A grid of letters where every word you find clears its tiles and the ones around it, while new rows push up from below.
Publisher
Zach Gage
Cost
Paid app, with a free daily puzzle on Puzzmo
How often
Endless play, plus a daily puzzle
Time
5 minutes to an hour, depending on mode
The rules
Trace words through adjacent letters, including diagonals.
Clearing a word removes its tiles and adjacent tiles in the same row.
Longer words clear more of the board.
In tower mode new rows rise from the bottom as you play.
The game ends when tiles reach the top.
What works
The most tactile and best-designed word game on this list
Board-clearing turns vocabulary into something closer to Tetris
Several modes, from relaxed puzzle to timed pressure
Long words are genuinely rewarded, not just permitted
What doesn’t
The full game is paid, unlike everything else here
Tower mode's rising rows make it stressful rather than contemplative
Smaller player base, so there is little daily conversation around it
Best on a phone; less comfortable on a desktop
Skip SpellTower if: Anyone unwilling to pay for a word game, or who wants a puzzle with a single daily answer to discuss
Questions about SpellTower
Is SpellTower free?
The full app is paid, though a free daily SpellTower puzzle is available on Puzzmo. That makes it the only game on this list with a genuine price tag.
How do you score in SpellTower?
By word length and by how much of the board a word clears. Long words remove surrounding tiles as well as their own, so the best plays are the ones that open up the grid.
What is the difference between SpellTower modes?
Tower mode pushes new rows up as you play and ends when tiles reach the top. Puzzle mode gives a fixed board to clear completely, which is the more contemplative version.
Meldle is a different daily puzzle — four words sharing one missing pair of letters. Try today’s → It’s free, needs no account, and here is what it does badly.
