Word of the Day on Pathwords

A mark beside the sitting

You're partway through a Pathwords board. A listed word lands, and the rank moves. Off to the side, the bonus area is still quiet. On a general board, that area can tell you something small. One bonus word is the Word of the Day.

The listed words are the paths the puzzle asked for. The bonus side sits beside that sitting, and you can open it or leave it closed. One leftover there can carry a name.

The letters are not printed there for you to copy. If you open the bonus side before you have found a bonus word, the board says that one of them carries this name, without showing the spelling. You still trace the path yourself. When the word you enter is that one, the board marks it in the bonus list and pays the bonus. Until then, the name sits on a word you haven't found.

The grid later in this note is made up. It is not a live daily, and the sample word is not today's Word of the Day.

What Pathwords is, in one pass

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

Every board has a list. Listed words score 2 points per letter. They move your rank through Start, Good, Great, Awesome, and Genius. Genius is 100% of the listed-word maximum. Real words that are not on the list are bonus words. They score 1 point per letter in their own pot. They can count toward a fifth star once the listed set is complete, and they 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. It's the same board for everyone on that mode that day, and it flips at your device's local midnight.

A try has to be a legal path before it can be a word. A jump, a reused tile, or a word below the size minimum is rejected before any "not a word" check. A hint points at a listed word you have not found. Rotate only changes the view. There's no public leaderboard. Your progress is saved in this browser only. The full rules live on how to play.

One bonus word, in the bonus pot

On the general boards, one bonus word is marked as the Word of the Day. It pays 1 point per letter, into the same pot as every other bonus word. A five-letter listed word pays 10. A five-letter bonus word pays 5. If that five-letter bonus word is the marked one, it still pays 5.

Those 5 points never enter the rank ladder. Start, Good, Great, Awesome, and Genius are shares of the listed maximum only. Good is 25%. Great is 50%. Awesome is 75%. Genius is 100%. You might find the marked word early, after Genius, or not at all. The percentages stay where the listed words put them.

The mark is there for a player who might otherwise never look past the list. The named word stays a bonus word. Every other leftover stays a bonus word too, at the same 1 point per letter.

Which words are listed and which are bonus is covered in listed words and bonus words. Everyday English tends to stay listed. Name-shaped strings and obscure leftovers tend to stay bonus. This page picks up after one bonus word has already been marked.

That marked word can also count toward a fifth star, along with every other bonus word, once the listed set is complete. Genius does not require the fifth star. You can skip every bonus word, the marked one included, and still finish the listed sitting.

One board, with a label on it

Each mode has one official board per local day. The mark belongs to that board. It doesn't add another grid, another list, or another Genius.

Everyone on the general Classic board that day shares that board's marked bonus word. Mega has its own board and its own mark. Mini does too. One Word of the Day is not stretched across all three sizes.

Local midnight on your device flips the board, and the mark flips with it. The label has no clock of its own, and the daily stays untimed.

A find is saved with the rest of the sitting, in this browser only. Another browser starts fresh. There's no public leaderboard for the mark to appear on.

You can stop at Genius

Genius means the listed words are in. The marked bonus word can still be unfound, and the sitting hasn't failed.

Some players trace the word by accident while listed paths are still open. The points go to the bonus pot, and the rank does not move. Some wait until Genius and then look. Some never open the bonus side. All three are fine.

Leaving at Genius, or staying for bonus is the longer note on that fork. Word of the Day is one optional bonus inside it, a single named leftover. You can stand up at Genius with the mark unread. You can also leave the fifth star open. That star counts every bonus word. Genius is the listed total.

A homework sheet would name a word and check it later. This mark has no check. The listed sitting can be done with the word still unfound. The name can tug, since a named leftover is easier to remember than a nameless one. Follow it for one path, or close the bonus side and go back to the list. The board remains in this browser until local midnight, or until you clear the save.

A made-up Classic grid

Here's an invented Classic board. It's made up, not a live daily, and the words below are not today's Word of the Day. They only show a listed trail beside a separate bonus-length trail.

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

Take PLANT as the listed example. Start at P in the top-left corner. Step right to L, right to A, right to N, then down to T. Each step shares a side with the tile before it. No tile repeats. Suppose PLANT is listed on this pretend board. Five letters at 2 points each is 10 points toward the listed maximum, and those 10 can move your rank.

Now a separate path, on none of those five tiles. Start at D, first letter of the second row. Step right to O, right to R, then diagonally down-left to I, then left to S. That spells DORIS. R to I is a corner step, which counts. I to S shares a side. The five tiles are all different. Suppose this made-up board treats DORIS as the Word of the Day. It's a name-shaped string, the kind of leftover that tends to stay off the required list. Five letters at 1 point each is 5 points in the bonus pot. The rank doesn't move.

The trails share no tile, so they are easy to tell apart on the page. On a live board the marked word may reuse a letter from a listed word you already found. That tile is free again once the first word ends. The gap here is only for reading.

A jump still fails

Say the try is PLANE instead of PLANT. The only E on this grid is in the third row, on the right, under T. N is the top-right corner. N and E do not touch. The step from N to E would pass over T, and there is no second E to use. PLANE has no legal trail here.

The board rejects that jump before it asks whether PLANE is a word. The marked word is held to the same order. A jump toward it fails, a reused tile fails, and on Classic a try under four letters fails, all before any "not a word" check. The label doesn't let you skip the path.

A hint won't draw DORIS on this pretend board. Hints point at listed words you have not found. Rotate only changes the view. The PLANT steps and the DORIS steps keep the same neighbors after the board turns.

Kids boards leave the mark off

Kids is a Settings toggle, not a fourth size and not a separate site. It loads a tighter Classic or Mini lexicon, aimed at ages five to eight, and it keeps its own streaks. Those boards ship without a Word of the Day. Mega is not filtered by that toggle. The default audience is general, not child-directed.

A Kids board can still have bonus leftovers. It doesn't put this name on one of them. The mark belongs to the general boards on the web game at pathwords.co. This note is about that web feature.

Beside the other notes

Nearby pages already cover near-misses, the list-versus-bonus split, and leaving at Genius. This one stays on the label. One bonus word on a general web board is named Word of the Day. It sits on the bonus side, beside the listed sitting, at the ordinary bonus rate. It doesn't move your rank. You can reach Genius and leave it unread. Pathwords is a puzzle for enjoyment.

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

Open today's board at pathwords.co. Clear the listed words at your own pace. If the bonus side names a Word of the Day, trace it only when you want that leftover.

Published by Pathwords.