Knockout Trivia Rules: How to Play

Each player needs a phone, tablet or computer with a browser. Nothing to download.

You need at least two boxers to start. Bots count, so you can play with one friend, a full room, or on your own against bots.

A TV or laptop is optional. It shows the question large, the ring and every duel for the whole room.

The host opens a room and everyone joins with the room code or the invite link. If the host is alone, a bot steps in so there is someone to fight. The host can add more bots in the lobby and set each one to easy, medium or hard.

Before the first bell the host picks three things:

• Questions: any mix of the packs, or Everything. The packs are General, Movies, Music, Science and nature, Geography, History, Food, Sport, Video games and Kids, with 200+ questions in each. General is on to start.
• Duels: mini games, chance games, or both. Mini games are 20-second versions of the arcade and puzzle games on the site. Chance games are quick games of luck that exist only as duels, such as Rock Paper Scissors and High Roll. Both is the default.
• Read aloud: off, the question, or the question and its answers, read out as each question goes up. If a TV is watching, the TV reads; if not, every phone reads to its own player. The clock runs as normal while it reads. Off is the default.

When the host rings the bell, everyone on the game screen starts in the ring, bots included. Each boxer is dealt a character at random.

The game has two questions for every player who started, bots included. Four players means eight questions, then the final bell. Players who join later do not add questions.

Questions anyone in the room has seen lately are held back until the packs you picked run out. With several packs on, the packs take turns.

1. The question is announced (about 2.5 seconds).
2. The question and its four answers appear. Everyone answers, in the ring and on the bench. You have 15 seconds, and your first tap is your answer. The question closes early once everyone still in the room has answered.
3. The reveal (about 3.5 seconds). The right answer lights up, and the ring and the bench each sort into order.
4. Bonus dice, if anyone earned a roll (about 4 seconds).
5. If a duel is due, the versus screen (8 seconds) shows the ring and the bench in order, who was right and who was wrong, with the two who fight picked out; then the two boxers and why each of them is in it; and draws the game: a light runs round every duel in the draw and stops on the one drawn.
6. The first time a mini game is drawn in a game, its how-it-works slideshow plays before the bell, on every screen. Each boxer taps Got it when they have seen enough; the bell goes when both have, or after 40 seconds. A chance game, or a mini game already played, goes straight to the bell.
7. The duel: a 3-second countdown, then 20 seconds of the game drawn.
8. The knockout: any dodges play out, the punch lands, and the boxer who went down walks to the bench (or swaps places with the winner).
9. On to the next question.

After every question the ring and the bench each line up, best first. The order is:

• Right answers first, the fastest at the top.
• Then wrong answers, the fastest first.
• Then anyone who did not answer.
• Two boxers who are exactly level keep the order they were already in.

If everyone in the ring is right, there is no duel. If anyone in the ring is wrong (or did not answer), someone has to fight, and the bench gets the first chance:

• Redemption: if anyone on the bench got it right, the fastest right answer on the bench fights the bottom of the ring. If the bench boxer wins, the two swap places: the bench boxer goes into the ring and the loser takes their seat on the bench.
• Ring fight: if nobody on the bench got it right (or the bench is empty), the bottom two of the ring fight each other. The loser goes to the bench.
• A boxer alone in the ring who is wrong only fights if someone on the bench was right. With nobody to challenge them, they keep the ring.

Each duel is a 20-second game drawn at random from the duels the host turned on. The same game is never drawn twice in a row, unless it is the only one in the draw. In a duel, you use that game's own controls.

Whoever wins the game wins the duel. If the duel ends level, or no result comes in about 12 seconds after the clock, the duel goes to the boxer who did better on the question that caused it: right before wrong, then the faster answer. If they are still exactly tied, the boxer higher up the ring wins and keeps their place.

Winning a duel also earns a streak point (see below). It is paid after the knockout, so it never changes the duel it was won in.

Every right answer adds a point to your streak, in the ring or on the bench. Three points turn into a dodge right away, so your streak is always 0, 1 or 2. A wrong answer or no answer resets your streak to zero. Dodges you already have are kept.

Your streak and dodges show only on your own phone. Nobody knows what you are holding until you use one.

