Noillirk
Free · 6 questions a day

Stranded

Rare answers carry him home

A daily word game built on one rule: the answer nobody else typed is the one that moves. Six open questions, twenty-five seconds each, and a small alien on foot with a very long way home. Your total out of three thousand decides how far he gets and which ending he walks into.

Play StrandedWhat each answer pays
  • Every answer pays 1 to 500 points
  • 3,000 is a clean run across the map
  • Nine endings, one of them secret
  • A new set arrives at midnight US Central
01 / 06500 PTS
A tilted crashed saucer in a shallow crater with a small alien standing beside a dotted route home

The question is open. The scoreboard is the crowd.

Nothing in Stranded has a single correct answer, so nothing can be marked wrong on facts alone.

What decides your points is how many of today's players wrote what you wrote. That turns a word game into a guess about other people, made in the time it takes to read a sentence.

A prompt slip with one short reply typed in and a red caret at the end of the line
FIG. 01
Stranded Game@stranded

Six prompts, and the same six for everybody

Everyone playing today receives an identical set of six prompts, drawn from the sort of question that has hundreds of defensible answers: something with a nose that cannot smell, something that runs but has no legs. Because the set is fixed for the day, two people comparing totals are comparing the same six decisions. There is no endless mode to farm and no second deal, so the number you finish with is one run against one set, and tomorrow wipes the board.

Stranded Game@stranded

Points are a share, not a verdict

An accepted answer is worth between one and five hundred points, and only one thing sets the figure: the proportion of that day's players who gave the same response. Roughly a third of players writing it lands near a hundred; one in fifty lands near four hundred; an answer fewer than one in two hundred typed pays the full five hundred. Answers that mean the same thing are counted together, so fridge and refrigerator do not split a score. Most runs end between one thousand and one thousand seven hundred.

Six ascending score bands with a red marker sitting between the middle and upper steps
FIG. 02
A dotted walking route across a low horizon with one red marker at the start and a trail of smaller ones ahead
FIG. 03
Stranded Game@stranded

Twenty-five seconds, one field, no undo

The countdown starts when the prompt appears and the field takes a single entry. Pressing enter sends it; anything the game refuses as not being an answer costs nothing but the seconds already spent, and you can type again while the clock runs. That is the whole tension: a careful answer that arrives late scores zero, and a plain answer typed at second four still pays. Most players lose more points to hesitation than to imagination.

Stranded Game@stranded

The walk is the scoreboard

Points are drawn as distance. The alien leaves the crash site, crosses the woods, passes the farm and reaches town, and each stretch of map is a band of totals rather than a separate counter. Because the drawing is continuous, a run that stalls at nine hundred looks different from one that clears two thousand without either number being spelled out. Screenshots of the map are the usual way people share a result.

A vertical dotted climb with markers at widening intervals above four horizontal band lines
FIG. 04
A globe outline with a pin on one landmass and a second marker joined by a red dashed arc
FIG. 05
Stranded Game@stranded

Nine endings, and the ninth is not listed

The total picks one of nine endings, from the alien being picked up a few fields from the wreck to a route that keeps going past the last labelled place. Eight are visible in advance; the ninth stays hidden until a run clears 2,201, which also opens a seventh bonus question mid-game. Hitting that threshold needs at least five answers in the top two bands, so the secret is less a prize for luck than for consistently guessing what other people will not say.

Stranded Game@stranded

Streaks are cosmetic, and that is the point

Playing on consecutive days builds a streak, and the alien wears it: silver at ten days, gold at twenty-five, diamond at fifty, with a purple recruiter look that appears when somebody starts from a shared result. Signing in is optional and exists to carry the streak between devices. Race links turn a finished run into a link a friend can play against your answers, one prompt at a time, which is a friendlier format than a leaderboard nobody can catch.

A five-by-six grid of reply cards, one corner card outlined in red and one block filled blue
FIG. 06

02

What a run actually gives you

Six prompts, one walk, and a result you can read at a glance.

01

A run that fits a coffee break

Six prompts at twenty-five seconds is two and a half minutes if you use every second, and most runs finish sooner. There is nothing to install and no lobby to wait in.

02

Scoring that rewards the odd answer

The one-to-five-hundred range is set by how few people agreed with you. An answer you are sure is right but everyone else also knows is worth the least.

03

A map instead of a number

Distance travelled stands in for the total, so progress is visible while you play. The alien moves after every accepted answer, not only at the end.

04

Nine routes out

Endings range from a short walk to one that leaves the labelled part of the map. The secret ninth needs 2,201 and a bonus question, and it is the only one that is not described beforehand.

05

A streak with something to show

Consecutive days unlock looks rather than power: silver, gold and diamond at ten, twenty-five and fifty. The streak follows you across devices only if you choose to sign in.

06

Racing one friend, not a ladder

A race link replays your answers against theirs prompt by prompt, so the comparison stays readable. Nothing is public unless you send the link yourself.

03

How a run goes

Four moves, six times over.

  1. 01

    Open today's set

    The six prompts are already dealt and the clock starts on the first one. There is no practice round and no choice of difficulty.

  2. 02

    Type what others will not

    Enter one answer that still fits the question. A refusal costs the seconds spent and nothing else, so a second attempt is allowed while time remains.

  3. 03

    Read the points

    The answer is placed against today's crowd and pays from one to five hundred. The alien takes that many steps forward before the next prompt appears.

  4. 04

    See where he stops

    Six answers in, the walk stops and one of nine endings plays. Your total is the distance; the ending is what the distance earned.

04

What regulars notice

Three habits from people who run the set most mornings.

I stopped writing the clever answer first. Typing the plain one at second five and then improving it if time allows has added about four hundred points a run.
MKMarta K.Plays before the school run
The bonus question only shows up once you are already at 2,201, so I plan for five strong answers rather than hoping the last one carries the run.
DPDev P.Chases the secret ending
We compare answer by answer instead of totals. Half the fun is seeing which prompt he misread, because it is never the one either of us expects.
RARuth A.Sends race links to her brother

05

Questions about Stranded

Scoring, the daily reset and the ending most people miss.

Six questions, then the walk begins

The set is already dealt and the clock starts on the first prompt. Type something nobody else would, and see how much map that buys.

Start the walk