Everything you want to know before you start

A word search you play at your own pace: you swipe across the letters, the word lights up, and there is no clock beside it. There is one fresh puzzle every day, a path of 400 levels that slowly grows, and separate puzzle books built around one game mode each.

No clock rushing you and no opponent. The daily challenge quietly times you for the pinboard with friends, and the Word Path keeps your best time per level, but nothing runs out. Only Blitz and The Fuse deliberately play with time, and they only appear a few times across the 400 levels.

The daily challenge usually takes about five minutes. A level on the Word Path starts small at six by six and grows to eighteen by eighteen, so later levels take more time. You never have to finish anything in one go, the path waits.

You swipe your finger across the letters until the word lights up, then it gets ticked off in the word list. Words can also run backwards. If you prefer a calmer search, set the word list to Calm and found words fade out instead of being ticked off.

Besides Classic there are twenty game modes on the Word Path: Frozen Letters, Winding Words, Switch Tiles, Word Web, Blitz, Riddles, Honeycomb, Waterfall, Secret Code, The Sketchbook, The Beaver Dam, The Fuse, The Blueprint, The Surveyor, The Ripple, The Island, The Rule Hunt, Word Chains, Opposites and The Round World. The daily challenge and the books use the same modes.

Blitz plays against the clock: 150 seconds for three boards in a row, and every finished board adds 30 seconds. Fail three times and you may skip the level. A flawless Blitz turns the knot on the path gold and earns you the stamp for a perfect Blitz.

Not on the Word Path, you play the levels in order and the path waits until you come back. Only in Blitz can you move on after three failed attempts. You can always leaf through a book to see what is coming.

Yes. From boards of thirteen by thirteen the level opens in a zoom view and you can pinch and pan with two fingers. If you prefer bigger letters, choose Large letters under Board style.

In your very first session the navigation bar is hidden until you have won your first level on the path. After that the tabs Play, Languages, Leaderboard, Friends, Shop and Profile appear at the bottom.

The Word Path is the main route of the app: 400 levels in order, with its own path for every language. It starts with small boards and Classic searching, every five levels there is a twist, and from level 50 that twist is a different game mode each time. Your best time per level is kept.

400, the same path with the same structure in every language. The path is growing: the plans run to 500 levels, but those are not out yet.

Every fifty levels there is a milestone with a celebration. On the path in your home language you also get books as gifts: The Frozen Pond at level 25, The Winding Stream at 50, The Clue Trail at 75 and The Clover Meadow at 125, and once they are released The Bendy Woods at 150 and The Weave at 200. At level 100 and 250 you can share a card with your friend code.

Outside your home language the first 25 levels of every path are free. At the bridge on level 25 the app asks for a Home Pass for that language or a World Pass. Your home language itself is completely free up to and including level 400.

Yes, a played level stays open and you can try to beat your best time. Only Blitz does not keep a best time.

Levels 226 to 250 form one zone in which every board is a hexagonal comb. Familiar game modes return there on the comb, such as Frozen Letters, Riddles, Secret Code, Winding Words and, on level 250, The Sketchbook.

A game mode with twin tiles and decoys on the board: letters that can swap places. With a long press or a tap you pick up the magnifier to see what is underneath. The first time you get a short lesson, after that the mode returns a few times on the path.

Yes. Today's puzzle is derived from the date, so everyone in the world plays the same board in their own language. Every weekday has its own format, from The Warm-Up on Monday to Twin Sunday on Sunday.

Monday The Warm-Up, Tuesday The Winding Path, Wednesday The Classic, Thursday The Icebreaker, Friday The Full Board, Saturday The Masterpiece and Sunday Twin Sunday. The intro screen shows you the format every day, with a How does it work button.

Sparky is the little flame that keeps burning as long as you play every day. It counts across all your languages: do the daily puzzle in Swedish instead of English and your streak simply continues.

Not right away. You can make up for one missed day by watching a short ad, as long as your streak was at least two days. After that Sparky burns on from where you left off. Miss more days in a row and Sparky starts over.

No. The daily challenge and Sparky are free, in all 21 languages, even without a pass. That will not change.

Yes, every language has its own daily board. For Sparky your first win of the day counts, in whichever language. For the pinboard with friends your first time counts.

Yes, quietly. The clock runs in the background, pauses when you leave the app and adds ten seconds per hint. You only see your time afterwards, and only your first completion of the day counts for the pinboard with friends.

Every daily challenge has a theme that provides the words, the title and the drawings. A number of special days get a proper special on top, such as Frog Day on 20 March and the birthday of Mia and Mio on 17 February. Some theme days differ per language, like Quatorze Juillet on the French board.

There is one notification: a reminder about Sparky around seven in the evening, only on days when you have not done the daily challenge yet. The app asks about it after your first daily win, and you turn it on or off in Profile under Notifications.

