Puzzle #49 · Fri, Oct 2
Par is 7.
- BENCH
- CHASE
Puzzle #49 · Fri, Oct 2
Par is 7.
Play a day you missed for a score that sticks, or replay one you didn’t.
Every game on Noggin is marked out of 100, so a day adds up to one number. Here is how this one earns it.
| Rungs used | Score |
|---|---|
| Par or better | 100 |
| One over | 91 |
| Two over | 82 |
| Three over | 73 |
| Each further rung | −9, down to a floor of 30 |
Rung cannot be failed — the climb ends when you reach the goal — so what varies is how far past par you wandered.
Par is one rung more than the shortest climb the dictionary allows, one letter at a time — a rung to spare. Matching it means you were one off the optimal route, and every day has one on ordinary words. Under par scores 100 too.
The leap counts as two rungs — two letters moved, two rungs spent, one of them drawn as the gap you cleared. Par is measured without it, so a leap spent where the dictionary runs out can beat par.
A hint counts as two rungs. It names a good next word, so the rung it points at is not wasted — the hint itself is the cost. One hint and the shortest route is one over par, 91.
An undo counts as a rung. It still rescues you from a dead end, but the climb you take back stays on your scorecard — like a stroke in golf. Undoing a leap gives the leap back. Reset keeps every rung you climbed on the card. Trying a word that is not accepted still costs nothing.
The same for every game, including streaks and how the day is totalled.