Blitz mode

Sixty seconds, one big grid, and a simple question: how many can you find? Blitz is the quickest game in Spellhunt, and the one most likely to make you say "one more".

• 12×12grid
• 18 wordsmore than you'll likely find
• 60 secondsfrom your first touch
• New gridevery run

How Blitz works

Blitz lives on a card on the Today tab. Tap Play Blitz and you get a fresh 12×12 grid with 18 words hidden in all eight directions. The clock starts on your first touch of the grid and shows as a ring that empties over 60 seconds. It ticks through the last ten seconds, then "Time!": the grid stops taking swipes and you see how many words you found.

Nobody expects you to find all 18. The point is the count, and beating the last one. There's no way to fail and nothing to lose, and you can start another run straight away. Every run makes a new grid, so no two are the same.

Like the Daily, the clock pauses if you leave the app. In Relax mode the ring is hidden and you just see your count go up.

How to find more words in 60 seconds

A normal puzzle rewards finding every word. Blitz rewards finding the easy ones fast. That changes how you should play.

Don't chase a word

If a word doesn't turn up in a few seconds, move on. With 18 words in the grid, another one is almost always easier. Stubbornness is the most common way to finish a Blitz with a low count.

Take the long words first

Long words are easier to spot in a big grid: more letters means more chances to catch one. Glance down the list for the longest words and look for them before the short ones.

Hunt letters, not words

Pick a letter that's rare in the grid, like a Z, Q, X, J or K, and check each word that contains it. Around an uncommon letter there are only a few places to look. The scanning techniques guide goes into this.

Let the grid tell you

Sometimes a word jumps out before you've read the list. Take it. Your eyes are better at spotting familiar shapes than at searching for a specific one, and in Blitz every find counts the same.

Swipe loosely

The highlight snaps to the nearest straight line, so you don't need to be precise. Start on the first letter, drag roughly toward the last, and lift. Careful swiping costs time you don't have.

Blitz as practice

Because it's short and a new grid every time, Blitz is a good warm-up before the Daily. The habits it builds (reading the list quickly, moving on from a stubborn word, trusting what jumps out) are the same ones that bring your Daily time down.

Updated September 30, 2026.