Word Tumble

What is Word Tumble?

Word Tumble is a word grid game on a 6 by 6 board of letter tiles. Trace a path through touching letters to spell a word, and those tiles fall out of the grid. Everything above them drops down and fresh letters fall in from the top, so the board is always changing. A Classic round lasts two minutes.

Every board we deal is checked so that there are plenty of words hiding in it, usually hundreds. It's free and plays in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer with no download.

How to play

• Words are 3 to 8 letters long.
• Each letter has to touch the one before it: up, down, sideways or diagonally.
• You can't use the same tile twice in one word.
• The Q tile counts as Qu, so QUIT is spelled with three tiles.
• Each word only scores once per round.

Lift your finger (or let go of the mouse) to play the word. If it isn't a word, the path shakes and nothing happens. Slide back over the tile you just added to undo it. If the clock runs out mid-swipe, you get 3 seconds to finish the word you're on.

Controls

• Phone or tablet: swipe across the tiles. Tap Shuffle to scramble the board.
• Computer: drag with the mouse, or just type the word. The game finds the path on the board for you as you type, and Enter or Space plays it. Backspace removes a letter, and Esc clears your word or pauses.
• Shuffle costs 10 seconds in timed rounds, and it's free in Zen.

Scoring

Each letter has a value. A word's score is the total of its letters, times a length multiplier, times 10.

So CAT is worth 50 points and STONE is worth 100. Long words climb fast: a six letter word with a couple of 3 point letters can be worth 300 or more on its own.

There's also a streak bonus. Play a word within 6 seconds of your last one and you get an extra 10 percent, building up to 50 percent for a hot streak.

Gems, comets and stars

Long words leave something behind. The last tile of the word stays on the board with a new letter and a special power:

Tiles cleared by a comet or star add 10 times their letter value to your score. Two gems in one word double it twice. The trick is setting up combos: a five letter word makes a gem, and a word that runs through that gem scores double.

Modes

• Classic: two minutes, a fresh random board. This is the Play button.
• Daily Board: the same starting board for everyone, new each day at midnight UTC. Two minutes, and your score keeps your day streak going.
• Zen: no timer. Take your time, use the Hint button whenever you like (it lights up the first two tiles of a word of 4 or more letters and tells you its length), and tap Finish when you're done.

When a round ends you see every word you found, your top word and your longest, plus up to five words that were still hiding on the final board. Signed-in players can post scores to the leaderboards.

Trophies and tiles

The Trophy Shelf keeps your first 5, 6, 7 and 8 letter words, and a row for the rare letters Q, Z, J and X. Use each one in a word to fill its spot. Your longest words ever are listed there too.

Every word you find adds to your lifetime total, which unlocks new tile styles. You start with Maple wood, then get Paper at 40 words, Clay at 100, Glass at 200, Slate at 350, Neon at 550 and Gold at 800.

Tips for bigger scores

• Look for endings first. Find -ER, -ED, -ING, -EST or -S on the board, then work backward to see what you can attach. One stem often gives you two or three words (RATE, RATED, RATER).
• Plurals are fair game. If you found STONE and there's an S touching the E, STONES is another word, and it's longer so it scores more.
• Think about gravity. Clearing tiles low on the board drops everything above them, which can break up a word you spotted higher up. Clearing tiles near the top leaves the lower rows alone. So if you've spotted a long word low down, play it before you clear anything right above it.
• Chain your gems. After a five letter word, look for a word that runs through the new gem. Double points on a long word is the biggest swing in the game.
• Use comets and stars on crowded rows. Their bonus points come from the letters they clear, so aim them at rows full of high value letters like K, W, Y and V.
• Keep the streak alive. Short words still count. When you're hunting for something long, toss in a quick three letter word every few seconds to hold your streak bonus.
• Shuffle late, not early. In timed modes a shuffle costs 10 seconds. Only shuffle when you really can't see anything.

If you enjoy making words from a fixed set of letters, Sun Wheel gives you seven letters and asks how many words you can find. For hunting hidden words instead of building them, try the Seek & Sail word search.

Questions