Unique Clues
Say it once — or it vanishes.
A cooperative twist on the give-a-hint format: every duplicate clue quietly disappears before the Guesser ever sees it, so the group's real challenge is spreading out mentally without being able to see what anyone else wrote first.
Objective
Clue Givers each give a 1-word hint for the same secret word. Duplicate hints get deleted, and the Guesser uses what survives.
How to play
- One player is the Guesser and doesn't see the secret word. Everyone else is a Clue Giver and sees the word.
- Each Clue Giver privately writes one single-word hint. The server deletes any hint that more than one person wrote — only unique hints reach the Guesser.
- If all hints are duplicates, the Guesser gets nothing. Otherwise the Guesser sees the surviving hints and makes one final guess.
Scoring
If the Guesser is correct, they score 2 points and each Clue Giver with a surviving hint scores 1 point (duplicate hints score 0). If the Guesser is wrong, nobody scores that round.
Example round
- Ben is the Guesser and doesn't see the secret word: 'Volcano'. Ana, Cleo, and Dan each privately write one hint.
- Ana writes 'Erupt'. Cleo writes 'Lava'. Dan also writes 'Lava'.
- Because Cleo and Dan both wrote 'Lava', that hint is deleted before Ben ever sees it — only Ana's 'Erupt' survives.
- Ben sees just the word 'Erupt' and guesses 'Volcano'.
- Ben's guess is correct, so Ben scores 2 points; Ana's hint survived and helped, so she scores 1 point; Cleo and Dan's duplicate hints were deleted, so they score 0 for that round.
Strategy tips
- Avoid the most obvious single-word hint for the secret word — if it's the first thing that comes to your mind, it's likely to duplicate and get deleted.
- Think about a less common angle on the word (a use, a feeling, a category) rather than its most direct synonym, since obvious hints collide more often.
- As the Guesser, treat the surviving hints as sparse on purpose — a short list doesn't mean the group failed, it means their hints spread out well.
- If you're consistently guessing wrong, ask the group afterward what got deleted; knowing the collisions helps everyone spread out better next round.
Best with
Needs at least two players (one Guesser, one Clue Giver) but the deletion mechanic only gets interesting with three or more Clue Givers, where overlap becomes a real risk worth avoiding.
Variations
- Agree to reveal which hints got deleted after every round, even though the Guesser never sees them live, to help the group calibrate.
- Rotate who plays Guesser strictly in turn order rather than by host choice, so everyone gets an even number of rounds each role.
- Add a house rule banning one-word hints that are just the secret word's category (e.g. no 'Mountain' as a hint for 'Volcano').
FAQ
What happens if every single hint is a duplicate?
If all hints are deleted, the Guesser gets nothing to work with and the round ends with no score for anyone.
Do Clue Givers know if their hint got deleted?
The deleted hints simply don't reach the Guesser; the round outcome and scoring make clear afterward which hints survived.
How many points does a correct guess earn?
The Guesser scores 2 points for a correct guess, and each Clue Giver whose hint survived (wasn't a duplicate) scores 1 point; a wrong guess scores nobody anything.