How to Race in Krillocity With Your Friends: Private Races and Codes

A private race in Krillocity is a race with only the people you invite. Everyone gets the same prompt at the same moment, types as many answers as they can and swims the same underwater track, and you choose how many race, how many prompts there are and how long each clock runs. It is free, and nobody needs an account or an app, just a browser on their own phone or computer.

1. Open playdailygames.net/krillocity and press Play multiplayer.
2. Type the name the others will see, or press Shuffle for one. Then press Make a private race.
3. Choose the racers, the prompts and the seconds a prompt, each explained below. The screen sums up the race as you pick, such as 4 racers, 7 prompts of 30 s, about 5 min a race, and remembers your choice on that device for next time. Then press Make a private race.
4. You land in the race, and it is already running. Send your friends the six-digit code, or press Invite to share a link that takes them straight in. Anyone with the code presses Play multiplayer and types it into Join a private race. The box also takes the whole invite link, pasted in.

• Racers: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 16. The number of lanes on the track, and so the most people who can join. Pick at least as many as you expect: a full race turns the next person away with That private race is full.
• Prompts: 1, 3, 5 or 7. How many prompts make up one race. More prompts give a lead longer to change hands, and one bad prompt matters less.
• Seconds a prompt: 20, 30, 45 or 60. How long each clock runs. Short clocks reward fast typists who empty the obvious answers. Long clocks give everyone time to run out of easy answers and start hunting for rare ones, which is where the big gaps open.

The settings are part of the race itself, so they are fixed once it is made. For a different format, make a new race and share its new code. Whatever you pick, every prompt keeps the same short beats around its clock: 2 seconds to read it first, then TIME! and a three-second board ranking who that prompt favoured.

Each prompt takes its clock plus 6 seconds, and the results at the end take 22, so a race is easy to time:

• 1 prompt of 20 seconds: just under a minute.
• 3 prompts of 30 seconds: about 2 minutes.
• 5 prompts of 30 seconds: about 3 and a half minutes.
• 7 prompts of 30 seconds: about 4 and a half minutes, the same as a public race.
• 3 prompts of 60 seconds: nearly 4 minutes.
• 7 prompts of 45 seconds: about 6 and a half minutes.
• 7 prompts of 60 seconds: about 8 minutes.

The Sprint: 1 prompt, 20 seconds

Under a minute to the end of the results. One prompt, one burst of answers, and an argument settled. Sprints suit a group that wants lots of quick rematches, or a break between rounds of something else.

The Standard: 7 prompts, 30 seconds

About four and a half minutes a race, and exactly the shape of a public race and of the daily, so your distances compare directly with both. A good default for a first night.

The Big Field: 16 racers, 3 prompts, 30 seconds

The most lanes a race can have, in about two minutes. With sixteen people on the track there is a crowd at the front of every prompt, and the standings move with nearly every answer. It suits a class, an office or a big family, each on their own phone.

The Marathon: 7 prompts, 60 seconds

About eight minutes. A whole minute on each prompt drains everyone's obvious answers, so races are decided by who keeps finding new corners of a category. Marathons suit a smaller group who like word games.

• Races start by themselves. A private race runs on its own clock from the moment it is made, so there is no host and no Start key.
• Latecomers can still play. A friend who follows the invite in the middle of a race joins on the prompt on screen if at least a fifth of its clock is left, six seconds of a 30-second prompt or twelve of a 60-second one. If not, they come in on the next prompt.
• Chat sits on the left and the standings on the right on a wide screen. On a phone both open from keys in a bar over the track. The standings show every racer's distance and the gap to you, with the race's code and an Invite key at their top.
• Emotes pop up over your krill for everyone in the room. Four are free and the shop sells more, and each racer can send one every seven seconds.
• Races run back to back. After each race's report the next one starts by itself, with everyone still in the room. A private race never moves anyone to another room.

Yes. Every race pays depth tokens by place: each racer who scored earns tokens for every scoring racer they finished ahead of, counting up to eleven, and the winner earns a bonus on top. They go into the purse on the start screen and are spent in its shop, on avatars that swim the track in your lane and on emotes.

A private race pays in proportion to its answering time, its prompts times its seconds, against a public race's seven prompts of 30 seconds. Per minute of racing, no format earns faster than another:

• 1 prompt of 20 seconds: 200 tokens for each racer beaten, and 100 for the win.
• 3 prompts of 30 seconds: 1,000 and 500.
• 5 prompts of 30 seconds: 1,700 and 800.
• 7 prompts of 30 seconds: 2,350 and 1,150, as in a public race.
• 3 prompts of 60 seconds: 2,000 and 1,000.
• 7 prompts of 60 seconds: 4,700 and 2,300.

A tie beats nobody, last place pays nothing, and a racer who scored nothing neither earns nor counts. Private races do not count toward the leaderboard, which adds up points from public races.

Krillocity keeps the score, so these are optional, but they make a good evening better.

• Own devices, one room. Everyone races on their own phone or laptop, since one device is one racer. Racing side by side is half the fun, because you hear the groans when someone passes you.
• Teams. Split into two teams and add up each team's distances after every race.
• The last-place pick. Whoever finishes last chooses the next format.
• Read the board out. The board after each prompt shows every answer each racer gave, which starts more arguments than anything else in the game.
• No looking things up. The clock makes it hard anyway, but agree on it before the first race.
• Best of five. Count race wins rather than metres, so one lucky Deep Cut cannot decide the night. Each race's winner wears a crown into the next, which makes the score easy to keep.

• "That private race is full." Every lane is taken. Make a new race with more racers and share the new code.
• A friend cannot find the race. Check that all six digits were typed, or send them the Invite link instead, which takes them straight in.
• A friend is watching instead of racing. They arrived with less than a fifth of the clock left, and come in on the next prompt.

New to the race itself? Watch a three-racer race play out, then learn where the rarer answers hide before the rematch. And if nobody else is free tonight, the daily race deals the same seven prompts to everyone in the world.