How to Play

 

 

Getting Down to Basics

 

What’s this game all about?

Welcome to the word game that finally grants you freedom of word play. When we set out to build Word Rails for you, we wanted it to feel familiar, but at the same time let you to spell the words you wanted without a bunch of limitations. You can play a game quickly if you have a few minutes to spare, or at a more relaxed pace if that’s your style. This is our love letter to all of you word puzzlers out there.

 

How do I play?

When you start the game, a bunch of letter tiles will roll onto the board via the Word Rails. You can press or drag any of these letters into the little word area at the bottom. Once you have a word, that little area will light up bright green and you can press anywhere on it to get points for that word!

You keep spelling words until you have used up all the letters on each rail. When you get to the end of a train, you will see a caboose show up. If you decide that you have spelled all that you can, you can press the caboose button and it will award you all the letter points for that row.

 

What do you mean by freedom of play?

Not only do you get to use any of the tiles you see on the board, we built in other ways to give you more choice in how you play. If you prefer to spell short words more quickly, you can use a Triple Play boost to boost your score by spelling three-letter words.

If you prefer a more leisurely pace, you can take your time to selectively transform tiles into multipliers or wildcards and spell extra long words for a huge bonus.

There are also special Boosters you can equip before the start of a game. Use this special equipment strategically as a way to complement your personal play style. Doing so will maximize your score and your chance of success.

 

How does the competitive play work?

Here’s the trick: every match you play is a competitive match! Each time you play, you will be randomly matched up with another player who has also played the same match (same board and same tiles!). At the end of the match, if your score is higher than your opponent’s, you will get more XP to level up and also help improve your Rank.

If you prefer to play direct competitive matches with your Friends, you can invite your Friends via email or SMS and Challenge them directly.

What is this Rank you mentioned earlier?

Once you play your first game in a given week, you are automatically placed into a League Battle with other players. Battle your way through your League and be in one of the top spots on the Leaderboard by the end of the week to advance your rank. Placement is based on the total amount of XP you earn within a given week. With each rank you gain, you’ll earn even more tickets than the previous rank.

How can I move up the League Leaderboard?

Winning games is the best way to improve your position, because it will yield you the most XP. Make strategic use of Boosters to ensure your opponent doesn’t get the upper hand. Your matches are exactly the same, and they will use every advantage they can to win.

What happens with my Rank at the end of a Season?

At the end of a Season, we will distribute special Medal stamps to players at the different ranks which you can display on your nameplate before each match to show off your extraordinary accomplishment! You can equip up to three stamps onto your nameplate.

Understanding the Game Board

Learning the details of how the game board works is key to becoming a better player.

Multiplier Tiles

Use the pink and orange letter multiplier blocks to get more letter points, and use the blue and purple word multiplier blocks to get more points for the entire word! The multipliers stack, so the more you use, the higher your score.

Special Cars

Not all train cars are created equal. You will notice Special Cars on the board as you spell words. Once you use a tile in a word, the car that it was seated in earlier will be activated. Here’s what the different Special Cars do:

Lightning

These cars will wipe out an entire row of tiles. Similar to the Bomb cars, you will still be awarded all the letter points for the tiles it removes. But be careful – you might have needed one of those letters!

Coin

Free these cars when you see them and then will grant you a small coin boost to help you purchase more boosts during your match.

Upgrade Letter Multiplier

These cars will upgrade any adjacent letter tiles with a letter score multiplier. For example, a letter worth 5 points could be worth 10 points with a x2 Letter Multiplier!

Upgrade Word Multiplier

These cars are incredibly useful because they will upgrade any adjacent letters tiles with an entire word score multiplier. So if you have a word that is worth 100 points, an x2 Word Multiplier will double that to 200 points!

Bomb

Watch out, because these cars will blow up any tiles adjacent to you. Use them strategically to blow up tiles you don’t want or don’t have a need for. Or better yet, get creative to avoid blowing up any of the letters in its radius.

 

Boosts

Boosts are special items that you can select before a match begins to help maximize your score. Press the ? button to learn more about the individual boosts and how you can use them to achieve victory!

 

Thank you!

Thank you for playing Word Rails. This has been a passion project of ours for many years now, and we sincerely hope you enjoy it! If you need more information or support, please contact: contact@summerdoorstudios.com.