Six puzzles, six short guides. Each one explains how the game works, what to try when you're stuck, and roughly how long a round takes.
None of these games needs a guide to get started — you can tap into any of them and be playing within a few seconds. But puzzles are more enjoyable when you understand what they're actually asking of you, and most of us get stuck in the same handful of places. These pages are for those moments: the crossword clue that won't come, the word ladder that seems to have no route, the memory board that keeps slipping away.
They're also here for anyone deciding what to play first. The six games ask for quite different things. Two of them lean on vocabulary, one leans on recall, one on spatial thinking, and two sit somewhere in between. If you've had a long day and want something that asks almost nothing of you, that's a different choice from the one you'd make on a bright morning with a cup of tea and twenty minutes to spare.
There are no timers. Nothing counts down, nothing expires, and no puzzle is ever lost because you put your phone down to answer the door. If you leave mid-round and come back tomorrow, the puzzle is where you left it.
You cannot fail. There's no losing state in any of the six games. A wrong guess simply doesn't register — it never costs you a life, a score, or a streak.
Coins are shared. Every game draws on the same purse of coins, and coins buy hints. Earning them in the crossword means you can spend them in the word search.
Hints are a normal part of playing. They're built in on purpose. Using one isn't cheating and doesn't mark the puzzle as unfinished — it just moves you past the bit that stopped being fun.
If you like words, start with Word Search. It's the gentlest of the three word games and the easiest to play badly without noticing — you can drift through a grid half-attentively and still finish it, which is exactly what you want some evenings.
If you want something with a bit more bite, Mini Crossword and Word Ladder both ask you to think properly. The crossword rewards general knowledge and a wide vocabulary; the ladder rewards patience and a willingness to work backwards from the answer.
If words aren't your thing at all — and plenty of people who love puzzles don't enjoy word games — go to Memory Match or Picture Puzzle. Neither involves language, so neither depends on how much English you happen to have. They travel well across languages for that reason.
And Word Connect sits in the middle: a word game that doesn't demand a large vocabulary, because short common words are usually enough to finish a level.