Spelling Bee Scoring Explained with One Hive

The three rules

Rule one: if the word has four letters, it scores 1. Rule two: if it has five or more, it scores 1 per letter. Rule three: if it uses all seven hive letters, add 7.

There is no bonus for speed, no bonus for finding words in order, and no penalty for a wrong guess in the official game.

One hive, all the way through

Use this sample, which is a HiveMate example and not a published puzzle. Center I. Outer letters D, G, M, N, R, U. The common-word dictionary finds 48 words and a maximum of 231 points.

Genius is 70 percent of 231, which is 162 points. Queen Bee is all 231. The pangram DRUMMING is worth 15. A longer non-pangram such as MURMURING is worth 9, because the letter set is not complete.

How ranks use the total

Ranks are not ‘100 points’ or ‘200 points’. They are slices of whatever this hive is worth. Amazing is half. Genius is seven tenths. That is why a rank you reached easily yesterday can feel far away today: the maximum changed, not the rules.

The rank page lists every cut, so you do not have to do the math in your head.