Dodges play by themselves when you lose a duel. If you are due to go down and you hold a dodge, you slip the punch and the other boxer goes down instead. If they hold a dodge too, they slip it back. This goes back and forth, one dodge at a time, until the boxer due to go down has none left. Every dodge used is spent.

There are two chances to roll, checked separately after every question:

• Everyone in the ring got it right, and there are at least two of them.
• Everyone on the bench who is still in the room got it right, and there are at least two of them.

Each boxer on a side that earned it rolls one die. A boxer alone on a side never rolls.

• 1, 2 or 3: nothing.
• 4: one streak point.
• 5: two streak points.
• 6: a dodge.
• Streak points from a roll count toward a dodge the same as right answers.

When the scheduled questions are done, the final bell rings. Until then, a boxer left alone in the ring has to defend it on every question.

After the bell, the bench is done. There is no more redemption, and every question ends in a duel between the bottom two of the ring, even if both were right. The loser goes to the bench. This goes on until one boxer is left in the ring.

If only one boxer is in the ring when the bell rings, they are not champion yet. If anyone on the bench got the last question right, the fastest of them gets one title fight for the belt. If the bench boxer wins, they swap places and the bench boxer is champion.

There is no title fight if nobody on the bench was right, or if the last question already ended in a duel. Then the boxer in the ring is champion.

The last boxer standing in the ring after the final bell is the champion.

At the end there are awards for the longest run of right answers, the most punches dodged, the most duels won, the fastest right answer, and the most questions answered from inside the ring. An award nobody earned is not given, and boxers who are level share it.

• Time running out: no answer counts as wrong, and it sorts below every wrong answer. An answer already on its way gets half a second of grace after the clock.
• Answer times are counted from when the question opens, and no answer counts as faster than 0.3 seconds.
• Leaving during a question: a boxer in the ring who has left the room and missed the question goes to the bench without a fight.
• The whole ring leaving: the best boxer on the bench who is still in the room takes the ring unopposed.
• Leaving during a duel: a boxer who drops out of a duel loses it.
• The host leaving during a duel: another device takes over, and the same two boxers fight a new duel drawn at random.
• Late joiners: someone who joins after the first bell starts on the bench with the next character. They answer every question and can fight their way into the ring.
• The bench cannot win by itself before the final bell. It only fights when someone in the ring is wrong.
• Someone on the bench who has left the room cannot be picked to fight, does not roll, and does not stop the rest of the bench from rolling.

Bots answer questions and fight duels like anyone else. A bot answers between about 2 and 8.5 seconds after the question opens, so it never beats you to every question.

Each bot knows one subject well and one badly, and its card in the room says which. An easy bot is right a little under half the time, a medium bot a bit more than half, and a hard bot about three times in four. On its strong subject it does better, and on its weak one worse.

In a duel, a bot plays as that game's own bot.

• Solo: start a room and play against bots. A bot joins automatically if you are alone, and you can add up to three.
• With friends anywhere: share the room code or invite link. Everyone answers and duels on their own phone.
• As a party: put joinme.games/watch on a TV and enter the room code. The TV shows the question large, the ring, each duel and the knockouts, and everyone plays on their phones.

• Questions: tap one of the four answers. Your first tap is your answer.
• Duels: use the controls of the game drawn.
• Your streak and dodges show on your own phone only.

How do you play Knockout Trivia?

Everyone answers the same four-choice question in 15 seconds. When someone in the ring is wrong, there is a 20-second duel at a mini game or a chance game. Lose and you go to the bench, where you keep answering and can win your way back in. After the final bell, the bottom two fight after every question until one boxer is left.

How many players do you need for Knockout Trivia?

Two or more. Bots count, so one person can play against bots, and a room can add up to three of them.

Can you play Knockout Trivia alone?

Yes. Start a room and a bot joins so there is someone to fight. Add more bots for a bigger ring.

How do you win Knockout Trivia?

Be the last boxer in the ring after the final bell. If you are alone in the ring when the bell rings, you may still have to win one title fight against the fastest right answer on the bench.

What is a dodge in Knockout Trivia?

Three right answers in a row earn a dodge, and only you can see it. If you lose a duel while holding one, you slip the punch and the other boxer goes down instead, unless they have a dodge to slip it back.

How long does a game of Knockout Trivia take?

There are two questions for every player who started, then the final bell, then one question per boxer still to be knocked out. A question with its duel takes about a minute.