When is a market swap worth it?
A replacement letter must earn back its cost. Compare future gains, staged spending and the clocks in all three games.
The market asks you to trade certain points for a possible improvement. A more expensive letter is not automatically a better purchase: it has to help words your remaining cards can support.
Write down the no-purchase version first
If your current deck can finish the next round, you already have a useful benchmark. Name the three words and estimate their total. Compare a proposed replacement against that whole set, including any word lost when its old letter leaves the deck.
Using the teaching deck C/A/T/D/O/G/S/U/N/E/R/I/L/P/Y, CAT, DOG and SUN total 14 points in Word Decks. Replacing unused Y with an offered H lets HAT, DOG and SUN total 15. If that is the market’s first swap, it is free. This is an improvement to that particular plan, not proof that either plan is optimal.
Think in net points
A paid purchase with two rounds left
Suppose a swap costs 4 points and your complete word plan would earn 3 more points in each of two remaining rounds. That is 6 extra earned points minus 4 spent: a 2-point net improvement.
With only one round left, the same 3-point improvement minus the same 4-point cost is a 1-point loss. These are hypothetical gains, not guaranteed returns from a specific letter.
Count the available future rounds. A purchase after round one in Word Decks can help twice; a purchase after round two can help only once. If a replacement breaks a word you were relying on, subtract that lost value too.
The free swap still has a trade-off
Free means no points deducted, not no consequence. You remove a real card. A free Q can be awkward if your usable words need the card it replaced and cannot support Q. Keep a complete fallback set before committing.
Check the displayed pending spend
In Word Decks and Dextreme, letter swaps are staged until lock-in. The pending total tells you what will leave your score. Several individually tempting swaps can add up to a poor deal. Reset Changes lets you undo the staged plan without restarting the market timer.
Once locked, the purchases are committed. The original game’s market summary shows the deck you will take into the next round; Dextreme follows letter lock-in with a free permanent upgrade choice.
The clocks are different
- Word Decks: each market lasts two minutes after Start Market. Prices rise with purchases, not elapsed time. At timeout, staged changes lock in automatically.
- Dextreme: the base-price window is 45 seconds; prices then rise at 30-second intervals. Purchase count also affects cost. Waiting for inspiration may make the same shopping plan more expensive.
- Rush: you shop first with 100 starting points and up to 90 seconds. Purchases apply immediately, with a reset available before lock-in. Prices rise with purchase count. There is only one upcoming word round.
Know when to stop
If you have a finishable plan and the next swap has no specific purpose, keeping your points is a decision. In Rush, the question is especially concrete: can the replacement earn back its cost during the one 30-second word stage?
In Dextreme, also consider the next challenge and acquired upgrades. Their interactions can change the value of a letter, but a higher potential score is not useful if you cannot finish three words in time. Read the Dextreme walkthrough before assuming its market behaves like the original game.