Rules

Words must connect to tiles already down, sit in one line, and every word they touch has to be real. Tiles left in your rack or in the bag are subtracted at the end.

A legal play

• Every tile placed in a turn sits in one row or one column.
• Together with the tiles already there, they form one unbroken word, with no gaps.
• The word connects to a tile already on the board.
• Every word the play forms, across and down, is in the dictionary.
• A single tile never makes a word by itself, not even a two-letter digraph.

Scoring

Each tile scores its points, and the premium squares under the new tiles multiply a tile, multiply a word, or add a bonus. Every cross word a play forms scores too.

• No word is multiplied more than 6 times in total, however many word squares it crosses.
• No single tile is multiplied more than 6 times.
• No play ever scores below zero.
• Using 4 tiles in one play adds 20 points.
• Using 5 tiles in one play adds 60 points.
• Using 6 tiles in one play adds 120 points.
• Using 7 tiles in one play adds 240 points.
• A play that fills the last empty square of a whole row or column scores 1.5 times its points, rounded down, plus 50, once however many lines it finishes.

Rack and bag

Your rack holds 7 tiles. After each play it is refilled from the bag, in the bag's fixed order, which is the same for everyone playing that puzzle.

End of the round

A round ends when you have made every play your difficulty allows (Easy: 5, Medium: 6, Hard: 7, Brutal: 8), when no legal play is left, or when you end it yourself. The points of every tile left in your rack or in the bag are then subtracted from your score.

Grading

Your final score is compared with the best line the solver found for the same puzzle, as a percentage of its score. Finding a line the solver missed can take you past 100%.