BACK TO THE GAME

This article contains all information you need about Arkadium’s Crossword Games.

Choose one option from the list below:

• Tips
• Calendar
• Settings
  • For mobile devices
  • Check and AutoCheck
  • Reveal
  • Pencil Feature
  • Print
• Scoring
  • How is the daily score calculated?
  • How is the total score calculated?
  • What happens when a new month starts?
• Fairness
• Game Progress
• Useful Shortcuts
• My completion percentage is not 100%, what is the reason?!
• Helpful tips with the Arkadium Virtual Assistant!
• Repeated Puzzles

NOTE: for our new Crossword puzzles, your score will be saved to the leaderboard in a new way - by collecting the total aggregate score of all puzzles you've played this month

Tips

Please watch this video to learn Crossword tips & tricks:

Crossword solving is a skill that improves with practice. The most effective solvers combine vocabulary and general knowledge with careful attention to clue wording, answer length, and crossing letters.

Arkadium offers several types of crossword games, from quick Mini and Easy puzzles to larger Sunday, Hard, Premier, and Cryptic crosswords. The following strategies will help you solve standard crossword puzzles more accurately and efficiently.

1. Start With the Easy Wins

Make a quick first pass and fill in clues you can answer immediately—common expressions, fill-in-the-blanks, straightforward definitions, and familiar abbreviations are good starting points. Don't get stuck on one difficult clue; every answer you add gives you crossing letters that can unlock others.

Choose a puzzle appropriate to your experience, too. Build confidence on easier grids before moving to larger or more difficult crosswords, and remember that Cryptic, Codeword, and Fill-Ins use different solving approaches.

2. Let the Crossings Do the Work

Crossing letters are your strongest source of confirmation. If an Across clue has you stumped, work on its intersecting Down clues and come back to it with more letters revealed.

Before committing to an answer, check that it fits the number of squares, word structure, and any indicated multiple-word format. Spaces, punctuation, and hyphens generally aren't entered into the grid, but the clue can still signal that they are part of the answer.

3. Read the Clue Like a Detective

Every word can matter. Match the answer to the clue's grammar, tense, number, and wording—a plural clue usually calls for a plural answer, while words such as briefly, for short, or initially can signal an abbreviation.

Also watch for punctuation. A question mark can indicate wordplay or a less literal interpretation, while quotation marks may point to a title, phrase, or spoken expression. Don't settle for the first synonym that comes to mind if the clue doesn't fully support it.

4. Keep Your Guesses Flexible

Treat uncertain answers as provisional. If several crossings conflict with something you've entered, revisit your least-confident answers rather than assuming the surrounding clues are wrong.

In themed puzzles, look for a connection between the longer or unusual answers once you have enough evidence. A theme can help predict remaining answers, but don't force one onto a puzzle that doesn't have it.

5. Check Strategically, Not Automatically

When you're stuck or suspect an error, use the game's checking features to identify the problem without giving away more than necessary. Check Letter or Check Word can pinpoint a mistake while preserving most of the challenge; save Reveal options for genuine dead ends.

Likewise, outside references can be useful for learning unfamiliar words, names, or trivia. When possible, investigate the clue or fact rather than immediately looking up the complete answer.

6. Turn Every Puzzle Into Practice

After finishing, review unfamiliar answers and recurring crossword vocabulary. Short words, abbreviations, names, and common crossword conventions tend to appear repeatedly, so recognizing them makes future grids easier.

Build accuracy before speed: hide the timer while learning, then introduce timed solving once you can complete puzzles reliably. Mix different puzzle types and difficulties to broaden your solving skills, and use archived puzzles to practice without pressure.

Calendar

When entering any of the Crosswords, you'll encounter a calendar. This can be used to scroll forward and backward through the available crossword puzzles. Use the arrows on the sides or the slider on the bottom to scroll through the dates. You can see your progress in each of the puzzles, and click to "Play" on the one you would like to solve.

When choosing a puzzle, some of them may appear locked. Different users will have different access to puzzles.

• Users who aren't registered with a free Arkadium Account will only be able to play the latest Crossword puzzle
  
• Users who are registered and Signed in to their Arkadium Account, will be able to play the latest and the previous day's Crossword puzzle.
  
• Users who are subscribed to Arkadium Plus will have the last 30 days of puzzles at their disposal.

NOTE: Our Hardest Crossword Ever has no calendar, because it's meant to be a single Crossword puzzle that will take you a long time to complete. This game is simply a single challenge and will not be updated with future puzzles.

When entering a puzzle, you can find its title and date on the bottom left, as seen here. You can also find the puzzle author, as well as any theme the puzzle may have:

Settings

The Settings feature is located in the top left, by using the hamburger icon (3 lines)

In the Settings menu, you can modify various features in the game.

If you place your mouse over each of the options, an explanation of each option will appear.

• Show timer allows you to choose whether the timer on top is shown. The time will keep ticking while you play, regardless of whether it's shown. It will still affect your final score.

• Arrow keys change direction allows you to toggle whether pressing the arrow keys only changes the cell you're on or whether it changes the direction in which you type.

• Skip over filled squares allows you to keep typing while skipping over the squares you've already filled.

• Skip to next word allows you to keep typing in the next word on the puzzle without selecting the square.

• Increase clue size makes the letters in the clue section larger without changing the size of the rest of the game.

• Display clues as a list toggle between your clues displaying as a list on the side of your puzzle or displaying only a single clue for the word you've selected on the bottom of the puzzle.

