Rules
How to Play
Every rule in Kaptr, in one place: the daily case on Today, the games on Play, the collections in your Binder, how your photo gets scored, streaks, and friends. Answer with your camera.
Today
The daily case
Once a day, every player gets the same cryptic riddle on a sealed Case File: a clue that describes an object without naming it. Rip the pack, find that object somewhere around you, then photograph it. That photo is your guess: our AI judges on the spot whether it actually matches, and scores how good a match it is.
You get a limited number of photo attempts each day: 3 on the free tier, 5 with Kaptr Plus. A wrong photo costs points but lets you try again. Running out of attempts without a correct one ends the day as a loss.
Today
Hints
Stuck? You can reveal up to 3 hints, each one narrowing things down further. The third hint gives you the answer outright. Every hint you reveal costs points off your final score, so use them only when you need them.
None of this is required: you can snap a photo the moment the riddle opens, with zero hints, if you are confident.
Today
How your score is set
Your score starts at 100 the moment you open the riddle, and the clock never pauses, not while reading, not while framing the shot:
- Every second that passes costs 1 point.
- Our AI grades how well your photo matches the riddle, adding back up to 10 points for a great shot.
- Every hint you reveal costs 20 points.
- Every wrong photo attempt before your winning one costs 10 points.
A perfect, instant, first-try photo scores a clean 100. Everything else is that score minus whatever time, hints, or wrong attempts cost you.
Today
Tiers: every score is a pull
A scored photo becomes a verdict card in one of four tiers: Bronze (0 to 49), Silver (50 to 74), Gold (75 to 89) and Prismatic (90 to 100). Tiers are cosmetic, they never change the rules or the math, but 90+ is a different kind of day.
BRONZE420 to 49
SILVER6850 to 74
GOLD8775 to 89
Today
Sharing your card
Share your verdict card from the result. Classic is the free share style. Kaptr Plus adds four full card styles: Darkroom, Instant, Signal and Sticker.
Today
Streaks
Play on consecutive days and the run grows. Miss a day, or run out of photo attempts without solving it, and the run is over: your streak resets. The day still counts as played, but the streak does not survive it. Your longest-ever run is tracked separately and never resets.
Hold a long run and you earn a streak freeze, which quietly covers a day you did not play. Freezes are earned by playing, never bought.
Play
Head-to-head and friend modes
The Play tab holds every game you can play against other people, from Global Tic Tac Toe to the friend modes below. Your active games live together, each with its own standings.
- Hunt: for when everyone is around right now. Invite friends and they get about 2 minutes to jump in. Then everyone who accepted starts the same session at the same moment: 10 rounds, 10 minutes, and the top score on offer melts a little every minute. Same rounds, same clock, one leaderboard.
- Relay: for when you are not together. Play your 10-round session first, then hand the exact same contest to one friend with a deadline, anywhere from 1 hour to 3 days. Their clock only starts when they open it.
- Bingo: in Bingo Sync everyone gets the identical 5x5 card of photo prompts and the first to complete a line wins. In Bingo Live every player gets a different card and cells unlock over time on the caller's clock.
- Private contests: create a contest and invite specific friends, or join one with a shareable code.
Play
Friends and standings
Open Friends and standings from Play. Add friends with a shareable code or by scanning a QR code. Once connected, you will see each other's daily scores and get notified when a friend plays. Two boards are always available:
- Friends: ranks you against the people you have added.
- Global: ranks every player. Showing your real name and photo here is opt-in; by default you appear under a nickname.
Binder
Fill your collections
A collect-them-all mode at your own pace, with four Kwest collections: The Naturalist (plants, animals and bugs), The Epicurean (dishes and food), Urban Explorer (street fixtures) and Globetrotter (buildings and structures). Snap your subject, and our AI identifies what is in the photo and checks it against the collection's catalog. Every first catch earns its card in your Binder.
Some slots are Mystery until the first player anywhere catches one. That player gets permanent First Discoverer credit, and the slot is revealed for everyone else from then on.
Plus
Kaptr Plus
A subscription that raises your limits rather than changing the rules: 5 photo attempts a day on the daily case instead of 3, a larger monthly allowance for creating private contests, and the four extra share-card styles.