Earning Points

Earn points by answering questions in challenges and investigations. Each question rewards a set number of points, and the total points available vary based on difficulty level.

Important: Retired content can still be completed and counts toward badge achievements, but it doesn't award points for the live leaderboard. When a lab is retired, points are deducted from your profile, so completing retired content is less beneficial if your goal is to climb the leaderboard.

Active vs Retired Content - What You Need to Know

Every Investigation and Challenge on BTLO starts life as Active. When content is Active, it's worth points — you can answer questions, climb the category pathways (like Digital Forensics or Incident Response), and earn new badges and titles.

Over time, as new content is added to the platform, the oldest Active content transitions to Retired. Once retired, the lab is no longer worth any points. However, it still counts towards achievements and badges, and players are free to share walkthroughs and write-ups publicly.

The reason points are removed from retired content is to protect the competitive integrity of the platform. For example, if write-ups existed for active content, players could read answers and earn points without doing any of the actual investigation work.

You can easily spot retired content on the lab listing, and you can also filter by Active or Retired status to find exactly what you're looking for. 

Investigations

Investigations cover larger, more complex scenarios that take longer to complete but reward more points.

• Very Easy Investigation = 15 points
• Easy Investigation = 25 points
• Moderate Investigation = 50 points
• Hard Investigation = 100 points
• Epic Investigation = 100 points

Point values are determined by the BTLO team based on difficulty and may vary.

Every question you answer in either a challenge or investigation contributes a specific number of points to your total. The only exception is retired content, which awards zero points but still counts toward your pathway progression for badges and titles.

Challenges

Challenges are quick, tool-specific exercises designed for specific scenarios. All challenges on BTLO are free to access.
Challenges are currently retired and do not contribute to leaderboard scoring. This decision allows the BTLO team to focus on delivering a higher quality investigation experience, with more engaging and in-depth content in development. Retired challenges can still be completed for personal practice and continue to count toward badge achievements.

• Easy Challenge = 10 points
• Moderate Challenge = 20 points
• Hard Challenge = 30 points

Rank System

Your rank is determined by the percentage of active (non-retired) content you've completed. Complete more content and earn a higher rank. There are 8 ranks in total:

Rank 1: Initiate
Rank 2: Trainee Defender
Rank 3: Junior Defender
Rank 4: Defender
Rank 5: Senior Defender
Rank 6: Advanced Defender
Rank 7: Principal Defender
Rank 8: Guardian

As you progress through the ranks, your global rank, country rank, points, and completed investigations and challenges are displayed prominently on your profile. You'll also earn rank-based badges that you can choose to display in one of your three badge slots.

Global Leaderboard

The BTLO Global Leaderboard tracks your ranking worldwide and within your country. Your profile always appears at the top, so you instantly see your exact position.

The leaderboard updates automatically as rankings change. As you earn points from completed active Investigations, your position updates in real-time across both global and country-specific rankings

Your stats section shows:

• Global Position: Your overall ranking among all players worldwide
• Country Position: Your ranking among players in your own country
• Points: Your total points earned from completed active investigations. These points determine your position on the Global Leaderboard. Only the current set of active investigations count toward leaderboard scoring while retired content and challenges do not award leaderboard points.