Last Call: Your Free Final Roll

After your nineteenth turn, with every slot filled, WyldTyle gives you Last Call, the end-of-game trade. You roll two more letters, choosing the roll type as usual, and then place none, one or both of them onto your board. Whatever you don't place is thrown away. It is the only do-over in the game, and since you never have to use a letter you don't like, it can only help you.

How it works

1. Last Call is announced as soon as your final turn is placed. The daily challenge gives you one at the end of each level.
2. Choose a roll type: consonant-and-vowel, two consonants, or two vowels.
3. Roll. You get two letters, either of which might be wild at the usual 8% chance.
4. Place none, one or both of them, onto any slots you like. A placed letter replaces the one that was there, which is discarded. Undo works until you finish.
5. Tap Finish to score. Any rolled letter you didn't place is discarded. If you placed nothing, the button reads Keep my board and the board scores as it stood.

You can also tap Finish without rolling before you roll, but there is no reason to. A letter you don't want simply goes in the bin, so a Last Call roll can never cost you a point. On daily boards, the given tiles still can't be replaced.

What to call it for

Always roll. The only question is what you are hoping the dice bring, and that depends on the board you arrive with:

• One invalid word, one letter from valid. The clearest case. A board with seven valid words and one reading BLENT scores about 65. If Last Call rolls a D, BLEND completes the board and the score jumps to roughly 95: the word's points plus the 20-point bonus. Call the roll most likely to bring the missing letter.
• Two invalid words. Look for the one letter that fixes each, and call the roll that gives you the best chance of at least one of them. Two letters can fix two words if the dice are kind, but one fix is still worth taking.
• A valid board with a wild in a scoring spot. A wild scores 1 point, whatever letter it plays as. If it is standing in for a K in TICKET, a real K from Last Call is worth 4 more points. Call for that letter, and if it doesn't come, keep the wild.
• A fully valid board with no wilds. Roll for an upgrade. Look for a 1-point letter that could become a 4- or 5-point one and keep the word valid: RENT to VENT, SEEN to KEEN, TENT to BENT. Two consonants gives you the best shot at the rare letters. If nothing fits, keep your board.

Setting it up

Last Call is far more useful if you arrive at it with exactly one problem to solve. From about turn fifteen, play with it in mind:

• Identify your weakest word. Which slot is most likely to end invalid? Give it your best letters over the final turns. If you can get it valid, wonderful; if not, make sure it is one letter from valid, not two.
• Keep the other seven safe. Last Call fixes one word reliably. If two slots are in trouble, spend a wild or a good letter finishing one of them before turn 19.
• Make the missing letter a common one. If your broken word needs an E, a two-vowel roll gives you about a 51% chance of at least one E. If it needs a K, a two-consonant roll gives you about 6.6%. Where you have a choice about which letter to leave missing, leave a common one missing.

Choosing the roll

This is the one roll in the game where you know exactly what you need, and the spare letter costs you nothing. Call the roll that maximises your chance of the letter you want:

• Need a vowel? Call two vowels. Two chances at it.
• Need a consonant? Call two consonants, for the same reason. The spare might even be an upgrade somewhere else.
• Need one of each? Consonant-and-vowel, accepting that both dice must cooperate.

Placing well

You don't have to place both letters. If one fixes a word and the other would only break something, place the one and let the other go. A wild can be any letter, so put it on whichever word needs it most. Before you finish, check that every word you touched is still valid; where hints are available they show the real words that fit a pattern, and they can also reveal an upgrade you hadn't spotted. And remember that undo is available right up until you tap Finish.