Brain Test: Tricky Words is Unico Studio’s dingbat game. Each level shows you a picture puzzle and asks for one word and the picture is never a literal drawing of that word. It’s a coded arrangement of letters, position and colour that you have to decode.

That’s the part most answer pages skip. The genre runs on a fixed set of conventions, and once you know them you’ll solve most levels without scrolling. Answers are below if you’d rather not.

The conventions the puzzles are built from

What you see	What it usually means
One word sitting inside another	“in” — a word literally in a word
A word stacked above another	“over”, “on”, “under”, “above”
The same word twice	plural, “double”, or a “re-” prefix
Letters missing from a word	“missing”, “less”, “without”
A word split into pieces	“broken”, “split”, “apart”
Tiny letters, or huge ones	“little”, “mini”, “big”, “mega”
Letters in a specific colour	the colour is part of the answer, not decoration
A word written backwards	“back”, “reverse”, “return”
Letters arranged in a shape	the shape is the clue, not the letters

Tips that actually move you forward

Describe the layout out loud, in prepositions. This is the single highest-value habit in the game. “T inside HE” gets you nowhere. “T in HE” gets you there. Say where things sit relative to each other before you look at what they are.

Use the answer length. When the level shows you how many letters you’re aiming for, check it before you start guessing. A four-letter target kills most of your candidates instantly and it tells you whether you’re hunting one word or a compound.

Assume the answer is a compound or a common phrase. Rebus solutions are rarely obscure vocabulary. If you’ve decoded the parts correctly but the result isn’t a word you’d use in conversation, you’ve probably read one convention wrong rather than found a rare word.

Describe the picture in the simplest words you know. These puzzles key off everyday vocabulary. “Man with a hat” will get you closer than “gentleman in headwear,” because the answer is built from words a child would use.

Look at what’s absent. Gaps, crossed-out letters and empty spaces are clues in their own right, not sloppy design. Missing things usually mean “less,” “no,” or “without.”

Solve stacked conventions one at a time. Harder levels combine two rules like a word inside another word.. Decode each layer separately and then join them, instead of trying to read the whole thing at once.

When you’re properly stuck, change what you’re staring at. Tilt your head, or look at only the colours or only the sizes. Fixating on the letters is how people miss that the shape of the arrangement was the clue.

Where to play

Free on iOS and Android, with in-app purchases. It’s been on Google Play since May 2021 and holds ratings above 4.5 on both stores.

Play Brain Test Tricky Words

App Store

Google Play