Word grid game tips, where to look for words and when to go long
· 5 min read · Tyamka team
Practical tips for word grid games where you join touching letters, from word endings and diagonals to when a long word beats a quick short one.
In a word grid game you join letters that touch, sideways or diagonally, into words. If you have played Boggle, the letter-joining rule is the same, though the scoring is not. The tips below are built on the rules of the word grid game online on this site, called Word Grid, and most of them work in any game of this kind.
Know what the game rewards
Word Grid gives each level a goal, a number of words, and a clock. The level ends the moment you reach the goal. A few details decide the strategy.
- Every word is worth 10 points, plus a speed bonus of up to 10 that shrinks by about one point for every second since your previous word.
- Longer words earn a length bonus, 5 points for every letter above the level's minimum length.
- Longer words add more time. A word at the minimum length adds 2 seconds, and each extra letter adds 2 more. On a level where the minimum is 3 letters, an 8-letter word adds 12 seconds.
- A word that is not in the list costs a life, one of three. A word you already found, a word that is too short and a blocked word cost nothing.
Plan around the goal. Since the level ends there, you do not get to find every word, only a set number. Each of those slots is worth more when it holds a long word.
Tip 1. Look for the long word first
Every grid in Word Grid is built around one common word of 6 to 8 letters, laid along a chain of touching cells. It is always there. Finding it early gives you a long word for your goal, a large length bonus and a lot of extra time to find the rest.
To spot it, look for a long word's typical endings rather than its start. Endings are made of a few frequent letters, and there are not many of them.
Tip 2. Start from the endings
We counted the endings of the 7,632 common English words the game builds its grids from.
| Ending | Common words with it |
|---|---|
| -ed | 794 |
| -ing | 640 |
| -es | 597 |
| -er | 299 |
| -ly | 177 |
So when you see I, N and G touching in a chain, trace backwards from the G and look for a stem that reaches the I. The same goes for E and D. The English list accepts every form of a word, so if you find a verb, check whether its -ed or -ing form is also in the grid.
Tip 3. Squeeze every find
A word you found is a map of more words nearby.
- Add an S. If an S touches the last letter, the plural is often a second word. Rate gives rates.
- Reuse the letters. Tea, eat and ate use the same three letters in a different order, and if the letters form a small triangle, all three may be traceable.
- Change one letter. Once you have tear, look at the cells touching the T or the R. Wear, bear, near or team might be one cell away.
Each of these counts as a separate word. Only the exact same word found twice is a repeat.
Tip 4. Do not forget the diagonals
Many players read the grid in rows and columns, as if it were text. In Word Grid a letter touches up to eight others, including the four diagonal ones, and many words only work through a diagonal step. When you are stuck, pick one letter and read all eight of its neighbours on purpose.
Each cell counts once per word, so a word with a double letter needs two separate cells with that letter that touch.
Tip 5. Short and fast, or long and slow
A quick 3-letter word right after another can get the full speed bonus, 20 points in all. An 8-letter word on the same level gets 10 points plus 25 for length, and still up to 10 for speed if it comes quickly. It also adds 12 seconds instead of 2.
So on the early levels, a good rhythm is to grab one or two short words to get moving and then spend the remaining slots on longer ones. On later levels the minimum length rises, to 4 letters from level 7 and to 5 from level 13, and short words stop being an option anyway.
Tip 6. Do not guess
An unknown word costs a life. Three lives and the level is over, even with time on the clock. If a word looks real but you are not sure it is a word, skip it and look for one you know. A plain common word earns exactly the same points as a rare one of the same length.
The game checks your words against its own list, not a general dictionary. It leaves out proper names, abbreviations and offensive words, and some rare words may be missing too.
Tip 7. Use the input that suits you
You can drag across the letters, tap them one by one and tap the last one again to send the word, or type the word and press Enter. Typing is often fastest once you have seen a word, since you do not have to trace the path by hand. Dragging helps when you are still exploring, because you follow the letters as you go.
How the levels change
The grid starts at 3×3 on level 1 and grows to 4×4 and then 5×5. The goal ranges from 3 words to 9, the starting time falls from 90 to 60 seconds, and the minimum length goes from 3 letters to 5. Every grid holds at least twice as many common words as the level asks for, and usually more. You never need an obscure word to clear a level.
Playing in Ukrainian
Word Grid also plays in Ukrainian, with its own rules. Only nouns in the nominative singular count there, so plurals and verb forms from tip 2 and tip 3 cost a life. The story of that list is in our Ukrainian word game.
Try Word Grid, free up to level 5, or browse all games. These tips work the same way when you play inside Telegram, and brain games in Telegram covers how that works.