A word is worth the value of its letters, multiplied by a bonus for its length. The bonus is the whole game:

So CAT is 4 points and an eight-letter word off the same sort of letters is around 100. Every letter past eight adds another ×3.

Qu is one tile and two letters. It counts as two towards the length bonus, which makes it the best tile on the board rather than an awkward one.

Bonus tiles. A six-letter word leaves a green tile among the letters that fall in; an eight-letter word leaves a gold one. A later word over a green tile scores double, over a gold tile triple — the best gem in the word, not both together. A gem rides its tile as it falls and through a shuffle, and is spent when the tile is played.

Hints are counted. Every hint you take is shown beside your score on the leaderboard. A hinted word still scores in your game, but its points don’t count on the leaderboard, and it is never your longest word. The first hint is the shortest word there is; ask again for a longer one.

Every word you play may set a tile alight, and short words are far more likely to — a six-letter word early on is completely safe. The pressure rises as the game goes on, so it catches up with everybody eventually.

A burning tile burns through the tile below it every turn: that tile is gone, and the column drops a row. When one reaches the bottom row, your next word has to use it — spell it and the fire is out; play anything else and the library burns. That is the only way a game ends.

Shuffle rearranges every letter, which is how you get a fire you cannot spell to become one you can. It drops every fire a row and lights two more, so it is an escape and not a free move.

If a real word is refused, check the tray: a Qu tile spells two letters, so a word can be shorter in tiles than it looks. If it still refuses, the word is not in this dictionary — the line below names the list, and the server judged with the same one.

A game you left in the middle is not lost. It is kept on this device and the Play screen offers to continue it, rankable for twelve hours from when the board was dealt; after that it plays on but will not go on the shared board.

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