5 Tips to Score Better in Words With Friends

Words with Friends is a fun online game, but we get all the more enjoyment out of it when we win. The basic idea is to score as many points as possible while limiting our opponent's ability to score big.

Let's look at some basic strategies you can follow to up your game and score better in words with friends.

1: Study the board

One of the great benefits of Words with Friends over a traditional game of Scrabble is you can take your time and study the board. It would be unwise to go with the first word you see, especially in the early phase of the game, where there are many opportunities to play intelligently. If you jump to the first word, you see you might spot something better after you make your move and kick yourself.

2: Don't waste strong tiles

When it comes to tile saving, you should keep your high point tiles, such as your Z's and your X's, for bonus multipliers. Using this strategy, you should be able to score 30's with these pieces consistently.

Your S's and BLANKs are also incredibly valuable tiles. You can pluralize many words with the S piece, effectively giving you all the points from that word and then some. You can also play a second word off of the plural. For example, if there is the word SKATE on the board, you could make up SKATES and play any other letters incorporating the S, such as TEST. This also works with the Y tile but in far fewer scenarios.

BLANKs are even better. You can use them in precisely the same way as the S and the Y to connect words. BLANKs are also an incredible tool when working towards placing a BINGO. A BINGO is when you use all seven of your tiles in one go, which provides the player with 35 points in Words with Friends.

3: Using the tile bag

Words with Friends allows players to see what is left in the tile bag, another significant variation from Scrabble. You should be checking the tile bag often, and even more towards the end of a game. Knowing that there are certain letters, you're never going to pick up could stop you from chasing a word that will never arrive. It may also provide some comfort when playing words that can be easily countered by your opponent drawing an S or Y tile in the future, although they may already have one at present.

4: Know your two-letter words

Knowing your two-letter words can not only help you out when you're in a pinch but even score you some major points. With plenty of two-letter words using the X and other high-value tiles, you can strategically use them to take advantage of tile multipliers. There are 134 two-letter words that are valid in Words with Friends, and you can find a list of two letter words here.

Bonus tip: Unlike in Scrabble, when playing Words with Friends, you can have as many attempts to place a correct word on the board without being penalized, so even if you don't know a two-letter word that fits, you can always have a guess.

5: Sacrifice points for the long-game

An excellent technique for scoring more points than your opponent is sacrificing your own point-scoring potential in order to keep your opponent's score at bay.

An example of this is as follows; say you play a long word, netting you about 20 points, but that word opens up tiles for your opponent to take advantage of, such as triple word tiles, you would be giving more value to your opponent than you are getting from playing the longer, lesser valued word.

A good tip is to inspect the board and what opportunities your opponent might have should you place a word. This is even more important with longer words towards the edge of the board.

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