Percentile is not rank and it is not score. Here is how the number is computed and how to move it.
Players often ask why their percentile moved when their score did not. The answer is that percentile is a comparison, and the comparison set changed.
Understanding the mechanics makes the number far more useful.
Percentile is relative to everyone who played that day
If you score 1,400 on a Tuesday and 1,400 on a Saturday and your percentile drops, it is because Saturday had more strong players, not because you got worse.
This is why weekend percentiles are harder to move on a fixed score.
Only verified runs are ranked
Runs flagged as suspect — the ones where you left the tab mid-puzzle — are stored but never enter the leaderboard. So is anything the server cannot reproduce from the seed.
If your rank looks wrong, check whether the run was marked unranked before assuming the calculation is broken.
The fastest way to move it
Percentile gains are cheapest at the margin you are already near. If you are at the 60th percentile, consistency on level one is worth more than heroics on level three.
If you are already in the top decile, the opposite is true: only the hard board separates you from the people above you.