Start with the letters you still need
A long word and a useful word are not always the same thing. A useful move adds letters your chain has not covered and leaves a starting letter you can continue from. Check both before submitting. This is especially helpful near the end, when one missing letter can decide whether the next word finishes the board.
In our practice game, dots identify letters already used in accepted words. Filled tiles show letters in the word you are currently building. A filled tile does not increase your score until that word is accepted.
Turn the board into a small checklist
Separate three questions: which letters are missing, which letter must come next, and which side transitions are legal? Keeping those constraints separate makes it easier to spot why an attractive word does not fit.
- Read the used-letter count and identify the missing letters.
- Keep the previous word’s ending letter as your required start.
- Test a candidate’s consecutive letters against their sides.
- Check whether its ending offers a continuation if the board is still incomplete.
Worked example: five letters covered
Practice-board spoiler: the example below shows a complete solution to the sample board.
With top RXT, right VAI, bottom OCP and left ENL, CLOVE is legal. Its path alternates bottom, left, bottom, right and left. It covers five different letters and ends in E.
The missing letters are R, X, T, A, I, P and N. EXPIRATION starts with E and includes all seven. The two words together cover the whole board. Reusing E and O does not cause a problem: reuse is allowed as long as adjacent letters come from different sides.
Judge a continuation by the whole chain
Do not reject a short word simply because it adds few letters. It may provide a useful starting letter for the next move. Conversely, a word with many repeated letters can look impressive without adding much coverage.
On this site, every complete solve earns 220 points. That total measures completion, not efficiency. Compare accepted word counts when you want to improve a solution. A two-word finish is a useful goal for this sample, not a promise for every possible custom board.
Practice without losing the thread
Undo lets you revisit a choice, and Redo restores it. A completed attempt is recorded only once in your practice statistics even if you undo the final word. To try a fresh approach, restart and begin another attempt on the same board.
Try the practice game, review the full rules, or read why a word is rejected when a candidate fails.