Alex Morgan
Scoring as instruction
A short game has about ten seconds to tell a new player what it values. Text cannot do that reliably, because nobody reads instructions on a two-minute game.
Point values can. When a ring hit pays 250 and a safe return pays 10, the player learns within one rally that placement is the point, without anybody having told them.
That is why scoring on this site is deliberately uneven. A flat scoring system would be fairer in some abstract sense and would fail to communicate anything.
The shared values
These are consistent across the site, which means a habit learned in one game is worth the same in another.
| Action | Value | Combo applies? |
|---|---|---|
| Return | 10 | Yes |
| Clean (well-timed) return | 15 | Yes |
| Smash | 40 | Yes |
| Token | 25 | Yes |
| Gem | 100 | Yes |
| Large ring / low zone | 150 | Yes |
| Deep centre zone | 150–160 | Yes |
| Short zone | 170–180 | Yes |
| Wide zone | 190 | Yes |
| Corner zone | 200–260 | Yes |
| Small ring | 250 | Yes |
| Landed serve | 50 | Yes |
| Point won | 200 + rally bonus | No |
| Round won | 600 | No |
| Stage cleared | 400 + 100 per prior stage | No |
| Match won | 1,000 | No |
| Survival | 5 per second | No |
What the combo multiplies
The combo applies to individual scoring actions and not to banked bonuses. That distinction decides where the combo matters.
In a precision game, where most of the score is individual placements, the combo is frequently the dominant term — it can be worth more than everything else combined. In a rally game, where most of the score is banked rally conversions, it is a useful extra.
The logic is that a bonus paid for an achievement is already scaled by that achievement. Multiplying a match win by a combo would double-count the thing the win already measures.
Rally conversion is quadratic
When a point ends in your favour, the rally converts at roughly ten per return plus 0.6 times the square of the length.
That means a rally of fifty is worth roughly twelve times a rally of ten rather than five times. The quadratic term is the single most important piece of scoring maths on the site.
It exists because rally length is the thing rally games want, and a linear conversion would make ten short rallies equivalent to one long one — which would be false, because one long rally is far harder.
Why survival pays at all
The endless modes award five points per second survived, paid in quarter-second increments so the number ticks visibly.
Without it, the optimal strategy in a one-life mode would be to attack immediately, because there would be no reward for a long defensive run beyond delaying the end. With it, caution is a scoring strategy.
The balance is deliberate: over three minutes survival contributes around nine hundred points, roughly four or five won points. Neither pure aggression nor pure defence dominates.
Records, not leaderboards
Every game stores four records in your browser: best score, best rally, best time and best stage reached, alongside a count of games played.
Those appear on the ready screen before a run and on the end screen after it, so the number you are chasing is visible at both moments that matter.
There are no global leaderboards anywhere on this site, because there is no server to hold one and no way to verify a submitted score. A leaderboard here would be fabricated, so there is not one.
Reading a game's scoring section
Every game page has a scoring section listing exactly what pays and how much in that specific game. It is the fastest way to work out how to play well.
The first two entries are the game-specific ones and they tell you the strategy. If they mention rally milestones, play long. If they mention zone values, play precisely. If they mention survival, play carefully.
Two minutes reading that before a first run consistently beats ten minutes of playing on instinct, which is a poor trade to keep making.
Key takeaways
- Scoring is how a short game communicates what it values, which is why the values are uneven.
- The combo multiplies individual actions but not banked bonuses like a match or stage win.
- Rally conversion is quadratic, so a rally of fifty is worth about twelve times a rally of ten.
- Survival scoring exists so that caution is a strategy rather than a delaying tactic.
- Records are stored per browser; there are no global leaderboards anywhere on the site.
Frequently asked questions
Does the combo multiply everything?
No. It applies to individual scoring actions — returns, targets, tokens, serves — but not to banked bonuses such as a point won, a stage cleared or a match won.
Why is a small ring worth 250 and a large one 150?
Because a small ring is about forty per cent of the area for sixty-seven per cent more points. The values encode the difficulty difference.
How much is a long rally actually worth?
Roughly ten points per return plus 0.6 times the square of the length. A rally of fifty banks around 2,000 points, against 160 for a rally of ten.
Are there global high score tables?
No. This is a static site with no server, so there is nowhere to hold one and no way to verify a score. Records are stored in your own browser only.
