Fair play

Which matches move your rating, which do not and why, and which move less.

Tip: Only Quick Match between two signed-in players, at Level 2 · Full war without the Wilds and not on a player’s map, moves your rating, and only when it lasted 3 minutes or more and both sides really fought. New accounts, and the same rival over and over, move less. Every counted match that moved no points says why (“Not rated: …”) and links to its rule below.

Why these rules

The server plays out every battle, so nobody can fake a victory. The one way left to buy a place on the leaderboard is boosting: winning against a second account, or a friend, who lets you win. These rules make that slow and pointless without getting in the way of real matches.

What moves your rating

A match moves points when all of these hold:

1. It counts: both players are signed in (with Google or an email code) and neither seat is a bot. A match against a guest or a bot is friendly: it moves no points, but a signed-in player keeps it in their history, with its replay. A match with no signed-in player (two guests, or a guest and a bot) is kept nowhere.
2. It was found by Quick Match (or is one of its rematches): not a private match, not a cup’s.
3. It is played on a seed’s map: one the game draws (a starter map), or a seed or starter map the ruler who raised the banner picked. Not on a player’s map from the Maps screen.
4. It is Level 2 · Full war, without the Wilds.
5. It lasted 3 minutes or more.
6. It was fought: it ended at a castle, or the loser had lost 5 units or 1 building first.
7. Someone won: not both players idle.
8. Both players are on the public leaderboard.
9. It is not the 5th match or later between the same two players within 7 days.

The muster says before the battle what is at stake: “Counted match · both rulers signed in” when it can be rated, or why it will not be (a private room, a player’s map, a cup, a guest, a bot). Game Over shows the points it moved (Rating points). The time of year changes nothing: it is scenery only.

Matches that move no points

These are still counted matches: they stay in both players’ history, with their replay, and show on the leaderboard’s Last with the reason.

Private match

Private matches are for friends and practice. Rated points only come from rivals the game picks for you.

Tournament

A cup’s games are played between friends who picked each other, so they are not rated either. They stay in both histories with the cup and the round.

A cup’s matches may be watched live, but always behind the players: 30 s, 1 min, 3 min, 5 min or 10 min, as its organiser picks (3 minutes unless they pick another), a delay the game server keeps: a friend watching both sides cannot tell a player where the rival’s army is, or what they are building, while it still matters. Nothing newer than that ever reaches a spectator, not even by asking the server by hand.

Any other match watched live is as far behind as the longer of its two players’ choices, so nobody is ever shown sooner than they chose.

A player’s map

In Quick Match, whoever raises the banner may pick its map, and whoever joins plays it. A seed’s map (any seed, or a starter map) is rated like one the game draws: the generator’s maps are there for anyone to practise. A player’s map from the Maps screen is not: its author, or a host who studied it, could know an edge one side has. The lobby’s card and the muster say so before the battle.

Level 1 (Basics)

The learning rules do not count; only Level 2 · Full war does.

Played with the Wilds

A match with the Wilds on (lairs whose monsters fight both sides) does not count: the monsters are a new hazard, not yet a fair test of two players.

Short match

Shorter than 3 minutes: a retreat at once, or a player who left.

No contest

A match that did not end at the castle (a retreat, leaving the field, or an idle loss) is rated only if the loser lost at least 5 units or 1 building first. A match given up without a fight moves nothing. A castle razed always counts.

Both players idle

When both players leave the field idle, nobody wins and nothing moves, however long it lasted.

A player left the leaderboard

A player who switched Show me on the public leaderboard off in Settings is not rated, and neither is their rival in that match.

Excluded by hand

A match can be excluded with a reason (cheating, a bug that decided it). The ratings are then worked out again from all the matches, as if it had never been rated.

Matches that move less

New accounts (provisional)

An account is New until it has 10 rated matches against at least 5 different rivals. Meanwhile its own rating moves as usual, so it finds its place fast; but an established player’s rating does not move at all against it, won or lost (“rival is new”). Two new accounts rate each other normally. The leaderboard shows “New” beside it, and its page shows how far it has come.

The same rival

Within any 7 days, the rated matches between the same two players move a shrinking share of their points:

Only rated matches count toward the list. Play other rivals, and the shares reset as the days go by.

Boosting found later

The ratings are always worked out from the stored matches. Matches found to be boosting are excluded by hand and the tables worked out again: points won that way disappear. Seen something odd? Write to privacy@tinyswordswars.com with the players’ names and the date.

What these rules read

Only what every match already keeps: its kind, length, level, map, how it ended and each side’s losses. Nothing new about you is collected for them: see the game’s privacy page.