J seems quite good (!)

[frogstar_A]

Just starting to learn and play this game - played about 8 games so far (3 wins, 5 losses).

Seems like the 'J' patent is just SO strong though - virtually every game the winner is whoever gets the J.

The others B, K, V, Z, Q, X all seem very useful but not game-winning. J on the other hand seems to be the decider of the match.

Is this just me being swayed by the first few games, or is it really the key card...?

[ufm]

J is not just 'quite good', rather 'the best' patent of this game.
Among 4 multiplier abilities in Letter Tycoon, J is the easiest to trigger and also is the most flexible.
Utilizing B is a little bit harder, but only B can be rated as a game changer other than J.

Z, Q, X patents do not increase points by themselves. Instead, these patents provide versatility to create better words.

K worths more with more players, however K is rated as a weak multiplier in any setting.
Creating even a 6-letter word containing only 1 vowel is not so easy after all. It usually requires Y, str-, -ght, or similarly complex combination.

I think V as a trap. It is rarely used and the payoff is minimal, or possibly negative.
Creating a single 6/7-letter word is more desirable compared to 5+3/6+4 split. The gap becomes wider by royalties.

tldr: J is the king.

[RogerBW]

I did some analysis on how often the different doublers can be used (using OSPD2+ which is not quite the same as the lists here): https://blog.firedrake.org/archive/2021 ... egies.html

J fits the most words of 6+ letters (K benefits more at 3-5 but the scores are lower).

[JPreto]

J is not just 'quite good', rather 'the best' patent of this game.
...
tldr: J is the king.

I would add up:

1) Don´t use the pool letters until you get the "J"... the odds of winning will be on your favor!

2) "B" is my second best... many long scientific words (Chemistry & Biology specifically) start and end with vowels.

3) "Q" was barelly mentioned but I consider it to be top 3.

4) "K" is good with "V", in my opinion. Maybe the only solution if your opp has "B" or "J".

If the same person gets "B" and "J" it is a 99% win, unless you are playing "One doubling ability maximum" option, which, for me, is the fairest way of playing this game, depending less on luck.

[ufm]

2) "B" is my second best... many long scientific words (Chemistry & Biology specifically) start and end with vowels.

3) "Q" was barelly mentioned but I consider it to be top 3.

I consider X as slightly better than Q, especially if combined with J or B.
However Q has its own advantage - not the patent, but Q card's own 2x multiplier.

I agree words with Greek or Latin origins work well with B. Plenty of chemistry and biology terms derive from Greek/Latin.
For example. 'Ethane' is a combination of eth- and -ane, which are from 'ether' and '-anus'(a suffix).

[frogstar_A]

In the end I've decided to give up playing Letter Tycoon. Most of the time I either get J and B and win easily without trying or my opponent gets both and I can't win whatever u do. Those patents are so good they should cost $7-10 not 2.

The game just hangs on who draws J and not who is best at making words.

Fun while it lasted but too flawed to play long term.

[JackHH]

In the end I've decided to give up playing Letter Tycoon. Most of the time I either get J and B and win easily without trying or my opponent gets both and I can't win whatever u do. Those patents are so good they should cost $7-10 not 2.

The game just hangs on who draws J and not who is best at making words.

Fun while it lasted but too flawed to play long term.

I think this was why I stopped playing before. I just started up a couple of games again for probably the first time in over a year, but I bet I will get bored when I remember how true this is.

[Cullich]

4) "K" is good with "V", in my opinion. Maybe the only solution if your opp has "B" or "J".

If the same person gets "B" and "J" it is a 99% win, unless you are playing "One doubling ability maximum" option, which, for me, is the fairest way of playing this game, depending less on luck.

I know the thread is old. I'm playing against someone who has the B and J -- she got the B on her first turn and the J not long after. Her first word wasn't great but allowed her to get that B. It was quite a while before I even got any of the "special" letters. (She also ended up with K and X.)

At first I was ticked and admittedly was blaming her good luck of randomness on her... obviously not her fault. Now I'm just upset with the game itself. I did lose to this same person before, but only by maybe 3-5 points. Right now she's 47 points ahead! It's ridiculous. Not that I'm all that good at this game. I'm also not great with vowel words.

I'm glad to have found these posts though. It makes me feel better, knowing that my opponent probably knows all this, and that I shouldn't feel bad about it. And I'll never study a dictionary to get better. I'm good with numbers, not words, and numbers come into play in my life much more anyway. Word games are just for the fun of it.

[Panthergirl]

4) "K" is good with "V", in my opinion. Maybe the only solution if your opp has "B" or "J".

If the same person gets "B" and "J" it is a 99% win, unless you are playing "One doubling ability maximum" option, which, for me, is the fairest way of playing this game, depending less on luck.

I know the thread is old. I'm playing against someone who has the B and J -- she got the B on her first turn and the J not long after. Her first word wasn't great but allowed her to get that B. It was quite a while before I even got any of the "special" letters. (She also ended up with K and X.)

At first I was ticked and admittedly was blaming her good luck of randomness on her... obviously not her fault. Now I'm just upset with the game itself. I did lose to this same person before, but only by maybe 3-5 points. Right now she's 47 points ahead! It's ridiculous. Not that I'm all that good at this game. I'm also not great with vowel words.

I'm glad to have found these posts though. It makes me feel better, knowing that my opponent probably knows all this, and that I shouldn't feel bad about it. And I'll never study a dictionary to get better. I'm good with numbers, not words, and numbers come into play in my life much more anyway. Word games are just for the fun of it.

I play LT only against my daughter and one other BGA friend. Sometimes when the patents are SO lopsided we just agree to abandon the game and start again.

The bigger issue with LT is the cheating. You would think people are playing for a million bucks. I pretty much stopped joining random games or playing with random people because it's so obvious when people who can't put together a coherent sentence in the chat are suddenly playing obscure words in the game. (the chat is a great way to figure out what's what). It's a shame, because the game can be fun when played with integrity.

[Cullich]

I play LT only against my daughter and one other BGA friend. Sometimes when the patents are SO lopsided we just agree to abandon the game and start again.

The bigger issue with LT is the cheating. You would think people are playing for a million bucks. I pretty much stopped joining random games or playing with random people because it's so obvious when people who can't put together a coherent sentence in the chat are suddenly playing obscure words in the game. (the chat is a great way to figure out what's what). It's a shame, because the game can be fun when played with integrity.

I believe I've only played it with someone I actually know twice. In that kind of case, sure, I'd be willing to just abandon it.

I've never played anyone that I thought was cheating, but I don't think about that much cause I'm not generally suspicious. And I don't "get" cheating - I don't see the point. You are right that the chat can tell you a thing or two, though I try not to hang around here too much, though I've read about the cheating issue.