How to Play Noillirk: Rules, Scoring and Every Mode Explained

Noillirk asks you a survey question, such as Name something people lose all the time, and gives you fifteen seconds to type the answer you think most people would give. The more common your answer, the higher a small pink krill floats on its bunch of balloons. That is the whole game. This guide covers everything around it: how answers are scored, what the game will and will not accept, and how each mode works.

It is free, it runs in any modern browser on a phone or a computer, and there is nothing to sign up for.

1. Pick a mode on the start screen, Daily, Classic or Endless, and press Begin ascent.
2. A prompt appears. You get three seconds to read it before the clock starts.
3. Type one answer and press Enter or the Climb key. You have fifteen seconds, and the dial turns orange for the last six.
4. If the answer fits the prompt, it is scored and your krill climbs. If it does not, it is turned away with the reason, and you can type another while the clock runs. Pass gives the prompt up.
5. After seven prompts the climb is over. The end screen shows each answer and its tier, your altitude, and how your total compares with everyone who answered the same prompts.

Every prompt has a board: the answers a survey crowd gave, ranked by how many people said each one. Noillirk's board is nine answers deep, and where your answer lands on it sets your points.

• Sky High, 100 points: the number one answer. Only one answer per prompt can be Sky High.
• Jet Stream, 64 points: the second, third and fourth answers.
• Cloud Nine, 32 points: the fifth to the ninth.
• Kite, 16 points: off the board, but a few people said it.
• Treetop, 8 points: hardly anyone said it.
• Grounded, 4 points: nobody else said it.

Two more rules are worth knowing. An answer the board does not list can reach Cloud Nine at most, however sensible it is. And a miss, when the clock runs out with nothing accepted or you press Pass, is No Lift: zero points.

There is no bonus for speed. A Sky High typed in the last second scores exactly what one typed in the first second does, so use the clock to choose.

Every point is ten metres of climb, and the climb is mapped onto the real sky, so the number in the corner is a true altitude. A classic climb is seven prompts, so the most it can score is 700 points, which takes you to 14 kilometres, above the airliners. Clearing the summit of Everest takes about 514 points.

The world goes on far beyond that. The edge of space is 1,800 points up, the Moon about 3,250, and the edge of the observable universe 16,000. Only Endless mode and long stays in multiplayer rooms go that high. We listed every zone from the pond up, with the points each one takes.

Each answer is checked against the prompt before it is scored. The judge is generous about form and strict about substance.

• Accepted: typos, plurals, slang, and extra words around the answer. A big fluffy blanket counts as blanket.
• Turned away: the prompt's own words handed back, catch-alls like stuff or everything, jokes, nonsense, and two answers in one.

A turned-away answer costs you nothing but the seconds it took. The reason shows under the box for a moment, and the clock keeps running for your next try. Hedging with two answers at once never works, so commit to one.

Daily

The same seven prompts for everyone in the world, once a day. You get one try, and a new climb starts at midnight UTC. Our guide to the Noillirk daily covers the reset time, viewing your result and sharing it.

Classic

Seven fresh prompts every time you press Begin ascent, dealt at random from a bank of about 2,400. Play as many as you like. Your browser remembers the last 400 prompts it was dealt, so repeats are rare.

Endless

No prompt limit. You start with three balloons, and only a miss pops one: the clock running out with nothing accepted, or a pass. Any accepted answer keeps your balloons, however low it scores, and every Sky High gives a popped balloon back, up to three. The climb ends when the last balloon goes, so in Endless an ordinary answer typed in time always beats a perfect one typed too late.

Multiplayer

Press Play multiplayer to climb with up to 30 people in a live room, everyone answering the same prompt on the same clock. Rooms run from 5 to 50 prompts, and you can open a private room for friends on a six-digit code. See how to play Noillirk with friends.

At the end of a climb, Share copies your result: your altitude, the zone you reached and one coloured square per prompt. Yellow is Sky High, red Jet Stream, orange Cloud Nine, green Kite, blue Treetop, white Grounded and black a miss. The prompts and your answers are never in it, so it spoils nothing for people who have not played yet, and it ends with a link to playdaily.org/noillirk.

You do not need an account to play. Your bests and today's daily are kept in your browser. Sign in with a free Daily account and they are saved to the account instead, so they follow you between devices, along with the feathers you earn for the Noillirk shop.

Once the rules feel natural, the skill is predicting a crowd, and our Noillirk tips guide is about exactly that. Noillirk is only at playdaily.org, so make sure you are on the official game. Then start a climb.