How to play
Takes about three minutes to learn. Here’s the whole thing.
Everything starts face down
We make a small crossword and flip all the tiles over. You can see the shape of it, where the words are and how long they are, but none of the letters.
Each turn you get to look at a few tiles. Remember what you saw, work out the words, and say them before anyone else does.
Your turn
Roll the die. It gives you two, three or four peeks. Tap a tile, tap it again, and you see the letter for 3 seconds before it flips back. The others can see which tile you looked at, but not what was on it.
You also get one guess per turn. Use it before your peeks or after, up to you. You’ve got 45 seconds for the whole turn. If you’re done early, pass.
Guessing
Tap a word and type what you think it is. If you’re right, it’s yours: all its tiles flip over in your colour. Each letter is worth 10 points, with a bonus for words you barely peeked at. Get one without peeking any of it and your points triple.
| Tiles you peeked | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multiplier | ×3 | ×2 | ×1.5 | ×1 |
Rose peeked one tile of PLANET, then got it: 6 letters × 10 × 2 = +120
PLANTS was wrong, but the P, L, A and N were right. Now everyone knows them.
Getting it wrong
A wrong guess costs you 10 points a letter (you can’t go below zero). Worse, any letters you had in the right spot get flipped over for the whole table to see.
If a word ends up fully showing before anyone has claimed it, it’s out. Nobody gets points for it. So don’t guess unless you’re fairly sure.
Notes and the dots
You can stick up to 3 notes on tiles, a letter you want to remember. Only you can see them. Add another and the oldest one goes.
The coloured dots on a tile show who has been peeking at it and how often. If someone keeps going back to the same corner, they probably know something.
Winning
The game ends when every word has been claimed or revealed, or when someone hits the target score, if the host set one. Most points wins. A tie is a tie.
On your own
Solo and the Daily have no die and no clock. Peek as much as you like and guess when you’re ready. Your score is how many peeks you used, plus 3 for each wrong guess. Lower is better, and every puzzle has a par to aim for.
The Daily is one puzzle for everyone, every day. When you finish you get a little result card to send to your friends.