In the Ropey Ladder, players can be assigned a number of free challenges.

Having a free challenge means that rather than only being able to challenge players within a certain number of places on the ladder, a player can challenge any player on the ladder.

In doing so, the player will use one of their free challenges.

The reason for free challenges is that the standard of players on a ladder may vary greatly from top to bottom.

When new players join, they start at the bottom of the ladder, and if they happen to be very good, they will have to play a lot of one-sided games before they reach players of the same standard as them.

One-sided games are rarely enjoyable for either player.  The free challenge means that players can very quickly move up the ladder to an appropriate position, provided of course, that they win the challenge!

A good way of using your free challenges is to talk to other players you know to identify a player you think you can comfortably beat.  Use player's profiles to do this - you can see how they have performed against people you know.

If you don't know anyone on a ladder, try challenging half way up - if you win, challenge half way up again, or if you lose, challenge half way down.

Whatever tactic you employ, remember that free challenges are very useful, and if you don't manage to win your free challenges, you may be left doing the hard slog to the top!