TL;DR
- The Halfsies daily gives you one run that counts. Bounties are three fixed contracts of three cuts each that never touch your daily score, streak or the leaderboard.
- The goals are 240, 240 and 255 out of 300. That is 80 a cut for the first two and 85 a cut for the third.
- An 80 is a cut of about 44.4% to 55.6%. An 85 is about 45.9% to 54.1%.
- The contracts use the same three hats every time, so a miss tells you which way to move the next cut.
Halfsies is my daily cutting game. You get three hand-drawn objects a day and one cut each, a scale weighs the two sides, and you get a score out of 300. Your first run of the day is the one that goes on the leaderboard. Today the game's guides page explained the board that sits next to the daily, where nothing counts.
One run that counts
A daily game with one scored run has a practice problem. If the only cut that teaches you anything is also the cut that goes on the board, you get three tries a day at a skill and each one has a price. Halfsies does allow a replay of today and has an archive of past days, and neither goes on the leaderboard. Those still hand you the day's objects, so you cannot pick what to work on.
Bounties are the part of the game built for repetition. The board holds three fixed contracts. Each one is three cuts with a target score, and you can play each as often as you like. A bounty run does not change your daily score, your streak or the leaderboard, and it does not earn hats, frames or badges. Only your best score per contract is saved, on your device.
The three contracts
| Bounty | Goal | Cut 1 | Cut 2 | Cut 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hat Trick | 240 | Steady Hand | Steady Hand | Steady Hand |
| On the Run | 240 | Runaway | Tornado | High Noon |
| Outlaw Draw | 255 | Freehand | Two Bullets | Quick Draw |
Hat Trick is three hats with no timer and nothing moving. On the Run uses objects that will not hold still: one runs, one spins like a dust devil, and one gives you a single tap as a sight line sweeps across it. Outlaw Draw asks for a freehand cut, a cut through two bullet holes and a cut with 5 seconds on the clock.
What 240 asks of a cut
Each cut scores the lighter half divided by the heavier half, times 100. A goal of 240 over three cuts is an average of 80. To score 80, the lighter piece has to weigh 80% of the heavier one, which is a split of about 44.4% to 55.6%.
Outlaw Draw wants 255, an average of 85. That is a split of about 45.9% to 54.1%. The gap between the two goals is a point and a half of the object on each side of the blade.
Today's other guide, on how much turkey to buy per person, says that when people cut something in half by eye the "half" they hand over is often 45% or 55%. A 45 to 55 cut scores about 82. So an ordinary by-eye half clears the Hat Trick average with two points to spare and misses the Outlaw Draw average by three.
Why the hats never change
The contracts do not rotate. The same three hats, The Gambler, the Raspberry Beret and the Toad Hat, open Hat Trick every time, and hats come back in the other two contracts. A hat is a wide brim under a tall crown, and weight in the game follows the drawn area, so the middle of the picture is rarely the middle of the weight.
A fixed object turns a miss into information. If the scale says the brim side was heavy, you move the next cut toward the brim and see what the scale says then. On a daily object you get one cut and the object is gone tomorrow. The guide's advice follows from that: clear Hat Trick first, with no clock, and learn where each hat balances before the moving contracts ask you to hit the same spot in a hurry.
The practice carries back. Runaway, Tornado, Two Bullets and Quick Draw all turn up in daily runs, so the first time you meet a spinning object does not have to be on a run that counts.
The Halfsies ad diary #16 has the rest of the day, including the ad account, which spent nothing again. Diary #14 covers the Outlaw of the Day, who does not show up in bounties, and diary #11 covers the bonus rounds.
The Bounties guide is on The Ledger, and the game is at halfsies.jejestudios.com.