Tricks to Win in Aworded

The rules of Aworded that allow you to score extra points

The game of Aworded consists of scoring points by forming words in vertical or horizontal direction with the tile letters in your rack. Any new word must be connected to another already on the board by one or more letter tiles—except the first word, which is simply laid out at the center of the board.

The rules in Aworded that allow you to score extra points beyond those given by the letters of the word you play are the following:

• Use the 7 letter tiles in your rack in one move. This is the most obvious and often the best play. If you have 7 letter tiles in your rack and use all of them to form a word, you will get 40 bonus points in addition to those resulting from the values of the played letters.
• Play letters on the DL and TL tile spaces. When you play words by placing tiles on tile spaces marked by DL or TL, the value of the letter placed there is multiplied by two or three respectively. Whenever possible, reserve high-value letters such as Q, Z, J, or X to play them on these tiles.
• Play words on DW and TW tile spaces. If any of the letters you play in a turn falls on a tile space marked with DW or TW, the points of the whole word—that is, the sum of the points for each individual letter—is multiplied by two or three, respectively.
• Expand already played words. When you extend a word already played on the board, you get the points corresponding to the letters you play plus those of the letters of the word. Just take into account that if the word benefitted from one or more DL, TL, DW, or TW tile spaces, or used all of the 7 letters in the rack of the player, you don’t get again these extra points—unless you, of course, use again all the 7 letters in your rack or place your tiles over another of the special tile spaces. And if for any of the previously played letters a wildcard (asterisk) was used, that letter will still give 0 points.
  A particular case for a high-scoring play is when you can extend an existing word by placing a letter over a DW or TW tile space, and then make another word in perpendicular. This will give you the points resulting from both words, multiplied by two or three according to the special tile space used.
• Use letters from existing words. You can benefit from already-played, high-value letters on the board, such as Q, Z, J, and X, regardless whether it was you or your opponent who played them. Simply use them to make new words by forming them in perpendicular—crossing the existing word—, or in parallel—so that each of the letters of the new word also forms a valid word next to the letters of the existing one. The latter is more difficult, but it may also give many more points as each word scores independently.

The special tiles are cumulative. For example, you can place the letters of a single word on a DL or TL tile space, and on a DW or TW one. Then, the points resulting from multiplying the value of the letter on DL or TL by two or three, plus the points corresponding to the rest of the letters played, will be multiplied again by two or three because of occupying the DW or TW tile case.

On the other hand, the extra 40 points that you get when you play all the letters in your rack are fixed, and cannot be incremented by using special tile spaces.

Tricks to play Aworded

Plan your game depending on the value of the letters that you have

When you play, start by checking the value of the letters in your rack. When you don’t have high-scoring letters such as Q, Z, J, or X, the best plays are:

• Use all the letters in your rack to obtain 40 bonus points.
• Form your word next to another word, in parallel.
• Use the special tiles DW or TW.

If you have letters with a high value, try to place them on DL or TL tile spaces to obtain additional points.

Try not to lay out the plays for your opponent

Pay attention to the moves you make available for your opponent after your turn!

Often it is better to obtain less points rather than leaving an easy move to your opponent that will allow them to score many points. Such plays that must be avoided are:

• Words that are easy to continue, in particular when they can be continued by placing tiles in special tile spaces. A common example are words that can be pluralized with S, which allows to easily form another word in perpendicular.
• DW or TW tiles next to or close to a high-value letter.

And take into account that each time that being able to, you don’t occupy a special tile space, you are giving your opponent the opportunity of doing so themselves!

You don’t necessarily have to use as many letters as you can in each turn

The Aworded game ends when one of the two players uses all of their tiles. Then, whoever has obtained more points is the winner—it does not matter who ended the game. In total, there are 98 tiles plus 2 wildcards in a common pot that are handed to each player as they use the ones in their racks to form words. When there are no more tiles in the pot, the players can only use the tiles that they have left in their racks.

In general, the winning strategy is to obtain the maximum possible points per letter. Often, you will find that you can make a word longer by adding a letter, but that by doing so you only get one additional point—which is the value of most letters. In such a case, maybe it will not be in your interest to use the additional letter tile.

You will want to form words with as many letters as possible when:

• You can use all the 7 tiles in your rack to obtain 40 extra points. But be aware that if you have letters of high value, it may be possible to play less tiles and still obtain more points by making use of the special tile spaces. Review all your options!
• The game is close to finishing, and you are winning but your opponent is close. In this situation, it is best to give your opponent the least possible number of opportunities to catch up.

On the other hand, when you are losing it is best to focus on obtaining the most possible points per letter played—in particular, when there are not many tiles in the pot anymore, or they have all been given.

