How to play MapFiend
MapFiend is a free browser game where you guess the country from its outline. A single country appears on the map and you name it. That is the whole game. How much help you get depends on the mode: the easier modes leave the surrounding region visible so you can place a shape by its neighbours, and the harder ones strip everything away and show you the country alone. It plays on phone or desktop.
How a round works
A country's shape appears on the map. Depending on the mode you either choose from four options or type the name yourself. Answer correctly and you keep going, build a streak, and earn points.
What a wrong answer costs depends on the mode. World Tour and Conquest give you three lives, so each mistake takes one and the run ends when they are gone. The Daily and Quick Play have a fixed set of countries instead, so a wrong answer simply moves you on to the next one and you always play the set through to the end.
Points scale with how hard the country is and how fast you answer. A country most people cannot place is worth more than one everyone knows, so a short accurate run can beat a long careless one.
Choosing a mode
Daily. One set of countries, the same for every player, once a day. Read more on the Daily page.
World Tour. A relaxed lap around the world. Three lives, no clock, and the surrounding region shown to help you place the shape. Read more on the World Tour page.
Conquest. The harder endless mode. Three lives, a ticking clock, and you type every answer with no options to choose from.
Quick Play. Eight countries, and you pick the difficulty. Higher difficulty means less help on screen and less familiar countries.
Tips for getting better
Learn shapes by their edges rather than their whole outline. Coastlines, peninsulas and island chains are far more distinctive than a country's overall size.
Use the region when it is shown. World Tour gives you the surrounding area, which turns a hard guess into a process of elimination.
Play the Daily every day. It is the same set for everyone, so it is the fairest way to see whether you are actually improving.
MapFiend covers 187 countries.
