Krillion glossary

Every word the game uses, from rarity tiers to oxygen tanks. The numbers on this page come straight from the game, so they always match what you see in a dive. New to the game? Start with how to play Krillion.

The game

Krillion: A made-up giant number, like zillion, that also nods to krill. In “one in a krillion” it means vanishingly rare, which is what the game asks you to find. More in what does krillion mean?
Prompt: The question for a round, such as “Name a citrus fruit”. Our bank has 82 prompts, each with its own list of accepted answers.
Dive: One game. Your diver sinks 10 metres for every point you score, so a dive's result is a depth.
Daily Dive: The daily game: 7 prompts, the same for everyone, with 25 seconds each. It changes at 04:00 UTC, and you can replay the day's dive as often as you like. Play the Daily Dive.
Krillion Unlimited: The practice mode: random prompts, one after another, until you run out of air. You start with 3 oxygen tanks. Play Krillion Unlimited.
Puffer Party: Our multiplayer mode for 2 to 10 players. Players share a room by code and take turns naming an answer to pass the puffer before its hidden fuse pops; the last player with hearts left wins.
Begin descent: The button that starts a dive. Each prompt then shows a three-second countdown before its clock starts.

Answering

Accepted answer: A correct answer on our list for the prompt. The bank holds 4,095 of them, each placed in a rarity tier.
Alias: Another accepted spelling or name for the same answer, such as Pomelo and Pummelo, or Calamansi and Calamondin. Any alias scores the same as the main name.
Typo allowance: Answers of four letters or fewer must be exact; five to eight letters allow one typo; nine or more allow two. Capital letters, accents and a leading “the”, “a” or “an” are ignored.
Refused answer: An answer that isn't on the list. It costs nothing but time: the clock keeps running and you can try again straight away.
Pass: Skipping a prompt for no points. In Krillion Unlimited a pass also costs an oxygen tank.
Out of air: What the game shows when the 25-second clock runs out before a correct answer. The prompt scores nothing; in Unlimited it costs a tank.
Oxygen tanks (air): Your lives in Krillion Unlimited. You start with 3; each pass or timeout uses one, and the dive ends when they are gone. The Daily Dive has no tanks: it always runs for 7 prompts.

Rarity tiers and scoring

Rarity tier: One of five groups every accepted answer belongs to, from Surface (most common) to Abyssal (rarest). The tiers are our own hand-made estimates of how readily an answer comes to mind, not survey or player data.
🌊 Surface (10 points): The tier for the answers almost everyone thinks of first. Worth 10 points, or 100 m of depth. For “Name a citrus fruit”: Orange and Lemon. 357 accepted answers (9%) sit in this tier.
🐟 Sunlit Zone (30 points): The tier for well-known answers that plenty of players still reach. Worth 30 points, or 300 m of depth. For “Name a citrus fruit”: Tangerine and Mandarin. 1,067 accepted answers (26%) sit in this tier.
🐠 Twilight Zone (60 points): The tier for answers that take a moment of real thought. Worth 60 points, or 600 m of depth. For “Name a citrus fruit”: Yuzu and Pomelo. 1,226 accepted answers (30%) sit in this tier.
🦑 Midnight Zone (85 points): The tier for answers that only a few players are likely to give. Worth 85 points, or 850 m of depth. For “Name a citrus fruit”: Calamansi and Finger lime. 955 accepted answers (23%) sit in this tier.
🐙 Abyssal (100 points): The tier for the deepest cuts: correct answers almost nobody reaches. Worth 100 points, or 1,000 m of depth. For “Name a citrus fruit”: Rangpur and Citrange. 490 accepted answers (12%) sit in this tier.
One in a Krillion: Our nickname for the rarest kind of correct answer, the kind that sits in the Abyssal tier. When you find one, the game says: “Practically one in a krillion.” See how to get One in a Krillion.
Deep cut: Informal name for a rare but correct answer, usually Midnight Zone or Abyssal.
Rarity meter: The Common-to-Rare bar on the answer card, which fills one step per tier.
Depth: Your score in metres: points × 10. A perfect Daily Dive, 7 Abyssal answers, reaches 7,000 m. See Krillion scoring explained.

Depth zones

Depth zone: The layer of the ocean your diver has reached, shown during a dive and in your shared result. Zones measure depth, while rarity tiers measure single answers, so a run of Sunlit answers can still carry you into the Twilight Zone.
Sunlit Zone: 0–200 m: Where every dive starts.
Twilight Zone: 200–1,000 m: Reached at 20 points.
Midnight Zone: 1,000–4,000 m: Reached at 100 points.
Abyssal Zone: 4,000–6,000 m: Reached at 400 points.
Hadal Zone: 6,000 m and below: Reached at 600 points, at least 6 Abyssal answers' worth, so only a strong Daily Dive or a long Unlimited run gets here.

Results

Rank: The creature you “dived like”, shown on the results screen: a snailfish of the trenches (7,000 m+), an anglerfish (5,000 m+), a giant squid (3,500 m+), a vampire squid (2,000 m+), a lanternfish (1,000 m+), a moon jellyfish (400 m+), a snorkeller (1 m+), a beach towel (0 m).
Best depth: Your deepest dive, saved in your browser: one best per day for the Daily Dive, and one for Krillion Unlimited.
Share row: The emoji line in a shared result: one tier emoji per correct answer (🌊 🐟 🐠 🦑 🐙) and ⬛ for a pass or timeout, after your depth and zone.