The daily challenge you meet in the onboarding. Only there is the first hint free, so you can calmly learn how searching works.

21 languages, each with its own stamp: Dutch and Flemish, English in four flavours (UK, US, Canada and Australia), German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Bahasa Indonesia, Finnish, Catalan, Polish, Turkish and Frisian.

No. The language of the app and the language of the puzzle are separate. Play a Spanish board with an English app and everything around the board stays English.

A little, yes. When you puzzle in a language other than your app language, your own language appears in small print beside it: botella (bottle). That is on by default and you turn it off with Show translation beside words, in the settings under Language. It is not a course, but it sticks.

Every language has its own postage stamp with a distinctive letter: the IJ for Dutch, the ß for German, the Ø for Norwegian. Play in a language and its stamp joins your collection on the Languages tab. 21 to collect.

The language you choose in the onboarding. In that language the whole Word Path is free and you get the gift books at milestones. You can switch on the Languages tab, at most once every thirty days, and your progress in the old language stays put.

In Profile under Settings you pick the App language under Language. By default it is set to System default and follows your phone. The language of your word searches is changed separately, on the Languages tab.

Yes. Every language has its own path and its own progress in the books. Sparky, your stamp album and your frames and outfits work across languages.

No, Sparky has its own name per app language: Vonkje in Dutch, Fünkchen in German, Étincelle in French, Chispita in Spanish, Scintilla in Italian and Kipinä in Finnish.

Yes. At level 20 in a second language you earn the outfit Epic Traveller, at three languages Nautilus Bay and at five languages Bunting Party. There are also stamps for language hopping, such as the Polyglot series.

The full Word Path of 400 levels in your home language, the daily challenge and Sparky in all 21 languages, the first 25 levels of every other language, the book The Lily Pond and the introductory books you get as gifts at milestones on the path. Those come with ads in between.

The Home Pass is € 4.99 per month or € 24.99 per year and opens everything in one language of your choice. The World Pass is € 7.99 per month or € 39.99 per year and does that in all 21 languages. Both remove the ads in between.

The Home Pass opens one language of your choice, the World Pass all 21 languages with all the books. Both remove the ads in between, the hint for an ad stays the same for everyone. The Home Pass comes with the frame Airmail, the World Pass with the frame Suitcase and the outfit Postal Carrier, and you keep those even after cancelling.

Yes. You buy a book on its own, once and forever. A book of thirty levels costs € 1.99, a film of seventy-five levels € 2.99 and The Far Forest of forty-five levels € 4.99. In a book you have bought there are no ads in between.

Yes, at most once every thirty days. Your progress in the language you leave is kept and is there again when you come back.

No. Nothing runs out and nothing needs topping up to keep going. What you earn, frames, outfits and stamps, you earn by playing and it is never for sale.

No. You try the app for free through the Word Path in your home language, the daily challenge and the first 25 levels of every other language.

Through the App Store or Google Play, or through Manage subscription in the app. Your pass runs until the end of the paid period and then stops by itself. Your progress, your stamps and the frame and outfit of your pass remain yours.

Refunds go through the store where you bought, the App Store or Google Play, because they handle the payment. The app itself cannot refund money.

Tap Restore purchases, at the bottom of every pass page or in Profile under Settings at Purchases. Purchases are tied to your Apple or Google account and come back on any device with that same account.

No, Family Sharing is off at launch. A pass belongs to one Apple or Google account.

A pass gives access, not ownership: when the pass stops, the book closes again, although your progress is kept. Books you bought on their own or received as a gift at a milestone remain yours for good.

Playable now: The Lily Pond, The Great Pond, The Clue Trail, The Trailwood, The Far Forest, The Winding Stream, The Winding Path, The Frozen Pond and The Clover Meadow. Announced as Coming soon: The Frozen Lake, The Beehive, The Bendy Woods, The Weave, The Word Web, The Far Shore, The Drawing Table, The Riddle Path and The Swap Yard.

A book is a stamp album built around one game mode, with sheets of fifteen levels. Every full sheet gives a golden milestone stamp, and your best time per level is shown beside it. You can always leaf through a book, even if you do not have it yet.

Yes, prices are set per region and the App Store or Google Play shows them in your own currency. The amounts here are the Dutch ones.

You can ask for a hint: one word lights up briefly. On the Word Path and in the books a hint costs a short ad, and you can do that as often as you like. In the daily challenge there are at most three per board. You never have to skip a level, the path simply waits.

Only in your very first daily challenge is the first hint free. After that every hint is an ad. If the ad does not load while you are online, you still get your hint once per level.

Only after finishing a new level on the Word Path or in a free book, never before. Not in your first six new levels, never two levels in a row and never within four minutes of the previous one. Never in the onboarding or the daily challenge, and with a pass not at all in between.

