Word Wipe Strategy

[BradK250887]

I see every day that the leading scorers are in the 40,000 range.  I am far from illiterate, but I rarely score above 11,000.  Is there a strategy, a technique to get more time or more words?  The enormous but consistent discrepancy is a great curiosity.  Any advice?

[MJmtn22]

Here it is. What a relief to play the game for 20-30 minutes instead of hours. And without the bombs it really makes one relearn the necessity to clear the board without the help of all those extra bombs 🙂

https://games.aarp.org/games/word-wipe

[SusanM351147]

I just scored 185,662, made it to level 121. I think I need to take a break from this. Honestly, I was relieved when it was finally over... Nobody has said if they're able to play on the Washington Post site (where you get bonus bombs), but I'll tell you what I did:

I took the bonus bombs in every round (no ads), and I wasn't shy about using them. If you're running low on time and are not close to winning the round, use those bombs! Even if you see words you can make! This takes some discipline.

If I only needed one bomb to finish clearing the board, I did that.

I found at least 3 words I could get quickly before beginning and paused whenever I didn't see anything immediately. When you're in the 60-second rounds, go for quick and easy words rather than longer ones that require twists and turns.

Better than the pause button is the "exit" button just to the left of it. Somebody else here mentioned it (thanks!); you can see more of the board, if you need to. 

I took breaks to calm my nerves and drank a large Negroni. I also smoked a lot of cigarettes, but I don't recommend that.

Here's the link again, for WaPo:

https://games.washingtonpost.com/games/word-wipe

If somebody would like to tell me if they can play there without subscribing, that would be nice.  

[MJmtn22]

What a great (and perfect) description of heading for the big numbers. Buckle in folks. There's a price for everything. Thanks for the outright laughter at your comment. It was dead on correct:

"I took breaks to calm my nerves and drank a large Negroni. I also smoked a lot of cigarettes, but I don't recommend that."

[LindaP439124]

 Large Negroni, I want one!  Where are you located? We drink those in San Francisco as there or were before Covid, many Italian restaurants!  

[JeanG704440]

Thanks for the hints, Susan.  I knew something was wrong as I was only getting 3 - 7 (rarely 7) bonus bombs per game, and I never knew how I got them.  It was not for clearing the board, though that did double the score for that round.  I think it was for long words, but never after round 13 or so.  Anyway, I strove to get over 20,000 most games.  Then I saw some scores here over 100K.  Wow!  I knew I was missing something.  I just went to the Wa Po site and got the 2 bombs per round, and went to 30,000 with 16 bombs left when I had to quit.  I was using the Arcade Thunder site until they discontinued Wordwipe, and then I was using aarp's site.  Thanks for the help.

[SusanM351147]

I opened the game as I usually do, logged out of WaPo and the bombs are still there. Here's the link: https://games.washingtonpost.com/games/word-wipe

[SusanM351147]

BTW I have to be signed in at WaPo to see my score on the Leaderboard. It's $10/month and I subscribe for the journalism, which is excellent  - IMO. ("Your mileage may vary," as we often say at the NYT crossword blog.)

[BoiseEd]

I do enjoy WaPo journalism, but I can't say it and the puzzle-bomb advantage are worth $120 a year to me.

[SusanM351147]

I get that. But I choose to support the newspapers I feel are trusted sources so they don't all disappear, and then I won't know what to believe. 

[BoiseEd]

I agree with supporting trusted sources, but there are so many that I would like to support and I can't afford to support all of them. 

[SusanM351147]

Also, BoiseEd, I don't know that you have to subscribe unless you want to see your rank on the Leaderboard.

[BoiseEd]

WaPo, New Yorker, and others like to plant cookies to limit how many articles you can access. They don't seem to apply to puzzles, though.

[WendeM158511]

The highest I've ever gotten was 42,000, but I rarely break 35,000. I have gotten better over time, so practice does help. However... 

....and I probably shouldn't even mention this, but since so many people here are frustrated by some of the impossibly high scores that are posted, there is one very plausible way that people are cheating and just knowing about it may make all of us non-cheaters feel better.

When I showed my son the high scores that were 60,000 and even up to 200,000+ on occasion, he guessed that they are probably taking screen shots of the whole board and then pausing the game while they study the screen shots. Then he said, "Mom, I certainly hope you won't do that!"

For me, there is zero satisfaction to be had from cheating, so it's not in my nature to do that, but it seems that would be an obvious way to do it. 

