Spell Lode

Goal

Uncover every safe tile, collecting letters to make words.

How do digging and mine clues work?

The board has 64 tiles: 48 safe letters and 16 mines. Choose a covered tile to dig. Small numbers count mines in all eight neighboring squares, including diagonals. A safe zero opens connected safe space. New boards place mines before the first dig, so even an opening dig can hit a mine. Practice starts with prepared clues.

How do I mark or remove a flag?

Right-click, Control-click or Command-click a covered tile, focus it and press F, or long-press on touch. Repeat to remove the flag. A flagged tile cannot be dug. Open letters and previously hit mines cannot be flagged. Flags are reminders, not proof, and earn no points.

What makes a valid word?

Use 4–24 adjacent unused revealed letters, including diagonal steps, in the exact word order. Each tile can appear only once in a word and is spent after submission. The word must be in the shipped common-word list and cannot repeat in a round. Used letters fade but their small mine counts remain useful. Invalid words cost nothing.

How do words score?

Word points are 10 × length + 5 × (length − 4) × (length − 3). Four letters earn 40, five earn 60, six earn 90 and seven earn 130. Invalid words spend no letters or hearts.

How do hearts work?

A new round starts with three hearts. A new mine hit costs one. Accepted words of 4–5 letters earn one heart, 6–7 earn two and 8 or more earn three. Existing score and collected letters survive a mine hit. Zero hearts ends the round as incomplete, keeping its earned score; digging then stops.

When can I finish?

After all 48 safe tiles are revealed, digging and flagging stop. You may keep making words from unused letters or choose Finish to complete the round. You do not have to flag or hit every mine.

What is saved, and do older boards differ?

Normal play keeps best completed and incomplete scores separately on this browser and game origin. A round allows at most 2,048 accepted actions; reaching that cap requires another excavation. Older saves replay their original layouts and may have guaranteed a safe opening with seeded words. New excavations use random mines and letters. Tutorials use prepared in-memory boards and change neither saves nor records.