Each letter in a Scrabble game has a certain value within the game. Blank tiles, or tiles lacking an assigned letter, are worth 0 points. For each A, E, I, O, U, L, N, R, S and T used, the player receives one point. Two points are awarded for the letters D and G. Letters worth three points are B, C, M and P. Four-point letters are F, H, V, W and Y. K is the only letter worth five points, while J and X are the only eight-point letters. The letters worth the most within the game are Q and Z, worth 10 points each. With this in mind, spelling out HOUSE on the board in spaces that aren't worth extra earns the player eight points.
Extra-point Scoring
- Certain squares on the Scrabble board give players extra points for placing a tile on that square. These squares are either pink, red, light blue or dark blue. Pink squares on the board are double word scores, giving a player double the value of a word if one letter from that word lands on the pink square. Placing HOUSE on the board with a double word score being covered would be worth 16 points. Letters falling on red squares receive triple word scores. HOUSE would be worth 24 points should one of the letters fall on a red square. The light and dark blue squares concern individual letter scores, with light blue doubling the amount and dark blue tripling the amount. If the H in HOUSE landed on a light blue square, it would be worth eight points rather than four. On a dark blue square, H would be worth 12 points.
Additional Extras
- Should a word fall on two double-word squares or two triple-word squares, the scoring goes up even more. The word becomes worth four times the total letter amount if the squares covered are double word squares. If two triple-word squares are covered, the word becomes nine times the total letter amount. In one turn of game play, if two or more words are formed, each word is scored individually then totaled for that turn's value. If a player uses all seven tiles in one turn, a 50-point bonus is awarded.
Game-ending Scores
- At the end of the game, players total up the number of tiles left in their hand. That number is subtracted from the score they've earned during game play. This becomes the final score. The player with the highest final score wins
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