Your buddies are begging you to play, but you don’t know the first thing about Words With Friends’ rules. Not to fret. It’s easy to learn how to play Words With Friends when you start with the basics. At its core, the game is about taking letter tiles, rearranging them into words, and scoring more points than your opponent. Once you start playing, you’re bound to get hooked!
How to Play Words With Friends: The Basics
Even though there are some minor differences in presentation, each version of Words With Friends plays the same way. You get the same board, the same letters, the same objective and the same Words With Friends rules. Play on a computer or via the app on your mobile device; the actual game is the same.
The three main parts of the game you’ll need to know about are:
The game board: There are 225 spaces on the 15 x 15 grid. Play letter tiles horizontally or vertically to form words.
Your letter rack: You keep seven letter tiles on your rack for each turn. When you play five tiles to create a five-letter word in a turn, for example, you’ll automatically get five new letter tiles from the tile bag for your next turn.
The tile bag: The game has a total of 104 letter tiles. Each player starts with seven, refilling their rack from the bag until it is empty.
The game ends when the tile bag is empty and one player uses up all their letters. The game can also end when players “pass” three times in a row.
Making Moves in Words With Friends
The goal of Words With Friends is to form words using the letters in your letter rack, plus the letters that are already on the game board. Words have to be at least two letters long. The game was inspired by Scrabble, so if you’ve played that game, you’re already familiar with Word With Friends’ core mechanics.
The first word played must include the center space, designated by a “plus” symbol. This first word gets a double-word score.
After that, every word must connect with at least one of the letters already on the board.
Words With Friends Scoring Rules
The rules for Words With Friends scoring are basically the same as they are for Scrabble.
Letter Values
Every letter in Words With Friends has an assigned point value. Common letters, like T and E, are worth fewer points. More challenging letters, like X and Q, are worth more points. The point value is shown on the tile itself. There’s also this handy list of Words With Friends letter values for your reference.
Take the word CARD, for example. Adding up the tile values, it would be worth 8 points.
Words with Friends letter values example(CC BY-ND 4.0)
Bonus Spaces
In addition to the face value of the letter tiles, you can earn more points by playing words on bonus spaces. There are four types of bonus spaces in Words With Friends.
DL (double letter): Doubles the value of the single letter tile
TL (triple letter): Triples the value of the single letter tile
DW (double word): Doubles the score on the entire word
TW (triple word): Triples the score on the entire word
You can combine bonus spaces for even more points. Using the same CARD example, if the C is on a TL space and the D is on a TW space, you’d calculate the scoring as follows:
Words With Friends bonus spaces example(CC BY-ND 4.0)
Bingo Bonus
If you play all seven tiles on your letter rack in a single turn, that’s called a bingo, which earns you an extra 35 points. This is on top of any additional points you earn from bonus spaces.
Multiple Words
One of the most valuable Words With Friends rules to remember is that you get credit for every word you create. If in forming one word horizontally, for example, the tiles also form another word vertically, you get points for both words. Using hooks is one of the most important strategies for winning.
For example, say that CARD is already on the board as a horizontal word. You add an “S” to the end of it, plus -UNNY below the S. You earn points from both CARDS and SUNNY.
CARDS (4 + 1 +1 + 2 + 1) = 9 points
SUNNY (1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 3) = 10 points
9 + 10 = 19 points
If the “S” tile happens to be on a DW space, both CARDS and SUNNY earn the double word bonus.
CARDS (9 x 2) = 18 points
SUNNY (10 x 2) = 20 points
18 + 20 = 38 points
Words With Friends multiple words example(CC BY-ND 4.0)
The Final Move in Words With Friends
A game can end one of two ways:
One player uses up all their letter tiles and there are no more letters left in the tile bag.
Players pass their turn three times in a row.
At that time, you add up the value of all the letters left on the second player’s rack. That value is deducted from the second player’s score and added to the first player’s score. The winner is the player with the higher final score.
Power-Ups and Other Moves
Beyond the core gameplay, you can further improve your chances of winning by using the four power-ups. You can earn these power-ups through playing or you can buy them in the game. Words With Friends power-ups are similar to those in Scrabble GO, but they are also different.
Hindsight: Use after a move to see what better word you could have played instead.
Word Radar: Highlight spaces on the game board where you can play a word.
Swap+: Exchange letter tiles without skipping your turn.
Word Clue: Reveal one specific spot where you can play a high-scoring word.
Whereas you have a limited number of power-ups, you can use any of these four options at any time. They are a regular part of the game.
Shuffle: Rearrange the letter tiles in your rack in a random order (do not lose a turn).
Pass: Opt to skip your turn and let your opponent play their turn.
Resign: Voluntarily forfeit the game.
How to Win in Words With Friends
Now that you know the basics of Words With Friends rules, you’re ready to throw yourself into the arena and challenge your friends to a game. Before you do, brush up on some advice for how to win every game of Words With Friends. Sound strategy and a big lexicon go a very long way. Did you know that you can use some slang words in Words With Friends too? Yes, “shizzle” is worth a whopping 28 points!
