Zeal and Jolt
The platform keeps two kinds of points. Zeal measures what you have achieved; Jolt is what you spend.
| Zeal | Jolt | |
|---|---|---|
| Shown as | Your Mastery Score | Your Energy Points |
| What it is for | Your rank, league level and what you are allowed to do | Paying for hints, AI tools, renewals and extras |
| Can you spend it? | No — it goes up, and down only if staff take back a reward | Yes |
Your balances are in the Codex in the top header, on the Dashboard, and on your profile page.
Your platform may use different names or icons for these two currencies, or may have the points system switched off entirely.
How you earn
| Activity | Zeal | Jolt |
|---|---|---|
| Your first sign-in — a welcome credit | 1 | 1,000 |
| Being active each day — see Streaks | Yes | At milestones |
| Capturing a flag in a challenge lab — once per mission | Yes | |
| Challenge lab achievements | Yes | Yes |
| A perfect Spot Quiz run, and quiz game modes | Yes | Yes |
| Solving a Code Arena problem — once per language family | Yes | Yes |
| Quiz and Code Arena achievements, collected in the Mastery Hall | Yes | Yes |
| Achievements awarded by staff or faculty | Varies | Varies |
| A community theme you made being approved | Up to 1,000 |
On some platforms, Pro subscribers also receive a monthly Jolt credit.
Every credit and debit arrives as a Score notification, so your notifications are your running record.
Zeal from challenge labs, in detail
| Source | How much |
|---|---|
| Capturing a flag | The mission's value × your score multiplier, less 0.5% for every Jolt you spent on its hints. Paid once per mission — see How much a mission pays |
| A flag in a retired lab | Half the normal amount |
| Lab achievements | The Zeal and Jolt shown on the lab's Achievements tab, once each |
| Team labs | You earn the Zeal, and your clan earns the same amount as clan Zeal. Any Jolt from an achievement goes to you |
When Zeal goes down
Zeal is never spent, so it normally only grows. The exception is a reward that platform staff take back — for example one earned by cheating (see Fair play). The Zeal comes off your balance, and your league level can drop with it.
Quiz and Code Arena achievements are not paid out automatically. When one is Ready, open that area's Mastery Hall and collect it — Collect All collects them all at once.
What Jolt buys
Prices marked shown vary by item and are displayed on the button before you confirm.
| Item | Jolt |
|---|---|
| Generate a lesson in Learn AI | 25 |
| Regenerate one chapter of a lesson (refunded if it fails) | 10 |
| Unlock AI Assist on a lesson | 25 |
| Reveal the prompt a lesson was generated from | 1 |
| Generate a roadmap | 25 |
| Unlock AI Assist on a roadmap | 25 |
| A paid AI tool in Discussions — cached after first use | 1 |
| Create a club (you also need enough Zeal — see below) | 100 |
| A hint in a challenge lab | shown |
| Renewing a lab before it expires | shown |
| Generating a Spot Quiz, and quiz game-mode entry | shown |
| Code Arena extras — Surprise Me, hints, test-case unlocks, Code AI, more time | shown |
| An extra slot for your own backgrounds | shown, rising with each slot |
| Reporting a quiz question while you are in a quiz game mode | 1 |
Creating a clan, joining one and registering for an event are free.
When you do not have enough Jolt
If you cannot afford an item, the action is refused and your Jolt is not taken. Earn more Jolt from streak milestones, quizzes and achievements, then try again.
Transfers
You cannot send Zeal or Jolt to another player, and you cannot move them between your own account and your clan. A clan's Zeal is its own balance, earned from its team labs.
Streaks
Do something every day — a quiz, a lab, a lesson, some code, a discussion or a roadmap step — and you build a streak. Open the Streak card on the Dashboard and select ? (How streaks work) to see the full reward table for your current cycle.
The rules, as the dialog states them:
| Rule | What happens |
|---|---|
| Daily | +25 Zeal for every active day |
| Milestones | Bonus Zeal and Jolt on days 5, 10, 15 and 21. Full reward the first time; 15% less for a milestone you have reached before |
| Misses | You may skip up to 3 days per cycle. Each miss costs 10%; a 4th miss breaks the streak |
| Cycles | After 21 days the cycle starts again. Consecutive cycles earn a 10% bonus; restarting after a break gives 15% less at milestones |
Streak rewards in full
Every active day pays 25 Zeal. On top of that, four milestone days in each 21-day cycle pay a bonus:
| Day in the cycle | Bonus Zeal | Bonus Jolt |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 75 | 50 |
| 10 | 175 | 100 |
| 15 | 275 | 150 |
| 21 | 450 | 200 |
A full cycle with no misses therefore pays 1,500 Zeal and 500 Jolt — the Max Zeal and Max Jolt in the dialog — before the adjustments below.
| Adjustment | Effect | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Each missed day | −10% on daily and milestone rewards | Until the cycle ends. Misses reset to zero at the start of each new cycle |
| Each cycle completed back to back | +10% on daily and milestone rewards. Two cycles in a row give +20%, three give +30%, and so on | Until the streak breaks |
| A milestone you have reached before, in any earlier cycle | −15% on that milestone | Always — the first time pays in full, every later time pays 15% less |
The adjustments multiply together. For example, day 5 of your second cycle with no misses pays 75 × 1.10 × 0.85 = 70 Zeal (rounded).
The Streak card on the Dashboard shows your current day, the cycle number, any bonus, how many misses you have left, the Zeal you earn per day right now, and the next milestone.
What counts as a day, and what breaks a streak
- A day runs from midnight to midnight on the platform's clock, which may not match your own time zone.
- Active means doing something on the platform that day: finishing a quiz, solving a Code Arena problem, deploying a lab, working through a lesson or a roadmap, or taking part in a discussion.
- When it is counted. Your streak is brought up to date when you open the Dashboard, and roughly once an hour while you are active. If you are active late in the day, open the Dashboard afterwards so that day is recorded before midnight.
- Misses. When you come back after a gap, each day you skipped uses one of your 3 misses for the cycle.
- Breaking. If a gap needs more misses than you have left, the streak breaks. You restart at Day 1 — today counts if you were active — your back-to-back cycle bonus goes back to zero, and milestones you have reached before pay 15% less.
- There is no way to buy back a missed day or freeze a streak.
Rank and privileges
Your Zeal sets your league level — see Leaderboards for the League of Ronin — and unlocks things you can do. Open the avatar menu → Rank & Privileges to see every unlock, grouped By rank or By module, with the ones you have already earned marked.
The unlocks in effect by default:
| Unlock | Needs |
|---|---|
| Report a question | 90 Zeal |
| Downvote a comment | 160 Zeal |
| Downvote a question or an answer | 360 Zeal |
| Create a club | The Zeal shown on Rank & Privileges, plus 100 Jolt |
| Always-on labs | 5,000 Zeal, or a paid plan |
| Extra raw TCP ports on a lab | 5,000 Zeal, or a paid plan |
| Share labs and templates | 7,500 Zeal, or a paid plan |
Voting on quizzes, lessons and roadmaps, and joining or leaving clubs, need no Zeal at all. Administrators can change any threshold, so the page — not this table — is the final word.
Feeling Lucky
Feeling Lucky in the sidebar is not a game of chance and costs nothing. It is a page of recommendations picked from your activity and skills. See Recommendations.
Next steps
- Notifications — where every credit and debit shows up
- Leaderboards — ranks and leagues
- Plans and limits — what Pro unlocks without Zeal