Word Mania

How to play Word Mania

Letters are stacked on the board. You build words from what is exposed.

• Select letters to spell a word.
• Valid words clear and the stack settles.
• Letters that were buried become available.
• Longer words are worth more.
• Clear the stack, or reach the target, to finish the level.

Depth changes the problem

In a normal anagram game every letter is available all the time, so the only limit is what you can see.

Here, taking an easy word can bury the letter you needed for a longer one, or expose exactly the one that unlocks it. Before submitting anything, glance at what sits underneath the letters you are about to remove.

The phrase chains

Words connect into longer phrases as you go, which is where the larger scores come from. That rewards holding on rather than clearing quickly, and it is the one place in the game where slower play scores better.

Tips and strategy

Search in a fixed order

Left to itself your brain offers up the words you use most, in the order you use them, and then stops. A deliberate sweep produces the ones it would never have suggested.

• Every three letter word first. They are fast and they warm up how you are reading the letters.
• Add S to each of them wherever an S is available.
• Take each three letter word and try one letter on the front, then one on the back.
• Only then hunt for the long word, which by that point is usually half assembled in your head.

Endings do most of the work

ER, ED, LY, ES and ING are the most productive suffixes in English. ING in particular consumes three letters at once, which is often what unlocks the longest slot on a board.

RE, UN, IN and DE on the front do the same job from the other direction.

Watch the vowels

Count them before starting. A pile with one vowel produces short blunt words and there is no point hunting for a nine letter answer. Three or more vowels and the long word almost certainly uses all of them.

Letter pairs English actually uses

TH, CH, SH, ST, TR, PL, BR, CR and NG. If one of these is sitting available, it is nearly always part of an answer. Building from a pair rather than a single letter halves the search.

When the board resists

Stop looking at the whole pile. Pick any three exposed letters and read them in every order out loud. Then pick a different three. It feels mechanical and it is several times faster than staring at the board waiting for something to appear.

What most players leave behind

Plurals. Almost every board has an S somewhere, and almost every noun found is worth checking again with it attached. It is the single largest source of missed points in every game of this type.

Score the long word, but not first

Longer words are worth more, which tempts people into hunting for the biggest possible answer before entering anything.

That is backwards on a stacked board. Every short word you take reshapes the pile, and the long word you were looking for may not have been available yet. Clearing the easy layer often exposes the letters that make the big word possible, so the sequence that scores highest usually starts with the words that score least.

The exception is when a long word is already fully exposed. Take that one immediately, because the next clear may bury a letter it needs.

Word length and the clock

If the level is timed, short words also keep the board moving, and a board that moves gives you new material. Standing still to search for a nine letter word while the timer runs is the most expensive habit in the game.

Other word games here

Word Sauce and Free Words set the same problem with different presentation, Words From Words: Sea adds a crossword grid to fill, and Outspell is the version where you play against an opponent. More in word.