Multiplayer Help

Scroll down for the full help list.

Leaderboard

At the end of a game, you will either gain leaderboard points, or lose leaderboard points depending on:

How well you placed against the other players
The ranks of your opponents

The number of points gained or lost depends on the ranks of your opponents. This is based on ELO. Beating a higher ranked player will earn you more points. Beating a lower ranked player will earn you fewer points. And conversely, losing to a higher ranked player will lose you fewer points, and losing to a lower ranked player will lose you more points.

If a player leaves a game early, and they would have gotten positive points - these points are then redistributed to players remaining. If a player would have gotten negative points, they will still receive negative points.

Players with the same number of points will have the same rank. This means there can be many players with the same rank.

A user that is inactive for more than ~5 days will be removed from the leaderboard. To get back on the leaderboard, a user just has to finish a game and they will be placed back at the same rank as when they left. This prevents users from sitting at the top of the leaderboard without playing.

Icon System

At the end of a game, you will gain icon points (icon points are different from ranking points). Icon point distributions is as follows:

1st: 12
2nd: 6
3rd: 4
4th: 3
Quit: 0

To set your icon, from the Lobby screen, you can go to Menu -> Edit Profile -> Set Icon. You will only be able to set icons that you have earned.

Chat Room Etiquette

The public chat room is for polite and civil conversation. Do not post negative comments about others. In game or in the lobby, clicking a players name will bring up a player's profile. The mute checkbox will prevent future chat messages from that player.

Lobby
Post civil conversation. Posts that may be controversial or inflammatory should be in General.

Strategy
Post strategy questions or tips.

General
Post anything else within reason.

How to play with friends?

Choose Menu->Create Custom Game. Then have your friends choose Menu->Join Custom Game.

To play with only a select group of friends, you can set the game to Private and choose a password that your friends must enter.

Custom Games

Custom games do not earn you points, count towards any stats, or affect leaderboard rankings. Custom games can be used to play with friends, experiment with strategies, or to play when you don't have time to finish a full game.

ELO

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor.

ELO in Hearts is a method of calculating a player's skill level. It is used to help match players of equal skill together to play games.

Leaderboard

Why isn't the leaderboard based on wins?

Wins are not a good indicator of skill due to the way matching works. The best games are when 4 people of equal skill are playing together. That means that if pro players are matched against one another, and amateur players are matched against one another, the pros will have an average 25% win rate, and the amateurs will have an average 25% win rate. On the leaderboard they will look equal, but one group is more skilled than the other.

Leaderboard points are calculated after earning them, and rankings are updated shortly afterwards.

Quitting Games Early

This site is for playing against other players. If you don't have 20 minutes to play a complete game, consider playing a custom game or not playing. Those who continue to quit games will first receive a warning, and then be moved to the Custom games queue. You may join or leave a custom game at any time; that is what they are there for.

If you have been moved to the custom game queue, you can get back into the normal queue by waiting a couple days.

How to change your name?

Click the Menu button and then Edit Profile.

Names are not unique- there can be many players with the same name. If you want to be differentiated from other players, pick a memorable name.

Why does the computer play for me/why do I get logged out?

What you are experiencing is a networking issue.

These are often hard to diagnose. But try this:

Reboot your device
Reboot your router
Reboot your internet modem,

An example of why the computer might play for you: you have ~13 seconds to play a card. The server requests that you play a card, but there is a network delay, so it takes 5 seconds for the request to get to you. You select a card, but it takes 5 seconds to get back to the server. Because of these two time delays, you must make your choice within 3 seconds to be on time for the server. To the server and everybody else it looks like you took 13 seconds. But to you, it will appear that the person in front of you is slow.

Note that network delays are generally rare, but they can happen.

Are the cards random?

Yes, the cards are completely random. The deck is not stacked against any players in any way.

How do I use email accounts?

Use an email account when you want to switch devices or reinstall and still keep your stats. Your email is kept private and will not be shared with anybody else.

On the account that you want to keep stats for

Go to Menu -> Edit Profile
Use the Set email button to set your email
You can also update (or clear) your email if you change emails

If you want to switch devices, use a second device, or reinstall etc.

On your new device, go to Menu -> Edit Profile
Use the Switch Accounts button and enter your email
NOTE: You can't have two devices playing under the same account at the same time.

If you no longer want to use this device with your email

On your device, go to Menu -> Edit Profile
Use the Log Out button