Endless Europe Capital Quiz

Europe capital citys back to back with no daily limit, dealt from a shuffled bag.

The densest pack: 45 countries in the smallest area of any region here, including most of the world's micro-states. Outlines come small and detailed rather than large and smooth, so the shape round rewards knowing coastlines.

The Balkans carry this pack. Half a dozen countries of similar size and similar shape sharing a peninsula, several of which changed borders within living memory.

The pool is the 45 countries of Europe. Only five of the capitals carry their own territory's name in some form, which makes those the free points; the rest are the round. The seats of government run from Reykjavík in the far north to Valletta in the far south, and because the hint after a wrong guess reports a compass direction, latitude is the axis you can triangulate on fastest.

One capital city name. Name the country it governs. Cities that share a name with their country are free points; the rest reward knowing your Central Asia from your Caucasus. You get 6 guesses. Every wrong one returns the great-circle distance to the target, a compass direction pointing at it and a proximity percentage, so a cold start is recoverable, two well-spaced wrong guesses will usually bracket the answer.

Endless mode drops the once-a-day limit and deals continuously. It draws from a shuffled bag rather than picking at random, which matters more than it sounds: random sampling would hand you the same handful of easy capital citys repeatedly while never showing you others at all, whereas a bag guarantees you meet every one of the 45 answers before any repeats. That makes this the mode to drill in, the fastest way to turn the half of the pool you're guessing at into the half you know. Full rules, including how the distance and compass hints are calculated, are on the how-to-play page, and today's single scheduled puzzle is on the daily board.