Passenger Guide

What is Wordtrak?

Wordtrak is a daily and 1v1 competitive word game.

The daily game lets you compete with everyone globally for the best score. You start each game with a hand comprising seven letters. You'll spell words across a series of traks (scored slot rows). You don't have to play the traks in order.

1v1 Games are best of three or best of five traks against another human or a computer opponent. If you're tied after playing all traks, a sudden death trak is added as a final showdown.

Your Hand

Each round starts by dealing a fresh hand of random letter tiles from the bag.

Then you move to the swap phase. Tap any letters you want to trade for random new letters and hit Swap. If you like what you got and don't want to swap anything, hit Keep Hand.

Choose wisely! Once the swap is done, your hand is locked in for the round. After you swap, your bag and your opponent's bag drift apart based on the choices you each make.

You and your opponent are dealt the same starting hand from identical bags. Your strategy depends on which letters you swap and which trak you take!

Playing a Trak

Tap a trak to select it, then tap the letters in your hand to spell a word. Letters fill the slots left to right.

To remove letters from a trak, tap the offending letter. To delete the whole word, tap the first letter in the trak.

Hit Send when your word is ready. Both players play each trak exactly once; the higher score wins that trak. You can play the traks in any order, but each trak can only be used once per game.

Scoring

Every letter has a point value. Your word score is the sum of its letters, modified by any trak bonuses.

Trak bonuses appear as badges on slots:

2L / 3L multiplies that letter by 2x or 3x.

2W / 3W multiplies entire word by 2x or 3x.

Empty slot penalty: Unfilled slots at the end of a trak cost penalty points (-1, -2, -3)

Fill bonus: Filling every slot earns a bonus equal to 1+2+...+N (where N is the trak length). This bonus is added before word multipliers.

Swaps, Passing

You get one swap in best-of-three games and two swaps in best-of-five games (and the daily game). A swap lets you trade any letters for new ones from the bag without losing your turn. Use it when you're stuck. New letters are assigned randomly from the bag.

You can also pass on a trak, forfeiting your score and giving your opponent the win. Sometimes a strategic pass is better than wasting good letters on a bad trak, or getting negative points.

The Shop

The Shop lets you spend points earned from words on items that bend the rules in your favor. Your final score is what you earn minus what you spend, so every purchase is a bet. Make it count!

You start every Daily game with 3 free Swaps already in your pocket that you can use at any time.

Tap Shop on the round screen to open the menu. Buying only adds items to your cart, nothing is spent until you hit Checkout. Here's what's on the menu:

Swaps (use any time):

• Swap (5 pts): trade picked letters for random tiles.
• Vowel Swap (10 pts): trade picked letters, draw only vowels.
• Consonant Swap (10 pts): trade picked letters, draw only consonants.

Tiles (drop straight into your hand):

• Wildcard (30 pts): pick any letter. It scores 0 but counts toward filling a trak.
• Hotdog (5 pts): a filler worth 0 points. It ends the word where you place it, with no penalty or bonus for it or the slots after.

Traks (tap an unplayed trak to apply, once per trak. Only one of each available per game):

• Express (20 pts): fill the trak to double your score on it. Miss any slot and it scores 0. Stacks with other modifiers.
• Switch (15 pts): reverse a trak's modifiers. If 2L is in the first tile, it moves to the last tile.
• Hoptoad (20 pts): hop a tile off a trak, shortening it by one (down to 3).
• Extra Stop (20 pts): add a tile to a trak, lengthening it by one (up to 7).

Feedback

Thanks for playing! Ideas and feedback are always welcome on our Discord: https://discord.gg/bSBkqfm2MG.