How do you play whatthecountry?

Every puzzle shows three clues chosen so that exactly one of the world's 195 countries satisfies all three. All 195 are drawn as dots on a Venn diagram, each sitting in the region matching the clues it meets, and the answer is the dot glowing gold in the centre where all three circles overlap. Name that country.

What happens when I guess wrong?

A wrong guess is not wasted. The country you named lights up and is labelled where it sits on the board, so you can see exactly which of the three clues it satisfies and which it fails — which narrows down where the answer can be.

How many guesses do I get?

4 on easy puzzles, 5 on medium and 6 on hard. Harder puzzles also get longer before the speed bonus runs out.

How is the score calculated?

Each of the six daily puzzles has a ceiling — 130 points for easy, 165 for medium, 205 for hard — which adds up to 1000 for a perfect day. Within a puzzle, 80% of the ceiling rides on guessing accurately and 20% on speed. Solving on the first guess quickly pays the full ceiling.

What do the hints cost?

You get two per day, each spendable on any one puzzle. The circle hint adds a fourth, dashed circle to the board and re-sorts every dot into the finer regions; it costs the same as one wrong guess. The continent hint just names the answer's continent and costs half that.

What happens if I give up?

Conceding scores 15% of the puzzle's ceiling — less than any solve, but more than running out of guesses, which scores nothing. So there is no reason to fire off a random last guess instead of admitting the puzzle beat you.

When does the daily reset?

At midnight in your own time zone, not a shared server time. Everyone playing on the same calendar date gets the same six puzzles, so if you are in Auckland you get tomorrow's set well before someone in Los Angeles does.

Can I play more than once a day?

The daily challenge is one attempt per day. Free play is unlimited — endless puzzles at any difficulty — and the archive lets you play every past daily, unranked.

How to play

Three clues, one country. Everything you need is on the board — the trick is reading it.

The board

Three overlapping circles, one per clue, and all 195 countries drawn as dots. A dot sits inside every circle whose clue it satisfies: a country matching clue 1 and clue 3 but not clue 2 sits in the lens where those two circles overlap, and a country matching none of them orbits in the ring outside. Exactly one country satisfies all three — it pulses gold in the centre, and naming it is the game.

Each circle carries the icon of its clue, repeated on the clue chip, so you can map a circle to its clue at a glance. Each region of the board also shows how many countries are in it, which is usually the fastest route to an answer: if the centre-adjacent lens holds two dots and you know one of them, the other is worth a guess.

Wrong guesses are information

This is the part that surprises people. A wrong guess does not just cost you a try — the country you named lights up where it lives and gets labelled, so the board tells you which of the three clues it satisfies. Guessing a country you are fairly sure is wrong, but which sits in an informative region, is a legitimate strategy.

Scoring

A perfect day is 1000 points across the 6 daily puzzles. Within each puzzle, 80% of the ceiling rides on accuracy and 20% on speed — and the speed window scales with difficulty, so a hard puzzle gives you 160 seconds before the bonus is gone rather than easy's 70. The board is a deduction aid; you are meant to read it.

Everything else

How do you play whatthecountry?: Every puzzle shows three clues chosen so that exactly one of the world's 195 countries satisfies all three. All 195 are drawn as dots on a Venn diagram, each sitting in the region matching the clues it meets, and the answer is the dot glowing gold in the centre where all three circles overlap. Name that country.
What happens when I guess wrong?: A wrong guess is not wasted. The country you named lights up and is labelled where it sits on the board, so you can see exactly which of the three clues it satisfies and which it fails — which narrows down where the answer can be.
How many guesses do I get?: 4 on easy puzzles, 5 on medium and 6 on hard. Harder puzzles also get longer before the speed bonus runs out.
How is the score calculated?: Each of the six daily puzzles has a ceiling — 130 points for easy, 165 for medium, 205 for hard — which adds up to 1000 for a perfect day. Within a puzzle, 80% of the ceiling rides on guessing accurately and 20% on speed. Solving on the first guess quickly pays the full ceiling.
What do the hints cost?: You get two per day, each spendable on any one puzzle. The circle hint adds a fourth, dashed circle to the board and re-sorts every dot into the finer regions; it costs the same as one wrong guess. The continent hint just names the answer's continent and costs half that.
What happens if I give up?: Conceding scores 15% of the puzzle's ceiling — less than any solve, but more than running out of guesses, which scores nothing. So there is no reason to fire off a random last guess instead of admitting the puzzle beat you.
When does the daily reset?: At midnight in your own time zone, not a shared server time. Everyone playing on the same calendar date gets the same six puzzles, so if you are in Auckland you get tomorrow's set well before someone in Los Angeles does.
Can I play more than once a day?: The daily challenge is one attempt per day. Free play is unlimited — endless puzzles at any difficulty — and the archive lets you play every past daily, unranked.

Getting better at it

The clue pool is only 130 clues wide and it is all public: the clue index lists every one with the full roll call of countries that satisfy it, the country index has a profile for all 195, and records collects the extremes that make the sharpest clues. Learning which countries are landlocked, which drive on the left and which flags carry a crescent will do more for your score than guessing faster.