Answer rarity is central to the way players think about Krillion, but it is important to separate what the creator has confirmed from what players might assume.
This page summarizes the public explanation in the official Krillion FAQ. It does not reveal private scoring data or predict the score of any particular answer.
How answer sets are assembled
The creator says answer sets are curated by aggregating datasets such as dictionaries, wiki pages and encyclopedias, then merging and cleaning the results. The sources depend on what a question calls for.
This helps explain why an answer may be accepted even if it is not the first phrase a player would think of. Different sources may use different names or aliases.
How rarity is assessed
The official FAQ describes more than one approach:
- Some prompts can be scored mechanically against a familiarity database that estimates how often a word or name appears in reading and writing.
- Other prompts cannot be reduced to a single number and receive a combination of LLM assistance and manual review.
The important takeaway is that there is no public universal formula that players can apply to every question.
Why the top answer is not always the rarest
The creator says the Krillion is not chosen on rarity alone. At deeper levels, rarity can become difficult to distinguish, so the selection also considers whether an answer is fun and satisfying for players.
That means “the most obscure answer possible” is not necessarily the best way to think about the game.
Practical implications for players
Use rarity as one thinking lens, not as a guarantee:
- Find an answer that clearly fits the prompt.
- Look beyond the most obvious examples.
- Consider accepted aliases and alternative names.
- Avoid choosing obscurity at the expense of relevance.
- Treat the official game's feedback as the source of truth.
Why an answer may be missing
The creator acknowledges that source coverage is imperfect and that a fair answer may be absent if a relevant source was missed. If this happens, use the official feedback route rather than assuming that every plausible answer must be accepted.
Source
All statements about the creator’s curation and rarity process above are paraphrased from the official Krillion FAQ. The exact methods may evolve.