how to play subwords
Subwords is a word game on a 5x5 grid of letters. You find words by tracing a path from one letter to a neighboring letter, the way you would in Boggle. Tiles carry point values and word multipliers, so where a word runs changes what it scores.
There is no single right answer. Every board holds hundreds of words and your score is the sum of the ones you find. Five stars sit on the score ladder, and the fifth finishes the puzzle.
the rules
Each letter has to touch the one before it. Diagonals count, so any of a tile's eight neighbors works.
A path may cross over itself, but it can't use the same tile twice. A word needing a letter twice needs two tiles carrying it.
Words have to be three letters or longer.
Proper nouns and abbreviations don't count, along with anything the word list doesn't carry.
Add up the tile values along the path, then multiply by every multiplier tile it crossed. A tile with no number in its corner is worth 1, so this P, A and T score (3 + 1 + 1) × 2 = 10.
Most words can be traced more than one way. You always get the highest-scoring route, however you drew it.
a worked example
Let's walk through four words on one board, and where their points come from.
A tile worth more than one point carries its value in the bottom corner. Six tiles here multiply the whole word: one 5x, two 3x and three 2x.
- map3 + 1 + 3 = 7
MAP runs down the left edge and then right. Its tiles are worth 3, 1 and 3, with no multiplier under any of them, so it scores 7.
- master(3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 3) × 2 = 20
MASTER starts from the same M and cuts diagonally twice. The T sits on a 2x, so the six values are added first and the sum doubled: 20 points.
- master(3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 3) × 2 = 24
There is a second E on the board worth 3 rather than 1, and it's reachable too. That route pays 24, so MASTER scores 24 however you drew it.
- monster(3 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 3) × 3 × 2 = 84
MONSTER picks up the 3x on the N as well as the 2x on the T. Multipliers multiply each other, so the sum of 14 is multiplied by 6.
- pastel(3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 1) × 2 × 5 = 100
PASTEL's tiles add up to 10, and it crosses the 2x on the T and ends on the 5x in the middle. That is a 10x word: 100 points.
- map7master24monster84pastel1004 words, 215 points
Four words for 215 points. Each board sets its own five star targets from the words it holds, so the numbers move day to day.
controls
Drag across the letters to trace a word, and lift your finger to submit it. You can tap letters one at a time instead, and tap the last letter again to submit. Dragging or tapping back onto an earlier letter rubs out everything after it.
You can also type the word. The board lights up its best-scoring route as you go, and enter submits. Backspace drops the last letter, and escape clears the whole word.
The line above the board shows the word you are building and what it will score. A word that doesn't count says why. Nothing is deducted for a word that doesn't land.
Under the board are your word count, your score and the star ladder. Tap a star to read the score it needs.
tips
- Find the 5x first. Read the letters around it before you play anything, and work out the longest word you can run through that tile.
- Chain two multipliers. Multipliers multiply each other, so a path crossing a 3x and a 2x is a 6x word.
- Take the plurals. Once a word has landed, look for an S beside its last letter, and for -ED, -ER, -ING and -EST. Each one is a separate find at full price.
- Grow the stems you have. MAST becomes MASTER becomes MASTERS. An extension keeps every multiplier the shorter word had and adds tiles on top.
- Go long when the score stalls. Three-letter words close the gap to the fifth star slowly. When the score stops moving, go back to the multiplier tiles and look for six letters or more through them.