Ping (Mind Loft)

About Ping (Mind Loft)

Ping is a city hunt on Mind Loft, a free site of daily browser games. Each day there is one secret city somewhere in the world, the same for every player, and nothing to go on at first. You type any well-known city, and Ping answers with a single number: the great-circle distance from your guess to the target, in miles or kilometres, as you choose.

From there it is triangulation. Two or three distances from cities far apart narrow the target to a small region, and each closer guess tightens it. Typing a country name lists its cities, which helps when you know the region but not the city names in it.

There is no limit on guesses, so everyone can reach the answer; the score rewards doing it in fewer. You can give up at any time and still be scored on how close you came. On your first ever play there is one free hint that reveals the continent.

A new city goes up at midnight US Eastern Time, and Sundays bring a harder one. Unlike Capitalle or Worldle there is no direction arrow and no shape to look at, only the distance, so it suits players who like working things out on a mental map.

How to play Ping (Mind Loft)

1. Open mindloftdaily.com/ping and choose miles or kilometres.
2. Type any major world city and press Guess; Ping shows its distance to the secret city.
3. Guess cities in different directions and use the distances to narrow down the area.
4. Keep guessing closer cities until you hit the target, or give up and be scored on your closest guess.
5. Your guess count sets your score and place on the daily leaderboard.

Screenshots

Tips

• Start with a city far from the others, then a second one at right angles, to triangulate quickly.
• Remember that half the Earth's circumference is about 12,400 miles (20,000 km); a distance near that puts the target almost opposite your guess.
• Type a country name to list its cities when you have narrowed it to one country.
• Save the continent hint for your first play; it is only offered once.

Questions