Words With Friends Board Layout

How the premiums combine

Letter multipliers apply to a single tile. Word multipliers apply to the whole word — and a word covering two of them multiplies by both. A word across two triple word squares scores nine times its face value.

A premium only counts when a newly placed tile lands on it. Squares already covered are spent for the rest of the game, which is what makes the board tighten as it fills and why the same word is worth less on turn thirty than on turn three.

The centre square does not double

This is the difference that surprises players most. The centre is a start square: it marks where the first word must cross and multiplies nothing. An opening play is worth its face value, so there is little reward for hoarding good tiles to open with, and a modest first move that keeps a balanced rack is usually right.

The pairs worth watching

The dangerous geometry is a triple letter square sitting next to a triple word square. A single expensive tile on the letter square, inside a word that reaches the word square, is a sixty-point turn from a handful of tiles. When one of those pairs is open and you cannot use it, taking the square away is often worth more than scoring elsewhere.