Krillion Scoring and Rarity Tiers
The six tiers of the official game
| Tier | Points | What lands here |
|---|---|---|
| Plankton | 10 | The answers most players think of first. |
| Too Clever | 15 | The go-to “obscure” pick that turns out not to be obscure at all. |
| Schooler | 30 | Less obvious, but still well travelled. |
| Rare | 60 | Answers only a small share of players reach. |
| Deep Cut | 85 | Valid answers that almost nobody gives. |
| One in a Krillion | 100 | The gem answers picked out for each prompt, each with a note from the game. |
Checked against the game. Tier names and point values match the game's own tier table and its published answer sheets. Last reviewed October 10, 2026.
Too Clever, explained
Too Clever is the tier that makes Krillion different from an ordinary rarity quiz. The official FAQ defines it as the go-to “obscure” pick that isn't actually that obscure. It is the answer people choose because it sounds like a deep cut, which is exactly why so many of them choose it.
The lesson for scoring well: an answer being less famous than the obvious one is not enough. You need the answer that other people trying to be clever would also miss.
Checked against the game. Defined in the official FAQ at krillion.io/faq. Last reviewed October 10, 2026.
How rarity is decided
The official FAQ describes two methods. For some prompts, rarity is scored mechanically against a familiarity database. For others, it is assessed with model assistance and then reviewed by hand. Either way, the tier reflects how familiar an answer is, not how difficult the fact behind it is.
The top tier works a little differently. The FAQ says the gem answer for a prompt isn't picked on rarity alone, because very deep answers are hard to rank against each other; it is also chosen for how satisfying it is to find. We keep every One in a Krillion answer on record, by date.
Scoring in our Unlimited practice game
Unlimited is this site's own game, with its own scoring. We name the tiers after the real depth zones of the ocean, and each answer's tier is set by our editors in the practice bank ahead of time.
| Practice tier | Points | Ocean zone | What lands here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunlight | 10 | 0–200 m | The answers nearly everyone thinks of first. |
| Twilight | 30 | 200–1,000 m | Familiar, but not the first thing to mind. |
| Midnight | 60 | 1,000–4,000 m | Answers most people would need a moment to recall. |
| Abyss | 85 | 4,000–6,000 m | Correct answers few players would ever reach. |
| Hadal | 100 | below 6,000 m | The most obscure answers in our bank for the prompt. |
A practice round is 7 prompts with 25 seconds each, for a maximum Krillion Today practice score of 700. An answer that isn't in our bank scores nothing, but that only means we haven't recorded it. It doesn't mean you were wrong.
Scoring questions
What is the highest score in Krillion?
- With 7 prompts and a top tier worth 100 points, a perfect dive is 700: a One in a Krillion answer on every prompt.
What does Too Clever mean in Krillion?
- It is the tier for the go-to "obscure" pick that isn't actually that obscure, in the words of the official FAQ. You tried to be clever, and so did a lot of other people.
Is the rarest answer always One in a Krillion?
- Not necessarily. The official FAQ says the gem isn't chosen on rarity alone: past a certain depth, rarity is hard to tell apart, so the gem is also picked for how satisfying it is to land on.
Why are the practice scores on this site different?
- Our Unlimited mode is a separate, original game. Its tiers are fixed in our own practice bank and named after ocean depth zones, so a practice score can't be compared with an official Krillion score.