> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.ogrealm.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.ogrealm.com/physics/difficulty.md).
# Difficulty
## Proof of Work
The concept of Difficulty is derived from traditional applications of Proof-of-Work.
Early during any process, minimal inputs are required to complete a particular task. As participation increases, so does the difficulty — the required amount of total input. The effect rewards the early and taxes the late.
## The One Law
Every Game of the Realm obeys the same difficulty curve, applied to its fees. [OG Mine](/games/og-mine.md), [OG Reserve](/games/og-reserve.md), and [OG Lottery](/games/og-lottery.md) all charge a fee to play, and that fee rises with each new player in the period. Said simply: **the earlier you act, the less you pay — and a crowd pays dearly.**
This page is the technical home of that law. Everywhere else in this book the curve is described in plain words; here is the exact formula.
{% hint style="warning" %}
**Fee = (count)² × 0.000001 SOL + base**
where `count` is your position in the period and `base` is a small per-Game fixed fee.
{% endhint %}
The fee grows with the **square** of the count — exponentially, not linearly — which is what makes early participation so heavily favored. A small fixed base sits beneath the curve so that even the very first player pays a modest fee.
### The base fees (per Game)
| Game | Base fee | Difficulty term | Status |
| -------------- | -------------- | ----------------------- | -------------------- |
| 🛕 OG Mine | 0.001225 SOL | (count)² × 0.000001 SOL | 🟢 proven |
| 🏛️ OG Reserve | ≈ 0.001448 SOL | (count)² × 0.000001 SOL | 🟢 proven |
| 🎰 OG Lottery | pending decode | (count)² × 0.000001 SOL | 🟡 same law presumed |
Live base values are carried on the [Onchain Status](/canon/onchain-status.md) page.
{% hint style="info" %}
**Proven onchain.** Across 24,264 player fee transactions in the Mine's full history, 91.8% fit this formula exactly to within 2 microSOL — successive fees climbing by consecutive odd microSOL, the unmistakable signature of a pure quadratic. The Reserve obeys the identical term. (An earlier published figure of `0.005 × count²` was a documentation error, refuted by the chain and corrected here.)
{% endhint %}
## The Cost of Lateness
Using the Mine's base, here is what each player pays:
| You are player… | Your fee (≈) |
| --------------- | ------------ |
| 1st | \~0.0012 SOL |
| 10th | \~0.0013 SOL |
| 100th | \~0.011 SOL |
| **1,000th** | **\~1 SOL** |
| 10,000th | \~100 SOL |
The curve is gentle to the early and merciless to the crowd: the first hundred players of any period pay pennies, the thousandth pays about a full SOL, and the ten-thousandth pays a hundred. In the Realm, punctuality is not a virtue — it is a strategy.
The one difficulty law — gentle to the early, merciless to the crowd
## Reset Rules
When the curve resets differs by Game — and the difference is itself a mechanic:
| Game | Difficulty resets… |
| -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 🛕 OG Mine | every Epoch (00:00 UTC) |
| 🏛️ OG Reserve | every Epoch (00:00 UTC) |
| 🎰 OG Lottery | **only upon a winning Final Bid** — the curve climbs across Epochs until a Pool closes |
The Lottery's unresetting curve is what makes its late game expensive, its early game cheap, and its timing a discipline of its own. Those who learn to read the curve learn to read the Realm.
***
*✓ Verified by the Mad OG · UEC 702 (2026-06-06)*
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