so a minute spent on a hard one costs you two easy ones.
• Reach for the long word when two answers fit. Past 7 letters each one is worth an extra point.
• Watch out for the answer that fits twice. If you have written it somewhere already the second slot will refuse it, and you will not notice until the score sheet.
• In Untimed Party there is nothing to check most of your answers, so aim for the one that makes the table laugh rather than the one you think is safest.

Leaving in the middle of a round

A timed round remembers how much time was left, not when it was due to end. Close the tab and the clock stops with it. Untimed rounds simply wait.

Every stored answer is re-checked against the rules as it is restored, rather than trusted — so a saved sheet can never put you in a position you were not actually in.

Privacy and local play

Everything runs in your browser. Your current sheet, your settings and your best scores are kept on this device only, and the button under the game clears them without touching any other Zerdly tool. Pass and Play is entirely local: there is no matchmaking, no connection and no account, and player names never leave the device.

Questions

Why do some categories have a tickbox and others do not?

Because some can honestly be checked and some cannot. An animal, a job, something you can eat — those have a real list behind them and the game judges your answer. A reason to be late has no list any browser could hold, so instead of pretending, we give you a tickbox: type your answer, tick it, and it scores on your word. The result sheet marks which points came that way.

Is the tickbox not just a way to cheat?

You could tick anything, yes — and the same is true of the paper version, where a friend decides. The alternative is worse: a checker that refused a perfectly good answer because it was not on somebody's list, with no way for you to tell which of you was wrong. Your scores are kept on this device and there is no leaderboard, so the only person a tick can mislead is you.

Can I use the same answer for two categories?

No — an answer counts once per round. SALMON really is both an animal and something you can eat, and that is exactly why it cannot be both at once: scoring it twice would be scoring one idea twice. Use it for one and think of something else for the other.

My answer was real and it was refused. Is the game broken?

No — the closed lists are hand-written and finite, a few hundred answers each. They hold the common answers and cannot hold everything. When a slot misses, the result sheet shows several answers we did have for that letter, so you can tell straight away whether you were wrong or merely unlucky.

Which letters can come up?

16 of them: A, B, C, D, F, G, H, J, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, W. The rest are left out because no closed category has enough answers for them — a sheet asking for a job beginning with X is not a challenge, it is a blank. The playable set is worked out from the lists themselves rather than written down, so it stays correct if the lists change.

Does capitalisation or a leading “the” matter?

Not at all. Answers are compared with case, punctuation and a leading article stripped, so THE BADGER and badger are the same answer.

How is it scored?

10 points for a slot that scores, whether it was checked or you vouched for it — an answer you stand behind is worth the same as one we could verify. Answers longer than 7 letters earn a point for each extra letter.

How does Pass and Play work?

Two to 4 people on one device. Everybody answers the same sheet in turn, each with their own clock. Between turns the screen is replaced entirely by a handover panel naming who is next — not a banner over a visible sheet, because that would let the next player read the last one's answers. At the end every sheet is shown side by side.

Who wins in Pass and Play?

The game does not say. It shows every score side by side and marks the highest, and the people holding the device can decide what that means. A single-device party game does not need refereeing, and nothing from it is kept as a personal best.

What happens if I close the tab mid-round?

The clock stops with it. A timed round remembers how much time was LEFT rather than when it was due to end, so you come back to the time you had. That is deliberate: scores are local, there is no leaderboard, and the strict alternative only punishes a phone call.

Is anything sent to a server?

No. The categories, the answer lists and your progress all run in your browser. There is no account, and clearing this game's data leaves every other Zerdly tool untouched.

Related interactives

• Letter Hive — build words from seven letters, always using the core.
• Cryptogram — decode a substitution cipher, one letter at a time.
• Word Ladder — turn one word into another, one letter at a time.
• Letter Grid Hunt — trace words through touching letters.