Crucial conundrum

A crucial conundrum occurs when the two players are within ten points of each other before the final conundrum round. To increase the drama, the studio lights are faded before the conundrum is revealed.

A special case occurs if the contestants are on equal scores after the conundrum. This can occur if a player is trailing by ten and solves the conundrum, or if players are level before the conundrum and both fail to solve it. In this event, a second conundrum is played, although it is rare in the fifteen-round format. In the unlikely event that even a second conundrum is inadequate to separate the players, due to neither of them solving it, a third conundrum is used.