Help & Support

Everything about playing WordSwoop, and what to do when something misbehaves.

Don't have the game yet? Get WordSwoop on the App Store or play today's puzzle in your browser.

WHAT'S NEW

Challenge a friend — finish a classic round and tap Challenge a friend. They get your exact board and your score to beat, and can play it straight away in a browser, no app needed.
Clearer hints — a hint now numbers each letter in order and draws an arrow to the last one, so you can see exactly where the word starts, which way to swipe, and where it ends.
Earn extra powerups — out of powerups? Watch a short video to earn one more, up to three extra a day. Tap the button on the home screen before a round, or the purple box in the powerup row during one.
Anytime Battle fix — battles waiting on Game Center to find opponents no longer end after the first turn.
Anytime Battle — bigger tables, no need to be online at the same time. Play your turn whenever you like, name the table so it's easy to spot in your list, and the highest score wins once everyone has gone. Find it from the home screen.
More time on the clock — rounds are now two and a half minutes instead of two, based on feedback that the game felt rushed.
Share your results — post a spoiler-free summary of any round from the results screen.
Daily reminder — a gentle nudge to keep your streak alive. Toggle it from the bell icon on the home screen.

How to play

Drag your finger across touching letters — sideways, up and down, or diagonally.
Words need at least three letters. Each tile can be used once per word.
Lift your finger to submit. Green means it counted, red means it isn't in the dictionary, amber means you already found it.
Slide back onto the previous tile to undo a letter mid-word.

The Qu tile counts as both letters at once, so tracing it in Qu-I-Z spells a four-letter word.

Scoring

Longer words are worth disproportionately more, so hunting one six-letter word beats grabbing several quick three-letter ones.

Word length	Points
3 letters	1
4 letters	2
5 letters	4
6 letters	7
7 letters	11
8 or more	16

Powerups

Every player gets three powerup uses a day, shared across all three kinds. They refill at midnight by your device's clock.

Powerup	What it does
Time +30s	Adds thirty seconds to the clock, mid-round.
Hint	Shows a word you haven't found yet for three seconds. Each letter is numbered in order, and an arrow points into the last one — start at 1 and follow the line.
Shuffle	Re-rolls the board without losing your score. Classic rounds only — a daily or battle board has to stay identical for every player.

Earning extra powerups

You can earn up to three extra powerups a day by watching a short video. There are two places to do it:

Before a round: tap Watch an ad for +1 powerup in the Level card on the home screen. It also shows how many more you can earn today.
During a round: once you've used all your powerups, the counter at the end of the powerup row turns purple and reads watch ad. The round clock pauses while the video plays, so it never costs you time.

The extra powerup is added once the video finishes. Closing it early doesn't count. Earned powerups reset at midnight along with the free ones.

The four ways to play

Classic

A fresh board and two and a half minutes on the clock. Every board is checked for quality before you see it, so you always get one worth playing.

Daily puzzle

One board a day, the same for everyone. Come back as often as you like — your finds carry over, and only new words add to your score. Playing keeps your streak alive.

Battle

The same board as up to five opponents, at the same time, through Game Center. Watch everyone's score climb live, and see the final standings when time runs out. Invite friends or let Game Center fill the table.

Anytime Battle

The same idea as Battle, but nobody has to be online at once. Play your turn whenever you like, then pass it on — the table settles once everyone has gone. Good for bigger groups and for playing with friends in other time zones.

Common questions

I can't hear any sound.

Check the speaker button at the top right of the home screen — tap it to unmute. WordSwoop also respects your iPhone's ring/silent switch, so the game stays quiet when your phone is silenced.

The leaderboards say they can't connect.

Make sure you're signed in to Game Center under iOS Settings. Newly published leaderboards can also take a while to appear the first time. Your scores are saved on your device either way, and post as soon as the connection works.

Where did my progress go?

Progress lives on your device, not in the cloud, so deleting the app clears it and it doesn't move between devices. Reinstalling starts a fresh game.

A word I know was rejected.

Word checking uses the ENABLE word list, a standard English dictionary of roughly 270,000 entries. It's broad, but proper nouns, abbreviations, and some newer words simply aren't in it.

The daily board changed. When does it reset?

At midnight, by your device's own clock. Every player on the same date gets the same board.

Why is Shuffle greyed out in the daily puzzle or a battle?

Reshuffling changes the board, and daily and battle boards have to stay identical for every player — so Shuffle only works in Classic rounds. Time and Hint still work everywhere.

I don't see the option to watch a video for a powerup.

The button only appears when a video is ready to play, so you're never left waiting on a blank screen. If none is available, the game checks again every minute — give it a moment, or try again later. It also disappears once you've earned your three extra powerups for the day.

Does watching a video during a round cost me time?

No. The round clock pauses while the video plays and picks up exactly where it left off.

A battle is stuck on "Syncing the board".

Both players need to be signed in to Game Center with a working connection. The game retries on its own and gives up after twenty seconds — leave the battle and start another. If it happens every time, get in touch.

How long do I have to take my turn in an Anytime Battle?

About a week. Anytime Battles are meant to fit around your day, not the other way around, so nobody gets bumped from a table just for taking a day or two to get to their turn.

An Anytime Battle ended right after my turn and says "No one joined".

Versions before 1.4.0 ended a battle as soon as its creator played if Game Center hadn't found the other players yet. That's fixed — update the app and start a new battle. While Game Center looks for opponents, your match shows Finding opponents via Game Center.

How do challenge links work?

After a classic round, Challenge a friend shares a link to the exact board you just played, along with your score. Anyone who opens it can play that board for the same two and a half minutes, in a browser or in the app, and see who came out ahead. Rounds where you used Shuffle can't be sent as a challenge, because the score covers more than one board. Challenge rounds earn XP but don't count toward the leaderboards.

Contact

Bugs, ideas, or a word you think should count: support@pgaming.app