To play Mindlap with friends, one of you taps Play with friends on the menu and then Host a room. The game gives you a six-letter code. Everyone else taps Play with friends, then Join with a code, and types it, or opens the link you send. Up to 20 people can be in one room, each answering on their own device. Everyone needs a connection while the room is open, and the room ends when the host leaves. This guide describes version 0.5.9, and you can play Mindlap in another tab while you read.
How do you host a room? #
Open the game, tap Play with friends and then Host a room. A panel of settings comes up before the room exists. Nobody has joined yet, so you can take your time.
| Setting | Choices |
|---|---|
| Topic | Any pack you have open, Everything, or Surprise us, which draws an open pack at random for each new game in the room |
| Language | English or Español, for the whole room |
| Difficulty | Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert or Einstein |
| Mode | Teams, Each for themselves, Approximation, Lightning |
| Teams | 2, 3 or 4 (Teams and Lightning only) |
| Questions | 10, 20, 30 or 50 (in Lightning, the same choices count as 1, 2, 3 or 5 rounds) |
| Seconds to answer | 5, 15, 30 or 60 (not in Lightning) |
Tap Create room. If you play as a guest, the game asks for a name first: 3 to 16 letters, numbers or underscores, no spaces, and it has to pass the game's word filter. With a free player account, your player tag is your name and the game does not ask.
The game remembers your last settings, so a second room takes one tap less than the first.
One room at a time
Hosting a new room closes the one you had open. That holds across tabs, and with an account across devices. If a friend says the room "disappeared" while you were testing another, this is the likely reason.
What do the modes do? #
- Teams: you split into 2, 3 or 4 teams and the points are the team's.
- Each for themselves: no teams, every player on their own.
- Approximation: numbers only. Whoever lands closest wins the question.
- Lightning: quick turns, five right answers in 30 seconds.
Approximation and Lightning start locked. They open when you reach lap 10 and lap 20 in the solo game, or you can buy them in the store. The settings panel shows a lock on them until then, and says more modes open as you play. If you host for a group of newcomers, Teams is the safe pick: it works on the first day and nobody has to know the rules.
In the modes that use ordinary questions, a wildcard turns up every ten questions. It is a harder question than the rest, drawn from two difficulty steps up. A room of 10 questions has one, and a room of 50 has five.
How do friends join? #
You have four ways to send the room, and the game offers the ones that make sense on your device:
- WhatsApp, on a phone or a computer. It opens WhatsApp with a message and the link already in it.
- Share, where your phone has a share sheet.
- Copy the link, to paste anywhere.
- Copy the code, in places where there is no link to share.
The link opens the play page straight into your room and asks only for a name. A friend who prefers the long way can open the game, tap Play with friends, tap Join with a code and type the six letters. The game complains if the code is not six letters long, and tells a friend if the room is full.
Two things that catch people out:
- Two tabs are two players. Opening the link a second time in the same browser seats you twice. Close the spare one.
- A link on an iPhone opens in the browser, even if you added the game to your home screen. The browser offers to copy the invitation. Then open the game from the home screen, tap Play with friends and choose Paste an invitation. If you have not set up the home screen icon yet, here is how to add our games to your home screen.
If your connection drops, the game tries to take you back to your seat, with your team and points. How long that holds on a bad connection is not something the game states. If it fails, join again with the code while the room is still open.
What should you know before the first game? #
Pick the seconds with the slowest player in mind. Five seconds is fast enough that reading the question is most of the time. Fifteen is the middle choice, and 30 or 60 suits a group that wants to talk while answering.
The room runs on our server and not on your phone. That is why it works from anywhere, and also why the host closing it ends it for everyone. A room with nobody connected for an hour closes by itself.
Your solo progress is separate. Playing in a room does not change your laps or stars, though your profile counts room games played and won. As a guest, the coins you earn in a room wait for you to sign in, for up to a day. If you want them, make an account before that day is out. The solo game has its own pace, with laps, a daily lap and Endless. The rules, packs and filters are all on the Mindlap page. Practice alone first if you want to know your best topics before you bring a room along.
