Guess Ladder is the mode the game is named after. Everyone gets the same estimation question, everyone answers at the same time with a slider — and then the pieces climb the ladder by different amounts. You do not need to know anything to win. You only need to be closer than the others.
The ladder is 30 squares long. Everyone starts on square 0, and the first player to reach square 30 wins. The board is not empty, though: at the start of a match one of three maps is drawn at random, and each map places slides and betting squares differently. Playing the same match twice never produces exactly the same run.
| Map | Slides | Betting squares |
|---|---|---|
| Map 1 | 9 → 5 and 27 → 23 | 12, 20, 28 |
| Map 2 | 7 → 4 and 21 → 17 | 6, 10, 24 |
| Map 3 | 14 → 10, 20 → 17 and 26 → 22 | 13, 22, 28 |
A slide does not simply drag you down — it asks you a question first. Anyone left standing on a slide square gets a multiple-choice question:
That stings most near the finish: the slide on square 27 throws you back four squares just as you were about to win. And if you land on a betting square after sliding, the bet triggers there as normal.
| Placement | Steps |
|---|---|
| 1st place | +3 squares |
| 2nd place | +2 squares |
| 3rd place | +1 square |
| Middle of the pack | 0 squares |
| Last place (4+ players) | −1 square |
With two players a simplified rule applies: whoever is closer gets +3, the other gets +1. Nobody moves backwards.
When a multiple-choice question or a question with a fixed text answer comes up, ranking by closeness does not apply: correct is +2 squares, wrong means you stay put.
Guess Ladder also works solo. There is no placement then, only a tolerance: an exact answer is worth +3 squares, being within 20 per cent is +2, within 40 per cent is +1. Between 40 and 80 per cent off you stay put, and more than 80 per cent off costs you a square. It is the most honest way to find out how good your estimates really are.
When someone lands on a betting square, the normal round is interrupted and everyone joins in. First each player secretly stakes between 0 and 3 squares. Then an extra estimation question appears.
After that comes the settlement: the top ranks gain their stake as squares, the bottom ranks lose it. How many that is depends on the group size:
| Players | Gain | Lose |
|---|---|---|
| 2–3 | the best 1 | the last 1 |
| 4–5 | the best 2 | the last 2 |
| 6–8 | the best 3 | the last 3 |
Staking 0 means you cannot lose anything — but you cannot gain anything either. Staking 3 and missing costs you three squares in one go. Near the finish, that is the single most interesting decision in the game.
If two pieces end a round on the same square, those two players face off. Both choose at the same time and in secret between Split and Steal:
| Player A | Player B | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Split | Split | both +1 square |
| Steal | Split | A +2, B −2 |
| Split | Steal | A −2, B +2 |
| Steal | Steal | both −2 squares |
The same two people meet only once per match. A single player can be pulled into several duels, as long as the opponent is different each time. The start square, the finish, slides and betting squares never trigger a duel.
The board and the scoring always stay the same, but the questions can be swapped out:
For "How many people live in Frankfurt?", the question is not whether it is 740,000 or 760,000. The question is whether it is hundreds of thousands or millions. Getting the order of magnitude right beats a wild guess almost every time.
The minimum and maximum are not arbitrary — the correct answer always lies between them. When you genuinely have no idea, the middle is a surprisingly decent choice.
On a betting square near the finish, the leader has the most to lose. A stake of 0 or 1 protects your position while everyone behind you is forced to take risks.