Plain #3 recap for Tuesday, October 20, 2026

We checked the official archive for Plain #3 on 2026-10-25, after New York midnight had closed that puzzle. The mix flips: two direct estimates and five name rounds. One archive row disagrees with the published tier table. The day used 5 “name the closest thing” rounds and 2 “estimate the number” rounds. That mix is not fixed. Do not assume every day is five names and two numbers.

Original night-flight illustration of a plane climbing past a city, used as a section break — Original illustration. Not a screenshot of playplain.app.

What the day asked

This is a category overview, not a copy of the official answer list. Open the official Plain #3 answers for all seven prompts, targets and solutions. Below we discuss only three selected examples in our own words.

Plain #3, checked 2026-10-25
Category	Round type
Sport by Numbers	Estimate a number
Busiest Airports	Name the closest thing
Calories Burned	Name the closest thing
Books & Words	Estimate a number
Fruit & Veg Weight	Name the closest thing
Distance from Berlin	Name the closest thing
GDP per Person	Name the closest thing

Why those results sit where they do

Sport by Numbers. A direct estimate. The archive prints the value, not a named tier. Source credited by the official archive: assets.fiba.basketball.
Busiest Airports. Shown as Dialed with 97 points. The published tier table puts Dialed at 98–100. We kept the archive figure and did not 'fix' it. Source credited by the official archive: en.wikipedia.org.
Calories Burned. A household activity, not a sport. The rate is per hour. Source credited by the official archive: pacompendium.com.

The ratio rule is points = round(100 × e^(−2 × |ln(answer ÷ target)|)), with a +25 Dialed bonus and doubled Golden Round. Years are the exception: the official rules say up to 3 years off is Close, and only the exact year is Dialed. We do not infer unpublished year point values or a player's final altitude from the archive.

Keep going

Five colored scoring chips from chartreuse to pink on a dark panel — Dialed, Close, Warm, Cold, and Miss use the same colors as the scoring guide.

Questions this page answers

Is Plain #3 still playable for a score?

No. The official FAQ says past puzzles cannot be replayed for a score. This page is a recap of the published archive, not a second chance at the leaderboard.

Where did these figures come from?

The selected examples were checked against https://playplain.app/archive/3 on 2026-10-25. Open that official page for the full answer list.