How it works
- On your turn, drag one letter onto the board: the front, the end, or between two letters.
- The board should always be part of a real word. RDV counts, because it's inside AARDVARK.
- If your letter completes a word of four or more letters, you lose the round.
- Instead of playing a letter, you can challenge your opponent's last move.
Two ways to win a round
1. Catch a finished word
Your opponent turns CAK into CAKE. Challenge, and the round is yours.
2. Catch a bluff
Your opponent plays YGH. You don't believe any word contains it, so you challenge. They have to name one. They can't, so they lose the round. But if you'd challenged RDV, they'd say AARDVARK and you would lose.
When to bluff, when to call
- Bluff when every honest letter loses. If each safe-looking letter finishes a word, a letter that only looks like part of a word may be your best move.
- Bluff with something plausible. Common letter pairs get waved through far more often than a Q with no U.
- Call only when you're sure. Odd-looking boards often hide inside long words (GHTM is in NIGHTMARE). A wrong challenge hands over the round.
- Save your escapes. Once per round you can Swap one letter, and once you can Shuffle the whole board. Either can get you out of a corner without bluffing.
Where the game comes from
WordCracker grew out of the classic spoken games Ghost and Superghost, where players take turns adding letters and the one who finishes a word loses. WordCracker lets you put letters anywhere on the board, and a dictionary of about 196,000 words settles every challenge.
Ways to play
- Duel: share a game code with a friend, pass one phone back and forth, or pick Play the World to find an opponent online.
- Solo: Quick Match against the AI at four difficulty levels, and Quest, a long journey against themed opponents.
- Daily Puzzle: a new short puzzle every day.