Do not hesitate to swap letters when it is due

If you find yourself with difficult to play letter tiles, such as all vocals or all consonants, or with a particularly difficult to play letter that you cannot foresee to be able to play, do not hesitate to swap tiles.

You lose a turn in which you could have obtained points, but you increase your chances of playing high-scoring words in the next turns.

Get the most out of your wildcards

The number of points you obtain by playing a wildcard tile is always 0, regardless of whether you substitute it for a high- or low-value letter.

Use wildcards mainly to:

• Make words that use all the letters in your rack
• Get rid of difficult to play letters
• Make some other difficult plays such as placing a high-value letter tile on a DL or TL tile space—but not the wildcard itself—, extending difficult words on the board, etc.

Why pass your turn?

When you pass a turn, you simply prolong whatever difficult situation you have until the next turn. It only really makes sense when there are no more tiles in the common pot, so that you cannot swap your tiles, and there is not the possibility of getting better tiles.

It may also be possible that you can form a word with the 7 tiles in your rack, but that you do not have where to place it. If you pass your turn, your opponent may make a play that will allow to play all your tiles. But be careful with this reasoning… On one hand, your opponent’s play may not help you. And on the other, playing all your tiles is not always the way to obtain the highest scores. The secret is in how you place your tiles!

Take your sweet time

The main trick in Aworded is to place your tiles to obtain the highest possible number of points, by combining them with the words on the board and using special tiles. And often, it is difficult to see the best move at once. If you are not sure that the play you have in mind is the best one, take your time.

Aworded is not a real-time game—depending on the game mode you play, you may let days pass by in your turn. If after clearing your mind you take another look at your game, you may see better-scoring plays that you had not seen there before.

So, no rush! Make your play when you are convinced.

Play until the end

Do not let yourself be impressed by an opponent that scores many points at the beginning of the game. A single well laid out play can easily score over one hundred points, and normally you obtain more than fifty each time you use all the letters in your rack. It often happens that, in just a few turns, distances are dramatically shortened.

Therefore… Keep your spirits up, and play your best until the end! You will be surprised how often you end up turning the game around.

The letter tiles played

The letters played in Aworded depend on the language. Even the points given by each letter may change from one language to another.

The basic points that each letter gives, and the number of tiles with that letter that are given throughout the game, are as in the table below. Take this table into account when you plan the words that you can form, in particular when you have difficult to play letters, to know what letter tiles remain to be given from the common pot.

TIP: When you search for words, in the list “Combinations with other letters”, leave the mouse over the suggested letter to see how many times that letter is given throughout the game.

Letter	American English	British English	Spanish
A	1 point 9 tiles	1 point 9 tiles	1 point 12 tiles
B	3 points 2 tiles	3 points 2 tiles	3 points 2 tiles
C	3 points 2 tiles	3 points 2 tiles	3 points 4 tiles
D	2 points 4 tiles	2 points 4 tiles	2 points 5 tiles
E	1 point 12 tiles	1 point 12 tiles	1 point 12 tiles
F	4 points 2 tiles	4 points 2 tiles	4 points 1 tile
G	2 points 3 tiles	2 points 3 tiles	2 points 2 tiles
H	4 points 2 tiles	4 points 2 tiles	4 points 2 tiles
I	1 point 9 tiles	1 point 9 tiles	1 point 6 tiles
J	8 points 1 tile	8 points 1 tile	8 points 1 tile
K	5 points 1 tile	5 points 1 tile	Not played
L	1 point 4 tiles	1 point 4 tiles	1 point 4 tiles
M	3 points 2 tiles	3 points 2 tiles	3 points 2 tiles
N	1 point 6 tiles	1 point 6 tiles	1 point 5 tiles
Ñ	Not played	Not played	8 points 1 tile
O	1 point 8 tiles	1 point 8 tiles	1 point 9 tiles
P	3 points 2 tiles	3 points 2 tiles	3 points 2 tiles
Q	10 points 1 tile	10 points 1 tile	5 points 1 tile
R	1 point 6 tiles	1 point 6 tiles	1 point 5 tiles
S	1 point 4 tiles	1 point 4 tiles	1 point 6 tiles
T	1 point 6 tiles	1 point 6 tiles	1 point 4 tiles
U	1 point 4 tiles	1 point 4 tiles	1 point 5 tiles
V	4 points 2 tiles	4 points 2 tiles	4 points 1 tile
W	4 points 2 tiles	4 points 2 tiles	Not played
X	8 points 1 tile	8 points 1 tile	8 points 1 tile
Y	4 points 2 tiles	4 points 2 tiles	4 points 1 tile
Z	10 points 1 tile	10 points 1 tile	10 points 1 tile