Letter-Count Assist Is Optional

A digit in the corner

You're partway through a Classic board. A few listed words are already in. Then a small number shows up on a tile. The top-left square shows a 2. Most of the board stays blank.

That number is letter-count assist. It counts unfound listed words that still begin on that tile. A new mark on the board can feel like an instruction. It isn't. The digits are information you can use, and a sitting where you never look at them is still a full game of Pathwords.

What Pathwords is, in one pass

Pathwords at pathwords.co is a letter-path puzzle. You spell a word by moving through tiles that touch, in any of eight directions: up, down, left, right, and the four diagonals. A tile cannot be reused inside one word. The same tile is free again for the next word.

Every board has a list of everyday words. Listed words score 2 points per letter. Those points move your rank through Start, Good, Great, Awesome, and Genius. Genius is 100% of the listed-word maximum. Other real words you find are bonus words. They score 1 point per letter in their own pot, count toward a fifth star, and never change Genius.

There are three sizes. Mini is a 3×3 board with a three-letter minimum. Classic is 4×4 with a four-letter minimum. Mega is 5×5, also with a four-letter minimum. The official daily is untimed. Everyone gets the same board that day, and it flips at your device's local midnight. There's no public leaderboard. Progress is saved in this browser only.

The setting, and the 40% mark

Letter-count assist is a toggle in Settings. It's on by default. While it's on, and only after you have reached 40% of the board's listed points, each tile can show how many unfound listed words still start on that tile. The digits don't appear before that mark. A hint doesn't reveal them early either.

Forty percent is a share of listed points, the same pot that moves your rank. Bonus points sit in the other pot, so they don't move you toward this mark. The digit itself adds nothing.

You can turn the setting off if you want the board bare. You can leave it on and never read the digits. Both are fine.

Hints are a different tool. A hint points at a listed word you have not found. The note on hints is about that nudge. The digits don't stand in for a hint, and you don't need to use a hint before the digits can appear.

A made-up Classic board

Here's an invented Classic board. It isn't a live daily. The four-word list under it is made up for this example.

S H O R
T A M E
L I N D
P U B Y

The pretend listed words are SHAME, TAMED, SHORE, and STAND. Each one is five letters, so each one is worth 10 listed points. Four words at 10 points is a listed maximum of 40. Forty percent of 40 is 16. On a board with this list, the digits stay hidden until your listed points reach 16, and they can show from that point on.

These four words don't land on 16 exactly, because each one is worth 10. The sitting moves 0, 10, 20, 30, 40. At 10 you're still under the mark. At 20 you've crossed it. That's when the numbers are allowed to appear, if the setting is on.

Every step below touches, including diagonals, and no trail reuses a tile.

SHAME starts on the S in the top-left corner, steps right to H, diagonally down-right to A, right to M, and right to E.

TAMED starts on the T at the left of the second row, steps right to A, right to M, right to E, and down to D.

SHORE starts on that same top-left S, steps right through H, O, and R, then down to E.

STAND starts on the S, steps down to T, right to A, diagonally down-right to N, and right to D.

What a start count looks like

A start count ignores the middle of a word. It asks how many unfound listed words begin on this tile.

If all four pretend words were still unfound, the counts would be:

3 . . .
1 . . .
. . . .
. . . .

The 3 sits on the S. SHAME, SHORE, and STAND all begin there. The 1 sits on the T, because TAMED begins there and nothing else on this list does. Every other tile is blank. H, O, R, A, M, E, N, and D all appear inside these words, and none of them is a starting tile for this list.

You wouldn't see that full map during play. At zero listed points the digits stay hidden.

Suppose the first listed word you find is SHAME, for 10 points. Ten is under 16, so the digits stay off. TAMED, SHORE, and STAND remain. Two of those still start on S, and one still starts on T. The counts exist. They are just not drawn yet.

Suppose the next listed word is TAMED, for another 10. Listed points are now 20 out of 40. That's past 16, so the overlay can turn on. SHORE and STAND are still unfound, and both begin on the S. The board can look like this:

2 . . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .

The T no longer has a number, because TAMED was the only listed word that started there. The S shows 2, not 3, because SHAME is already in. Find SHORE and the S drops to 1, for STAND alone. When STAND is in as well, this pretend list has nothing left to count.

A blank tile is not a dead tile. After SHAME and TAMED, the rest of SHORE is H, O, R, and E, and none of those tiles has a number on this list. Chase only the numbered squares and you walk past the rest of the word. On this made-up list the starts sit on the left edge. A real listed word can begin on any tile with a legal path out of it.

The number does not move Genius

Genius moves when listed points move. On this pretend list, SHAME takes you from 0 to 10, and TAMED takes you from 10 to 20. Each later word adds another 10, up to 40, which would be Genius here. The 2 on the S doesn't add a point when it appears, and it doesn't take a point away when it drops to 1.

A blank tile can still be the middle of a listed word, and that word still scores 2 points per letter. A bonus word pays 1 point per letter in its own pot and doesn't lower the start count.

Fading letters are a separate cue

Some letters grow faint while you play. That fade is separate from the digits.

Letters that no remaining listed word can use fade, starting from your first found word. The fade doesn't wait for the 40% mark. Turning letter-count assist off doesn't stop it. You can ignore the digits. The fade still follows the list.

On the pretend board, say SHAME is your first find. TAMED, SHORE, and STAND are still ahead. Together they still need S, H, O, R, E, T, A, M, N, and D. The letters left over on the grid are L, I, P, U, B, and Y. Those can fade while your listed points are only at 10 and the digits are still hidden.

M stays bright after SHAME, because TAMED still needs it. You have already traced M, and that does not matter. The fade asks whether any listed word you have not found still needs the letter.

After TAMED is in as well, SHORE and STAND still need S, H, O, R, E, T, A, N, and D. They don't need M, so M can fade even though you used it. The digits, if the setting is on, are only the 2 on the S. A faint letter can still sit inside a bonus word. The fade follows the listed list, and the path rules stay the same.

Using the number, or leaving it

After SHAME and TAMED, the 2 on S means SHORE and STAND are still unfound. It doesn't spell the next step. You still trace a legal path through the neighbors.

When a corner goes quiet, you can start on a tile whose count is above zero. If that trail breaks, lift and try another opening, or start on a blank tile. The count waits. The daily has no clock. You can also skip the glance. Turn the toggle off before the first word and the digits never arrive. Leave it on, and you may stop noticing them. A high count can sit on a letter you have already tried. A blank tile can still begin a bonus word.

Rotation doesn't change the count. A quarter turn moves the S, and the digit moves with that tile. The paths stay the same.

What this sitting is for

Pathwords is a puzzle you play because finding the path is enjoyable. The count shows up after 40% of the listed points, and the rank still comes from the words you trace.

pathwords.co is published by Pathwords and is not ThinkFun PathWords, not pathwords.co.uk, and not other lookalike apps.

Try today's board

Open pathwords.co and take a size that fits the time you have. Find a listed word or two. If a small number shows up later, read it or don't. The board is the same either way.

Published by Pathwords.