🌡️ Warmer
The basics
Search any country and submit it. The map fills in that country's outline in a colour based on how far it is from the answer, and the panel tells you the distance, the direction and whether you are warmer or colder than your last guess.
You have eight guesses. Every country you have tried stays visible on the map, so the board slowly becomes a heat map of your own reasoning.
Distance is measured edge to edge
The distance is calculated between country borders rather than between centres. That matters more than it sounds. A huge country can read as very close even when its middle is far away, simply because one of its edges is near the target.
If a large country comes back surprisingly warm, the answer is probably near the part of it closest to your previous guesses rather than near its centre.
Adjacent is a finish line
When a guess shares a border with the answer, the panel says adjacent instead of giving a mileage. That is the strongest signal in the game and it usually means you are one guess away.
At that point, list the neighbours of the country you just guessed and use the compass direction to pick between them.
A worked run
Guess Brazil. It comes back cold, several thousand miles, bearing north east. That points across the Atlantic.
Guess Spain. Warmer, and now bearing south east. You are in the right hemisphere and the answer is below and to the right of Spain. Guess Algeria and it comes back adjacent. From there it is a matter of picking the right neighbour, and the south east bearing tells you which one.
Tips worth remembering
- Use direction as a hard rule and temperature as a comparison. Direction cannot mislead you.
- Prefer mid sized countries for early guesses. Giant countries give ambiguous edge distances.
- Crossing the target's latitude or longitude teaches you more than creeping toward it.
- Read the colour of the outlines, not just the numbers. The map often makes the pattern obvious at a glance.