LaLena.com

I don’t know how many of you noticed (or cared), but I managed to get what I thought was an unbelievable score at WordFall (> 5 million points) in October.  I had previously posted my strategy in another thread, but since that time I’ve refined it quite a bit, so I’m creating a new thread to highlight it and hopefully inspire others to keep trying to raise their scores.

I had previously posted that it takes at least an 8-letter word to get a gold tile.  That’s true, and it takes at least a 10-letter word to get a platinum tile, but there appears to be a minimum point value for the 10-letter word required in order to get that coveted platinum tile.  I’m not sure what the minimum value is, but several times I’ve made 10-letter words early in a game and not been awarded a platinum tile because the words didn’t have any colored tiles in them.  Now I make sure my 10-letter babies are worth at least 1000 points before I redeem them.  I also mentioned previously that it takes at least an 11-letter word to get a diamond tile.  I suspect there’s also a minimum point value required to get a platinum tile, but again, I don’t know what it is.

So now that I’ve discovered what I believe are all the special tiles (I can’t imagine what would be more valuable than a diamond), my strategy has become this: make a 10-letter-or-longer word as early as possible to get a platinum or diamond tile and then start working on as big a word as you can using that tile.  Early is better so you can afford to make little moves to manipulate the board to build on the platinum or diamond tile word without creating a bunch of burning tiles (if you haven’t noticed, burning tiles only appear above columns where you’ve just made a word, which is important later on when they appear more frequently).

Ideally your special word should be toward the bottom and/or side of the board, because you’re going to want to shepherd that word as long as possible, and if your word is at the top or middle of the board, it really limits how long you can keep going before a burning tile threatens your word, or you might just run out of possible words to make.  And you certainly don’t want to scramble your letters once you’ve gotten a platinum or diamond tile, because that devalues them and drastically slashes your potential points.   Having your special word to one side of the board is especially handy for avoiding burning tiles.  Concentrate on making additional words in columns that don’t contain letters in your special word and you’ll lessen the risk of a burning tile ruining it.  Keep going as long as you can and try to get as many of your special word's tiles to turn into multipliers as you can.

In sum:  (a) work on a long word early to get a high-value tile, (b) use that tile to build a high-value word, (c) and shepherd that word as long as you can while the tiles in the word build in value.

My biggest score came when I got a platinum tile early, got extremely lucky and stumbled into an 11-letter word that earned me a diamond tile, and then managed to use both the platinum and diamond tiles in an 8-letter word where I also had a silver and five bronze tiles by the time I finally had to redeem it.  That one word was worth over 5.1 million points, so you can see where patience and dedication can earn you great rewards.

I’ve also made myself a list of about 60 10-letter-or-greater words that are relatively easy to make.  I use the list to help spot potential platinum or diamond-inducing words.  Most of the words consist of all 1-point letters with maybe one multiple-point letter in them (B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, M, P, Q, V, W, X, Y, or Z).  Trying to make words with too many multiple-point letters in them is difficult and often fruitless.   Many of my big words end with the suffix -tion, which is a letter combo that frequently appears.  Some examples of my words are:  explosions, inventions, irrational, secretions, recreation, relaxation, restraints, torrential.  I’ll leave you to come up with your own, and I wish you all luck.

Babs

First off, these tips are great!  I like the game but I often get bored because getting a decent score in my mind (which is not even close to six figures let alone 7) takes a really long time.

Is the level that you are on at all important?  When you got your five million plus game(s) were you in the early levels (less than five)?  I know the point values go up considerably in later levels.  Is the key to just get big words regardless of the level?

I usually run out of vowels in the later state of the game, so I try to keep as many vowels as possible.

If I have a column with no vowels in it, I let any red tile sink to the bottom before I use it. That way I get a lot of new letters, and hopefully some vowels.

Happy New Year to you, too, and good luck with WordFall! 

It's nice to see someone else taking up the gauntlet and giving it a try.  Just be patient and work for those diamond tiles!

Babs

hey guys,

wordfall is a really cool strategy!

thanks for the great idea.

 Best Skype Recorder