Methods and systems for shape metric based scoring of wafer locations are provided. One method includes selecting shape based grouping (SBG) rules for at least two locations on a wafer. For one of the wafer locations, the selecting step includes modifying distances between geometric primitives in a design for the wafer with metrology data for the one location and determining metrical complexity (MC) scores for SBG rules associated with the geometric primitives in a field of view centered on the one location based on the distances. The selecting step also includes selecting one of the SBG rules for the one location based on the MC scores. The method also includes sorting the at least two locations on the wafer based on the SBG rule selected for the at least two locations.