LexiSlide

The game

A sliding-tile board where the letters are the puzzle. Tap any tile in the gap's row or column and everything between it and the gap moves one place across — however many tiles move, it counts as one move. Then drag across touching letters to spell, and bank the word. The letters stay on the board when you do, so the same tiles spell word after word — you are not spending letters, you are arranging them.

Worth a closer look

• Nothing is consumed: the same tiles keep spelling, so a good arrangement pays compound interest across the whole run.
• A slide moves a run, not a tile: reading how a whole row settles is the skill — the best players spell three words with one shove.
• Shaping slides cut both ways: in Versus the reward for banking is the right to make the board worse for whoever plays next.

How it plays

1. Slide. One tap moves a run of tiles into the gap — one move, however many tiles ride along.
2. Spell. Drag across touching letters — up, down, left, right, never diagonally, never the same tile twice.
3. Bank. Claim the word and keep playing — the board keeps every letter.
4. Efficiency is the skill where there is a word list: the words are given, so how few slides it took you to build each one is the score that separates players.

The 6×6: wilds and blockers

The big board adds a ★ wild — stands for any letter, anywhere in a word, and its real value is being the blank that spells the word you have no letter for — and a blocker no word may pass through. In solo the blocker slides like any tile, so you shove it out of your way; in Versus it is bolted down, and its whole row and column are frozen with it — a fixed spine the board has to work around.

Versus

One board, two to four players, taking turns on one device. A turn is up to seven slides, then bank one word — any real word, but each word banks once, so taking it means they cannot. Banking earns five shaping slides before you pass: a free rearrangement of the board for whoever plays next. Careful what you build with them.

The daily

One 5×5 themed board for everyone, worldwide — the same list, the same layout. The list is given; the slides are yours.