Field guide
MapTap Scoring Explained: Why Round 5 Weighs More
MapTap asks you to find five world locations on a 3D globe each day by rotating, zooming and tapping. Every round is scored by distance, and the round scores are weighted before they are added up. This guide explains the scoring curve, the weights, the country bonus and the level system, using the figures published on the game's own FAQ page.
What the daily game asks you to do
The daily game names five locations, one per round. The tutorial instructions are to rotate the globe, then tap as close as you can to the named place, zooming in when you need precision. The globe shows no political borders, which is deliberate: the game's FAQ says the bare globe is meant to present the planet as one object rather than a political map. A Borders practice mode exists for players who want borders while practising.
The game's FAQ states that the day rolls over at local midnight, using the device's calendar day, so tomorrow's locations appear when your device says it is tomorrow.
How distance becomes points
Each round is scored from the straight-line distance, in kilometres, between your tap and the real location. The FAQ describes the curve as strict farther out: a tap within 22 km of the target scores 100 points for that round, and a miss of more than 16,250 km is rounded to 0. The published chart gives intermediate values, for example about 81 points at 1,000 km.
The curve means the first few kilometres matter enormously. A tap on the right city scores near the maximum; a tap in the right country but the wrong region can lose most of the round's value.
Round weights and other modes
The five daily rounds are weighted ×1, ×1, ×2, ×3 and ×3. Round one and round two count once, round three counts double, and rounds four and five count triple. The maximum for the daily game is therefore 100 + 100 + 200 + 300 + 300 = 1,000 points.
That weighting is why round five is worth three times round one. A single weak tap in the last two rounds costs more than the same miss early in the game. The FAQ describes the weights as reflecting that later rounds are harder.
The distance curve is shared across modes, but the round totals differ. Versus and Challenge use the same five rounds and the same weights as the daily game, with no country bonus and a single clock for all five. Free-for-All scores each round up to 100, and a 30-round game can reach 3,000. Practice scores each round from 1 to 100, and the game score is the average multiplied by 10.
The country and continent bonus
The daily game adds a bonus that the other modes do not. If your tap lands inside the same country as the target, the round score is lifted to a floor of 25 points. If it lands on the same continent, the floor is 10 points. The bonus can only raise a score, never lower it, and it cannot lift a round above 80.
The FAQ gives a coastal example: two taps 8.6 km apart on the Chilean coast, both roughly the same distance from the target, scored differently because one landed on land and collected the bonus while the other landed in the Pacific. On coastlines, then, the exact edge of the tap matters.
XP, levels and leaderboards
The FAQ explains that XP is earned on every location where you score 90% or better, with more XP the closer you get. The daily game pays five times what practice pays. Each of the seven continents has its own level, which only moves when you play a location there, while the overall level runs on total XP. Each level costs 100 XP more than the one before, so level 5 on a continent takes 1,500 XP in total and level 10 takes 5,500.
Leaderboards are separate from scoring. The daily board ranks today's score and clears at local midnight, and the monthly board adds up daily scores across the month. The FAQ says you need to be signed in to appear on either board, and that a visibility switch in settings removes you from the boards while keeping your statistics.
Play the official game: Play today's five locations at maptap.gg. The game is free and carries no advertising; an optional MapTap+ subscription at $15 a year or $2.99 a month, with a 7-day free trial, adds practice maps, groups and replay of missed days. A MapTap game card on this site summarises the rules.
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