Frequently Asked Questions

Top Dog In My Hood is a free social status game built around real-world territory. You sign in, share your location once, and our system places you on a three-tier map — your Block, your Hood, your City. From there, you build Reputation through daily actions and compete to become the dominant player in your zone. It's not a city builder or an RPG — it's a status system with game mechanics underneath. Your digital presence grows in a territory that belongs to you.

Reputation is your status score — the only currency that matters. It grows when you claim your Block, boost your Hood, maintain login streaks, and refer new players to your territory. Reputation determines your Tier (Pup → Street Dog → Alpha → Top Dog) and your rank on Block, Hood, and City leaderboards. Unlike XP in other games, Reputation isn't just a number — it's your presence on the map.

Zones are the three tiers of territory:

Block — Street-level (~100m grid). Your most immediate territory. You can claim it once every 20 hours to assert dominance.
Hood — Neighborhood-level (~1km grid). Multiple Blocks form a Hood. Hood rankings show who's the top dog in your neighborhood.
City — City-wide (~10km grid). The big picture. City Alphas and Top Dogs compete here for the broadest visibility.

Zones don't exist before players create them — the map is emergent. A Block activates when 2+ players share its grid. A Hood activates when 3+ nearby Blocks are occupied. A City forms when 5+ Hoods exist within its bounds.

Once you're in the game, head to the Actions screen. If your Block Claim is available (cooldown: 20 hours), tap it to assert your dominance and earn +15 Reputation. You can also Boost your Hood every 4 hours for +8 Reputation. These are your primary daily actions — they signal to the system (and your rivals) that you're still present in your territory.

There are four tiers, each reflecting your standing in the territory:

Pup (0–99 Rep) — You've arrived. The map knows you exist.
Street Dog (100–499 Rep) — Your presence is growing. Hood-level visibility begins.
Alpha (500–1,999 Rep) — You're dominant. City leaderboard entry, Zone Boost unlocked.
Top Dog (2,000+ Rep) — Maximum presence. You run these streets.

Weekly Titles are special status labels awarded every Monday to the top performers in each zone. They reset and create fresh competition every week:

"Top Dog of Your Hood" — Rank #1 in your Hood
"Block Dominator" — Rank #1 in your Block
"City Alpha" — Top 3 in your City
"Rising Dog" — Biggest Reputation gain in the past week

Titles are displayed on your profile and visible to other players in your zone.

Every player gets a unique referral code. Share it with anyone — when they sign up using your code, you earn +50 Reputation and they earn +25 Reputation as a head start. There's no cap on referrals, but our anti-abuse system detects and removes fake or self-referral accounts. Referral bonuses are credited after the new player's 48-hour probation period clears.

Reputation decays slightly if you go inactive: -2 Rep per day after 3 consecutive days without logging in. This keeps the rankings fresh and competitive — nobody stays at the top without staying active. However, your Reputation will never decay below the floor of your current tier (a Pup stays at 0, a Street Dog won't drop below 100, and so on).

We take fair play seriously. Location is used only to assign your zone — your raw GPS coordinates are never stored on the client or returned in API responses. The server rounds and hashes your position. GPS spoofing is detectable through a combination of device fingerprinting, IP analysis, and behavioral patterns. Players caught spoofing their location to claim territory they don't occupy will be permanently banned. See our Rules for full details.

If you genuinely move to a new area, your zone updates — but there's a 24-hour cooldown on zone changes to prevent gaming the system. If you've moved permanently, your new zone will be reflected after the cooldown passes and you trigger an action. Frequent zone changes (more than once per day) are flagged for review.

Google sign-in gives you a secure, passwordless experience — no account to forget, no password to lose. We only store your public Google profile: your display name, email, and avatar. We never post on your behalf, never access your contacts, and never share your data with third parties. See our Rules for the full privacy section.

Top Dog In My Hood runs entirely in your browser — no download required. It works on any modern mobile browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox). Add it to your home screen for an app-like experience. A dedicated iOS/Android app may come later.

Completely free. No premium currency, no pay-to-win mechanics, no ads. Everyone grows through action, strategy, and presence — not spending. If that ever changes, we'll be transparent about it.

Email us at hello@topdoginmyhood.com. Include your display name and a description of the issue. Bug reports are appreciated and taken seriously.