JANOLITHJANOLITH

Two letters. One stone. Every flip changes the board.

In JANOLITH, every stone carries two letters – one on the front, one on the back. Place words on an open board, then flip stones that are already down. One flip turns STONE into STORE – and changes every word that stone is part of. Nothing you place is final.

Flip It

• Both letters are always visible. Choose the side when you place a stone.
  
• Flip stones on the board to build new words – as long as every word still reads.
  
• Scoring is Value × Mult. Letter values build Value; heavy letters face up on the stones you place or flip give Mult.
  
• Then the numbers escalate: a word of four or more letters, all of them new this move, scores Fresh ×1.5; from the fifth new letter on, a length multiplier keeps climbing; and emptying your whole rack in a single word doubles the move.
  
• Find the flip that turns a cheap word into a big one.
  

The Run

Seven chapters of rising targets. Each round gives you a limited number of moves and discards to hit the target. Pick your path through each chapter – a Small round, a Big round or a trip to the shop – before the Boss is waiting at the end – and at the end of chapter seven, two of them at once.

Your bag of stones comes with you through the whole run. Shape it as you go: Gild a stone to make it score double, Rewrite its back, Cleave a weak stone out of the bag or give a strong one a Twin. Open the bag at any time to see every stone of your run – still in the bag, on your rack or on the board.

Bosses & Shop

Twelve bosses, each one changing the rules. The Rust stops placed stones from flipping. The Narrows shrink the board to a strip. The Glut lets each letter score only once per move. The Deadline puts every move on the clock.

At the end of every chapter you choose between two bosses: take the milder one, or risk the harsher one for a richer shop. The final boss is a pair: two bosses at once, both in their tougher form – and you choose which pair you face.

Spend your crystals on cards that bend the scoring in your favor – 38 of them, from Mirror (words also count read backwards) to Palindrome, Bookends and Turncoat, plus cards that keep growing over the run, like Architect, Tidal Wave and Record Hunter. Level them up, arrange them in your card column and unlock slot mechanics like Opener and Closer.

Progression

• Every run earns experience – even the ones you lose.
  
• Follow the Reward Path to level 30: grow your rack from 6 to 10 stones, enlarge your bag and unlock new cards.
  
• Unlock special stones – Gilded, Glass, Crystal and Joker stones – and add them to your bag with Manage Bag – where you can also build your bag stone by stone.
  
• Win a run, then climb eight difficulty tiers, from Gypsum to Corundum – each tier adds a new rule, and Continue takes your cards and crystals up to the next one.
  
• Crystals left over at the end of a run go to the hoard of the crystal dragon in the main menu – watch it grow.
  
• Collect every word you play in the Word Lexicon and chase 28 achievements.
  

Modes

• New Run – the full roguelite run through seven chapters.
  
• Daily Challenge – the same run for everyone, one attempt a day, with a leaderboard.
  
• Weekly Challenge – one run all week with a card of the week; as many attempts as you like, your best counts.
  
• Endless – no targets, no bosses, no clock. Cards and the shop stay, the bag never runs dry, and your progress is always saved.
  
• Match vs. AI – a classic head-to-head on an open board. Both sides start with the same points; first to reach zero wins. Three difficulty levels.
  
• A short guided Introduction teaches placing, flipping and Mult.
  

English or German, Huge Dictionaries

Play in English (170,000+ words) or German (over 1.3 million) – each with its own dictionary, stone set and letter values. The interface comes in seven languages: English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Polish and Russian. Menu language and game language are set separately – play German words with an English menu, or the other way round. More game languages to come.

Not sure what a word means? Look it up in-game – explanations come from Wiktionary. Missing a real word? The game collects rejected words so you can report them.

Controls & Comfort

• Full mouse and full gamepad control.
  
• Made with the Steam Deck in mind: full gamepad control, UI laid out for 1280×800 – and it scales to your resolution, including ultrawide.
  
• Reduced motion option.
  
• Separate sound and music volume.
  
• Windows and Linux.