So what’s up folks with this splash screen? Seriously? Does someone get here by accident?

One of my favorite games but sheesh, more of that will mean less of me.

Pathwords is a Facebook word game by zynga.  If you’ve not played it, but love word games, check out Pathwords.  This article is to give you some tips once you’ve wet your whistle.

First off, it’s important to understand the scoring.  Let’s look at the word chart.

What immediately jumps out to you?  It’s how the points don’t scale up right?  The biggest bang for your buck in making longer words is from 3 letter to 4 letter words.  You’ll do the most to improve your game just getting out of scoring 3 letter words.

Another thing to notice is the significant jump at 7 and 8 letter words. To get there, you’ll have to do something besides look for longer words, you’ll need to create them.

Beyond scoring, there’s another trick to the words.  Have you ever thought you were out of words, even 3 letters long?  Not true.  The game never leaves you without a word.  So another key to mastery isn’t just longer words, by accident, or intent, but learn those three and four letter words cold.

A good example are GET GUT GIT.  Those words occur fairly frequently. Learn the more unusual ones with Z, V and J.  Those will be your most difficult letters to rid yourself of.

The dictionary used is the TWL Scrabble Dictionary. Check out the Official Tournament Word List entry on Wikipedia.

The zynga team provided their own tips in the help section of the Pathwords game.

• Instead of clicking the Submit button, you can click the last letter of your word again.
• You can also drag the mouse to form your word. When you release the mouse button, your word will be submitted.
• Be careful of how you use shuffles. The first one costs a mere 20 points, but they can get very expensive very quickly. If you don’t have enough points to pay for the next shuffle, you can’t use this feature.
• Expert players will manage their letters carefully to help them form big words for huge points.
• Check out your current word right underneath the board. If your current letters form a legal words, the word will be green. If not, the word will be red.

These aren’t word tips, but trust me, playing with mouse drag is the fastest way to go.  I actually find this true even with the touchpad on my Mac Book Pro.

So let’s sum up.

• Make longer words when possible
• Create longer words on your own, be selective when you have choices
• Learn the three and four letter words by heart
• Focus on learning words for V, J, and Z.
• There is always a word.

Let’s get playing.  Be sure to friend me on Facebook and challenge me to a game of Pathwords.