This is a word game with a clock in it and something fighting back. If what
you want is a calm untimed puzzle to unwind with, there are better ones, and
it is only fair to say so on the first line.

HOW IT GOES
You get a handful of letters. Spell words out of them. Every word you find
puts a little more of the creature on the page, and the longer the word, the
more of it. Do it before the clock runs out and the creature holds still
long enough to draw.

Ten of them, in ten real places, climbed in order of how high those places
are. Nessie at sixteen metres. The Sphinx at Giza. The Minotaur in the
labyrinth at Knossos. A troll in the Icelandic highlands, caught by the
sunrise. The Kraken off the Lofoten Wall. Bigfoot at Ape Canyon. A dragon on
Mount Hua. The Yeti, at 8,849 metres, at the end.

You are not hunting any of it. Nobody wants to kill Nessie. Plenty of
people want a photograph. Each one goes into the book as a plate, and ten
plates make the book.

TEN CREATURES, NOT TEN THOUSAND LEVELS
Every one of them refuses differently, and the rule comes from what the
creature is.
- The Sphinx will not show you how long a word is. It gives you the meaning
and asks you for the word.
- The Minotaur hides the shapes. You are in the maze too.
- The troll turns one of your letters to stone.
- Bigfoot leaves one letter showing, and keeps moving it.
- The dragon sets a letter burning: worth half again as much, and then it
goes cold where you used it.
- The Strigoi feeds while you work.

THE EXAMINATION
Thirty ranks, from Cairn to Summit, and every one of them sat bare-handed.
No training, no gear, no hints, no supplies — just the words you know and
the clock. It is the one thing in this game that cannot be bought, which is
the only reason it is worth having.

GET STRONGER
A blade for damage, a lantern for seconds, a drum for runs of words. Chests
from the creatures you bring down. Published odds, in the app, under
Settings — and nothing you can buy opens a chest.

LOSING COSTS NOTHING
No lives. No waiting. No stage taken away. Slip on a stage and that stage
gives you four more seconds next time, up to five times. A path forms where
you slipped.

WORD OF THE DAY
One board a day, the same letters for everybody on earth, ninety seconds. No
upgrades, no gear, no hints — nothing you can buy touches that board, which
is why a score on it is worth sharing.

THE SPHINX'S GRID
A crossword, eight entries laid across each other, clued from the
dictionary's own definitions. No letters to pick from — it asks, and you
answer. Every answer you get right hands letters to the ones it crosses.

BOTH SPELLINGS COUNT
colour and color. realise and realize. centre and center. All of them, plus
4,637 words that are only British, Canadian or Australian. And no blank on
any board is ever a word with two spellings, so there is never a blank you
cannot fill because of where you learned to write.

If it ever turns down a word you are sure of, there is a button on the
message that puts it on a list you can send. The dictionary gets better
because you said so.

OFFLINE, AND NO ACCOUNT
The whole dictionary downloads once and then the game works with no
connection at all. There is no sign-up, no profile and no account needed
to play any of it — sign in only if you want the climb to survive a new
phone.

ADS, HONESTLY
No banners. Nothing plays between stages. An ad appears when you press the
button that says ad, and never otherwise. Three a day.

The words come from WordNet 3.0 (Princeton University) and SCOWL.