A fresh take on the old-fashioned word search, SpellTower clears out any words you find, with the ultimate goal to strategically clear out an entire board. Get an extra hit of dopamine with bonus clears; if you make a 5+ letter word, all adjacent tiles get cleared out too. Using rare letters (J,Q,X,V) will clear out an entire row– but take care to not clear out the vowels you need. Players often stick with a specific strategy: start at the bottom, focus on keeping the columns even, or knock out all the starred tiles first? Check back daily for a new SpellTower to try them all.
To play today's crossword puzzle and all other games, earn streaks, and to save your progress, visit expressnews.com/puzzmo.
How to play SpellTower:
Your goal is to find and clear words by selecting tiles in the grid. Words must be made up of contiguous tiles. You can use diagonals and cross your own path. Select words by dragging on the grid, tapping each letter individually, or typing on the keyboard. Submit a word by tapping the last letter again or by hitting return on the keyboard. When you've made all the words you can, select 'I'm done' to complete the game.
Scoring
Word score formula
(Sum of word tile values + sum of bonus tile values) x word length x (1+# star tiles)
Sum of word tile values
Each tile in SpellTower is worth points based on how uncommon it is.
Sum of bonus tile values
These are the values of any tiles cleared in addition to the word itself — tiles cleared by a row clear, or tiles cleared by the 5+ length word bonus.
Star tile bonus
Using one star tile in your word with multiply the value by x2, two will give you x3 and three will give you x4.
Keyboard controls
Type any word to select it on the grid.
Tab — toggle the selected word.
Return — submit the selected word.
Delete — Deselect the last selected cell.
Esc — Deselect the entire word.
