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Words With Friends bonus – boost your score

created on by  in Mobile word games, Online word games
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The more you internalize the rules of a game the easier it is for you to beat your opponent. Keep this in mind and spend some time repeating a few rules of Words With Friends to have an advantage in one of your next games. To start with, here is an overview of all possibilities to receive Words With Friends bonus points that will boost your score.

Words With Friends bonus spaces

Usually the value of a word you place on the board in a Words With Friends game is composed of the sum of all individual values of the letter tiles. Its advantageous to know the value of the tiles. That will force you to put down more valuable words to get more points. It’s not all about how creative your word is, how rare it is, or how long it is, but how many points you receive in the end. There is a defined number of letters and value distribution in Words With Friends:


All together there are 104 tiles with the following scores:
1 point for E, A, I, O, T, R, S
2 points for D, N, L, U
3 points for H, G, Y
4 points for B, C, F, M, P, W
5 points for V, K
8 points for X
10 points for J, Q, Z
2 blank tiles with 0 points

Keep in mind that the bonus spaces on the board only count the first time a tile is placed on them. In other words, be smarter and faster than your opponent to be the first who uses bonus spaces with high multipliers. There are two kinds of bonus spaces. One type only counts for the value of the letter you place on it, the other multiplies the value of the whole word. Double the value of any tiles that were played this turn on a DL (double letter) space, and triple the value of any tile that was played on a TL (triple letter) space this turn. Remember not to double the value of tiles on DL and TL spaces for tiles of previous rounds.

Then there is the DW (double word) space and the TW (triple word) space. Double the value of the word if any tiles this turn were played on a DW space. Of course, you can double it again in case of a second DW space and so quadruple your score. Triple the value of the word if any tiles this turn were played on a TW space (and triple it again if 2 TW spaces were used to multiply your basic score by 9).

Multiple bonus with multiple words

What happens with the Words With Friends bonus fields if you are lucky to build multiple words in the same turn for playing? In this situation, you are going to score each new word on its own and add their value together. This rule also includes the bonuses.

Our tip: triple letter bonus can outscore triple word bonus

A lot of unexperienced players try to get rid of their letters as fast as possible and to reach the double or triple word bonus fields. Imagine, you might place a single Q on a triple letter bonus gets you 30 points. Playing 5 or 6 words with low points letters on a double or even triple word bonus might not bring you than many points. Expert tip: If you have a Q without U look for an I close to a bonus field to play QI.

Scores for blank tiles

The blank tile is assigned with a value of 0 points. How does this affect the bonus spaces? Evidently, a multiplication with zero never has an outcome. This means that that the DL space and the TL space have no use in this case. Thus, you should avoid placing a blank tile on such spaces. Nevertheless, the DW and TW spaces count this time since they refer to the whole word.

Extra Words With Friends bonus points

Always try to get rid of all the tiles you have at once. It’s worth a shot since you receive extra points. 35 bonus points are awarded whenever a player uses all 7 tiles from the rack in a single turn.

Additionally, there is a negative bonus. After the last tile is played, the opposing player will lose points equal to the sum of the value of his remaining tiles. If you are lucky, you are the one who gave your last tile away.  The amount is then awarded to the player who placed the last tile. In other words, you have to be fast again and be the first.

Our tip: end the game faster

If you can decide whether to play all your letters at once at the end or play only a few of your letters now and the rest the next turn to get more points, it is often wise to play all letters so your opponent doesn’t get the chance to get rid of some high value letters or even finish the game himself.

To improve your skills on Words With Friends read our article on Words With Friends strategies.

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image sources

  • Words-With-Friends-Website: Screenshot of wordswithfriends.com homepage

14 Responses

  1. The game board will not accept my blank tiles. Every time I attempt to place a blank the tile returns to the line below the board. Why???

    • I never had this problem, can describe which app you use and what you are exactly doing?

  2. A separate window should open where you select the letter you want for the blank tile. I’m not a tech whiz, but maybe that window is having trouble opening, perhaps due to a pop-up blocker or an outdated operating system for the game…?

  3. I used all my tiles and made a word but only got 49 points (it was triple letter and word FORTIETH. I DIDNT GET THE EXTRA 35. any idea why? One of the letters was a blank…the I… But that should not have mattered as it was on a regular space. I’m confused.

    • Sorry, I don’t know a condition under which this could happen, unless that you might not have 7, but maybe 6 letters left.

  4. how do i tell a friend how to get on to play scrabble. words with friends. someone did it for me

    • Hi Phyllis, perhaps it is the easer way for you to play WWF using Facebook, if you have a Facebook account.
      If not, your friend should find WWF or Scrabble app in App Store (Play Store) and install it.

  5. How can a player who only has a few thousand points on the leader board, suddenly have 20 or 30,000 extra points in less than a day. Some of these people have fairly low averages. This seems to really distort the leaderboard

    • Hi Sharon,
      they can probably do it in theory (playing WWF all day long), but it certainly sounds suspicious. If you think that someone breaks WWF rules you should contact WWF user support.

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