How to play

Setting up

1. The host opens Missing Link, signs in and creates a room. They choose the number of rounds (10, 20 or 50) and which packs to play.
2. Players join on their own phones: open the link, scan the QR code or type the six-letter room code, then pick a name and a colour. No account, no app.
3. With at least three players in the room, the host starts the game. The host can play along or only run the game.

A round

1. Two words appear on every screen — for example Night and Moon.
2. Everyone secretly types one word or a short phrase that links them: Star, Wolf, Campfire… You can change your answer while the round is open. Nobody sees anyone's answer yet, not even the host.
3. The host checks the answers. Spellings are grouped automatically (campfire, Camp fire and campfires count as one). The host can merge answers that mean the same thing and split ones that don't.
4. The reveal. Groups appear one by one, from the lone answers to the biggest match, with the names of who wrote them.
5. The leaderboard shows the new standings, and the next round begins.

There is no timer: the point is to think, not to rush. Players who drift off aren't waited for, and the host can end a round when most people have answered.

Scoring

You score one point for every other player who wrote the same answer as you. Match nobody and you score nothing — but you'll probably get a laugh.

Example scores for Night + ? + Moon with six players

Answer	Written by	Points each
Star	Anna, Ben, Chris	2
Campfire	Dana, Eli	1
Wolf	Fay	0

The bigger the crowd you match, the more you score — which is why it works as well with 4 friends as with 50 viewers.

Pair bonus (optional)

With the pair bonus on, an answer shared by exactly two players earns them +2 each. It rewards the “only you and I would think of that” moments: go for the obvious answer, or the one your best friend would pick?

Forbidden words

Some prompts come with a forbidden word: the answer almost everyone would give. Ocean and Iceberg? You can't write Titanic. The game refuses it while you type, and the host can bust sneaky variants during judging. Busted answers score 0 and are revealed first.

The end of the game

After the last round comes the podium, plus a few awards: the Hive Mind who matched the most, the Lone Wolf, the Soulmates who matched each other most often, the most obvious and the most chaotic round, and the Rule Breaker who got busted most. Then: play again.

Tips

• Don't be clever. The best answer is the one the most people will write.
• Think about this group: friends, coworkers and a Twitch chat all think differently.
• Short and simple beats long and precise. Star will match more people than Shooting star.

Playing on stream

Hosts who stream can turn on “I'm streaming” before creating a room. Players then show up with safe names like Sleepy Otter (the host keeps their own name), and answers stay hidden on stream until the host shows them. Add the stream screen to OBS as a browser source, and use Lock room, Kick and Drop to keep the room — and the broadcast — clean.