How does the Alphabear scoring system work?

Note: These rules were last updated on 2015-07-29. If you see a discrepancy, please email support@spryfox.com and we'll look into it; it's possible that you've found a bug or that the scoring rules have changed.

Scoring Rules - The basics

Scoring can get complicated, so let's start out by ignoring anything that is a consequence of which bears you've chosen. (This can happen in reality if you're playing the Tutorial, if you're playing the monthly Special Event, or if you've taken zero bears into the event because all of your bears are napping.)

Playing a tile as part of a word

Two things contribute to your score as you use a tile:

• The counter on the tile. E.g., this tile's counter is 2. Note that the counter decreases by one with each turn, so on the next turn this tile's counter will be 1.
• A multiplier specific to the event. As of 2015-07-21, all events have a multiplier of 5. So just assume for now that the multiplier is always 5.

For every letter tile you use when spelling a word, the number of points you get is the multiplier times that tile's counter. For example, the tile shown above currently has a counter of 2. If you use it to spell a word on this turn, you'll get 5 x 2 = 10 points. These points are shown to you in the Submit bar as you build the word, and are credited immediately at the time you submit the word.

The picture below shows an example of what we just discussed. The player is in the process of spelling the word HI. He has selected the H, which will be worth 5 x 4 = 20 points when he submits the word. The I also will be worth 20 points for the same reason, so playing HI will earn the player 40 points in total.

Bears on the board at the end of the event

After the game is over (time is up in a timed game, or there are no more words are available to be played), you get points for the bears on the board. Each bear is worth the number of spaces it occupies, to the 1.85th power. See the screenshot below.

• The tiniest bears occupy 1 square each. 1 ^ 1.85 = 1, so they are worth 1 point each.
• The 1x2 bear on the left side of the board occupies 2 squares. 2 ^ 1.85 = 3.6, which we round down to 3. So this bear is worth 3 points.
• The 2x2 bear in the upper-left and the 1x4 bear in the upper-right each occupy 4 squares. 4 ^ 1.85 = 12.9, which we round down to 12. So these bears are each worth 12 points.
• ...and so on for all the bears on the board.

Note that this means that one larger bear is worth more than smaller bears occupying the same total space. Here is a partial chart.

Bear Area To Points WHEN NOTHING ELSE IS CONSIDERED

Scoring Rules - More advanced stuff

Final Score Bonus (FSB)

Please see this page for detailed information about the Final Score Bonus. You really should do this if you want to understand the rest of the scoring system.

(For those who chose not to read that other page, the FSB is basically a multiplier on every point you'd otherwise earn in the game. Higher numbers are better! Despite the name, we apply it constantly rather than waiting until the end of the game.)

Bear Powers that add points for certain actions

Let's say that I have brought two bears: Twilight Bear with a 936% FSB and Fore Bear with an 18% FSB.

Let's see what happens when we use a letter tile with these two bears. We'll play a tile with a counter of 4, just as we did in the prior example.

How does playing this letter give us 368 points? Well part of the answer is:

• As we saw above, a tile with a counter of 4 is worth 5 x 4 = 20 points before FSB is considered.
• FSB for these bears is 936% + 18% = 954%.
• 954% of 20 is 190.8 bonus points.

But that's only 20 + 190.8 = 210.8 points. Where did the other ~157 points come from?

The other ~157 points come from Twilight Bear's Bear Power to add points to each letter. You can see in his description that Twilight Bear is described as adding +155 points to any letter played. But we actually have to break this down somewhat.

Despite how it is described in the picture, Twilight Bear's actual power is to add 15 points (pre-FSB) to each letter; the 155 points in the description come from Twilight Bear's FSB.

• Twilight Bear adds 15 points without considering FSB.
• Twilight Bear's FSB adds 15 * 9.36 = 140.4 points.
• 15 + 140.4 = 155.4. We round down to 155, which is what is shown in Twilight Bear's description.

Now that we know that Twilight Bear is actually adding 15 points pre-FSB to our score, let's figure out how it all fits together when we consider FSB.

• Twilight Bear adds 15 points without considering FSB.
• All the bears' FSBs act on these 15 points, not just Twilight Bear's FSB.
• FSB for these bears is 936% + 18% = 954%
• 954% of 15 is 143.1 bonus points.
• Therefore, Twilight Bear adds 15 + 143.1 = 158.1 points when FSB is considered.
• And 158 points per letter is indeed what you see if you click on a bear in-game:
  

So, when you played the letter, we essentially got to 368 points this way:

• As we saw above, a tile with a counter of 4 is worth 5 x 4 = 20 points before FSB is considered.
• Twilight Bear adds 15 points before FSB is considered.
• 20 + 15 = 35 points before FSB is considered.
• FSB for these bears is 936% + 18% = 954%.
• 35 * 9.54 = 333.9 bonus points from FSB.
• 35 + 333.9 = 368.9 (We round down to 368.)