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How to play Twist

A wheel of letters, an empty grid and no clues. In Twist — called Torto in the Portuguese version — you build words by linking the wheel letters with your finger, and every hit fills in more of the grid. Quick to learn and made for phones.

What it is

At the bottom of the screen sits the wheel, with up to seven shuffled letters. Above it is a crossword grid with no clues: all you see are empty squares, which tell you each word's length. Every word in the grid can be spelled with the wheel letters — and one of them uses all of them.

The rules, step by step

1. Build a word. Touch a letter on the wheel and drag through the others in order. A line traces your path.
2. Let go to send. Lifting your finger submits the word. If it's in the grid, it drops into place.
3. Fix it on the way. Wrong last letter? Slide back to the previous letter and the last one is undone.
4. Each letter counts once per word. If the wheel has one E, your word can only use one E. If it has two, you can use both.
5. Only grid words count. A real word that isn't part of this level gets a "Not in this level" message. A repeat tells you you've already found it. Wrong tries cost nothing.
6. Fill the grid. Once every square is filled, the level is done.

On a computer you can use the keyboard: type the letters (only those on the wheel) and press Enter to send; Backspace deletes.

A worked example

Picture a wheel with the letters S, T, O, N, E. The grid holds four words: two already found (in green) and two still empty.

STONE (across) and SET (down) are in. Still missing: a three-letter word down from the O and a three-letter word across from the T.

See how the grid helps: the words cross, so the O from STONE and the T from SET are now the first letters of the missing words. Three letters from S, T, O, N, E starting with O: ONE. Three starting with T and ending in the E that ONE just placed: TOE. Drag O‑N‑E, then T‑O‑E, and the level is solved.

Those same five letters could also make NOTE, TONE, NEST, TEN or SON… but if they aren't in the grid, they don't count this time.

Strategy and tips

• Find the big word early. The word that uses every letter usually crosses several others and hands them letters.
• Use the square counts. The grid shows how many three-, four- or five-letter words are left. Focus on one length at a time.
• Shuffle. The button in the middle of the wheel moves the letters around. Seeing them in a new order often reveals words that were staring at you.
• Think in families. If STONE is in, try rearrangements and pieces: TONE, NOTE, ONE. One word found is a great springboard for the next.
• Read the crossings. A letter already sitting in a shared square tells you exactly where an empty word starts or ends.

Common mistakes

• Trying two-letter words: grid words always have three letters or more.
• Using a letter twice when the wheel only has one.
• Expecting bonus words. Twist has no extras: only the words in the grid count.

How the help works

Twist has no Check, because everything that lands in the grid is already correct. The help on offer is Reveal, which shows the letter of one empty square chosen at random. It requires a Google sign-in and follows the same rules as other levels: a few free uses per level (more with Premium), then extras bought with coins. A word only counts as found once all its squares are filled.

Difficulty and daily limits

On Easy the wheel has five or six letters and the grid about four everyday words. Medium brings six or seven letters and five words. Hard and Expert go up to seven letters and six words, and Expert's vocabulary gets far less obvious.

Signed in, you get five new Twist levels free every day (seven with Premium). After that each new level costs a few coins or an ad — and replaying a finished level is always free. Twist is also the daily challenge on Mondays and Saturdays, and works in group play: as a team or in Versus, where every correct word scores instantly for whoever is on turn.

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