Cells
More actions
Cells are the team mechanic — optional, but most active players join one. A cell pools its members' held phones for the purpose of cell triangles and cell territory. As of writing there are over one hundred active cells on the game; the live count is on the CELLS tab at payphonetag.com.
Forming a cell
- Any logged-in player can create a cell.
- Each cell has:
- A 4-character tag (uppercase letters/digits, e.g.
WOLF)
- A name (free text)
- A colour picked from a fixed palette; each colour is unique
across all cells, so the palette caps the number of cells visible on the cell-map view.
- Membership is small — see the cell-creation flow on the game site
for the current cap.
Roles
| Role | Can do |
|---|---|
| Handler (creator) | everything: rename, recolour, kick,
promote, disband |
| Runner | kick members |
| Member | hold phones for the cell, leave at any time |
Handlers are succession-aware: if a Handler is purged for inactivity, the longest-tenured Runner (or Member) inherits the Handler role automatically.
Cell scoring
See Game:Scoring#Cell_scoring. In short: cell holdings + cell triangles + cell territory area. A cell triangle counts when all three Delaunay vertices are held by any cell member at the moment of evaluation.
Map view
The CELLS toggle on the map (top-right of [https://payphonetag.com payphonetag.com]) switches between Individual view (everyone's emoji on their captures) and Cells view (cell-coloured rings, territory fills, perimeter borders).
Solo cells
A 1-member cell is "solo" and is excluded from the cell leaderboard and the cells map view. The intent is to encourage real teaming, not solo-flagging.