Hi, I'm bynak. I'm a strong tournament Scrabble player who also loves strategy video games, so this game is a perfect marriage of my skillset. I've been able to achieve the #1 ranking in the world at the time of writing this guide and hope to share what I've learned to help make this game more competitive and fun for everyone.

Bomb – IMO the best way to spend your money in the game. It can be used offensively to attack people in unexpected ways, help ensure you get rack refreshes, and even defend yourself by eliminating your vulnerabilities. You should always have one on hand if possible.

S – Slightly below Bomb for best Item in the game, but only available on the board. S is easily the most powerful letter in word games because of its power as a hook to most words. Having an S when your opponent does not is a huge advantage that you can use to safely attack along lines where your opponent cannot. Thus, try to save these for other dangerous players or endgame situations. However, holding these does force you to buy additional item slots and may not be advisable in games where money is tight. A Bomb is still more versatile than an S and if forced to pick between them, I will choose a Bomb.

Rack Size – It should be self-explanatory why this is good. More letters gives you more options on what to do, gives you more opportunity to fish for specific hooks and extensions, increases your possible range of attack, and affords you the opportunity to make bingo-length rack clearing words that will bankroll you for the rest of the game. You should get your rack up to 7 letters ASAP and ideally have 9-10 letters by late game. Although these upgrades become progressively more expensive, they are worth it because they extend your available attack range for planned plays.

Rack Speed – Rack Speed helps you reach a full rack much more quickly to both Overload and use the letters you acquire. I used to value this more, but lately, I’ve been loathe to buy past the $2-3 upgrades. This powerup is better for players with worse word knowledge who have more trouble clearing their racks. Also useful early game where you are more limited in your options and need to force an overload quickly.

Item Slots – A 2nd Item Slot is good because it allows you to hold S Items in addition to Bombs. Opening additional Item Slots also allow you to acquire free Items on the board at a cheaper cost ($1-2 for the slot vs. $3 to buy Items from the Shop). However, while the cost of buying additional Item Slots goes up with each one, their utility tanks. There are very few situations where you need to and want to use multiple bombs and even when these arise, you can still buy the second bomb from the shop after using the first. To expand to a 4th Item slot costs just as much as buying an Item itself and should really only ever be used as a last resort.
Recycle – Refreshes your rack. Good for getting off Qs, Js, and other junky tiles. However, unlike the timed tile draw, the letters you receive from this are random; you are not guaranteed the same vowel/consonant balance. This is useful in situations where you do not feel safe bombing but also need new tiles or in end game situations in which you are rich and looking for a snipe. The theoretical value of using this item goes up with the size of your current rack as you get to see more tiles. However, the fuller your rack is, the closer you are to Overload which 9 times out of 10 results in a Recycle anyway.

Buying Letters – Primarily used in close quarter situations where you need a vowel/consonant to attack quickly. Also useful in low money situations where you can’t afford a Bomb/Recycle and need to quickly get new letters by Overloading and buying a vowel to quickly play off. These are progressively more expensive the more letters you purchase before making a play, so try not to use this more than once before playing.

Health – You should only buy this if you are going for level leaderboards or the pacifist achievement. This costs the same as 2 bombs, which should be enough to just straight up kill people with instead of sitting the Hot Zone. I usually use these right away if I pick them up to clear up item slots for Bombs and S’s.

In order to be successful in this game and buy all your Items and Upgrades, you need money. Money is obtained by leveling up. The most efficient ways to level up (and thus get money) are to:

1. Get kills. The experience you get from playing words is multiplied with each kill you get and you get a flat 50 experience for each kill.
2. Clear your rack with your last word being a long (5+ letters) word. You can play off shorter words to enable you to have the long word as the last letters on your rack, but the longer your clearing word is, the more experience you will get.

Overload – IMO the most underused mechanic in the game and can save you huge amounts of money. This is essentially a Bomb and a Recycle in 1. That’s $6 worth of items for free, with the only caveat that you have to have your rack full and you have to expose yourself by blowing up defensive tiles around you. You can mitigate the latter by waiting to Overload until you are just about to get a new letter or by buying a vowel to quickly get your rack refresh. Try to only use this in situations when you know you are safe.

In general, I try to prioritize my money spending as follows:
1st Bomb > Rack Size > 2nd Item Slot >> Rack Speed > 2nd Bomb >>> 3rd Item Slot > Recycle > Buying Letters >>> Health

This is not a hard and fast rule as there are situations where you should prioritize differently. This also caters heavily to my aggressive play style and will differ if you have a different play style.

