How to Play Words with Friends on Facebook?

In Words with Friends, players take turns to create words from the existing tiles on the virtual rack . Those who know how to play Scrabble will immediately recognize the Scrabble-like digital board. Players can play against their  friends or against random opponents.Facebook allows push notifications, which means the player can send a request via the FB notification system once he/she has finished creating a word. Before learning how to play Words with Friends on Facebook, consider these key points.

1. To begin, open your Facebook account and visit the splash page. You will then have to click on the Play the Game button.
2. To begin, you will have to create a word with the given letters on the virtual rack. Make sure you have placed the tiles over the star at the center of the board.
3. Select your FB opponent (your friend) with whom you will play against. Facebook will send a notification to your opponent and if he agrees, he will make a word off the tiles you have played to create a word as well as from the tiles on his rack.
4. The game continues with each player playing in turns, creating words from the letter tiles on the board and cleverly using the multiplier tiles to increase the score.

Credit: Screenshot Captured by the Author

Scoring, Distribution and Points System

Like Scrabble, Words with Friends has more than 100 letters. The rack at the bottom of the screen, where random letters appear, can accommodate 7 letters. The point distribution among all letters is as follows:

• A (9 tiles), E (13 tiles), I (8 tiles), O (8 tiles) R (6 tiles) S (5 tiles): 1 Point
• D (5 tiles), N (5 tiles), L (4 tiles), U (4 tiles): 2 points
• G (3 points), H (4 tiles), Y (2 tiles): 3 points
• B, C, F, M, P, W (2 tiles each): 4 points
• V (2 tiles) and K (1 tile) each boast 5 points
• X (1 tile) carries 8 points
• J, Q and Z (1 tile each) carry 10 points

Now that you've got a table of points, you can now start making words. But the real challenge is that you only have 7 random letter tiles on the virtual rack, and hence it is a tough job to create words from the 7 tiles. For example, your virtual rack has V, G, J U, O, H, B and it's your first turn, create words like GOB, HOB etc.

Once you have created a word, say GOB, Words with Friends will calculate the points carried by each letter tile (G=3, O=1, B=4) and you will score 8 points. You can then click the Play button at the bottom of the screen to let know your opponent (s). Your friend will then create words off the letters in the game board by dragging and dropping other letters from his tile rack.

Pass, Resign, Swap and Recall Buttons

In Words with Friends for Facebook, you will find some buttons below the game board. They will help you when you are not able to make any words from the available tiles in your rack.

Pass: Clicking on this button will allow you to pass your turn, but will give plenty of advantage to your opponent to score more points.

Swap: This button will allow you to exchange tiles on the rack with new ones. Click on the Swap button, choose the new tile to replace the old tile. However, this option makes you lose your turn. So choose it carefully.

Recall: Returns your old tiles back to the rack.

Resign: You can click on the Resign button when it's your move. Clicking on this button means you have conceded defeat and your opponent wins the game. This may never happen if you are good at making words.

Bonus points: In a single turn, if a player creates words using all the seven tiles on the rack, he earns extra points.

Tips and Strategy

Once you've learned how to play Words with Friends on Facebook, you will have to use your word making skills and use strategy to score more. One of the key strategies is to take advantage of Premium squares on the virtual board. Each premium square multiplies points of the tile by 2 or 3.

There are Double Letter (DL) and Double Word (DW) premium squares, Triple Letter (TL) and Triple Word (TW) squares placed on the game board and placing letters on these squares will double/triple the letter score or the word score. Here's a simple list:

• DL Color=Blue: Doubles the Score of the Tile
• DW Premium square Color=Red: Doubles the score of the entire word.
• TL Color=Green: Triples the score of the letter place on the square.
• TW Color=Orange: Triples the score of the word.

Example: If you place the letter tile V with the value 5  on DL premium square, the total points multiples to 10 points and if placed on the TL square, it multiplies to 15.

If you drag-and-drop tiles G(3), O(1) and B(4) within the premium square, the entire word score  is 16. The score becomes 24 you drag and drap each letter on the TW premium square. Using these helpful Words with Friends tips and strategies, you can score more than your opponents.

Beginners Strategy Guide