The stick rating, explained
How does Stick League rate a stick?
Short version: an AI judge looks at your photo and decides how remarkable the stick is. That nudges the odds of a high rarity, then the card is rolled like a pack opening. A great stick usually does well. Nothing is guaranteed.
1. The photo goes to the judges
When you scan, the app sends the photo to Stick League's server, which asks an image-understanding model to judge it. The model is told to act as a dry, deadpan stick critic.
The judge first checks there is a stick in the picture at all. Sticks, branches, twigs, driftwood and roots count. A cat, a spoon or a selfie gets a polite refusal and no card.
If it is a stick, the judge writes everything you see on the card:
- A name based on what the stick looks like, such as “Forest Fork” or “Snake in Denial”.
- Species, a best guess from the bark, colour and shape. Often right for common trees, sometimes “Unknown Hardwood”. A photo is not a botanist.
- Kind: walking stick, wand, driftwood, branch, root, twig, staff, club, forked stick, sword stick or hammer.
- The review: one deadpan sentence about this particular stick, plus a line of invented lore.
- Natty or Modded: natural sticks are Natty; carved, painted or sanded ones are Modded.
- Four stats from 1 to 20: power, aura, flex and age.
- Quality, a hidden 1 to 100 judgement of how remarkable the stick is: unusual shape, curves, colour, size and character.
2. Quality nudges the odds, then rarity is rolled
This is the part most rating apps do not tell you. The rarity is not a straight reading of the photo. It is a weighted roll, and quality is the weight.
| Tier | Score | Ordinary stick | Remarkable stick |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legendary | 95–100 | 0.4% | 3.9% |
| Epic | 81–94 | 3% | 13% |
| Rare | 61–80 | 10% | 28% |
| Uncommon | 31–60 | 30% | 30% |
| Common | 5–30 | 56.6% | 25.1% |
“Ordinary” is the lowest quality judgement, “remarkable” the highest. Most sticks land in between. Figures are from the app's scoring code as of version 1.0.
So a truly remarkable stick is about ten times more likely to be Legendary than a plain one, and roughly twice as likely to be Rare or better. But a plain stick can still roll Legendary, and a beauty can still come back Common.
We think that is more fun than a fixed formula, and it means you cannot game the score by photographing the same stick from a better angle. It also means the score is entertainment, not an appraisal. No one should sell a stick on the strength of it.
3. The score lands inside the tier
Once the tier is set, the score out of 100 is picked within that tier's range. About half of it is quality and half is chance, so better sticks sit higher in their band.
4. XP, levels and badges
Pro members earn XP for every card (roughly double the score, plus a little extra), for hunts, battles and invites. XP counts for your country and moves you up ten levels.
| Level | Title | XP needed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Twig | 0 |
| 2 | Sprout | 150 |
| 3 | Branch | 400 |
| 4 | Bough | 800 |
| 5 | Trunk | 1,400 |
| 6 | Elder | 2,200 |
| 7 | Ancient | 3,300 |
| 8 | Stick Lord | 5,000 |
| 9 | Forest Judge | 7,500 |
| 10 | Legend of the League | 11,000 |
First StickScanned your first stick
Rare FinderFound a Rare or better
CollectorTen sticks in the collection
Streak MasterSeven days in a row
RecruiterBrought three friends in
Stick of the MonthWon a monthly vote
Founding StickheadWent Pro in the founding month
Battle wins earn 40 XP and losses 10. Bringing a friend in gives you 100 XP and them 50. Winning Stick of the Month is worth 500 XP. Daily quests (scan a stick, post a card, vote, win a battle) add a little more.
5. Free cards vanish, kept cards stay
Free players get one scan a day and the card lasts 24 hours, long enough to share. Pro keeps every card, which is also what lets a card enter hunts, battles and Stick of the Month.
Now go and test the judges.
Snap any stick and the judges rate it out of 100 in a few seconds. Your first scan every day is free.
