How to play Spellhunt
A grid of letters, a list of words, and one finger. Here is everything on the puzzle screen and what it does.
Your first minute
Open Spellhunt for the first time and a small 6×6 welcome puzzle is already on the screen. A hand shows you the first word. There is nothing to sign up for and no settings to choose first. Find the words, watch the grid celebrate, and the app moves you on to today's Daily puzzle.
After that first win, Spellhunt asks once whether you'd like an evening reminder when today's puzzle is still waiting. You can say "Not now" and change your mind later in the iPhone Settings app.
Finding a word
Put your finger on the first letter of a word and drag to its last letter, then lift. The highlight follows your finger and snaps to the nearest straight line, so you don't need a perfectly steady hand.
Swipe from the O to the R to find OTTER. Found words stay colored on the grid and get crossed off the list.
Words run in straight lines: across, down, and on the diagonals. On most puzzles they can also run backwards, right to left or bottom to top. The easiest grids use only four directions and never hide a word backwards. The rules and scoring guide lists which grid uses which.
If a swipe doesn't match a word on the list, the letters give a small shake and nothing else happens. There is no penalty in the campaign. In the Daily, wrong swipes only matter as a tiebreaker when two players finish in exactly the same time.
What's on the puzzle screen
The word list
The words to find sit under the grid on iPhone, and beside it on an iPad held sideways. Each word gets a line through it when you find it. In a boss puzzle the list shows only blanks and a category, like five blanks and "Kitchen", and you work out the words from the grid.
Rotate
The rotate button turns the whole grid a quarter turn. It is always free. Players use it to get unstuck: a word you've looked past ten times often jumps out once it's running a new way.
Hints
The hints button opens a short ladder of help, from a flash of a word's direction up to revealing a whole word. Hints cost coins you earn by playing. The hints guide explains each one.
Definitions
Not sure what a word means? Tap it in the list once you've found it, and Apple's built-in dictionary opens with the definition. Extra words you find work the same way.
Words that aren't on the list
Grids are full of real words nobody planned. Swipe one that's four letters or longer and Spellhunt counts it as an extra word: you get a small "+extra" chip and a few coins, for up to three extra words in each puzzle. It never costs you anything to look.
When you finish
Find the last word and the grid takes a breath, your score counts up, and any coins and experience points (XP) land in your wallet. The Continue button shows a blurred peek of the next puzzle and its theme. Finishing the Daily also adds a day to your streak.
Finding your way around
- Today holds the Daily, your streak, today's three small goals and your league place.
- Play is the campaign: a map of chapters to work through at your own pace.
- Leagues shows your weekly league and your friends board.
- You has your level, badges, cosmetics, settings, the shop and the "Something wrong? Tell us" button.
No lives, no energy
You can play as many puzzles as you like. Nothing runs out, and no timer ends a puzzle early. If you'd rather not see a clock at all, turn on Relax mode: timers and rankings disappear while you play, and your Daily time is still saved if you ever want to look.
Updated 30 September 2026.