Odin's Checkers — ranks, leaderboards & achievements

Odin's Checkers keeps score three ways, and all three come with the game — nothing to buy, no account to create. Your rank is a level that only ever climbs. 17 leaderboards rank you against everyone else playing. 28 achievements, worth 970 points, mark the things worth doing once.

The rank ladder

Finish a game and it earns XP. XP raises your level, and the gold ring around the number on the home screen fills as you climb. There is no way down: a level you have reached is yours.

Here is the whole rule set, exactly as the app states it:

• Every game you finish earns XP.
• Harder computer opponents are worth more — Expert is worth twelve times Easy.
• Online games are worth the most, win or lose.
• Losses still earn a little — playing is always progress.
• Your first game each day in every tradition earns a bonus.
• Each level requires more XP than the last, and your level never goes down.

Titles

Every level carries a title from the longhouse. The last one is open-ended — it takes a new numeral every 5 levels, so there is always something above you.

What a game is worth

A draw is worth half of a win, and a loss a quarter — so sitting down with a stronger opponent is never the wrong move.

On top of that, the first game you finish each day in each tradition earns a 20 XP bonus. Twelve traditions means breadth is a daily habit rather than a grind on one queue.

Games against the computer are capped at 600 XP a day — five Expert wins' worth. Games against people are never capped. Pass & Play earns nothing, because one person is playing both sides, and neither does a game in Coach mode: the coach played too.

The challenge multiplier

Online games carry a challenge multiplier set by the gap between your level and your opponent's. It starts at 1× for an even match and moves 0.08 for every level between you — up as they get stronger, down as they get weaker — with a floor of 0.25× and a ceiling of 3×. It is locked when the match starts and it applies to a win, a draw and a loss alike. Beating someone far above you is worth a great deal; beating someone far below you counts for almost nothing.

The ceiling belongs to the underdog by construction: it takes an opponent 25 levels above you — a first-day player toppling a Grand King — and it is the one result allowed to move you more than a level in a single game.

Nearby play never carries a challenge multiplier — a local connection has no rank to read.

The climb

Each level requires 20% more XP than the one before it: 300 XP to leave Level 1, and steadily more after that. Early levels come quickly; the later ones are meant to take a while.

Leaderboards

17 of them, all through Game Center. Sign in to Game Center on your device and they fill themselves in as you play; the app never asks you for anything.

One board per tradition

11 more boards, one for each tradition beyond English draughts — those wins land on the main board above.

Achievements

28 badges worth 970 points. 2 of them stay hidden in Game Center until you earn them.

First steps

Beating the computer

Wins that add up

Played with style

Climbing the ladder

A world of checkers

Where to find all this

On iPhone, iPad and Mac, tap the Game Center badge at the top of the Longhouse. On Apple TV the badge cannot be reached with the remote, so the app carries its own button into the dashboard. Your level and its ring show on the home screen either way — tap them for the same rules listed above.

Your level is yours whether or not you are signed in: XP is stored on your device and synced through your own iCloud account. Game Center is only what puts you on a board next to other people.

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