Trailblaze is a daily path-tracing word game played on a 7×7 grid of letters — find words by tracing connected paths across the board, keeping your trail alive from one word to the next.
The Board
The board is a 7×7 grid of 49 letter cells. To form a word, you trace a path by selecting letters that are adjacent to one another — including diagonals, giving each cell up to 8 neighbors (Boggle-style adjacency). Within a single word, you may not revisit a cell you have already used. All words must be at least 3 letters long.
How to Play
Tap or click any letter cell to begin tracing a word. Then tap adjacent cells — including diagonals — to continue spelling it out. When your selection forms a valid word of 3 or more letters, tap Submit to lock it in. Submitted cells go dark immediately and can never be used again in that game. Keep tracing new words until the game ends.
- ·Tap a cell to start or extend your current word path.
- ·Submit when your selected path spells a valid 3+ letter word.
- ·Used cells go dark and are permanently removed from play.
- ·Minimum word length is 3 letters; no upper limit.
The Trailblaze Rule
This is the mechanic that sets Trailblaze apart from Boggle or SpellTower. Your first word can start on any cell. But every word after that must start on a cell that is adjacent (8-way) to the cell where your previous word ended. Your trail is a living chain — where you finish one word is where the next one must begin.
This single rule transforms the game. You are not just finding words; you are plotting a route through the board. A brilliant word that strands you in a corner can cost you more than a modest word that leaves you well positioned. Think of the board as a map you are navigating, and each word as a step on the trail.
Burns
You get three burns per game. A burn sacrifices one cell that is adjacent to your current endpoint — it permanently uses up that cell without forming a word, and your trail advances onto it. Burns are your escape hatch: when you're boxed in with no valid word reachable, a well-placed burn can bridge you to a fresh region of the board. Use them wisely, because three is all you get.
Scoring
Your final score is built from three components:
- ·+1 per letter for every cell used in a submitted word.
- ·+10 long-word bonus for any single word of 7 or more letters.
- ·+50 Sweep bonus if you use all 49 cells across your submitted words.
Two additional stats are tracked alongside your score: Coverage (what percentage of the 49 cells you used) and chain length (how many words you submitted). Neither directly affects your score, but both appear in your shareable result.
End Conditions
The game ends in one of two ways: you tap I'm done to voluntarily finish, or the game ends automatically when no valid word can be started from any cell adjacent to your current endpoint and you have no burns remaining. Either way, your score, coverage, and chain length are locked in and you can share your result.
What Counts as a Word
A submission is valid when all of the following are true:
- ·The word appears in Trailblaze's curated English dictionary.
- ·It is at least 3 letters long.
- ·It is not a proper noun or abbreviation.
- ·No single cell is visited more than once within the word's path.
- ·You have not already submitted the same word earlier in the game.