Playing the bots

What the bot ladder is

The bot ladder is ten practice opponents in a row. Rung 1 at the bottom is the weakest and each one above it is stronger; every rung has a name and a habit of its own. You can play any of them straight away, and the first time you beat one it stays beaten — losing to it later does not take that back.

There is always someone on the ladder

You never have to wait for an opponent. The bots are always there, and the ladder is what keeps those games from simply disappearing afterwards. Each ruleset — Standard and Renju — has its own ladder, because Renju's forbidden moves make the same rung closer to a different player.

Challenge and casual games

Each rung's button says one of two things. A Challenge counts towards your rating, and is only offered for rungs between 150 points below you and 400 points above — so that beating a far weaker bot over and over cannot lift your rating. A casual game does not count and can be played at any rung. Either way, a win is recorded on the ladder just the same.

How much a bot game counts

A rated game against a bot counts half as much as a game against a person. While your rating is still being placed it counts in full, which is why the first few games move it so far. At most three games per rung per day count; after that you can keep playing, but your rating stays where it is. Challenge games are 5 minutes with 2 seconds added per move.

Bots are not in the rankings

Bots carry ratings of their own, but they never appear in the player rankings, and games played only against bots do not qualify you for them. The leaderboard is for people.

Today's opponent

One rung is picked as the opponent of the day. Everyone, everywhere, gets the same rung and the same colour on the same day — which is what makes "48% beat it today" worth reading. It is unrated: it compares one day's game rather than anyone's strength, and the rung moves daily, so some days it is out of reach. Play it on consecutive days and a streak builds up.

This week vs bots

Rated wins against bots earn points through the week — the higher the rung, the more points (the rung number × 10). A rung counts at most three times a week, so beating the next one up always beats farming the one below. It resets every Monday.

Replaying the game that beat you

Lose to a bot and the result offers "Play again from N moves back". It restarts against the same bot from just before the game turned, so the next move you make is the decision you got wrong. That game is unrated and untimed — the position was handed to you, and working something out is not a speed test.

A bot always says it is a bot

Every bot carries a BOT label beside its name — on the board, in the spectate list, and on the ladder. Turnpan does not dress bots up as people or give them human names. Whether your opponent is a person or a bot is always written on the screen.