Snook Ladder

The Ladder is Snook’s competitive arena for Snook players who are skilled enough. It is also the main driver of the Snook economy, and the source of the Special Skins utility.

The Ladder is about individual ranking (score) within a given season that top players etch out by playing strategically (and being freakin’ killing machines). We’ll get into the weaves in a second. In the meantime, here’s the gist.

• The Ladder is a score/ranking game accrued over a 4-week season.

• Scoring is differential and is based on various game events and achievements. These include participation, killing other snooks, winning a match, etc.

• There’s no Trait drops when killing other snooks in Ladder matches.

• There’s no PPK rewards when killing other snooks in Ladder matches.

• There’s no limit on the number of games you can play. So, to climb the Ladder ranking, players need to play as many games as possible.

• To qualify for playing in the Ladder, players need to have at least one Special Skin.

• Games are played in dedicated arenas, only on Saturday and Sunday, and the season lasts 4 consecutive weekends. After/before each season, there's a two-week hiatus - to recover and restock for the next season.

Environment and setup

• Shrinking arena

• 8-15 Snookers

• Once the match starts, other Snookers can’t join in.

• Matches are time-capped.

• No PPK rewards

• No Trait drops

• No extraction option or Vault

Ladder calendar

As mentioned above, a Ladder season has 4 weekly cycles. Given the name… Ladder…we went with the uninspiring “Steps” for the first three cycles, and named the last week of the season, “End of Season Rush”. The Ladder arenas open on Saturday (00:00 UTC) and close on Sunday (24:00 UTC). The time between seasons and between weekends during the season is used mostly to stock-up with Special Skins and Traits.

Scoring points

The Ladder is all about score and individual ranking. At the end of each match the Snooker gets the following report:

Each achievement is assigned a score:

• Snooking - You get one point for participation (because as many divorced parents learn, sometimes just showing up is worth a point). To that single point we add bonus points. Wait for it…

• Bonus Points - They are your snook’s Special Skin Star ranking

• kill(s) - Each kill is worth a set number of points. Currently it is 2. Those are multiplied by the multiplier, which is, in this case, 2, and which we will now explain as well.

• Multiplier - The multiplier measures the rarity of a Special Skin out of all the Special skins in circulation (aggregated across all chains). A distribution function assigns the values.

This feature is a key part of the economy and should get more respect than a secondary bullet-point under a sub-sub section of Gameplay. We will shine a brighter light on it further down in Economy and Gameplay.

• Position - Additional points provided based on match ranking:

  • 1st place = 10pts

  • 2nd place = 7pts

  • 3rd place = 4pts

Prizes

The prize pool is derived from the Mint/Resurrection-fee allocations (more about that below in the Economy and Gameplay). Prizes are awarded to (up to) the top 100 Snookers on the Leaderboard after the season ends.

Eligible Snookers are divided into two groups with the top three places taking the lion share of the prize pool and the rest differentially distributed, in tiers, among the rest of the players.