A few answers.

Is Orbino free? Do I need an account?

Yes, it is free, and no account is needed. Orbino is a single-player game with a personal best saved for this browser. An optional account lets you return across devices and join the leaderboard.

How many countries and lives do I start with?

New expeditions deal twelve random countries, shown before round one. You have four lives for the whole game: each loss costs one, and lives never refill. The optional first-round guide explains your first move and result. Older saved expeditions keep their original rules.

What changes in Hard mode?

Hard blocks your strongest statistical advantage when another winning category remains. With zero or one winning category, it blocks nothing. Tied categories stay available. Standard is the default, and you choose difficulty before starting. The strongest advantage is a relative comparison adjusted for zero and very small figures; it cannot predict what you know.

Difficulty stays fixed for each game. You can keep a saved expedition in each mode, with separate personal bests and leaderboards. The blocked category is marked on the board and in your round history.

How does the daily challenge work?

Everyone playing the same difficulty gets the same random ten-country deal and ten main matchups, using only playable countries. Standard and Hard have independent draws. Finish with no more than two misses to win. Ties use no miss: the challenger becomes contested, and a final tie adds rounds until a win or loss settles the contested countries. Extra rounds follow your own stack against the shared challenger order. After your third miss, you can still play the remaining rounds.

There is one scored attempt per guest player or signed-in account, per difficulty and UTC date, with no retries. You can play both. A new challenge opens at 00:00 UTC. Start before midnight; attempts already started can finish until 01:00 UTC the next day. An unfinished attempt then counts as a loss. Your expedition remains saved separately.

What do the daily percentage and streak mean?

Each difficulty has its own win rate and streak. Skipping one difficulty does not affect the other. The live win rate counts completed challenges; games still in progress are shown separately. At 01:00 UTC, unfinished attempts count as losses and the percentage becomes final. Your streak counts consecutive UTC dates won. Skipping a date breaks it; an unplayed today does not break yesterday’s streak. Yesterday remains pending during its finishing grace period.

Your choices and personal daily history stay private. Every completed daily has a permanent result link with its date, outcome, counts, and round symbols, without answers. Share result opens your device’s sharing options or copies the result. The ten shared matchups become public after the grace period ends. The draw is random, without difficulty balancing, so some dates may be unwinnable. Play today’s challenge or see your daily history.

Where is my progress saved?

Your expedition is stored on our server. An essential cookie connects this browser to your saved games. Return in the same browser to continue. As a guest, another device, a private window, or clearing the cookie starts a separate history. With a verified account, sign in by email to recover your saved expeditions and daily progress. Clearing cookies does not delete the server records; see privacy and cookies.

What if I played the daily before signing in?

Your guest attempt joins your account if it has no attempt for that date and difficulty. If the account already played, that attempt stays in the calendar and streak; the earlier guest record remains in your private daily history. Signing in never grants a retry or picks the better result.

How do accounts work?

Sign up with a public username and private email address. Confirm the email link to attach this browser’s guest history, including your unfinished expedition and daily attempts. There are no passwords or social logins. Already registered? Sign in by email; your new guest history joins your account too. Links expire after 15 minutes, and you can request another.

Can I change or delete my account?

Account settings lets you change your username and email, each once per month. A new email must be confirmed before it replaces the current one. Email changes and account deletion require a fresh email sign-in. Deleting your account also deletes its saved games, public result links, and leaderboard entry.

Orbino remembers your sign-in for a year, renewed as you visit. You can sign out on this browser or on every device from your account.

Which scores count on the leaderboard?

Standard and Hard have separate leaderboards. Each ranks your best naturally finished, untimed expedition with at least three rounds, using that difficulty’s current rules and data. Your email must be verified. Eligible guest scores count after signup. Ended, restarted, short, timed and older games stay in your account history. Equal scores share a rank. See the leaderboard.

Can I share a finished game?

Yes. A sharing sheet appears when you finish, with a permanent result link and a social preview of your globe. Sharing is also at the top of the result’s history page. All finished expeditions have a final globe and round-by-round journey; those with at least three rounds also appear in public game history. Shorter results are accessible by link but unlisted. Active games stay private. Daily result links show your score and round symbols without revealing any answers. If you already have an active game, Play Orbino takes you back to it; use Restart game there to end it and start again.

Can I play offline?

An internet connection is needed to choose a category and continue. The server keeps the game state. If a request is interrupted, refresh the page to see the current round.

Why are the flags and figures hidden?

The choice is a test of your geographical intuition. You can see both country names and silhouettes, then both flags and all eight comparisons appear after you choose. Seven categories reward higher values; proximity to the equator rewards the smaller distance.

Why are some countries or statistics unavailable?

The source atlas keeps all 195 countries. New expeditions use a population cutoff and documented exceptions, leaving 174 playable countries. If a matchup lacks a reliable figure, that category is disabled. Older expeditions keep their original rules and data. The data notes explain each decision and the remaining balance limitations.

Does Orbino work on a phone or with a keyboard?

Yes. Tap a category to play it; during the first-round guide, select a category, then press Play. With a keyboard, press 1–8 and then Enter to play. Continue after the reveal with Enter or Escape. Phones have compact and expanded globe views. The searchable country list is always available; globe exploration unlocks after the reveal, and Orbino follows your device's reduced-motion preference.

How do I report a mistake?

Contact us with the country, statistic, and a source link for data corrections. For a bug, describe what happened and your browser or device. Please leave cookies and security tokens out of your message.