How to Win at Words with Friends

I play a lot of different opponents on Words with Friends and only two or three of them are equal or better than me.  Like most people, I prefer playing evenly matched competitions.  I can't really bear to re-match people who can't score at least 200 points on me, and I can't imagine it's fun for them to repeatedly lose by 100 or 200 points either.

I thought it might be fun and help people if I gave a few tips to help them score better.  There really are just a few rules of thumb that can make you score much, much higher.  You don't need a huge vocabulary, though of course that helps.

I don't advocate obstructionist playing.  I don't think you'd win much more often, and stuck boards are no fun to play on.  Given two similar-scoring words, I always play the move that's best for opening up the board.  Of course a super scoring word is worth blocking further development, but I try to avoid this.  Only with some of my more competitive matches will I try to avoid setting up my opponent for an easy triple word score.

If you follow only the Basic Tips, you'll start scoring much better and having more fun.  If you follow all of the strategies and actively develop your vocabulary, you'll start averaging 15-20 points or more per turn, and start playing 50, 60, and 70 point words with some regularity.

Andy's Tips for Winning at Words with Friends:

Basic Tips:

1.  Always try to make as many words per turn as possible.  This is the most important and least practiced strategy.  You can only lay tiles in one direction, but you can make words in the perpendicular direction by laying your tiles next to previously played tiles.  Any tiles you lay that appear in two words are counted twice, including any letter bonus.  (Tiles that were already on the board before you played are only counted once, and you don't get the letter bonus they may have carried when they were originally played).  Try to extend high-value existing words while playing your word in the perpendicular direction.  Actively seek out overlaps you can use to make three or four words per turn.
2. An 'S' is a very valuable tile to have, because you can use the above principle to pluralize a high-value word that's already on the board, in addition to whatever word(s) you can make with your other tiles that you lay with the 'S'.  Try to hold on to the 'S' until you can use it in this way.
3.  Unless the game's almost over, hold on to your high-value tiles (8 or above) until you can at least double or triple them.  For higher multipliers, see tip 7.
4.  I try to use everyday words when I play, because it's more enjoyable for me.  However, there are some special words that are so valuable in making those ridiculous 50-100 point words, it's crazy to not memorize them and use them.  And who enjoys being stuck with a 'Q' and no 'U'?  So if you use any special words at all, these are my suggested top seven to remember: Jo, Ka, Xi, Xu, Qi, Qat, and Za.  These can all be pluralized with an 'S'.

Advanced Tips:

5.  If you have a really crappy rack full of 1-point vowels, exchange most or all of them.  If you don't get high-value tiles, you generally can't win.  Getting zero for one turn is better than getting 5 points for four turns in a row.
6.  The Greek alphabet provides some gems that I sometimes use to make a great multi-word play.  For example: mu, nu, pi.  Click here for the whole list.  Just memorizing the ones with two- and three-letter names is sufficient.
7.  For ridiculous scoring words, you need to understand and exploit the compounding multiplier effect of the bonus squares.  Letter multiples (if any) are applied before the word multiplier (if any) is applied.  So a tile played on a triple letter square that's also in a word that's tripled is multiplied by 9.  Obviously, playing a higher-value tile on one of these squares can add up pretty quickly.  Even a four-point tile that's tripled twice adds 36 points to your word score.  There are also ample opportunities to multiply higher value tiles by 4, by playing them on a double letter square in a double word play.  These can result in pretty decent scores.  Also remember that if you can cover two double word bonus squares in a single play, your whole word will get multiplied by 4.  I generally plan most of my plays around some sort of combination of bonus squares.
8.  Note that if you use all seven tiles in a single play, you get a large bonus.  They don't say what it is, but I think it's 35 points.  This is fun, but it's hard.  The worst is when I can form a seven-letter word from my rack, but can't find a way to attach it to the board!
9.  Keep an eye on your vowel-consonant mix.  You'll be able to play longer words if you have roughly equal numbers of each.  So if you have too many of one type, play as many of them as you can on a turn.  It's worth it to accept a lower-scoring word if it helps you even out your vowel-consonant mix for the next turn.
10.  There's no penalty for trying out words that turn to be not acceptable words.  If you are unable to find a good play with words you know, you can try out a series of words that seem to generally follow the rules of English spelling.  You may be surprised what crazy sequences are accepted.


That's it!