Metazooa

Metazooa is a daily browser game that hides one mystery animal and asks you to find it using the real tree of life. Each animal you name is placed on a branching diagram that shows how closely it is related to the target, so a wrong guess is never wasted: it tells you which part of the animal kingdom to search next. You get twenty guesses to land on the right species.

What is Metazooa?

Metazooa takes the familiar daily-guessing format and rebuilds it around biological taxonomy. Instead of letters or geography, the puzzle is a single hidden animal, and your job is to narrow it down by naming other animals. Every guess is scored by the deepest taxonomic rank it shares with the answer, moving from broad groupings like kingdom, phylum, and class down to order, family, genus, and species. The closer that shared rank, the nearer your guess sits to the target on a phylogenetic tree that grows on screen as you play.

What sets it apart from most Wordle-style spinoffs is that the feedback is a real branching diagram rather than a row of colored tiles. As you guess, Metazooa draws the actual evolutionary relationships between your animals, so you can literally see a guess snap onto the same branch as the answer or sit far away on a distant limb. That visual makes the game feel like detective work through the animal kingdom, and it quietly teaches how scientists classify life. The game bases its groupings on NCBI taxonomy, which is why a few categories may look unfamiliar, such as the absence of a single Reptilia class in favor of the broader Sauropsida grouping.

Metazooa was made by Abe Train under his studio Trainwreck Labs, which he founded in late 2022 to build daily educational games in the wake of Wordle. The game launched on July 31, 2023, and gained a large following after it spread on science Tumblr later that year. Trainwreck Labs has since built related titles, including Metaflora, a plant-focused version. There is also Metavita, a mode for creating custom Metazooa rounds and running private leagues, though that custom-creation feature sits behind a paid Trainwreck Club membership rather than the free daily puzzle. A separate free Trainwreck Labs account is optional and lets you track streaks and stats across their games.

The result is a daily puzzle that is approachable but genuinely tricky, since two animals that look alike can sit surprisingly far apart on the tree. When you finish, Metazooa produces a spoiler-free shareable summary of your run that you can post or send to friends, and a new mystery animal is set each day for every player worldwide. It tends to appeal to animal lovers, biology and nature fans, classroom users, and anyone who likes a short, brain-engaging daily ritual. The pace is calm and there is no timer, so you can take as long as you like within your twenty guesses.

How to play Metazooa

1. Open Metazooa, which sets one hidden mystery animal for the day.
2. Type any animal name as your first guess and submit it.
3. Read the feedback, which shows the deepest taxonomic rank your guess shares with the target, such as class, order, or family.
4. Watch the branching tree update so you can see where each guess sits relative to the answer.
5. Use the closest branch so far to choose your next guess from more closely related animals.
6. Keep refining until you name the correct animal, with up to twenty guesses available.

Tips and strategy

• Open with animals from very different groups, such as a mammal, a bird, an insect, and a fish, to quickly learn which broad branch the target belongs to.
• Treat the shared rank like a thermometer: a deeper match like family or genus means you are nearly there, while only sharing kingdom or phylum means keep exploring widely.
• Once a guess lands on the same order or family, stop jumping across the tree and start naming that animal's close relatives.
• Watch the tree's shape, not just the labels, because a guess that branches right next to the answer is a stronger signal than the rank text alone.
• Remember the game follows scientific taxonomy, so trust the tree over your gut: animals that look similar can be only distantly related.
• Spend your early guesses on wide coverage rather than wild specific stabs, since narrowing the branch first leaves plenty of attempts to pin down the exact species.

Good to know

Creator

Abe Train (Trainwreck Labs)

Launched

July 31, 2023

Resets

Daily, new animal for all players

Guesses

20 per puzzle

Cost

Free daily puzzle, no sign-in required

Related games

Metaflora (plants); Metavita custom rounds (paid Trainwreck Club)

Metazooa FAQ

Is Metazooa free?

Yes. The daily Metazooa puzzle is free to play and does not require a sign-in. A free Trainwreck Labs account is optional and lets you track your streaks and stats. Creating custom rounds through Metavita is a separate feature that requires a paid Trainwreck Club membership.

How many guesses do you get in Metazooa?

You get twenty guesses to identify the daily mystery animal. Each wrong guess still helps by showing how closely it is related to the target on the tree.

When does Metazooa reset?

A new mystery animal is set once per day at a fixed global time, so every player worldwide gets the same puzzle each day. Once you finish, you wait until the next daily reset for a fresh animal.

Is Metazooa an animal guessing game?

Yes. Metazooa is a daily animal guessing game: you try to name a hidden mystery animal, and each guess is placed on the tree of life to show how closely it is related to the answer. It is the animal-kingdom take on the Wordle-style daily puzzle.

What is the animal tree guessing game called?

The animal tree guessing game people usually mean is Metazooa. Instead of colored tiles, it draws a phylogenetic tree, the branching diagram of how animals are related, so you can see each guess snap onto the same branch as the target or sit far away across the animal kingdom.

Is Metazooa related to Wordle?

It shares Wordle's daily single-puzzle format but plays very differently. Instead of guessing a word, you identify a hidden animal, and feedback comes as a branching tree of taxonomic relationships rather than colored letter tiles.

Who made Metazooa?

Metazooa was made by Abe Train under his studio Trainwreck Labs, founded in late 2022. The studio also makes the plant game Metaflora, and offers Metavita custom rounds for paid Trainwreck Club members.