False Bearing

About False Bearing

False Bearing is one of the small daily geography games on Ten Minute Games, a site made by Istvan Kreisz, who describes himself as a geography nerd building the daily games he wanted to play. Everyone gets the same round each day, and a new round starts at 00:00 UTC.

A leg puts one city in the middle of a circle, marked in red, with five arrows running out to five other cities, each labelled with its name and flag. Four of those arrows follow the true direction from the centre city. One has been turned the wrong way, and that is the liar you are looking for. Tapping an arrow only selects it; pressing Confirm commits, and you get one attempt per leg. If a leg has you stumped you can skip it.

A day's round has three legs, and each is harder than the one before, so the first may mix cities on different continents while later ones need a finer sense of how places line up. The question is direction, not distance: you have to picture which way Dublin, Mumbai or Mecca really lies from somewhere like Damascus, which is less obvious than it seems once the curve of the Earth and flat map habits come into it.

There is no account. Results and streaks are kept only in your browser, so clearing its storage or changing device starts them again. Past days stay free to play from the day picker. It suits players who like Worldle's direction arrows or compass games such as Whichway and want a short daily test of their mental map.

How to play False Bearing

1. Open the game; the day's first leg shows a centre city in red with arrows to five named cities.
2. Picture which way each named city really lies from the centre city.
3. Tap the arrow you think points the wrong way; this only selects it.
4. Press Confirm to lock in your answer. You get one attempt per leg, or you can skip the leg.
5. Play the second and third legs, each harder than the last, then come back after midnight UTC for the next round.

Screenshots

Tips

• Check the arrows that are easy first, such as a city on another continent, and set them aside before weighing the close ones.
• Remember that a great-circle direction can differ from the line you would draw on a flat map, especially over long distances.
• Use the past days in the day picker to practise before the harder legs of today's round.

Questions