I also agree that the rules for scoring should be much clearer! They are really pretty useless. Thanks to all here who have figured out some of the letter values and shared that!

[GailW878917]

I agree … my highest to date is 22,000.  Do not Care about a huge score I care about the challenge….My goal is to keep playing until I can get any higher.   I’ve been at the point of stopping several times but then I creep up and I keep looking what can I do better what can I do better!   In the beginning I couldn’t get the 3000 so I am actually means that I got 22000…good luck to you.   Ps…Your son is probably right…I didn’t tell you the truth and as much as I like the game I am not willing to put that kind of time into it.   Once I read that I stopped worrying about ever getting ultimate score

[NancyK313187]

What a good explanation for how those impossibly high scores are achieved! It's been bugging me wondering how it's possible. So thanks very much for that. OMG, are there letter values?? I'll have to keep reading now. 

I'm kind of addicted to this game and I've gone from scoring pretty low to where 20,000 or 25,000 was a good score, but I now throw scorn on myself if I don't reach 30,000, and have managed to reach over 40,000 a couple of times.

I wish I knew how bombs are scored! I have looked everywhere I can think of for an explanation but with no luck.

Sometimes I earn 2 bombs in one round, but not necessarily for having bigger words or higher score for the round. I think that I get higher scores when I find words that I haven't necessarily found before. But I'd really like to know. I've tried using the bombs in different ways, but it doesn't seem to change the outcome.

[BoiseEd]

There appear to be two ways to approach this game: one is to go for high points by getting the best words; the other (mine) is to go for the highest level. Personally, I've reached level 17 (very short time allowed) and my best score is 23,286, never close to the leader list.

[CarolC836069]

The highest I've ever gotten was around 35,000 and I was "on fire".  But I agree what the trick is to try to use all the letters and make good use of the B's and G's since they are worth so much, especially with a bigger word.  ReneeB720366 figured out scoring and that was immensely helpful.

[Scottygirl]

I have read some limited instructions, but where do I find and entire outline of how to play - ie; scoring, and what letters score more?

[DebraH304374]

I found this. If you click on each tab (Rules, Scoring, Tips, etc.), it gives a pretty good outline. https://askinglot.com/open-detail/560813

[pu4639]

Today the top score was 300,000+ !   How can that be??

[joeysback]

I saw1million once, and I can't believe it.  I don't know how they post those untrue scores, but there is just no way!!  If you play on some sites (Washington Post is one, I believe) you can earn extra bonuses, but when I tried it, I still forgot to use them or ran out of time.

[joeysback]

I saw 1 MILLION once, and I can't believe that's even possible---No way, no how!!

[MargW372402]

may be by cheating?, they cheat on everything else, why not word wipe?

[ReneeB720366]

I figured out the scoring.  Certain letters are worth certain points.  Each time you add a letter to a word, the points are multiplied.  For example, for the word "GATE," a G=10, A=2, T=8, E=2.  So, 10+2+8+2=22 and since it's. 4 letter word you multiply the 22 by 4 getting 88 points for the word.

Sorry the image is not rotated.   

[joeysback]

Somebody got over 250,000????   Wha???   How???  Help!!!   I got to 26,000 and thought I was doing great!

[BoiseEd]

I think my high is around 39K, but it's typically below 20K. I'm more concerned with levels than word scores. I hit 17th level once, when everything really clicked, but typically hitting 15th is an accomplishment for me.

[joeysback]

I don't think I've ever gotten past 13th or 14th.  Congrats!

[WWIII]

Thank you for the tips.  I can’t get to 25,000 but I doubled my score from 3,000 to 6,000 and will get better.  

[WWIII]

Also I have noticed and yes it took awhile that you can clear letters that you won’t use, like three www.  Anything three of that you won’t use.  I tend to keep vowels and letters like r, s,t, but if they’re in my way and there are three of them, they get deleted.

[Parmenion]

Okay...The MOST IMPORTANT thing to do is CLEAR THE BOARD!!! It's all well and good looking for big words but if that board is not cleared your score will not double up. I generally score between 25000 - 35000, and to reach these figures you MUST clear 90% of the boards you play. Beware of letters like Q,Z and J. Try to remove these as early as you can. Qat and Qis will save you time and time again. Use your bombs to clear the board if you have to. DON'T leave a board uncleared if you can clear it by using a bomb. Remember...speed is of the essence...the clock is your enemy. Hope these tips help...and if anyone has tips on how to score 40000+...I'm all ears!