If you grew up with a board game of letter tiles and bonus squares on the kitchen table, Word Tiles will feel like coming home. It’s our Scrabble-style game, played against the computer – and there’s no one to argue with about whether “QI” is really a word.
This guide covers the rules, how scoring works, and the tricks that separate a decent score from a great one.
How it works
You and the computer take turns building words on a 15 × 15 board. Each of you has a rack of seven letter tiles, drawn from a bag of 100. Every letter has a point value – common letters like E and A are worth 1, while rare ones like Q and Z are worth 10.
- You go first, and your first word must cross the centre star.
- After that, every word must connect to tiles already on the board.
- All the tiles you place in one turn must be in a single row or column, with no gaps.
- Every word you make – including any side words formed along the way – must be real words.
To play, click a tile on your rack, then click a square on the board. Click a placed tile to take it back, or press Recall tiles to bring them all home. As you place tiles, the game shows your potential score live, so you can try different spots before pressing Play word.
The bonus squares
| Square | What it does |
|---|---|
| DL – Double Letter | Doubles the tile on it |
| TL – Triple Letter | Triples the tile on it |
| DW – Double Word | Doubles the whole word (the centre star counts as one) |
| TW – Triple Word | Triples the whole word |
Bonus squares only count for the tiles you place on them that turn. Once a tile is sitting on a bonus square, later words through it don’t get the bonus again.
And the biggest bonus of all: use all seven tiles in one turn and you get an extra 50 points.
Where you place a word matters
Say your first rack lets you play ZEBRA. It has to cross the centre star, which doubles the word. But you’ve got a choice of where to put it.
Slide it along the row so the Z lands on the double-letter square to the left of the star, with the A on the star itself. The Z is now worth 20, the whole word adds up to 26, and the star doubles it to 52 points.
Put exactly the same word two squares further right and the Z misses the bonus square. That’s only 32 points. Same word, same tiles, 20 points’ difference – just from where you put it. That’s why the live potential score is so handy: slide your tiles around and watch the number change.
The two-letter trick
Now suppose ZEBRA is on the board and you’re holding an O and an X. Place them in the row directly underneath ZEBRA, with the O under the Z and the X under the E.
You’ve made three words in one go: OX along the row, plus ZO and EX going down. Every one of them scores. That’s 29 points from just two tiles – and the Z gets counted again, even though it was already on the board.
Playing alongside an existing word like this is one of the best ways to score big with small tiles. It only works if you know your two-letter words, so here are some of the most useful ones our dictionary accepts:
- With high-scoring letters: QI, ZA, ZO, XI, XU, JO, KA, KI, OX, AX, EX
- Handy everyday ones: AA, AE, AI, OE, OI, EH, HM, MM, UH, UM
QI is worth remembering above all. It uses the Q without needing a U, which gets you out of a very awkward rack.
More tips
Put your big letters on bonus squares. A 10-point Z on a triple-letter square is worth 30 on its own. If that square is part of a double-word word too, the numbers get very big, very fast.
Save your S and your blanks. An S can turn an existing word into a plural while you play a whole new word across it, scoring both. Blank tiles can be any letter you like. They’re worth 0 points themselves, but they’re brilliant for completing a seven-tile play for the 50-point bonus.
Keep a balanced rack. Try to hold a mix of vowels and consonants. A rack of all consonants, or five vowels, is very hard to play. Common letters like E, R, S, T, A, I and N are the ones that build the most words.
Don’t be afraid to exchange. If your rack is hopeless, press Exchange, mark the tiles you want to swap, and confirm. You’ll lose your turn, but a better rack next time is often worth it.
Watch the triple-word squares. Be careful about opening a path to a TW square that the computer could use on its next turn. If you can’t use it yourself, try not to leave it wide open.
Use “Suggest words” to learn. Stuck? Press Suggest words and the game shows up to five of the best plays you could make right now, with their scores. Click one to place it on the board. It’s a great way to discover words you didn’t know – and positions you hadn’t spotted.
Choosing your opponent
The computer has three settings, and they play very differently:
- Beginner picks any legal word at random, so it often makes low-scoring plays. Good for learning.
- Intermediate picks from its better options, but not always the best one. A fair game.
- Expert plays the highest-scoring move it can find. Beating it takes real skill.
How the game ends
The game ends when the bag is empty and one player has used all their tiles. That player gets a bonus: the value of the tiles left on the other player’s rack is added to their score and taken off the other player’s. The game also ends if there are four passes or exchanges in a row, and then both players lose the value of the tiles they’re still holding.
So towards the end, try to get rid of your high-value letters. Getting stuck with a Q or Z can cost you the game.
Questions people ask
Is it free?
Yes, completely. No account or sign-up needed, and it runs entirely in your browser.
What dictionary does it use?
A large general English word list with over 100,000 words. It’s very generous, but occasionally a word you’d expect might be missing, or an unusual one might be allowed.
How do blank tiles work?
When you place a blank, the game asks which letter you want it to be. It plays as that letter but scores 0 points.
Can I change the difficulty during a game?
Yes. The new setting applies from the computer’s next turn.
Over to you
Start on Beginner or Intermediate, keep an eye on the potential score, and see if you can land a 50-point bonus. Open Word Tiles and play your first word. If you’d like a quicker word game in between, Word Grid is a great three-minute challenge.
Good luck!