Two best friends play tips

Quick Shortcut to Go Home

The new PlayStation UI is quite interesting, and it’s a change that I like. I also like the new Control Center that comes up when you press the PS button on the controller. However, this means you now have to perform more button presses to go home. First, you need to open the control center, then head over to the home icon and press X to go home. If this annoys you as much as it annoys me, there’s a built-in shortcut to go home on the PS5. On your DualSense controller, press and hold the PS button, and your console will go directly to the home screen. Pretty cool, right?

Most of What You See Can Be Gathered

Crafting and gathering are a big part of your daily routine in New World. This is made very evident early on, especially if you take on the different quests and missions found in each town. While animals and enemies often leave many resources for gathering, these aren’t the only things you’ll spend time looking for in New World. Pretty much everything you see around you can be gathered in some way or another — whether it’s rocks, veins of iron, gold, silver, or just the various plants and flowers you see. After which it can be used in some form of recipe. The usage can vary from crafting armor, weapons, potions, and more. Try to keep track of where things are on the map when you find them. Chances are you’re going to end up needing that item at some point in the future.

Skip

The following person’s turn is forfeited as a result of this card. The game continues to the next player as if they had completed their turn earlier. In two-player games, this card allows you to quickly take another turn after you have completed your current round. In most cases, a circle with a line drawn through it is used to represent Skip. The Skip card has a specific color and can only be used on face-up cards of that particular hue.

Wild Draw 4

This card compels the next player to draw four cards and skip their turn as if it were the Skip card, forcing them to draw four cards and skip their turn. The Wild Draw 4 card, in contrast to the Wild card, cannot be played if the player already has a card with the same color and/or number as the face-up card in their hand. This card has the appearance of a Wild card, but it has the sign ” 4″ on it.  NOTE: If you believe a Wild Draw 4 card was improperly played on you (the player possesses a matching card), you may challenge that player. The challenged player must demonstrate their hand to you (the challenger). If you are found guilty, the challenged player must draw the four cards in your place. If the challenged player, on the other hand, is innocent, you must draw the four cards PLUS an additional two cards (6 total)

Reverse

The reverse card in UNO changes the direction of the game’s action, switching it from left to right or right to left. It’s a fantastic tool for preventing a player from running out of cards. The reverse is represented by a symbol consisting of two arrows pointing in opposite directions and stacked on top of each other. The Reverse card has a specific color and can only be used on face-up cards with the same color as the Reverse card.

Wild

This card lets the player play on any color or number, including another wild card, without drawing another card. A color for the Wild card is also called out, requiring the following player to utilize that color for the rest of the game. The Wild card can be used even if the player already holds a usable card in their hand. Wild cards are often black in color and have all four colors printed on them. If the Wild card or Wild Draw 4 card is the first card dealt in a game, the first player can choose the color of the Wild card or Wild Draw 4.

Draw 2

This card compels the next player to draw two cards and skip their turn as if it were the Skip card, forcing them to draw two cards and skip their turn. As a symbol on this card, the number ” 2″ is used. It has a color and can only be played when the face-up card has the same color as the face-down card.

X, Z, Q and Y marks the Spot.

Guard the letters X,Y,Q and Z with your life, and deploy them tactically. While I’m generally not big on memorizing words, do try to learn uncommon words using these letters, especially short two-three letter words. Placing these words in the right spot at the right time is paramount to continued success. Most important you want to be aware of your board and try and combo these letters with pre-existing words. Meaning you can turn ‘Ox’ into ‘Toxic’. ‘Yes’ into ‘Eyes’. “Maze’ into “Amazed”…and so on. The key with these words is knowing how to get the most out of them, even if your opponent deploys them first. More than anything, be mindful and strategic. In Words With Friends 2, a big word placed wrongly can doom you, and a small word placed smartly will win you the game – almost every time.

Common Combos

Enchanted Learning describes the concept I’m about to explain best: Consonant blends (also called consonant clusters) are groups of two or three consonants in words that makes a distinct consonant sound, such as “bl” or “spl.” Consonant digraphs include bl, br, ch, ck, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gh, gl, gr, ng, ph, pl, pr, qu, sc, sh, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, th, tr, tw, wh, wr. When playing Words With Friends (or Srabble) these are the things you look for first. How can your letters combine best to form a good word worth a lot of points. Keeping this in mind turns ‘Hot’ to ‘Shot’, ‘Hone’ to ‘Phone’, and so on. The idea is to get as much bang for your buck, and to do that, you need the ability to extend words a couple of extra letters – ideally to a double or triple word score. Knowing your digraphs, prefixes, and suffixes, are absolutely fundamentally key to that – especially if you’re trying to extend another player’s word.

Shuffle Shuffle

This is a simple but effective strategy. Stumped? Hammer that shuffle button. It’ll re-arrange the letters over and over again, and if you’re mindful of common letter combinations or vowel placement, you’ll find yourself coming across the beginnings (or endings) of words you can use on the board. Since there’s no time-limit in Words With Friends 2, you can literally do this to your hearts content.