Code Words: 100 of the best Code Words Puzzles: Volume 1

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My favourite CodeWord trick is to find several partial words with the same uncoded number, and this can often reveal the letter. Codebreakers are fiendishly addictive puzzles in which every letter in a typical crossword grid has been replaced by a number between 1 and 26. You can always use the Notes option to provisionally place letters in the puzzle or the Check option to see how you’re doing.

A daily Codeword puzzle is just the distraction you need when you are trying to reset your brain for a new task.Many players find this game to be a relaxing alternative to the frustrations of obscure crossword clues.

We’ve got you going with a couple of combinations, so all you need to do is start linking the other letters and corresponding numbers and your words will start flowing. This is useful if you do not know it, or you are learning a foreign language (internet connection required).Compensating for this with extra starters simply removes the fun of the puzzle and the solver's sense of achievement at cracking the code. All the letters A-Z are present in the early puzzles, with one number for each letter (later puzzles don't necessarily have all 26 letters in the grid). In Arkadium's Codeword, every letter in the alphabet makes at least one appearance in the grid and is represented by the same number wherever it appears. Every letter is used at least once in the puzzle and there are no proper nouns or hyphenated words to be found. I am fairly sure it would be possible to make one that was solvable in principle but really hard to find one's way into, but the people who make them aren't aiming for that.

With the puzzle I'm using as an example (I'm deliberately not linking to it because (1) I don't know whether it will be available online for ever and (2) the approach is the important thing rather than these details), if I enter the A and E, the next interesting things I find are D----EED, which seems like it should be very informative but nothing springs instantly to mind, and D-A-. One new puzzle is available each day, but there is an archive available of the last two weeks puzzles. Technique: between two consonants you often have to have a vowel; there aren't very many vowels so this is a useful constraint. It's not perfect - but it is easy to learn its little idiosyncrasies and see how swiftly each grid can be completed. Usually all 26 letters of the alphabet are used in the codeword, although not always (and unused letters appear crossed out in the keyboard).All alphabetical letters make one or more appearance in the grid and are represented by the exact same number wherever they appear throughout the grid.