Face-Off Mode

Asynchronous competitive play! Challenge friends or strangers to play on the same board — play whenever it's convenient for you. Face-Off comes in four variants, each with its own leaderboard and rating.

How It Works

• A challenge is created with a fixed board seed
• Players can play at any time before the deadline
• Everyone plays the exact same board
• When all players finish (or time expires), highest score wins!

Variants

Classic

The original format: 15 rounds, 60 seconds each, 4 flips for the whole game. Server-driven pacing — the round timer keeps things moving.

Time Attack

Race the clock instead of the round timer. No per-round limit — take as long as you need on each word — but a single master timer is always running for the whole match. Submit or pass to advance; 4 flips for the entire game.

Mode	Duration	Best For
Quick	5 minutes	Fast-paced action
Standard	7.5 minutes	Balanced gameplay
Extended	10 minutes	Strategic, thoughtful play

Feature	Classic	Time Attack
End Condition	15 rounds	Master timer expires
Round Timer	60 seconds per round	None
Pacing	Server-driven	Player-driven

Bonanza

Classic's rules — 15 rounds, 60 seconds each — with bonus tiles scattered across the board: Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Mystery (?) tiles worth a hidden value. Use one in a word to collect it, multiplied by your working-row multiplier and stacked on top of your word score. The same bonus-tile schedule also appears on Daily's own Bonanza days, so a Gold tile is worth the same wherever you find it.

Survival

No rounds at all — one continuous session on a shared seed. The board starts nearly empty and tiles keep feeding in from the bottom; let the stack reach the top and you're out. Wipe, Extra Flip, and Wildcard bonus tiles appear along the way to help you last longer. When the session ends, whoever has the highest score wins the pot — same as every other variant, just ranked by score instead of survival time.

Challenge Types

Public Matches

Quick matchmaking against random opponents. The system matches you with players of similar skill level based on your rating for that variant.

Private Challenges

Create a private challenge and invite specific friends:

• Set a custom entry fee (0-1000 coins)
• Choose time limit (1 hour, 6 hours, 24 hours, or 48 hours)
• Invite friends from your friends list
• Share the invite code for others to join

Entry Fees & Prizes

Face-Off matches can have entry fees. The pot is distributed based on player count:

• 2 players: Winner takes the entire pot
• 3-4 players: 1st place takes most, 2nd gets entry fee back
• 5+ players: 1st takes most, 2nd gets entry fee back, 3rd gets half entry fee back
• Free matches: Just for fun, no coins at stake

Tiebreakers

If two or more players finish with the exact same total score, ties are broken in this order:

1. Highest single word — whoever scored the most points on their single best word wins
2. Classic, Bonanza & Survival: least time taken to reach that score. Time Attack: fewest rounds used to reach it
3. Whoever submitted first — a final tiebreaker so a result is never left to chance

This same order applies to all four variants.

Skill Rating & Matchmaking

Each Face-Off variant uses its own separate TrueSkill rating and leaderboard — you might be Diamond in Classic but Gold in Time Attack:

• Smart Matchmaking: Public matches pair you with players of similar skill in that variant
• Fair Ratings: Your rating change is based on your skill level when you played, not when the game ends
• Play Multiple Games: You can have several Face-Offs in progress across any variant — each one is calculated fairly

Quitting a Match

If you need to leave mid-game, your current score will be submitted. You won't be able to continue that challenge, but your progress counts!