How to play Deluxe Waffle

If you know the 5×5 game, you already know the rules. This page covers what changes on the 7×7 board and how to deal with it.

What does the 7×7 board look like?

Words run across rows 1, 3, 5 and 7 and down columns 1, 3, 5 and 7. That makes eight words, each seven letters long. The empty squares between them give the grid its waffle shape.

There are 40 letter tiles. Sixteen of them are shared tiles, where an across word meets a down word.

What are the Deluxe rules?

• All 40 letters start on the board in a mixed up order. Swap any two tiles that are not green.
• The colours work like the 5×5 game. Green is right. Yellow belongs somewhere else in a word through that tile. Grey belongs in a different word.
• You get 25 swaps. Every grid can be solved in exactly 20.
• Each swap left at the end is a star. A perfect 20 swap solve earns five.

Why is Deluxe harder?

Our 7×7 grids draw from about 3,000 seven letter words, while the 5×5 grids use about 2,000 five letter words. The board has 16 shared tiles instead of 9, and each must fit two words. You still get only 5 spare swaps, even though there are almost twice as many tiles.

A five step plan for 20 swaps

1. Start with the nearly done words. Scan all eight words and find the ones with the most greens. Name them first. They pin down the letters around them.
2. Work out from the shared tiles. Each shared tile you fix sets a letter in two words, so the rest of the board gets easier fast.
3. Read the word shapes. Many seven letter words end in ING, ION, ED, ER, LY, ENT or EST. If a word ends in E and D, look for an ED word that fits the greens.
4. Count letters before you commit. A 7×7 board often has three or four Es. Knowing how many are left stops you chasing letters that are all used up.
5. Pick swaps that fix two tiles. You can only reach 20 if most swaps turn both tiles green. Before each move, check whether a different partner tile would do that.

How are Deluxe stars scored?

One star for every swap you have left when the grid is solved:

How to read a 7×7 board in your first minute

1. Count the greens. On our grids, 9.5 tiles start green on average. They are fixed points, so write each word's greens down as a pattern, such as A blank K blank A blank D.
2. Check the endings. ED and ER are the most common endings on our 7×7 grids. If a word's last tiles fit one of them, test that first.
3. Count the letters on the board. Every letter you need is there, and nothing extra. If the board shows only one K, exactly one tile in the answer is a K.
4. Match words to crossings. For each shared tile, the across word and the down word must agree. A guess that clashes at a shared tile is wrong.

Watch a real 7×7 grid solved in 20 swaps

This is Deluxe #60, solved in the fewest possible swaps. The answer is AWKWARD, GONDOLA, BARRAGE and ARDUOUS across, with ALGEBRA, KINDRED, AVOCADO and DRAWERS down. Each board shows the grid right after the swap.

11 of those 20 swaps fixed two tiles at once. On our 7×7 grids, a perfect solve has about 10.5 swaps like that on average. The rest come in short loops, where each swap lands one letter and passes another along.

A two week practice plan

• Days 1 to 3: play the 7×7 setting in Unlimited. Ignore stars. Just finish within 25 swaps.
• Days 4 to 7: name every word before your first swap. Count how many swaps you used and write it down.
• Days 8 to 11: hunt for pair swaps. Before each move, check whether both tiles will turn green.
• Days 12 to 14: play the daily Deluxe grid for real and aim for three stars or more.

Mistakes to avoid on the 7×7 board

• Guessing a word from one row. Always test it against the four columns it crosses.
• Forgetting repeated letters. Every one of our 213 Deluxe grids has a word with a repeated letter. Count each letter before you move a grey tile away.
• Fixing one tile when two were possible. A single tile fix is sometimes needed, but try for a pair first.
• Rushing the last five swaps. If you have used 20 and the grid is not done, slow down. Each swap from here is a star.

Where can I practise?

Play today's Deluxe grid, replay old ones in the Deluxe archive, or pick the 7×7 setting in Unlimited for as many as you like. Stuck? The hints pages give one clue at a time.