Speed bonus

What the speed bonus is

The speed bonus is the part of a Speed Survivor score that rewards answering quickly. When you answer a question correctly, you receive base points plus a speed bonus. The bonus is largest when you answer right away and shrinks as the question's window runs down. A wrong answer earns no bonus at all, however fast it was.

It is the reason the game is called Speed Survivor. Knowing the answer is necessary; committing to it before the rest of the field is what moves you up.

An example

A hypothetical question asks whether the offense runs on the next play. The formation shows two tight ends and a fullback, and one player reads it and answers yes immediately. Another waits for the snap count and answers yes near the end of the window. The play is a run up the middle. Both are right, both get base points, but the first earns the bigger speed bonus and finishes the round ahead.

The trade-off

The bonus creates a real decision on every question. Answer early and you earn more if you are right, but you commit with less information. Wait and you see more of the situation, but the reward shrinks. Neither is always correct, and managing that trade-off across twelve questions is much of the skill in the game.

In Speed Survivor

Close contests are often decided by the bonus. On Lions at Bills on September 17, 2026, the top two finished three points apart, 2,263 to 2,260. Speed also counts toward surviving each cut, since the bottom of the field by total points is removed. How it works covers scoring in full.