Word Shards

About Word Shards

Word Shards is one of the free daily puzzles on PuzzleLab, a browser site of short word and number games with no sign-up. The board has six rows of three slots. Six hidden words have each been cut into three shards, small groups of letters, and the eighteen shards are scattered across the board.

You drag tiles to swap them into new places. When shards that belong together end up side by side in the right order, they join into a larger tile, and when a whole word is rebuilt in its row it locks and can no longer move. The game counts your moves against a limit of 15, so every swap should do some work. New players are offered a hint, which marks the shards of one word.

The daily board is generated from a seed shared by every player, taken from the date in Pacific time, so it changes at midnight there. Once you finish, the daily is locked until the next day; practice mode gives fresh boards at any time. PuzzleLab keeps a daily streak across its games.

Word Shards suits players who like rebuilding words from chunks, as in 7 Little Words or Quartiles, but want a tight move limit instead of a word list.

How to play Word Shards

1. Open Word Shards on PuzzleLab and start the daily puzzle.
2. Look over the eighteen shards and guess which three belong to each word.
3. Drag a tile onto another to swap them.
4. Line up the three shards of a word in order in one row; they join and lock when the word is complete.
5. Rebuild all six words in 15 moves or fewer to win.

Tips

• Find word beginnings and endings first: shards like ING, ED or ER usually go last.
• Plan each swap so it places two shards at once when you can.
• Locked words cannot move, so finish the rows you are sure of early to clear the board.
• Count your moves; with 15 for 18 shards, there is little room for trial and error.

Questions