Letter by Letter

How to play

Every word comes with a short clue and a row of empty boxes, one box per letter. Every 3 seconds one of the boxes opens by itself, at random, and shows its letter. The last box never opens, so there’s always something left to work out.

Everyone in the room sees the same boxes at the same moment, and each of you has exactly one guess per word. Type the word whenever you think you know it. The earlier you do, the more it’s worth: every box that’s still closed is 100 points. Get it wrong and you lose 50 points per closed box, and you sit out the rest of that word.

You never see what the others typed. All you see is who got it, who missed, and when. A rival’s tick tells you the word can be found with what’s on the screen, and nothing more.

A word ends when everyone has guessed, or 3 seconds after only one box is left closed. Then the answer appears with who scored what. A game is 7 words, and they get longer as it goes: 4 letters first, then 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and finally 10. The highest total at the end wins.

Scoring

• Right: +100 for every box still closed when you guess.
• Wrong: −50 for every box still closed, and you’re out for that word.
• No guess: 0.

So the four-letter opener is worth 400 at most, and the ten-letter finale up to 1,000. Take an eight-letter word:

• Guess it before any box opens: 800. Miss at that point: −400.
• Guess it with five boxes still closed: 500. Miss: −250.
• Guess it with only the last box closed: 100. Miss: −50.

Whatever the moment, a wrong guess costs half of what a right one would have paid.

An example word

Four friends, and the fifth word of the game. The clue reads “It keeps the rain off you”, and there are eight boxes.

Dan doesn’t wait. All eight boxes are still closed, the word is worth 800, and he types RAINCOAT. Eight letters, wrong word: −400, and he’s out for this one. All the others see is “Dan missed”.

Three seconds in, the fourth box opens: an R. Seven boxes are closed. Another three seconds, and the last box shows an A. Grace looks at the R, the A and the clue, and types UMBRELLA with six boxes still closed: +600.

The first box opens next, a U. Lucy sends her guess with five closed: +500. Omar wanted to be certain, waits for one more letter and takes +400.

Everyone has guessed, so the word ends there, and the boxes flip to show UMBRELLA. Grace 600, Lucy 500, Omar 400, Dan −400. Dan decides to count the letters he can see next time.

Playing alone

Letter by Letter works well as a solo puzzle. Open a room, start it on your own, and you get the same clues, the same boxes and the same clock. With nobody to race, the only question is how early you dare to guess. A perfect game, every word guessed before a single box opens, would be 4,900 points. Nobody gets that, but it’s a good number to chase over a coffee.

Tips

Count the boxes before anything else. The length is a clue in itself. If you type a word with the wrong number of letters, the game won’t take it and tells you how long the word is. That doesn’t use up your guess.

Read the clue twice. Clue plus length usually leaves two or three candidates. One opened letter is often enough to choose between them.

Know what waiting costs. One more box is 100 points less. A miss on a long word with everything closed can cost 400 or 500. If you have a hunch but not an answer, one more letter is cheap insurance.

Still, don’t wait for certainty. A right guess always pays twice what a wrong one costs. If you’re fairly sure, guessing now usually beats guessing two letters later.

Short words are a sprint. The four-letter opener is over in about twelve seconds. Have your finger ready.

Play the scoreboard. If you’re behind, guess earlier on the long words at the end, where the big points are. If you’re ahead, let the others take the risks.

Type it however you like. Capitals, accents and spaces make no difference. Only the letters count.

Free rooms and Guezzer Pass

Free rooms play 7 words. With Guezzer Pass, the host can open 10-word games, with extra short words at the start and a second ten-letter word to finish.

When it works best

Letter by Letter takes 1 to 12 players, and a game lasts two or three minutes. That makes it a good opener while people are still joining, or a quick break between longer games. It suits crossword fans and quick thinkers equally: a big vocabulary helps, but so does nerve. Everyone types on their own phone, so it plays the same on a video call as round a table. In a big group the feed fills up with ticks and crosses within seconds, and holding your nerve gets a lot harder.

Questions people ask

Does my spelling have to be exact?

The letters have to be right. Capitals, accents and spaces are ignored, so there’s no need to switch keyboards mid-game.

Can I change my guess?

No. One guess per word is the whole game. The only exception is a guess with the wrong number of letters, which isn’t accepted and doesn’t count against you.

Does everyone get the same word?

Yes. Everyone sees the same clue, and the same boxes open in the same order at the same moment. The only difference is when each of you dares to guess.

Are the words the same in every language?

No. Every language has its own words and clues, written for the people who speak it. A Turkish or Spanish room isn’t the English game in translation.