Answers
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the things people actually ask. If yours is not covered here, the contact page will reach me.
Playing
- Do I need an account to play?
- No. Every mode is playable without signing up. The first time you play you pick a display name, and that is the whole process — no email address or password. Signing in is optional and only exists so your stats and progress can follow you between devices; progress you made anonymously is carried over when you do sign in.
- Is EvoWordo free?
- Yes, all five modes are free with no paid tier and nothing to unlock by paying. There is an optional donation link if you want to support the project, but it changes nothing about the game.
- How many guesses do I get?
- Six in most modes. A Battle Royale host can lower the limit to anywhere between one and six for their room. In Shared Duel the six guesses are shared between both players rather than six each — see the per-mode rules.
- Does a rejected guess use up an attempt?
- No. If a word is not in the accepted list the row shakes and nothing is consumed, so you can try a different word with no penalty.
- Can I guess the same word twice?
- Not in the Daily Challenge, Duel or Battle Royale — repeats are rejected so you cannot accidentally waste an attempt on a word you already tried.
- Does capitalisation matter?
- No. Guesses are normalised before scoring, so you can type in any case you like.
Words and scoring
- How many words are there?
- There are 2,254 possible answers and 12,953 words accepted as guesses. Roughly 10,700 words are valid guesses that can never be the answer, which makes them ideal opening guesses purely for information. How to use that split.
- Why did two of the same letter score differently?
- Each letter in the answer can only be used once. Exact positional matches are resolved first, then any remaining copies are assigned to misplaced tiles from left to right. So if you guess a letter twice and only one tile lights up, the answer contains exactly one of that letter — a useful deduction rather than a bug. Worked example.
- Are guesses checked in my browser?
- No. Validation and scoring both happen on the server, and the browser is never told the answer while a game is in progress. That is what makes daily results comparable between players.
- A word was rejected that I am sure is real. Can that be fixed?
- Quite possibly — no five-letter word list is complete. Send it through the feedback form and it can be reviewed for the accepted-guess list.
Daily Challenge and stats
- Does everyone get the same daily word?
- Yes. One puzzle is generated per date and shared by every player, which is what makes the leaderboards a fair comparison.
- How does the streak work?
- Winning the Daily Challenge on consecutive days extends your streak. Losing resets it to zero, and skipping a day breaks it. Your longest streak is kept on your record permanently, even after the current one ends.
- How is the efficiency score calculated?
- You earn 3 points for each correctly placed letter and 1 point for each letter that is in the word but misplaced, then a speed bonus of (7 − guesses) × 10 if you win. A three-guess win is worth a 40-point bonus; a six-guess win is worth 10. How that changes optimal play.
- Why am I not on the leaderboard?
- The skill boards have minimum thresholds so one good day cannot top them: win rate requires at least 10 daily games, and best solve, average guesses and efficiency each require at least 5 daily wins. The Most Wins and Longest Streak boards have no threshold.
- Do multiplayer wins count towards the leaderboard?
- Not at present. Multiplayer rounds are scored and shown live inside the room, but the all-time leaderboards are built from Daily Challenge results only.
Multiplayer
- How do I play with a friend?
- Create a room in any multiplayer mode and you will get a six-character code. Share the code and your friend can join with it. Rooms left open also appear in the open-rooms list on the home page for anyone to join.
- How many people can join a room?
- Duel and Shared Duel are strictly two players. Battle Royale takes a host plus any number of players. AI Battle is open to whoever is in the room, with the server acting as host.
- What happens if I lose my connection mid-round?
- You are not immediately out. The room persists and you can rejoin the game you were in, with your board as you left it. A round can still end while you are away — a Battle Royale opponent may solve it, or a timer may expire.
- Can I chat with other players?
- No. EvoWordo has no chat feature in any mode, which means rooms cannot be used to message strangers.
- Does the round restart automatically when it ends?
- It depends on the mode. AI Battle cycles automatically, starting the next round about twelve seconds after the previous one ends. Battle Royale rounds do not restart on their own — the host starts the next one. In Duel, a rematch begins once both players have requested it.
Accessibility and settings
- I cannot tell the green and yellow tiles apart. Is there an option?
- Yes. Turn on colourblind-friendly tiles in Settings and green and yellow are replaced by orange and blue, which stay distinguishable with red-green colour blindness. The change applies to the board, the keyboard and the examples in the guides.
- Can I turn off the animations and sound?
- Yes. Settings has a reduced-motion option that cuts animation throughout, and it also respects your operating system's reduced-motion preference automatically. Sound can be muted, volume-adjusted, or switched between packs.
- Can I play with a keyboard instead of tapping?
- Yes. Type letters directly, use Enter to submit and Backspace to delete. The on-screen keyboard is there for touchscreens but is never required.
- Does it work on a phone?
- Yes. The board scales to the size of your screen rather than assuming a desktop window, and the on-screen keyboard is sized for thumbs.
Still stuck?
The feedback form goes straight through, and bug reports are genuinely useful.