Strategies that actually help

1. Start with the awkward letters

Every board has one or two letters that feel hard to place: a J, a Q-less Z, a vowel sitting alone on a side. Those letters are the puzzle. Plan your first word around them, because a word that leaves the awkward letters for last usually cannot reach them at all — the chain will have moved on.

Before you tap anything, scan the four sides and ask: which letter would I hate to be left with? Build toward it early.

2. Think in sides, not just letters

The side rule is the real constraint. A promising word can collapse because two of its letters sit on the same side. Read the board as four groups of three, and rehearse a word side by side: Top, Right, Top, Bottom, Left… If two in a row repeat a side, the word needs a different spelling or a different word entirely.

It helps to notice which sides are vowel-heavy and which are consonant-heavy. Words naturally alternate between them — lean into that rhythm instead of fighting it.

3. Plan backwards from the link

In a two-word solve, the link letter — the last letter of word one and the first letter of word two — does double duty. Choose it deliberately. A flexible link letter such as S, T, E or R can start many second words; a rare letter as a link narrows your options sharply.

A useful exercise: pick a candidate second word first, note its first letter, then look for a first word that ends there and covers the remaining letters.

4. Use long words, but not at any cost

Longer words cover more letters, which is why two-word solves exist. But a long word that repeats letters you have already covered wastes its length. Count new letters, not total letters. The game shows you how many new letters each submitted word added — use that number to judge whether a word earned its place.

5. Keep a spare letter in reserve

When you have two or three letters left, you need a word that starts with the required link letter and reaches them without breaking the side rule. Before submitting a word, glance at the remaining letters and check that at least one plausible next word exists. If not, a different spelling of the current word — or a different word altogether — will usually fix it.

6. Use hints as planning tools, not answers

A hint's first tap tells you a starting letter and a length. That is often enough to find the word yourself, which is more satisfying and teaches you the board. Save the second tap — the full reveal — for when you are genuinely stuck, and treat the revealed word as a lesson in how that board fits together. See also the hints guide.

7. Practise the pattern, not the puzzle

Practice puzzles use the same rules with different letters, so the skill transfers. Play one practice board a day with a specific focus — today, awkward letters first — and the daily puzzle will start to feel familiar even when its letters are new.

A note on “perfect” solves

A two-word solve is excellent. A three- or four-word solve that follows the rules is a complete solve, and it counts exactly the same in your statistics. Chasing the shortest possible chain is fun; it is not the point. The point is the quiet moment when the last letter lights up.