How to play Farflung

Farflung is a geography game about reaching past the obvious. Each prompt describes a group of countries, and you answer by pinning one of them on a world map. Any country that fits is correct, but the rarer your answer, the further it carries you. Your goal is to travel as far as possible: up to 500 km in a Daily expedition, or as far as you like in Unlimited.

Step by step

1. Choose your clock. On the start card, pick Classic (60 seconds a pin), Swift (30 seconds) or Casual (no clock), then press Begin expedition. The game opens full screen.
2. Read the prompt. Each Daily expedition has five, such as “A country that borders Tanzania” or “A country with a Caspian Sea coastline”.
3. Pick a country. Tap it on the map, or type its name in the search box. Drag to move the map, and scroll, pinch or use + and − to zoom; ⊙ shows the whole world again. Very small countries have a round marker so they are easy to tap.
4. Drop your pin. Your choice appears under Your pin. Press Drop pin, or Enter, to lock it in. Until then you can change your mind as often as you like. If you are stuck, Leave this one blank skips the prompt.
5. Read the field notes. The map lights up every country that fit, coloured by tier, and the panel lists them all. Press Next pin to continue.

Scoring

A correct pin earns distance according to how rarely that country comes to mind for that prompt:

Tiers are fixed editorial ratings, not live player votes, so your score never depends on what anyone else chose. Most countries have one tier everywhere, but a prompt can raise it when the fit is surprising: the United Kingdom is Common in most prompts, yet Farflung for “shares a land border with Spain”, through Gibraltar.

What counts as a correct answer

You can pin any of 195 countries: the 193 member states of the United Nations, plus Palestine and Vatican City. Overseas territories are not separate pins, so for a prompt answered by Greenland you pin Denmark, and for French Guiana you pin France. Every prompt has a fixed list of correct countries, and where a ruling needs explaining, the field notes include a short note.

The clock

With Classic you get 60 seconds per prompt, and with Swift you get 30. The clock keeps running if you switch tabs, and when it reaches zero the prompt counts as a miss. Choose Casual to play with no clock at all. Your choice is remembered for next time.

Daily reset, streaks and sharing

A new Daily expedition opens at midnight UTC, and everyone in the world gets the same five prompts. Finish it on consecutive days to build a streak; miss a day and the streak starts again. When you finish, Save image gives you a card with your distance and a row of coloured squares, one per prompt, so friends can compare without seeing your answers.

You can leave mid-game with ✕ or Escape. Your answers so far are saved, and the prompt you were on starts again with a fresh clock when you return. Progress, streaks and stats are stored in your browser and do not sync between devices.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Enter drops your pin, then moves on to the next prompt.
• Escape pauses and leaves the full-screen game.
• In the search box, Enter selects the first matching country.