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How to play Codeword

A crossword grid with no clues at all — just numbers. Each number hides a letter, and your job is to crack the code. This is the mode for lovers of logic and patterns.

What it is

Codeword (a kind of cryptogram) uses a crossword-style grid with black squares and words running across and down. The difference is that instead of clues, every white square carries a number in its corner. The rule is simple and strict:

• the same number is always the same letter, anywhere in the grid;
• different numbers are always different letters.

A few letters come revealed at the start to give you a foothold. They show up filled in and can't be changed.

The rules, step by step

1. Pick a number. Tap any square: every square with the same number lights up together.
2. Type a letter. It goes into every square of that number at once. Backspace clears it from all of them.
3. Change your mind freely. If you type a letter that was already on another number, it moves from there to this one — a letter can only belong to one number.
4. Watch the key. Below the grid sits the code table: every number with the letter you've given it so far (or a dot if it's still empty). Revealed letters are highlighted.
5. Finish the code. Once every number has a letter, the game checks automatically. If something's wrong, it tells you, without saying where.

A worked example

The lilac squares came revealed: 3 = C, 1 = A, 4 = E and 5 = L. The pink square is number 7, still unknown.

The across word is 3 1 7 4, so C A ? E. It could be CAKE, CAVE, CARE, CAME, CAFE… On its own it can't decide. But 7 also starts the down word 7 1 5 5: ? A L L. Notice the double 5 — the same number twice means the same letter twice. Four-letter words ending in ALL: BALL, FALL, GALL, HALL, MALL, PALL, TALL, WALL (CALL is out, because C already belongs to 3). Cross the two lists and the field shrinks to a few pairs: F (CAFE and FALL), M (CAME and MALL), G (CAGE and GALL) or P (CAPE and PALL).

This is where patience pays: instead of guessing, look for another word in the grid that contains a 7. Each new word sharing the 7 rules out more letters — and the one left standing fills every 7 at once, opening up the next words.

Strategy and tips

• Start with the words that have the most revealed letters. A word with a single empty square usually has very few possible answers.
• Use letter frequency. In English, E is the most common letter by far, followed by T, A and O. A number that turns up in nearly every word is probably one of them.
• Hunt for patterns. Doubled numbers side by side, like 6 6, point to pairs such as LL, SS, EE or OO. A word shaped 2 8 2 is a palindrome-like pattern with few answers: DID, POP, EYE…
• Remember what's taken. Once L belongs to 5, no other number can be L. The key helps you rule options out.
• Think in endings. -ING, -ED, -ER and -LY are everywhere and give away several numbers at once.

Common mistakes

• Guessing a letter because it fits one word without checking the other squares with that number. Every square with that number has to make sense.
• Forgetting that a letter jumps numbers when you type it elsewhere. If a letter suddenly vanished, it moved to the number you just filled.
• Ignoring the revealed letters in the key: they're the surest anchors you have.

How helps work

• Check marks the numbers that hold a wrong letter (empty numbers don't count). The mark disappears when you change the letter.
• Reveal solves one number that isn't right yet, filling all of its squares.

Helps require a Google sign-in. Right now you get two free uses of each per level (three with Premium), and can then buy a few extras with coins.

Difficulty

On Easy the grid is small, words are short and common, and six letters come revealed. At each step up the grid grows, words get longer and rarer, and the given letters shrink — on Expert you start with only two or three. Codeword is the daily challenge on Sundays and Thursdays, and you can also play it as a team or in Versus.

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