Wordbout: the Spelling Game Like Scrabble, vs the Computer or a Friend

Wordbout is a free online spelling game in the spirit of Scrabble: you play letter tiles on a board, build words off the words already there and use the bonus squares to rack up points. Play it two ways, against a computer opponent from Easy to Expert, or against a friend you invite with a link. You hold six letter tiles at a time, the board is 13 by 13, and the higher score at the end wins. It runs in your browser on a phone or a computer, with no download and no account needed to start.

It is a word game for anyone who likes vocabulary and a bit of strategy. Short games against the computer fit into a coffee break, and a game with a friend can run over a few days, one move at a time.

Two ways to play this word game

Play against the computer, from Easy to Expert

Pick an AI opponent and the game starts at once, like a game of Scrabble against the computer. Easy plays common, everyday words. Medium picks a strong move, though not always the best one. Hard plays the best word it can find every turn. Expert, the fourth seat, plays at full strength like Hard and opens once you sign in. There is also Practice, a board with no opponent at all, for trying out words and learning where the bonus squares pay.

Close the page in the middle of a game and it waits for you: the next visit asks whether you want to carry on. With an account the game follows you to any device, along with your record of games, wins, best score and best single move.

Play with a friend online, by link

Choose to play a friend and Wordbout makes a private link. Send it any way you like, in a message, a chat or an email. The first person who opens it takes the second seat, and from then on the link lets nobody else in. If nobody opens it, it expires after a week.

You take turns, and you do not both have to be online. Each player has one day to make a move; let the day run out and the game goes to the other player. When you are both on the page at the same time, the moves show up almost as soon as they are played, so a game can also be finished in one sitting.

No account is needed for a friend game. Without one you get a player name made up for you and the game is kept in your browser; with one, it follows your account. There is no chat in Wordbout, with anyone, and the boosts are switched off in friend games so both players have exactly the same tools.

How to play Wordbout

1. Each player draws six letter tiles from the tile bag. The first word must cover the star in the middle of the board.
2. Drag letters from your rack onto the board, or tap a letter and then tap a square. All the letters of one move go in a single row or a single column, with no gaps.
3. Every word after the first has to touch a word that is already on the board, by using one of its letters or by sitting right next to it.
4. Press Submit. If every word you made is in the dictionary, you score them all and your rack fills up again from the bag. If one is not, the game names it and your letters stay where they are, so you can fix the move.
5. Not happy with your letters? Exchange them for new ones from the bag, at the cost of your turn, or pass.
6. The game ends when the bag is empty and one player has used every letter, or after six turns in a row in which nobody scored. A player who goes out also gets the points of the letters the other player still holds, and the higher score wins.

Every button in Wordbout, and what it does

The board sits in the middle, your six letters below it and your score and the computer or your friend above. These are the buttons around them.

• 

  Menu

  Opens the side panel with the switches for sound effects and music, How to play and Quit. Quit asks first, and the game you leave stays saved.

• 

  Full screen

  Lets the board fill the whole screen. Press it again, or Escape on a keyboard, to go back.

• 

  Dictionary

  Type the first letters of a word and it lists the words in the game that start with them, so you can check a word before you play it.

• 

  Shuffle

  Mixes the order of the letters in your rack. Seeing them in a new order often shows a word you missed. It costs nothing.

• 

  Exchange

  Lets you pick the letters you want to get rid of, then OK swaps them for new ones from the bag. It uses up your turn. Cancel takes you back.

• 

  Recall

  Brings every letter you have put on the board this turn back to your rack, so you can start the move again.

• SUBMIT

  Submit and Pass

  Submit plays your move and scores it. With no letters on the board the same button says Pass, and it asks before you give up the turn.

While you place letters, the score of the move appears as you go, and the counter at the top shows how many letters are left in the bag.

Letter tiles, scoring and bonus squares

Every letter tile shows its points in the corner. Common letters such as E, A, S and T are worth 1, H, F, V, W and Y are worth 4, J and X are worth 8, and Q and Z are worth 10. The bag holds 100 letters and no blank tiles.

• Letter x2 and letter x3 squares multiply the letter that sits on them.
• Word x2 and word x3 squares multiply the whole word. The star in the middle counts as word x2.
• In Wordbout a bonus square keeps working for the whole game. A new word that runs through a letter on a x3 square gets the x3 again, which is not how most board games of this kind count it.
• Use all six of your letters in one move and you get 50 extra points.
• A move that makes several words at once, the main one plus short words across it, scores each of them.

Boosts and the dictionary

In games against the computer there are four boosts. You get one free at the start of each game, and on wordgames.com you can earn another by watching a short video.

• 

  Word clue

  Shows you a good word you can play right now, and where it goes.

• 

  Cell radar

  Lights up every square where your letters can make a word, all over the board.

• 

  Wild card

  Turns one of your letters into a blank that can be any letter. Pick the letter, then the one it should become.

• 

  Free swap

  Changes the letters you choose without losing your turn, unlike Exchange.

Stuck on whether a word exists? The Dictionary button checks it and lists the words that start with the letters you type, so you can look before you play.

Strategy tips to outscore your opponent

• Because bonus squares never wear out, a word that already sits on a word x3 square is an invitation. Build through one of its letters and you get the x3 again.
• The 50 point bonus for using all six letters is worth more than most single words. Keep endings such as ING, ER and ED in your rack and the six letter play comes up far more often.
• Put Q, Z, J and X on letter x3 squares. A Z on a letter x3 is 30 points before the rest of the word is counted.
• Laying a word right alongside another one scores the short words it forms across as well, and together they can beat the main word.
• Watch the squares you open up. A long word that ends next to a word x3 square hands that square to your opponent.
• Against Hard and Expert, exchange a rack of all vowels or all consonants early instead of playing three point words for several turns.