• Sound turns the sound effects on or off.

• Clues Position changes whether the clues are displayed on the left or the right side of the grid.

For mobile devices

Keyboard Navigation. If you're playing the game on a mobile platform, such as a smartphone or a tablet, you will notice one extra option - Keyboard Navigation. 

The function of this option is to let you use your mobile keyboard as you would use a computer keyboard when navigating the puzzle by introducing arrows on your screen. You can use these to move around the puzzle and the space bar to switch between horizontal and vertical words.

Pinch and zoom. If you play on a mobile device, you can pinch the grid to zoom in and see the letters closer.

Check and AutoCheck

The Check feature checks whether the letter, word, or puzzle you've typed is correct. So, if you want to check answers in the Crossword game, this option is exactly what you are looking for.

After you've completed a word, you can check 

You can check the letter you've selected, the word, or the whole puzzle. If you've toggled "Autocheck," the puzzle will automatically check whether you've made mistakes as you type.

Reveal

Reveal can show you a part of the puzzle that hasn't yet been guessed.

You can choose between revealing a letter, a word, or the entire puzzle.

By choosing to reveal a word or a letter, please note that you will not receive any score for that same word.

Pencil Feature

If you're indecisive about a word or letter and you're not sure if it fits, you can use the Pencil Feature.

The Pencil feature allows you to insert any letter into any cell without it being recognized as having been completed in the puzzle. If you're unsure about a word or a letter being the right one, but you'd still like to write it, perhaps to erase later, you can click on the pencil icon in the top right and type any word as you would. The letter will appear grey instead of black, so you can know which ones you've inserted as a temporary choice or as your final answer.

This is great for when you'd like to check for answers, but you're not sure about all of your choices.

Print

Print is for when you'd like to print the puzzle on a sheet of paper.

The Print menu allows you to print the puzzle differently, with clear visual options on how to do so.

Scoring

ATTENTION: Please note that the Crossword game features a cumulative scoring system. Players are required to submit their TOTAL SCORE on a daily basis for all three leaderboards: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. In order to secure a favorable position on the leaderboard, it is essential to maintain consistency and participate in the new crossword game each day.

How is the daily score calculated?

The daily score consists of 3 parts:

• The Puzzle Score. It equals the % of the puzzle that was completed without help X 100 - This is the percentage of cells filled without using the "Reveal" and "Check" buttons.

• The Time Bonus.
  
  • Two Minute Mini - (120 - Solve Time in Seconds) * 10
  • Arkadium Mini - (210 - Solve Time in Seconds) * 10
  • The Daily Crossword - (720 - Solve Time in Seconds) * 10
  • Easy - (850 - Solve Time in Seconds) * 10
  • Hard - (1,700 - Solve Time in Seconds) * 10
  • Sunday - (2,700 - Solve Time in Seconds) * 10
  • All Others - (1,000 - Solve Time in Seconds) * 10

  
  

  - If your puzzle is finished within the allowed time, you will receive a time bonus. (This time bonus will only be awarded if you complete at least 50% of the puzzle manually, without help).
  

• The Daily Bonus. It equals 50 points - For example, if you completed August 31st's puzzle on August 31st, you will get a daily bonus.

General Formula: 

Daily Score = Puzzle Score + Time Bonus + Daily Bonus

NOTE: if you wish to review your answers at the end of the game, please, press the HIDE button at the top left corner of the game end pop-up

Let's breakdown the example above and calculate the score step-by-step:

• Puzzle Score = 10 000. 100% of the puzzle was completed without help: 100 x 100 = 10 000 points.

• Time Bonus = 0. The puzzle was finished within 9 minutes and 18 seconds. There is no time bonus in this case because 9 minutes and 18 seconds equals 558 seconds, and this number is higher than the 300 seconds limit, which is why the time bonus is not awarded in this case. (Remember, this time bonus will only be awarded if you complete at least 50% of the puzzle without help).
  

• Daily Bonus = 50. The puzzle was completed on the daily puzzle date (the 2 October puzzle was completed on the 2 of October), and 50 points Daily Bonus was awarded. 

The Daily score = 10 000 + 0 + 50 = 10 050 pts

NOTE: keep in mind, Arkadium players are located across the world, but our leaderboards are set on Eastern Time, which in the winter months (EST) is five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC-05:00) and Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) during the summer months which is four hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC-04:00). So, while you may be playing your game on August 31st at 9:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), it's already September 1st at 12:30 AM EST, so the leaderboards may already reset your monthly score

WARNING: When you're not signed in, your browser will save cloud saved games using the cache system as described in older puzzles. Please be careful, as if you save a game using the cache system and sign into your account afterwards, your progress might be overwritten. We always recommend signing into your account before starting the game.

NOTE: The cloud saving system is only available in Crosswords on the Arkadium.com website. Any other website where Arkadium games are available will use the local browser file system to save all progress, so please be careful with clearing any files.

WARNING FOR SAFARI BROWSERS: Due to a few recent updates on Mac OS systems, the Safari browser has become incompatible with some of the progress saving systems. Unfortunately, Apple's security clearances aren't always compatible with the way progress files are saved. For this reason, we recommend using a different browser, such as Chrome, Firefox or Edge

ATTENTION: Please note that using helpers or having done mistakes will not affect the Calendar percentage, as long as all of the cels end up filled with the correct letters.