How to Play 575by17 cryptic puzzles
What Gloomy Ape? (About: How to Play Game)
For FAQs, click here. (you really should read these!)
Each 575by17 puzzle has the same form: 17 cryptic questions, each with three lines – the 1st has 5 syllables, the 2nd has 7 and the 3rd another 5 (a similar structure to Japanese Haiku). Some puzzles have themes, but their description is also cryptic. To complicate things even more, the one theme can have different meanings.
Don't think straight, as the information you need to solve any question is hidden in lots of different ways. Sometimes, the evidence you collect will need to be used outside the game for the answer to be uncovered.
When a question is opened, a timer starts running – this timer will not stop until you submit an answer. It keeps running if you go to another question (in which case two timers are will be running) or even if you logout. There are time penalties (see Scoring).
Answer formats are critical to scoring: for WHO questions, provide the surname only (e.g. Reagan, not Ronald Reagan, Ron Reagan or R Reagan), for WHEN questions, provide answer in yyyy format (e.g. 1945, 0845, 0055, with no distinction necessary between BC and AD - an answer of 0055 represents both 55BC and 55AD).
WHAT and WHERE questions usually have only one possible answer (exceptions will be noted explicitly in the question).
Rong speling = Wrong answer (so be careful).
After completing the first question, you can move around the puzzle in any way you want – use the Next icon to do them in order or click on any number above the question. You can exit a puzzle at any time (but don't leave timers running!)
Make sure you click 'Submit' or your answer will not be recorded. When you open a question, its number changes from blue to green and, when you submit an answer, from green to grey.
You are able to change a recorded answer once only, but there may be penalties (see Scoring).
Other support is available, but there may be penalties (see Scoring). You can Check Up (whether a specific letter (1st to 4th letter) in your intended answer is the same as the actual answer) and/or use an Extra Clue for some questions.
You can use puzzle forums without penalty (unless you spend an extended time in the forums while a question timer(s) is running). However, you'll have to work out whether others are trying to help you or mislead you – one way to improve their own 575 ratings (see below) is to convince you to submit wrong answers. Compete or collaborate .....can you tell the difference?
A puzzle is not 'completed' when all 17 questions have been answered, as you can elect to change some of your answers. When you don't want to make any more changes (or no more changes are possible), click on the Blue Cross opposite the puzzle name in the Continue Puzzle area of your homepage - this will fold (archive) this puzzle.
Only after a puzzle has been folded will your lifetime ratings (A = Accuracy, P = Points and C = Combined) be calculated and/or updated – as these are relative measures, every time someone, somewhere completes a puzzle, your ratings might change as a result.
Is Grant trouble? (Ratings)
Beyond individual question and complete puzzle measures, three ratings are also calculated. Each rating is calculated and updated in real time for all users whenever any individual user, anywhere in the world, completes any puzzle.
Each rating is derived from raw accuracy, points and combined accuracy and points scores and normalised to the highest user score in these categories, each of which is transformed to 99.95.
To illustrate, an individual completes their third puzzle: of the 51 questions, they have got 39 correct (39/51 produces an accuracy measure of 76.47%). At the time of completion, the system locates the highest accuracy % in the entire database and normalises this to 99.95 (if the highest raw % is 93.89, the raw score is divided into the maximum rating to produce the normalising constant, 99.95/93.89 = 1.0645).
This constant is then applied to all other raw accuracy %s to produce an A (accuracy) rating. Thus, our 'player' has an A rating of 81.40 (76.47 x 1.0645).
P (points) is calculated in the same way, using the average points per game (ppg) as the raw score, with the highest ppg at any time being normalised to 99.95. C (combined) is calculated by the addition of the A and P proportions, with the highest A+P proportion being normalised to 99.95.
Scorpion Sting (About: Scoring Points)
The basic scoring rule is: The more support you take, the fewer points you'll make.
For each question, if you submit the right answer within 30 minutes without checking up, changing your answer or using the extra clue (if available), you get the maximum 20 points.
For each question, if you submit the wrong answer more than 90 minutes after opening, checking up more than 3 times, changing your answer and using the extra clue, you lose 11 points.
The allocated points are shown in the table:
Accuracy |
||||
Response |
Check Up |
Extra Clue |
Answer Change |
Points |
Right |
0 |
No or N/A |
No |
20 |
Wrong |
0 |
0 |
No |
0 |
|
||||
Right |
0 |
No or N/A |
Yes |
16 |
Right |
0 |
Yes |
No |
10 |
Right |
0 |
Yes |
Yes |
8 |
Right |
1 to 3 |
No or N/A |
No |
12 |
Right |
1 to 3 |
Yes |
No |
8 |
Right |
1 to 3 |
No or N/A |
Yes |
6 |
Right |
1 to 3 |
Yes |
Yes |
4 |
Right |
4 or more |
No or N/A |
No |
8 |
Right |
4 or more |
Yes |
No |
4 |
Right |
4 or more |
No or N/A |
Yes |
4 |
Right |
4 or more |
Yes |
Yes |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
Wrong |
0 |
No or N/A |
Yes |
0 |
Wrong |
0 |
Yes |
No |
-1 |
Wrong |
0 |
Yes |
Yes |
-2 |
Wrong |
1 to 3 |
No or N/A |
No |
0 |
Wrong |
1 to 3 |
Yes |
No |
-2 |
Wrong |
1 to 3 |
No or N/A |
Yes |
-2 |
Wrong |
1 to 3 |
Yes |
Yes |
-4 |
Wrong |
4 or more |
No or N/A |
No |
-2 |
Wrong |
4 or more |
Yes |
No |
-6 |
Wrong |
4 or more |
No or N/A |
Yes |
-4 |
Wrong |
4 or more |
Yes |
Yes |
-8 |
|
|
|
|
|
Timing |
||||
Between 1 second and 1800 secs (30 mins) |
0 |
|||
Between 1801 and 3600 secs (60 mins) |
-1 |
|||
Between 3601 and 5400 secs (90 mins) |
-2 |
|||
Greater than 5400 secs |
-3 |
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