TL;DR
- Each Halfsies daily has one rival, the Outlaw of the Day. He is the same for every player, with the same posted number, in the same cut.
- He hides in the hardest of the day's three cuts, and his number is set by how hard that mode is: around 89 on the hardest, around 93 on the easiest.
- You catch him by matching or beating that number on that one cut. Ties go to the player, and only the first run of the day counts.
- A catch fills a slot on a weekly Wanted Poster. It does not change the score, the streak or the leaderboard.
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. Today its guides page put up an explainer on the Outlaw of the Day, the rival who shows up in one of those three cuts. The game has no live opponents, so the rival is a number posted before you play.
One outlaw for the whole world
A daily game already gives everyone the same puzzle. The outlaw gives everyone the same opponent too. Each day one named outlaw rides in, and he is the same for every player, with the same number, in the same cut. The day's screen reads something like "WANTED: Snake-Eye Sal. He hides in cut 2 and cut it 91.2%."
That number is scored the way every Halfsies cut is scored: the lighter half divided by the heavier half, times 100. Two friends who played today had the same man to beat and the same number to beat him by, so they can compare notes without a leaderboard.
He takes the hardest cut
Every mode in the game has a forgiveness rating, and the outlaw takes the round with the lowest one. If two rounds tie, he takes the later one. On a day with Steady Hand, Tornado and Blindfold, he is in the Blindfold round. The guide ranks the hideouts: Tomahawk is the toughest, then Blindfold, Quick Draw, High Noon and Sawmill. Steady Hand and Freehand are among the easiest.
That puts the day's extra goal on the round where most people lose points, and it tells you before you start which cut deserves your full attention.
A number you can beat
His number follows the hideout. On the hardest modes he cuts around 89. On Steady Hand he cuts around 93. A swing of up to 2.5 points either way is added each day, so the number can't be memorized. From Monday to Saturday that works out to about 86 to 92 on a hard mode and about 91 to 96 on an easy one.
He never cuts a perfect 100, so there is always room above him. The comparison is made at one decimal place and a tie goes to the player. If he cut 91.2 and you cut 91.2, he is caught.
First run only
Only the first daily run counts. On a replay he still shows up and you can still try to beat him, but the poster keeps the first result. He does not appear in Archive practice runs, bounties or trick shots. Without that rule, a catch would only show that someone kept replaying until they got one.
A week on a poster, and nothing else
A catch marks the day CAUGHT on the Wanted Poster, a seven-slot card for Monday to Sunday that shows after the run with a count such as "WANTED POSTER 3/7 this week". A missed day reads GOT AWAY. Tomorrow's slot is a question mark, and a new poster starts every Monday.
Sunday is harder. A gang boss rides in with a number about 4 points higher than a regular outlaw would post in the same mode, capped at 99.6. There are two bosses, El Jefe Montoya and Ray-Ray the Undertaker, and they alternate weeks. A perfect week is 7/7 and has to include the boss.
The poster is a record and nothing more. A catch does not change your score, your streak or your place on the leaderboard, and it does not unlock hats or badges. The score out of 300 stays the only thing the boards rank, and the outlaw is a second, smaller game played on one cut.
The other guide that went up today is about halves in the kitchen. Half of 3/4 cup is 6 tablespoons, and half of one beaten egg is 1 1/2 tablespoons.
The Halfsies ad diary #14 has the rest of the day, including the ad account, which spent nothing again. Diary #13 covers the leaderboards that a catch leaves alone.
The outlaw guide is on The Ledger, and the game is at halfsies.jejestudios.com.