No. There are two kinds of ads: the ad in between after a level, and the ad you choose yourself for a hint or to restore Sparky.

No, not even with a pass. The passes remove the ads in between, the hint for an ad stays the same for everyone. That way a hint remains a deliberate choice.

Yes. In the Hint for an ad window you choose Watch the ad and do not ask again. After that a tap on Hint starts the ad immediately. You can reset this in the settings with Start hint ad right away.

On iPhone iOS asks that once, just before the first ad and never at startup. If you say no, you see ads that are not tailored to you. In Europe and the UK you also get the consent screen for ads, and you can change your choices later in the settings at Privacy under Privacy choices for ads.

After 15, 50 and 150 new levels the rating window of the App Store or Google Play appears instead of the ad. You can also rate the app yourself through Rate Words with Mia in the settings under About.

No, during a hint ad the clock stands still. The hint itself does add ten seconds to your time in the daily challenge.

Yes. On the Friends tab there is a pinboard with the daily times of you and your friends, as polaroids, with a rosette for the winner of the day. You add friends with an invite code or QR code. For this you need a linked account, through Apple or Google.

Share your friend code or have your QR code scanned on the Friends tab, or scan the other person's. Your friends work in all Olympheon games, so a friend from Mio Path is your friend here too.

The world leaderboard. Your score is the number of finished levels on the Word Path, per language, and under World the sum across all your languages. You see the top 100 and your own spot, and players you meet there can be added as friends. Taking part requires a chosen player name.

No. Without friends you only see your own time on the pinboard, without a position, and the world leaderboard is there to look at. There are no duels, no chat and no messages.

Yes. At one friend the frame Pinboard, at three the frame Stamp Album and at five the outfit Pinboard Photographer. Finishing in the top three among your friends ten times earns Clockmaker.

No. You choose your player name once, three to sixteen characters, and it applies in all Olympheon games. So choose calmly.

No. You can start right away. An account is only there if you want to carry your progress between devices or use friends and the leaderboard. You sign in with Apple or Google, and your name and friends then work in all Olympheon games, including Mio Path.

With a linked account it does: sign in with the same Apple or Google account and your path, stamps and Sparky are back. Without an account your progress lives only on your device. Display settings such as the board style and the translation beside words stay per device.

The app asks what you want to keep: the progress on this device or the progress on your account. Purchases are tied to your Apple or Google account and always come along.

In Profile through the cogwheel, under Account, choose Delete account. You choose whether to erase everything at Olympheon or only Words with Mia, and confirm by typing DELETE. Purchases stay with Apple or Google and can be restored later.

Words with Mia is made for ages 13 and up. It is not a children's app: the tone, the themes and the ad settings are set accordingly.

Anonymous usage statistics and ad attribution, to improve the app. You turn that off in the settings at Privacy with Usage statistics. If you say no to ad consent in Europe, the statistics go off too. With an account Olympheon stores your player name, your friends list and your progress.

Your stamp album, your look with outfit, frame and background, the notification for Sparky, and the cogwheel to the settings and your account.

Cosmetics for your profile: a frame around your portrait, an outfit for Mia or Mio, and a background. You earn them by playing, through the path, the books, Sparky, friends and theme days, and they are never for sale. Backgrounds are always free to choose.

Besides the 21 language stamps your album has 62 achievement stamps, across languages, in series such as Word Hunter, Sparky, Pathfinder, Bookmark and Polyglot, and single stamps for things like a night owl, an early bird or a perfect week. Some are secret until you earn them. You never lose a stamp.

Yes. Play Mio Path and Words with Mia with the same Olympheon account and you earn the frame Phoenix Glow and the outfit Stunt Pilot.

The boards of the Word Path and the books are built into the app itself, so you can search without a connection. Syncing your progress, the leaderboards and watching an ad need the internet.

The app is in the App Store for iPhone and iPad, from iOS 15, and in Google Play for Android. Phones play in portrait, tablets in portrait either way up.

Yes. Under Board style in the settings choose Large letters: extra large, almost black letters. By default they are white keys.

Yes. Turn on Tick on found letters in the settings, and every found letter gets a tick beside the colour.

Yes, in the settings under Word list. List is a checklist with circles that fill green, Calm is loose text in which found words fade out.

Email [email protected]. If you press and hold the app icon you see Something wrong, which opens an email with the technical details already filled in. For privacy questions there is [email protected], for security reports [email protected].

After an update the What's new screen opens once. On Android the app can also offer a new version itself.

Olympheon, a studio from the Netherlands (OLYMPHEON B.V.). Words with Mia belongs to the Mio and friends family, together with Mio Path.

Yes. This site has a free word search maker: type your own words, pick the size and print the puzzle, without an account. For the holidays there is also a Christmas word search with three puzzles to play online and a big version to print. Around Halloween there is a Halloween word search with spooky words.