Michael Kwan is a professional writer and editor with over 14 years of experience. Fueled by caffeine and WiFi, he's no stranger to word games and dad jokes.
Words with Friends gives you goals to reach to keep you playing. Reaching these goals will award you keys that unlock tiers in the Rewards Pass, which in turn unlocks powerups and Mystery Boxes filled with coins, powerups, and other goodies.
Wondering what the green dot on a user profile means? It's simply an indicator that the player is online in Words with Friends. If you see a player online, nudge them to make a move or start a new game!
And among the biggest changes in Words With Friends 2 is a refresh to the app's interface: lighter colors and bigger fonts are designed to make the game feel more “modern” and “less dark,” as lead designer Michelle David puts it. It feels less cluttered and easier to navigate.
Last Updated: 695d. Word Strength shows the score of your presently played word relative to the maximum possible score you could presently make. To activate Word Strength, toggle the lightning icon below the game tiles.
Here's the one weird trick guaranteed to make you better at Words With Friends: go parallel. Don't cross an opponent's word. Slide alongside. Match consonants with vowels and vice versa to make new words.
"Qi," that elusive two-letter Q word that even more elusively does not require a U, placed first with over 1 billion plays. To put that in context, over 58 billion words have been played total in "Words With Friends."
But, it can help if you do not have good letters or it is late in the game. And lastly, the Word Clue power-up highlights one place on the board where a word can be played along with which tiles to use. When using this it will highlight the spaces on the board and the tiles in the rack in purple.
The bonus squares on the board modify the score earned for a move as follows: DL (double letter): The points for the tile placed on this square is doubled. TL (triple letter): The points for the tile placed on this square is tripled.
1. You or your friend must play a move within 24 hours for two consecutive days. 2. On the third day of continuous game play, a fire emoji (showing 2) will appear indicating the start of the streak. The number beside it is the Days of streak.
The game is played with two or more teams of at least two players. Each round one player picks a card and has 30 seconds to describe the five objects, people or places written on the card without revealing the card or saying any part of the name.
Regardless of its destination platform or complexity, each game has a basic structure made of three sections: initialization, the game loop, and termination.
Word games exercise the mind and encourage seniors to retain their language skills. Games that require seniors to think about language and vocabulary can increase memory retention and stimulate mental activity.
"Anything that challenges your mind or jogs your memory is going to be good for you — even if there's no clear data showing a specific benefit to the brain." And Dr. Garg points out that there's certainly no harm in regularly putting your brain to work through these games and puzzles.
Words with Friends Dictionary doesn't include proper nouns, abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes standing alone as single syllables, as well as words spelled with hyphens or apostrophes.
If they don't play their moves regularly, but always beat you on the first game and not the second, then it might indicate that they cheat. Or if they take unusually longer on their second game, and suddenly get an unusual word, that's also a clue. Save this answer.
Rules. Three teams of two players each competed over guessing the key word with a list of related clues. Play began with an introductory clue. For example, a set might begin with "This can either be a friend to man or an enemy." Clues would then be read while the timer clicked down.
School-age children are often found on the playground playing games with rules at recess. They could be enjoying a game of marbles or jacks, playing hopscotch or foursquare, or chasing each other playing tag.
Wordle is a free online puzzle game where players try to guess a valid five-letter word in six tries or less. Wordle can be played on a computer or mobile device.
According to Words With Friends help, reinstalling the game can stop the crashing problem completely. Reinstalling will also help you to download the latest version of the game. First, uninstall the game from your Android or iOS smartphone and then go to the App Store or Play Store to install the app.
A hacker has breached Zynga's Word With Friends game and claims to have accessed a database of more than 218 million players. That means your name, email address, and encrypted password are potentially in the wild, if you're a registered player.
One out of every ten players surveyed by Zynga has used Words With Friends as a way to hook up with someone else, according to the results of a 100,000-person survey. More than 44 percent of all Words With Friends players in that survey also said they've used the game as a way to flirt with people.
According to Words With Friends help, reinstalling the game can stop the crashing problem completely. Reinstalling will also help you to download the latest version of the game.
The first words out of your mouth when explaining a game should be, “The object of this game is…” It's like “Once upon a time” or “Roses are red, violets are blue.” If the object of the game is to score the most points, great; so be it.
It's possible that Zynga, the publisher of Words With Friends, creates these bots to keep you playing. The more you play, the more ads the game can show, and the more money the company can make.
"Never have I ever", also known as "I've never..." or "ten fingers", is a drinking game in which players take turns asking other players about things they have not done. Other players who have done this thing respond by taking a drink.
The main difference is that Words With Friends 2 is usually updated with the newest features before the others. For example, that version has the ability to switch tile styles for each game individually which the others do not yet have.
If you cannot say something nice, then it would be best to say nothing. But, again, "Thanks for the game" or "Thanks for playing" hurts nothing. If they deserve the words, "Good game," then you should go ahead and share them.
Introduction: My name is Allyn Kozey, I am a outstanding, colorful, adventurous, encouraging, zealous, tender, helpful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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