Phantom Words

We made Phantom Words for anyone who loves that small, satisfying moment when a jumble of letters suddenly turns into a word.

Each board begins scrambled, with most of the letters hidden behind ghost tiles. Slide rows and columns like a 2D Rubik’s Cube, then look for words running across or down the board. Whenever you make one using a tile for the first time, another letter appears. Once every tile is used, the puzzle is complete.

Longer words are worth more, while tiles lose value each time you use them. Yellow means a tile is nearly spent; red means you’ve leaned on it too often. Later boards introduce gaps that split rows and columns, multi-letter tiles that keep their letters together, wildcards that can stand in for any letter, and locked tiles that stay fixed until you use them in a word. And if a solution feels messy, you can always come back and find a more elegant one.

There are four ways to play:

• Classic has 99 handmade levels with increasing difficulty and evolving mechanics.

• Endless starts small and procedurally grows while you play.

• Daily Challenge gives everyone a new board each day, plus a streak to keep going.

• Lightning Mode is the same word hunting, but against the clock.

Classic, Endless, and Daily Challenge aren’t timed, so there’s no rush. You get a full score breakdown after each level and can replay it whenever you want. Your progress and settings sync across your devices with iCloud. There are also Game Center leaderboards if you care about high scores.

We hope you enjoy discovering the words we’ve hidden for you.