While Scrabble requires no mechanical skill, there is a mechanical component to Babble Royale. Inputting your commands in the correct order can drastically reduce your opponent’s time to react and essentially guarantee that you will kill them instead of them killing you at close range.

Use Your Hotkeys
It is much faster to both buy items from the shop and use them with hotkeys than using your mouse to click. Learn and abuse these.

2 Word Combinations (keyboard only controls)
You will often have to play multiple words to secure a kill. Take your time to figure out a plan with your tiles to form words to reach your opponent. Once you’ve identified your plan execute it in the following way:
1. Put down your tiles to form your first word
2. Move your cursor to the square that you intend to make your single tile play on and hover over the letters you intend to play on your keyboard
3. Press Enter to submit your first word
4. Type your second word quickly and hit Enter again

Note: Keyboard only mode is quicker if you intend to play more than 1 tile on your second word. If you insist on mouse and keyboard, you can still execute this, but you can only use 1 tile to make your second word.

Words are the building blocks of this game. As such, good word knowledge that can quickly be retrieved is your best weapon in this game. You can get away with much worse word knowledge in this game given its emphasis on short words. For beginners, I would recommend studying in order:
1. All 2 letter words
2. 3 letter words that have the pattern Vowel-Blank-Vowel
3. 4 letter vowel dumps (3 vowels)
4. 3 letter words containing J, Q, X, or Z

This cheatsheet[www.wespa.org] is a good starting point for learning important obscure words

In Scrabble, we are taught to consider what tiles we leave behind because they impact what we can do on our next play. However, in Babble, what tiles you choose to play are just as impactful on how many options you have. As such, tiles that are considered bad in Scrabble, such as the Q and the V, are even worse in Babble because you will likely have to deal with them to make your next word. The most important thing to consider in Babble is to have a plan for how you will get rid of all your letters as it is much better to get a full rack instantly than to wait for tiles to come one at a time. Ideally, each rack should achieve at least 1 of 2 things: get rid of all your tiles or get a kill. Ideally, you’d like to be able to do both and if you can do neither, you should consider overloading ASAP if you believe that doing so is safe.

Unlike in Scrabble, you should not be looking to overlap your own tiles as much. Although this does score you additional points, the points are not worth boxing yourself in for. Playing "open board" Scrabble is much more conducive to clearing your rack and hitting your refreshes.

Bomb Kills:
Often, you will find yourself in close quarters with someone where each of you could easily drop 1 or 2 tiles to kill the other if not for the grey tiles in the way. In these situations it is imperative that you control when the bomb goes off to eliminate the grey tiles and make way for you to put the connecting letters down. In the picture below, both my opponent and I are in range to eliminate the F and quickly play killing words.


Bomb Control:
Bombs have a detonation radius of 3 squares away from your active word. In this picture below, my opponent cannot touch GO or TE which makes attacking me much harder. However, I can blow up the TE and attack with RYE for the kill.


Short Stop Bomb Kills:
In this attack, I miss that I can kill in 1 word with OIDIA, but see that I can underlap with JA for a kill. I start by building towards him stopping just short of his word. There are no words that I’m aware of that have the sequence JD, JR, or JS to extend OGLE so I should be safe for now.


Next, I play down making ED my main word and allow me to blow up the tiles from OGLE. This clears the way for a quick placement of my A to secure the kill.

Changing Attack Angles:
Players will often only consider angles of attack from their active word. In the picture below, I miss an opportunity to change my active word from TUT by playing my E to make TORE. If I had done this, I would have been able to kill with LINO or NOLO to the O in TORE. Look for extensions of words that intersect your active word to change your active word and provide opportunities for alternative attack angles.


Exploiting Positioning:
In the photo below, I have an opportunity to kill my opponent by playing into the S of TSAR below his active word of TREF. My opponent is unable to attack my word through the same tile because he has to connect to his current active word. Knowing my bomb range, I play my L to make LEE, use my bomb to blow up ES and OE and clear the path for my kill of LEANS into the S while minimizing my opponent’s counter-play.


Extensions:
Extending your opponents main word or a word that goes through their main word is generally a pretty safe way to attack, especially if said extension is multiple letters. Your opponent may also consider extensions to attack you, but you can control what particular extensions will fit for kills. Here, I surprise my opponent by extending ETH to ETHENES after bombing the D out of the way.