True north points to the geographic North Pole and never changes. Magnetic north is where a compass needle points, and it drifts over time and varies by location — the gap between them is called magnetic declination. Noriento's daily game always scores against true north: on iPhone the system compass reports it directly, and on Android the reading is magnetic, which can sit a few degrees off.
True north is the direction to the geographic North Pole — the top of the axis the Earth spins around. It is a fixed geometric fact. Every map grid, every sun angle, every shadow-length trick and every star bearing is anchored to it.
Magnetic north is where the Earth's magnetic field happens to pull a needle. It is produced by molten iron moving in the outer core, and it wanders — the magnetic pole has been drifting across the Arctic for as long as anyone has measured it, currently at tens of kilometres a year.
The angle between true and magnetic north where you are standing is the magnetic declination. It is not a single number — it depends entirely on where you are. Near a line running roughly through the middle of the Atlantic it is close to zero. In parts of Alaska it exceeds 20 degrees. Across most of Europe it is small, a few degrees either way.
This is why a paper map has a little diagram in the corner showing two arrows at a slight angle: one for the grid, one for the needle, and the declination written between them.
If a game scores you against magnetic north and calls it true north, your result carries an error you did not make. Somewhere with 15 degrees of declination, a perfect guess would be reported as 15 degrees wrong — every single day, in the same direction. You would train yourself to be wrong.
So Noriento is specific about it:
True north. It is the one the sun and the stars agree with, so every natural cue you might pick up reinforces it. It also does not move, which means the sense you build this year is still correct in twenty. Magnetic north is a property of the planet's core, and it is going somewhere.
Maps flatten a curved planet, and the flattening bends the north lines slightly away from true north. That third north is grid north, and the difference is usually under a degree. It matters to surveyors. It does not matter to you.
Noriento scores your daily guess against true north. See how close you get.
Point North NowTrue north points to the geographic North Pole and never changes. Magnetic north is where a compass needle points, pulled by the Earth's magnetic field, and it drifts over time and by location. The angle between the two at any given place is called magnetic declination.
It depends entirely on where you are. The difference is near zero along some lines and over 20 degrees in parts of the far north. Across most of Europe and the continental United States it is a few degrees to about fifteen.
On iPhone, Safari reports a compass heading with declination already applied, so it is true north. On Android, the browser exposes the raw magnetic heading. Noriento records which of the two produced each attempt rather than treating them as the same thing.
True north. Every natural cue — the sun's arc, shadow direction, the stars — is anchored to it, so training on true north means everything else you notice reinforces the same answer. It also never moves.