Boggle Strategy 101: How To Be A Boggle Beast

In the wonderful world of word games, it seems that Boggle doesn’t get the hype it deserves. It’s faster-paced than classic favorites like scrabble and can be endlessly challenging.

Boggle will keep you on your toes, expand your vocabulary, and sharpen your mind.

Being a boggle beast is no easy feat. It takes time and practice. You can speed up the process with some helpful tips and strategies, listed below.

If You Find a Bigger Word, Get All The Little Words Inside It.

In Boggle, you receive more points for longer words. The longer the word gets, the more points you receive. However, it’s important not to get caught up in searching for long words, because then you will waste your precious time looking for words instead of actually finding them.

That being said, long words are valuable. You can increase their value by looking for all the other words that you find inside the big word. For example, if you find the word INCREASE, you should immediately collect points by finding the words IN, CREASE, and EASE.

Look for Hooks

What are hooks? Think about any common prefix or suffix to a word. You can add -ED to the end of most words to make it past-tense. If you add PRE- to the beginning of a word, you can create another word, too. Not sure if the word in your hand is a valid word? Use a word solver to verify it.

In Boggle, it’s important to identify these hooks immediately and use them to create multiple words out of one. One of my favorite examples is PRETAX. X is a high scoring tile, so you’ve already scored big if you can find the word TAX. If you can also find PRE and make PRETAX, you’ve tripled your points instantly.

ED is one of the most valuable hooks. You can find double the number of words with this one set of letters. It’s best to spot the hooks at the beginning of the game and use them throughout to maximize your score.

Learn To Look For Patterns

The more you play Boggle, the more you’ll know a good board when you see one. If there is a good mix of vowels and consonants, and plenty of T’s and S’s, you know you’ll be scoring big. That also means when you see a board with a cluster of consonants, you know that your game will be a bit more difficult. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a high scoring letter like J or X locked in a corner surrounded by consonants. That high scoring letter becomes useless because you won’t be able to make any words with it.

These are the patterns you’ll start to notice. The more you pay attention and take note of these patterns, the more you’ll recognize them right away. You’ll see an EA together and know immediately to use all the letters around it to many as many words as you can, as quickly as possible. In seconds, you’ll be able to spot JEAN, LEAN, SEAN, BEAN, MEAN, NEAR, BEAR, BEAST, EAST, STEADY, and more, just because you instantly spotted the EA.

S Is Your Best Friend

This applies to all word games, but particularly to Boggle. If you have any S’s on your board, utilize the letter to create plural forms of just about any word you find. Make this a habit and soon you’ll be automatically collecting 2 words every time you find a word near an S. This is especially helpful when you find a long word with bonus letter tiles in the app Boggle With Friends. You’ll collect points for that high scoring word twice thanks to your friend S.

Don’t Look at the Clock

One of the most exciting aspects of Boggle is that it’s timed, which adds a sense of urgency to the word search. While this is one of the defining aspects of the game, it’s important not to pay attention to the clock. Why?

If you focus too much on the remaining time, you will get frazzled and stressed and squander the time left looking too hard for words. It’s best to get into the “Boggle Mode” as I like to call it, which is a zen-like state of quickly getting as many words as your eye can find. Speaking of which, ZEN is always a great word to find when you have a Z on your Boggle board.

Don’t Search, React

It’s easy to see Boggle as a simple word search. The difference between a word search and Boggle is that you’re crunched for time. If you spend the game searching for the longest, most complicated words, you’ll waste all your time and still get a low score. It’s best to get into the Boggle Mode mentioned earlier, a zen-like state where your eyes scan the board to find the most words possible.

Longer words do score extra points, but this doesn’t mean you should ignore short words. Often times, as you’re finding the short words, you’ll discover the longer words along the way.

Achieve Boggle Zen To Win!

Boggle Zen is the equivalent of meditating with the goal of eventually reaching Nirvana. It’s the mode that comes with time and practice playing the game. Eventually, the second you see a new board, your brain will notice patterns, hooks, and words. Instantly, the words appear to you, and you will not notice the seconds of the clock ticking by.

If you’re playing the classic game, your pencil will not stop writing for the entirety of the game. If you’re playing on the Boggle With Friends App, your thumb will glide seamlessly across the screen for the entire game, like you’re in a trance.

This is the state that you want to reach to become a Boggle Beast. Little by little, game by game, you will reach the capability to find endless words on even the most difficult boards. This is when you’ll unlock the truly relaxed excitement of playing this game. It’s an excellent way to pass time, have fun, and exercise your brain. Boggle on!

Back to Word Unscrambler