Is Krillion rarity based on player popularity?

Officially, rarity methodology depends on the prompt. Krillion says some questions use familiarity data, while others use automated assistance and manual review.

Is One in a Krillion always the rarest answer?

No. The official FAQ says the top gem is not selected on rarity alone. At extreme rarity, Krillion also considers which answer is satisfying to land on.

Can two answers have the same tier?

Yes. Published reveal data for one question can include more than one answer in the same tier.

Does a rare answer always score more?

When both answers are accepted and already have an official tier, the deeper tier carries the higher fixed score: 10, 15, 30, 60, 85, or 100.

Why was my answer not given any tier?

A response with no recorded tier was not in the accepted set for that prompt. That is a validity question, not a rarity score.

Rarity method

How Does Krillion Decide Answer Rarity?

Krillion does not use one single rarity formula for every question. According to the official FAQ, some prompts can be scored mechanically using familiarity data, while others require a combination of automated assistance and manual review.

Krillion’s official FAQ ↗

Rarity is not simply “how many players typed this today”

A lower share of players typing an answer is not the published scoring rule. Krillion’s public explanation is that different questions can use different methods, and some of those methods are not a live submission count.

Recorded rarity

Check an Answer’s Recorded Rarity

Choose a published question, enter an answer, and check the tier recorded for that pair.

QuestionAnswer

Highest-scoring known answers for this question

100 pts
100 pts
85 pts

Krillion Actually Uses More Than One Method

Familiarity-based questions

Some answers can be estimated by how often a word, name, or concept shows up in what people read and write. The official FAQ says some prompts can be scored entirely by that familiarity database.

A very familiar answer tends toward a shallower tier. A less familiar answer can land in a deeper tier.

Example only — not the exact private scoring formula.

Questions that cannot be reduced to one number

The FAQ also says some prompts cannot be judged from a single familiarity value. Those use LLM assistance plus a manual pass.

That is why an answer that feels rarer can still record 85 while another records 100. The top tier is not produced by one rarity number alone.

Why Can a Deep Cut Be Rarer Than a One in a Krillion?

Is the 100-point answer always literally the rarest?

No.

Officially, the top gem is not selected on rarity alone. At extreme rarity, the difference between obscure answers is hard to measure, so Krillion also considers which answer makes a satisfying top-tier result.

Why the Krillion is sometimes less rare than a Deep Cut ↗

The Six Recorded Rarity Tiers

Published reveals on this site use these fixed tier values. This is the recorded scale, not a percentage cutoff.

Tier	Points
Plankton	10
Too Clever	15
Schooler	30
Rare	60
Deep Cut	85
One in a Krillion	100

Explore every tier →

Why Did My Answer Get This Tier?

The recorded tier belongs to a question and an answer together. The same word is not globally rare.

Name an NBA team

Boston CelticsPlankton10 points
Toronto HuskiesOne in a Krillion100 points

Recorded official tier for each answer under this question.

Open this question →

Is an Answer Permanently Rare?

Do not treat an answer as a globally fixed rarity. A tier is the recorded result for that answer inside one prompt. Amazon can be Plankton on one question and fail to be a legal answer on another.

Rare answers stay tied to a question →

Why Does a “Very Obscure” Answer Sometimes Score Poorly?

It may be Too Clever

It looks uncommon, but it is the familiar “obscure” pick that many players also reach. Krillion describes Too Clever as the go-to obscure answer that is not actually that obscure.

What Too Clever means →

Krillion may evaluate that prompt differently

Not every prompt uses the same rarity calculation. A familiarity score on one question is not the method used on every other question.

Your answer may not be in the accepted set

If the response was not accepted, it has no rarity tier. That is separate from scoring a recognized answer poorly.

Why an answer may not be accepted →

Rarity vs Validity

ValidityIs this answer accepted for this prompt?
RarityWhich recorded tier does it receive?
Score10 / 15 / 30 / 60 / 85 / 100

How those points add up →

Official vs What We Can Verify

Officially confirmed

Different questions can use different rarity methods.
Some prompts use a familiarity database.
Some prompts use automated assistance and manual review.
One in a Krillion is not chosen by rarity alone.
A reasonable answer can occasionally be missing.

Source: Krillion FAQ ↗

Not publicly documented

Exact familiarity thresholds
Percentage boundaries for each tier
How many Deep Cuts a question must have
Whether every question has one fixed 100-point answer
Whether a live player-submission percentage is a direct scoring input

This page does not guess those rules.

Rarity FAQ

Is Krillion rarity based on player popularity?: Officially, rarity methodology depends on the prompt. Krillion says some questions use familiarity data, while others use automated assistance and manual review.
Is One in a Krillion always the rarest answer?: No. The official FAQ says the top gem is not selected on rarity alone. At extreme rarity, Krillion also considers which answer is satisfying to land on.
Can two answers have the same tier?: Yes. Published reveal data for one question can include more than one answer in the same tier.
Does a rare answer always score more?: When both answers are accepted and already have an official tier, the deeper tier carries the higher fixed score: 10, 15, 30, 60, 85, or 100.
Why was my answer not given any tier?: A response with no recorded tier was not in the accepted set for that prompt. That is a validity question, not a rarity score. Check an unrecognized answer →