How to play Halve, the daily game where you cut a country in two

Each day, everyone gets the same country. You play three rounds on it, and in each one you draw a single straight line across the map. The goal is always 50/50, but what you split changes:

• Round 1, area: both sides should cover the same amount of land.
• Round 2, population: both sides should hold the same number of people.
• Round 3, the wildcard: a layer of the day, such as the country's grasslands, its wetlands or the range of a well-known animal. Some days you halve that layer; other days you sort two landscapes apart, say cropland on one side and bare desert on the other.

You get one cut per round, with no undo, and a full day takes a minute or two.

A new country arrives at 01:00 Paris time, together with every other Letsdle game. If your page is still open from the night before, a quarter-hour of grace lets you send that last cut; then the old day closes. Each puzzle has an edition number, so you can talk about « Halve #18 » without naming the country.

To cut, press anywhere on the map and drag. The line is infinite, so only its position and angle matter, and two handles let you fine-tune it before you confirm. On a keyboard, Tab reaches a handle, the arrows move it (Shift goes faster) and [ and ] rotate the line. The direction is yours in all three rounds; no bearing is imposed. While you aim, the game shows the line and nothing else: no live percentage, no hint.

After each cut you see your split, your points and a chalk line marking the perfect cut at your angle. The population dots appear once round 2 is cut. Round 3's layer is named when the round starts, but only drawn after you cut.

Each round is worth up to 100 points, so a day is out of 300. The split is measured to one decimal, and the formula is 100 minus 4 times your distance from 50%, rounded, never below zero. A 46/54 cut is 4 points off and earns 84; 25 points off or worse earns nothing. Within half a point of the target, the cut is marked Perfect.

Round 3 adds two twists. Some layers are so clumped that no straight line can halve them; the target then becomes the best split one line can reach, and hitting it is worth 100. On sorting days, your score is the average of two shares: how much of layer A lands on its side and how much of layer B lands on the other. You lose 4 points for every point you fall short of the best a single line can do.

Each cut also gets a word: « Missed » below 40, « Fair » from 40, « Good cut » from 80, « Perfect » within half a point. The day is graded on 300: « Rough day » below 120, « Fair day » from 120, « Good day » from 240, and « Perfect day » only when all three cuts are perfect.

Picture a long, narrow coastal country. In round 1 you cut across its middle and get 47.3 / 52.7: 2.7 points off, so 100 − 10.8 = 89.2, rounded to 89, a « Good cut ».

In round 2 you keep a similar line, forgetting that the capital sits near one end: 41.0 / 59.0, 9 points off, worth 64, « Fair ». Round 3 asks you to separate forests from cropland. The best possible line sorts 92.4%, yours sorts 88.1%, 4.3 short, worth 83. Total: 236, a « Fair day », 4 points under « Good day ».

At any angle there is exactly one line that splits the area 50/50, so the real decision is the angle. Choose one that forgives small mistakes:

• Cut across an elongated country, not along it. A short line sliding over a narrow strip moves little land, so an aiming error costs little. A long line along the country swings a lot of area with every millimetre.
• Weigh the far-flung pieces. Islands and exclaves count for their land in round 1 and their people in round 2: a scatter of small islands adds little area, but one crowded island can tip the population round.
• Think in cities for round 2. A dominant capital can hold a big share of the people, while deserts and mountains weigh almost nothing. The best population cut often runs close to, or straight through, the largest city.
• Read the round 3 theme as a clue. Forests, wetlands, farmland and deserts follow rainfall, rivers and relief. On sorting days, lay your line along the boundary between the two landscapes, not across it.
• Study the chalk line. It shows where you should have been at your own angle, and a few days of it train your eye fast.

Outlines come from Natural Earth. The pool holds every country it draws with at least 1,000 km² and 1,000 inhabitants, plus small sovereign states that stay readable on screen: 199 in all. Since November 2026 the calendar runs in full cycles where each country appears once and 40 large ones twice, and no country returns within 60 days.

Population comes from the European Commission's GHSL 2025 grid, land cover from ESA WorldCover 2021 and animal sightings from GBIF, each condensed into weighted points so every split is computed precisely.

Halve USA, at halve.letsdle.com/usa, plays the same three rounds with the same scoring on one US state a day. The 50 states come round in 50-day cycles, once each; Washington, D.C. and the territories are left out, and state outlines exclude the Great Lakes and the sea. Its wildcard round uses land cover or a chain's locations, such as its gas stations or restaurants. It has its own editions, streak and stats, and the World and USA tabs switch between the two puzzles.

Once enough people have cut a round, you see where the others drew their line; from ten finished players, you get a percentile. The Archives page replays the past seven days without touching your streak or stats.