How scoring works in Quadro
Why a tile placed next to your own tiles is worth several times one placed in empty space, what the floor line costs, and what the end-game row, column and color bonuses are worth.
Most players lose their first dozen games to the same misunderstanding: they count completed pattern lines and assume that is the score. It is not. Where a tile lands on the wall matters far more than how many tiles you landed.
A settled tile scores the runs it joins
When a completed pattern line settles one tile onto your wall, that tile scores:
- 1, if it sits alone with no settled neighbours.
- Otherwise, the length of every unbroken run it joins — horizontal, vertical, or both, counted separately and added together.
So a tile that extends a horizontal run of three and a vertical run of two scores 4 + 3 = 7. The same tile dropped in an empty corner of the wall scores 1.
This single rule is the whole game. Three completed lines settled into three separate corners score 1 + 1 + 1 = 3. Two completed lines stacked in one column score 1 + 2 = 3 — the same points from a third less drafting, and with a column bonus now in reach.
Drafting fast is not the game. Drafting so that each tile lands beside the last one is the game.
The floor line
Every tile on your floor line at the end of a round costs you points, and the floor is cleared afterwards. The "1" marker occupies a floor slot too, so leading the next round is never free.
The practical rule: compare the penalty against what the overflow buys you. Taking three tiles for a two-slot line to complete a line that will score 5 is a clear profit. Taking three tiles for a line that will not settle this round, and eating the penalty for nothing, is how a good position becomes a bad one.
End-game bonuses
The game ends when either player completes a full horizontal row. Then:
| Bonus | Worth |
|---|---|
| Each complete horizontal row | +2 |
| Each complete vertical column | +7 |
| Each color you hold all five of | +10 |
The asymmetry is deliberate and it should drive your endgame. A row is what ends the game; a column is what wins it. One column is worth more than three completed rows, and a full color set is worth more than that again.
What your daily score actually is
On the Daily Challenge, the number that goes on the board is not your final score — it is your margin: your final score minus your opponent's. Ties are broken by elapsed time, and then by who submitted first.
Margin rather than raw score is what makes the boards comparable. A 62-point game against an opponent who scored 60 is a closer thing than a 45-point game against an opponent who scored 20, and the board should say so. It also means a defensive move that costs you 3 points and costs the opponent 9 is a good move, which is true and which raw score would hide.
Because each of the six opponents plays to a different standard, each has its own board. A margin against Extreme and a margin against Easy are not the same achievement, so they are never mixed.