How the rating works
The number next to the ★ is an Elo rating, the same math chess uses. It measures you against the puzzles, not against a quota.
It's Elo, the chess system
Every puzzle is a match between you and the board. You start at 1500. Solve a puzzle and you take rating points from it; fail all 3 tries and it takes points from you. How many points depends on the gap between your rating and the puzzle's: beating a puzzle rated far below you earns almost nothing, while cracking one rated far above you can move you by 30 or more. Losing to an "easy" puzzle costs the most.
Each puzzle counts once
Your rating settles the first time you finish a puzzle. Solve or fail. Replaying it in the archive is practice: useful for your skills, worth nothing to your number. There is no grinding an easy puzzle back to 2000.
Where puzzle ratings come from
Right now each puzzle's rating is set by hand, from Warmup (~1200) to Brutal (2200+), following the weekly arc. Gentle Mondays, brutal Saturdays. As real solve data accumulates, puzzle ratings will recalibrate from how the field actually performs: if everyone cracks a “Brutal” first try, it was not brutal, and its rating (and everyone's gains from it) will adjust.
Gold, silver, and the three tries
You get 3 submissions, then the line is revealed and the day is locked. Some puzzles have more than one winning line. Any win counts for rating, but only the cleanest line is gold. Silver means you won and left something on the table. The timer starts with your first move, never while you read.
Streaks are separate
The 🔥 streak counts consecutive days solving the daily. It ignores rating entirely and the archive can't touch it. Rating says how well you play; the streak says you showed up.