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Word Pyramid Guide
Written by knd1994123
The Basics
If you have played this game before, you may skip to the next section : Basic
Strategies.
The objective of this game is to spell as many words as you can by connecting
adjacent tiles. Upon acceptance, these tiles disappear but other tiles which
were above will now take their place. Tiles will also appear randomly on the top
of your pyramid. And so it is a continuous cycle: you use up some tiles, but
more will appear. It's not so easy because you are timed : if you don't find any
words during an allotted amount of time, it's game over. Thankfully, every word
that you find will add some time to your clock. But what sets this game apart
and make it really challenging is the fact that there will be many more
consonants than vowels.
There are five vowels in the English language : A, E, I, O, U. These vowels are
key to forming every word and in fact, most words must contain at least 1 vowel!
If you use up your pool of vowels too quickly, you will find yourself left with
too many consonants and no words to spell. If this happens too often, you'll
likely find yourself out of time and your game will end. Luckily you can buy
vowels for a certain cost in points, when in dire need. But every time you buy a
vowel, its price will be increased by one point. So if you abuse this system,
you will find your score decreasing steadily. More on this later.
You can make words of 1 to 8 letters in length. The longer the word, the more
points you'll get. By consistently making longer words, you'll maximize your
total score. As an added bonus, longer words will add more time to your clock!
At this point, I would suggest you to try to play a game or two, if you haven't
done so already. This will help you understand tips which will be given next.
Basic Strategies
- Word Length : All words should contain five letters or more! If you stick to
this rule, you need not worry too much about buying vowels since you will most
likely not make a deficit in terms of points. Also, it will refill your clock at
a reasonable rate. There are a few exceptions which are given out later.
- Vowel Content : All five-letter words should contain only 1 vowel. This will
help save your precious vowels and as a result, will prolong your games
considerably. Luckily, you usually get quite a few ¡¥S' tiles. So in reality,
you will be making four letter words most of the time and simply pluralizing
them. Following this logic, there should be a maximum of two vowels for 6 and 7
letter words. For eight letter words, using three vowels is ideal; but the
benefit in terms of points and time being so significant, feel free to use as
many as needed (buying vowels for this purpose is another story)!
- Shorter Words : If you are running out of time and can't find a 5 letter word
or longer. You may get a 4-letter word using a vowel, but only to buy you some
time! Remember use only when in great urgency! As for three letter words using a
vowel, simply avoid them.
- Buying Vowels : First, I'll explain the system more in depth. Sometimes you
will find that you are missing a vowel to spell an awesome word. You may buy the
vowel for a number of points. When you first buy the vowel, it will cost you ten
points. However, the next time need to buy that same vowel, it will cost you one
more : 11 points. By the end of the game, most vowels will cost around 20
points. So needless to say : don't buy a vowel if it results in a word which
will give you less points than the cost of the vowel. Better to end your game on
a high point than buying vowels in vain and lowering your score in the process.
Advanced Topics
- Pyramid Health: A pyramid when it's well built, has a solid base. If it does
not, the pyramid will collapse. This is adequately represented in this game: a
healthy base will result in a much more successful score. What is meant by
healthy? You should try and keep as many vowels at the base of your pyramid. I
cannot emphasize enough the importance of saving your vowels in this game. So
rather than forming words at the top of your pyramid, you should be finding
words near the bottom. If not, you will soon find a jumble of consonants piling
up severely limiting your options. Did you ever have consonants such as XJHCM
littering your bottom two rows rendering them useless? The next points will
discuss what can be done to ensure a healthy growth and to fix that problem if
it arises.
- Evil Consonants: Here I will list the consonants which are most annoying to
get rid of; namely, the ones which will clutter your pyramid. They are J, Q, V,
X, Z. It is important to make words with them as soon as you have the chance.
Don't hesitate to buy a vowel if you must. I will almost always buy an E to
spell VEX; or a U to get rid of my Q. If you must use two vowels to get rid of a
J, then go ahead, it was well spent. The reason why V is included and K is
because there are very few 5-letter V words which will contain a single vowel.
Whereas a C next to a K or even an L, can lead to LUCKS or MILKY.
- Vowel-less words: Yes they do exist and I will almost always spell them. Here
is a list of some of my favorites : BY,CRY, DRY, SHY, STY, WHY. There are more,
but these are the ones I used the most. Get these words when you have those
consonants cluttered at the bottom of your pyramid.
- Buying Vowels Revisited: Now that you have this idea of pyramid health in
mind, we will add some more restrictions as to when you should buy a vowel.
Firstly, do not buy a vowel simply to spell a long word, even if it is an
8-letter word. If you do that, you will hurt yourself in the long run as the
vowel cost increases. The purpose of buying vowels should be limited to
improving your pyramid health by getting rid of ¡§evil¡¨ consonants or getting
rid of 4 consonants at a time! To do that, we need to revisit our suffixes :
- TCH, GHT, etc: These are the best suffixes to use in this game because they
enable easy spelling of 5 letter words at the cost of only 1 vowel. If you ever
have HTCH clumped up together, just buy and I or an A, and you can spell HATCH
or HITCH. Using GHT you can get LIGHT, SIGHT. Another of my favourites which
fall in this category is MONTH. By buying a single vowel you have considerably
improved the health of your pyramid.
- Y and S = Yes!: The S and to a lesser degree the Y are great letters. By
adding an S, you can pluralize most words and by adding a Y, you are turning it
into an adjective. So many of the easier to find 4 letter words will become 5
letter words! So, should you save up these letters? Never! I find you always get
plenty to work with, use them without hesitation; with preference with the
¡§evil¡¨ consonants.
- Elusive ING: For every word game played, the ING is a magical suffix. Adding
to any verb will give you a long word. So if you ever see NG together without
the I, don't hesitate to buy it if you can do a 6, 7 or preferably 8 letter
word.
- Clock and Time: Keep an eye on your clock at all times. And while I would
think this is obvious I will still mention this... Never get a word if your
clock is full! If you get all your words at once, you will have an empty pyramid
in no time. Your clock will run out as you are waiting for tiles to randomly
appear. You should not worry about your pyramid height. Whenever you see one
side of your pyramid a lot higher than the other side, simply get a few words at
the base to level it. I will periodically switch from one side to the other.
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