Word Game FAQ

Common questions about playing Lexathon. If the answer you need isn't here, How To Play covers the rules in full.

Getting Started

Is Lexathon free?

Yes, entirely. There are no purchases of any kind. Everything in the shop is bought with points earned by playing, and points cannot be bought with money.

Do I need an account?

No. You can start playing the moment the page loads, as a guest, with no sign-up. Your progress saves automatically.

The important catch: a guest profile exists only in the browser you created it in. Clear your browsing data, switch to another device, or use a private window, and it's gone permanently — there's no way to recover it, because there's nothing identifying it as yours. Linking an account fixes that.

Will I lose my progress if I sign in later?

No. Linking a Google account or an email address upgrades the profile you already have — your wallet, rank, stats and cosmetics all carry over. It doesn't start you fresh.

The one exception is if that Google account or email already has its own separate Lexathon profile from another device. Two existing profiles can't be merged, so you'll be asked which one to keep.

Do I need to install anything?

No. It runs in any modern browser on phone, tablet or desktop. On a phone you can add it to your home screen from the browser menu, and it'll open like an app.

Playing

Why was my guess rejected?

Guesses have to be five letters and appear in the game's dictionary — 12,972 accepted words. The list of words that can actually be the answer is smaller, 2,315, all reasonably common. So some valid guesses will never be answers, which is fine: they're still useful for information.

What's the difference between my Wallet and my Career Bank?

Your Wallet is spendable — it goes down when you buy cosmetics. Your Career Bank is your lifetime total and never decreases. Leaderboard placement uses the Career Bank, so buying things never costs you standing.

Are points worth real money?

No. Points exist only inside the game. They have no cash value, can't be purchased, sold, transferred or exchanged for anything outside Lexathon, and banking a score just means locking it in permanently so a later mistake can't take it.

I lost a whole run. Can I get it back?

No — and that's deliberate. In Stakes, missing a word with no Continue remaining ends the run and forfeits its score. Banking before that happens is the entire strategic tension of the mode. Points that have been banked are safe permanently.

Does the daily puzzle have a time limit?

No clock at all. Take as long as you like on each word, and you don't have to finish in one sitting — leave whenever you want and come back to the same word later the same day; your progress is saved. You play all seven whatever happens, and running out of guesses costs you only that word's points — so there's never a reason to rush a guess.

When does the daily puzzle reset?

Midnight Eastern Time, wherever you are. Everyone plays the same seven words on a given day, and the Daily Puzzle leaderboard only shows that day's attempts.

Can I replay the Daily Puzzle?

No — one attempt per day, which is what makes comparing scores meaningful. A new puzzle arrives at the next reset.

Multiplayer

How does the rank work?

Clash and FFA keep separate ratings, both starting at 1,000. Each rises when you win and falls when you lose, weighted by opponent strength — beating someone rated well above you moves it more than beating someone below. A 1v1 duel and a six-way race are different skills, so winning one doesn't inflate your standing in the other. Ranks run Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Sapphire, Ruby, and only public matches are ranked.

Can I play friends without risking my rank?

Yes. Private rooms — created with a room code or invite link — don't affect MMR. Only public matchmaking is ranked.

What happens if I leave a match?

In Clash, leaving forfeits and your opponent is awarded the win. In FFA the match continues for everyone else, and you're locked into the worst placement still available — leaving earlier gives you a worse result than leaving later.

What happens if a match ends level?

It goes to Sudden Death: one shared secret word, five guesses each, first to solve it takes the match. If neither player solves it, it's recorded as a genuine tie.

Nobody's in the queue. Can I still play?

Free-For-All needs three players to start, so you don't need a full room of six. If the public queue is quiet, a private room with an invite link is the quickest way to get a game — it's one tap for whoever you send it to. And if it's just the two of you, that's what Clash is for: it starts at two and has room codes of its own.

Cosmetics And Challenges

Does anything in the shop give an advantage?

No. Titles, banners and name effects are purely visual. Nothing sold affects scoring, difficulty, word selection or matchmaking.

What happens to seasonal items after the season?

They stop being purchasable until the window comes round again, but anything you already own stays yours permanently and can still be equipped.

How do challenges work?

Three Daily challenges rotate every day, and Career challenges are one-time milestones. Both pay points into your Wallet, and both need claiming from the Challenges menu — rewards aren't paid automatically.

Problems

The game looks wrong or won't load.

A hard refresh usually fixes it, since the browser may be holding an old version. If you're using a private window or have site data blocked, saved progress won't persist between sessions — the game still plays, it just can't remember anything.

I found a bug.

Reporting it genuinely helps — a good number of recent fixes came from players noticing something was off. Details about what mode you were in and what you were doing make it much easier to track down.

Ready? Play a round, or read the strategy guide first.

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