Scoring
Everything about how points work in Word & War. Each game mode has its own scoring formula, and your overall War Rank combines them all with a balance bonus that rewards playing every mode.
Word Duel Scoring
Play Word Duel in your browser. Every solved Word Duel puzzle earns points. Fewer guesses and faster solves score higher. Unsolved puzzles earn 0 points.
Raw Score
Base Points (by difficulty)
| Difficulty | Letters | Max Guesses | Base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 4 | 6 | 25 |
| Medium | 5 | 6 | 60 |
| Hard | 6 | 7 | 120 |
Attempt Multiplier
Fewer guesses → higher multiplier (0.4 – 1.0). Uses a curve exponent of 0.7 so early guesses are rewarded more.
attemptMultiplier = 0.4 + 0.6 × attemptRatio0.7
Time Multiplier
Faster than the ideal time → up to 2.5×. Slower → down to 0.5×.
timeMultiplier = clamp(timeRatio, 0.5, 2.5)
| Difficulty | Ideal Time |
|---|---|
| Easy | 45 seconds |
| Medium | 90 seconds |
| Hard | 150 seconds |
Leaderboard Score
The raw score is multiplied by 18× for the leaderboard. Winning a challenge gives an extra 1.5× bonus.
Examples
| Difficulty | Guesses | Time | Raw | Leaderboard | Challenge Win |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 5 | 60s | ~8 | ~135 | ~203 |
| Medium | 3 | 90s | ~48 | ~864 | ~1,296 |
| Medium | 2 | 45s | ~114 | ~2,052 | ~3,078 |
| Hard | 3 | 120s | ~108 | ~1,944 | ~2,916 |
Tower Defense Scoring
Each Tower Defense run (from start to defeat or victory) earns points based on how far you get and how much XP you bank.
Time bonus: +2 points per minute survived, capped at 50.
| Level | Wave | XP Left | Minutes | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 580 |
| 1 | 3 | 100 | 5 | 765 |
| 3 | 2 | 200 | 10 | 1,710 |
| 7 | 4 | 500 | 20 | 3,935 |
Your career TD score on the leaderboard is the sum of all your runs. Your best run is your single highest-scoring run.
For a deep dive on Tower Defense mechanics, units, enemies, and strategies, see the Tower Defense Wiki.
Overall War Rank
Your overall War Rank on the global leaderboard combines all your game mode scores plus an entropy-based balance bonus that rewards playing every mode.
Balance Bonus
The balance bonus uses Shannon entropy to measure how evenly your points are spread across game modes. A player who climbs both ladders gets a bigger bonus than someone who only plays one mode.
entropy = −Σ (p × ln(p)) for each p > 0
maxEntropy = ln(numberOfModes)
balanceRatio = entropy / maxEntropy ← 0 (one-trick) to 1 (perfectly balanced)
balanceBonus = totalRawPoints × 0.15 × balanceRatio
What does this mean in practice?
| TD | Duel | Balance Ratio | Bonus | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 10,000 |
| 10,000 | 2,000 | 0.65 | 1,170 | 13,170 |
| 10,000 | 5,000 | 0.92 | 2,070 | 17,070 |
| 6,000 | 6,000 | 1.00 | 1,800 | 13,800 |
As we add more game modes (Snake Siege, Word Blitz, etc.), the formula naturally extends — entropy scales to N modes. Playing 3 out of 4 modes well gives a higher ratio than playing 2 out of 4.
Leaderboard Views
- Overall — War Rank (TD + Duel + balance bonus). One entry per player.
- Tower Defense – Career — Cumulative TD points from all runs. One entry per player.
- Tower Defense – Best Run — Single highest-scoring TD run. Multiple entries per player possible.
- Word Duel – Career — Cumulative Duel points from all solves. One entry per player.
- Word Duel – Best Solve — Single highest-scoring solve. Multiple entries per player possible.
Challenges & Social Scoring
When you solve a Word Duel puzzle, you can share a challenge code with a friend. If your friend solves the same puzzle, scores are compared:
- Fewer guesses wins.
- If same guesses, faster time wins.
- Challenge winner gets a 1.5× score bonus on that solve.
Scoring formulas may be tuned over time. All changes are applied retroactively to the leaderboard.