Lexico

Lexico is a classic family game where you take turns to place tiles on a board to create words. The more words you create, the more points you will get!

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Objective

The aim of the game is to have more points than your opponent at the end of the game. You score points by placing tiles from your hand onto empty spaces on the board when it's your turn.
Each new line of words (top to bottom and left to right) created on your turn must spell out a word, and you get points for all of the words you create. Each letter has a points value and for each word created you get the sum of the points of the letters in that word.
The tiles you place must line up in a single row or column, and must be connected along that row or column (although tiles already on the board can connect them). At least one of the tiles you place must be adjacent to a tile already on the board.
Once you've played your tiles onto the board, you will receive new tiles from the bag of tiles so that you always have 7 tiles in hand (if there are enough tiles in the bag). If you play all 7 tiles from your hand in one turn, you get an additional 50 points added to your score.
Instead of playing tiles on your turn, you can choose to pass instead. You won't score any points, but you can exchange tiles with random ones from the bag. However, you cannot exchange on the first go or when there are fewer than 7 tiles in the bag.
The game ends when there are no more tiles left in the bag and either you or your opponent runs out of tiles, or when both players pass and exchange no tiles. The scores are then compared to decide who is the winner.

The First Turn

On the first turn your word must cover up the centre square of the board and it must be at least three letters long.

Blank tiles

Blank tiles can take the form of any letter, but don't give you any points. You play them in the same way as any other tile, but must indicate what letter it represents. It will be that letter for the rest of the game, but with a points value of 0.
Blank tiles are only included in the Multipliers version of the game.

Multipliers

In the Multipliers version of the game, there are four types of multipliers:
Double Letter - This doubles the points value of the tile placed on top of it.
Double Word - This doubles the points value of the word or words created on top of it.
Triple Letter - This triples the points value of the tile placed on top of it.
Triple Word - This triples the points value of the word or words created on top of it.
Each Multiplier is nullified the turn after it has been used - on your turn you can create multiple words on a multiplier to get even more bonus points but after you have used it, it will not provide any bonus points.

Useful Links

To start playing, use the links below to get a working example that will let you immediately play a full game of Lexico then start tweaking the code to add your strategy.

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