The Game: Crossword Battle

Outsmart your opponents by building the best 5x5 grid! Turn order rotates in a circle: whoever is up picks a letter, and every player places that same letter somewhere on their own board. The letters are the same for everyone — your placement is what counts. Once a letter is placed, it is locked into position. Every cell belongs to a row and a column at once, so each placement is a promise to two words, and a badly placed letter breaks both. Your own picks cut both ways: the letter that completes your row lands on every other board too. Pick a common letter and you have handed everyone a gift, so pick it only when it does more for you than for them. Pick a rare one and every player has to bury it somewhere, which is exactly what you want when you have a place for it and they do not. Watch the other players. Build with the letters they are going to pick anyway, and save your own turns for the ones nobody else will. The last letter is the one nobody shares: each player picks their own free letter for the last empty cell. Then every board is revealed side by side, every scored word highlighted, and you see where the same letters went differently. Chat opens once the scores are in. HOW IT SCORES • When every grid is full, each of the 5 rows and 5 columns counts its single best word of 3 or more letters, read left to right or top to bottom. No diagonals, no backwards words. • 3 letters = 3 points, 4 letters = 5, 5 letters = 10. A line with no word scores 0. A perfect board is 100! • Words are checked against the NASPA Word List 2023. WAYS TO PLAY • Friends: 2 to 5 players by link or code, at your own pace. A notification tells you when it is your move. • Quick Match: a live, timed game against other players. About five minutes. • Solo: play the computer whenever you like. RANKED Every multiplayer game moves your ranking. Climb through four ranking tiers to unlock more mid-game word lookups, new themes, board replays, and other advantages. See where you stand amongst your friends and all other players on the leaderboard. No account needed to start, but sign in with Apple or Google to carry your stats across devices and the browser at thegamee.com.