From The Beginning

I’ve been playing other word games for most of 2012 and quite frankly, I’m sick of them. I consider a couple of my friends to be “tastemakers”.

By my definition, a tastemaker is someone who is discovering new music, new mobile apps and new restaurants before the mainstream society catches on. Everything that they’ve pointed me towards has been top-notch and what I consider premium. They have a real gift of discernment.

Last week, they started talking about how they were looking forward to trying this new mobile app, called Letterpress. Evidently, the creator of the game, used to work at Apple and invented the pull down function that refreshes the page on your smartphone. Thinking about how handy that turned out to be, I began to wonder if the game might be fun to play. Since there was a free version, it was a no-brainer to give it a shot, especially considering the recommendations and all the positive reviews and ratings on iTunes.

If you plan on downloading the game, I strongly recommend you upgrade for 99 cents. The FREE version only allows you to play 2 games at the same time and you do not get to see the list of words played during the match. Being able to have several games going simultaneously is completely worth 99 cents.

Letterpress Cheat Tip #1 – It’s Not About The Longest Word

Why Are So Many People Confused About How To Win The Game

After playing Letterpress, I marveled at the simplicity of the design and how awesome the “less is more” approach truly worked. There weren’t too many functions or options to muddle the fun and enjoyment. The graphics weren’t too busy and the interface was easy on the eyes.

The problem that everyone seems to be having (myself included) is that we all think its about who can play the longest words. On the contrary, if you only focus on the 12 letter words, you will get beaten more than you win.

This game has so many more elements that make it challenging, most people skip the hard stuff and focus on how cool it is to play a word they most likely do not know how to pronounce or use in a sentence. Unless you are a hacker like the clown in this photo, playing the longest word on every round is going to do nothing, but get you beat.

Letterpress Cheat Tip #2 – Lock The Vowel

Quickly Lock Up The Vowels

In this mobile app, there is a move you can make, called a “block”. If you create a word that utilizes all of the letters that surround the letter you want to block, you will then be able to secure it and prevent it from being stolen by your opponent.

There are 25 letters on the 5 x 5 game board and you should analyze the board and focus on trying to secure the most valuable letters and positions on the board.

The objective is to gain the most color before all of the tiles are used up. If there is a vowel anywhere near one of the corners, target on that letter and figure out a decent word to play to lock that tile up. Vowels are the precious commodity in this game.

Most of the letters that are randomly generated are wacky consonants like J, Z and V. Vowels are hard to find, most of the time. If you do not secure the vowels, either your opponent will do so or you will both be playing ping pong fighting for control. Be aggressive right out of the gate and lock up theose vowels.

In this example, the blue player started off the match by locking up the A. They were able to do this by playing the word ‘FRANK’. There are a total of 4 vowels in this game. Being able to lock up one on the first move is a very aggressive play and usually will result in a win.

Letterpress Cheat Tip #3 – Take The Corners

Corners Are The Easiest Letters To Lock

While you are busy playing the right word to try and lock up the vowels, you might want to take a look at all four corners of the board to see if there are any juicy, commonly used consonants to try and lock up.

It’s much easier to lock up a corner square, than any other spot on the grid because it is only surrounded by 3 tiles, as opposed to 5 or 8 tiles in other parts of the board.

In this picture, the blue player has managed to lock up the top 2 corners, while the red player has secured one of the two T tiles on the board.

Now that the blue player has the top corner secure, a common strategy would be to work on locking up the A, as it’s the only one avaiilable on the board and used often.

While your opponent is enamored with playing the longest word they can think of, you are busy locking up the most important pieces on the board and taking control.

Letterpress Cheat Tip #4 – Look At The Multiples

Lock In Pairs Of Letters To Reduce The Number Of Letters They Can Take

There are only 25 spots on the board. A few of those will be vowels and the rest are going to be consonants. Take a survey of the board and see how many pairs of consonants or vowels you can find. Are there two S tiles?

Another strategy is to lock up one or both of the letters in the pair. If you can secure both letters and they are heavily used, you have the opportunity to place a whole plethora of words that can get from a master list generated at the Letterpress Cheat website.

In the example on your right, the blue player has secured the pair of R tiles. The nice thing about that is R’s are heavily used and the red player is now in a bind because chances are high that most of the words they play will have at least one of those letters.

The more tiles you can lock up, the more constricted your opponent will become. Taking away options from your opponent will put you on the fast track towards the win.

Letterpress Cheat Tip #5 – Use The Generator

Show Some Player Etiquette By Playing Words You Know

If you are going to use aids to help you figure out what words you want to play, the least you can do is not be rude about it. If you know your opponent (ie. a friend or family member), tell them that you use the site to help you learn new words. Be honest and let them know.

If you go to Letterpress Cheat and use their generator, have an ounce of class and play words that are in your vocabulary.

By playing the longest and most obscure word in your list every single round, you are ruining the fun and enjoyment of the game for your opponent.

The website is a great resource for improving your vocabulary skills, remembering words you might have forgotten years ago. Students of the game are going to look up some of the words on their master list and learn how to use that term in a sentence.

If you cheat, just be discreet.