Mode finder
| If you want to practise… | Start with | Then try |
|---|---|---|
| Recalling every country from memory | Type Countries | Click the Country |
| Country and capital pairs | Type Capitals | Country + Capital |
| Finding countries on a map | Click the Country | Click Then Name |
| Flags | Name the Flag | Click the Flag |
| Country shapes | Guess Outline | Random: Name It |
| Land neighbours and routes | Border Blitz | Border Chain |
Recall modes
1. Type Countries
An empty political map is the prompt. Enter country names in any order; each accepted answer fills its map shape. World mode contains the complete 197-entry GeoBlitz roster, while regional filters create smaller practice sets. Use an untimed first attempt to find genuine gaps, then review only the countries you missed.
2. Type Capitals
Enter capital cities rather than country names. An accepted capital reveals its country, so the map provides location feedback after retrieval. GeoBlitz accepts documented alternatives for countries with multiple relevant capitals or commonly used former forms; the displayed answer remains the current teaching answer in the game dataset.
3. Country + Capital
Enter a pair such as France, Paris. Both parts must refer to the same record; naming a valid country with another country’s capital does not score. This mode is useful after separate country and capital practice because it checks whether the two facts have actually been linked.
Self-directed map modes
4. Click Then Name
Select a country shape yourself and then type its name. Because you control the order, this works well for clearing one geographic cluster at a time—for example, the Baltic states, Central America or the Pacific island markers. A wrong answer leaves the target unresolved so you can try again or move on according to the chosen skip setting.
5. Click → Name + Capital
Select a map shape, then enter its country and capital as a pair. This combines spatial recognition with paired recall. It is intentionally harder than Type Capitals because the map location must first trigger the country identity before the capital can be retrieved.
Random prompt modes
6. Random: Name It
The game chooses a country from the active region and highlights it. Type the country name, then continue to the next prompt. Auto-zoom can be switched off if you want to keep more surrounding map context visible.
7. Random: Name + Capital
A highlighted country must be answered with a matching country–capital pair. This uses the same pair validation as mode 3, but removes control over the order of prompts. Regional practice is the sensible starting point before attempting all 197 entries.
8. Random: Capital Only
A country is highlighted and only its capital is required. This separates capital recall from spelling the country name, while retaining the location cue. Compare it with Type Capitals: the same knowledge is tested in the opposite prompt order.
Prompt-and-click modes
9. Click the Country
A country name appears and you must select its shape on the map. This checks location rather than free recall. Region filters make dense areas easier to study, and the country-name display option can be hidden to prevent labels from giving away the answer.
10. Click by Capital
A capital city appears and you click the country it belongs to. The task has two steps: retrieve the country from the capital, then locate that country. If errors cluster in one step, practise Type Capitals or Click the Country separately before returning.
11. Click the Flag
A national flag is shown and the answer must be selected on the map. This combines flag recognition with location knowledge, so a miss does not by itself reveal which half of the task failed. Use Name the Flag first when you need a pure flag diagnostic.
Visual recognition modes
12. Name the Flag
A flag appears and you type its country name. Regional filters are especially useful for separating similar colour patterns and symbols. Flags are loaded from the open-source flag-icons project, as documented in the methodology.
13. Guess Outline
An isolated silhouette is drawn from the same bundled geometry as the main map. It keeps the country’s orientation but removes neighbours and labels. Very small entries use the game’s visibility handling rather than pretending that every microstate has a meaningful world-scale outline.
Border modes
14. Border Chain
Two countries are selected and you build a route through countries that share listed land borders. A breadth-first search calculates a shortest route for comparison after the puzzle. Sea crossings do not count, and island countries therefore cannot be intermediate steps. Difficulty changes the number of puzzles in a round and the countdown allocation; it does not change which border pairs are true.
15. Border Blitz
One country is highlighted and every listed overland neighbour must be named or clicked. Difficulty changes the number of rounds and the available countdown time. The neighbour list uses the game’s fixed border dataset, so disputed or unusual connections follow the published GeoBlitz rule rather than changing between sessions.
What the settings actually change
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Region | Changes the active country set. Russia and Türkiye appear in both Europe and Asia regional practice, but once each in the world roster. |
| Timer | Count Down gives a fixed allocation, Count Up measures completion time, and Off removes time pressure. |
| Difficulty | Changes the standard countdown allocation. Border Chain and Border Blitz also use it to change round counts and their mode-specific time limits. |
| Lives | An independent setting: choose three, five or unlimited attempts. Difficulty does not silently change this choice. |
| Skip | Controls whether a skipped prompt is counted wrong immediately or returned to later. |
| Country names | Shows or hides labels on the map. |
| Auto-zoom | Controls whether prompted countries are framed automatically. |
Answers, scores and privacy
Country matching ignores case, punctuation and most Latin-script diacritics, and the dataset contains selected unambiguous aliases. Personal-best records are stored in the browser with local storage. GeoBlitz also uses consent-aware analytics to measure aggregate page and gameplay events such as mode, region and result; it does not create a public player profile. The complete disclosure and available controls are in the privacy policy.