Ransom

Spell out the message one cut-out letter at a time — but every scrap costs money, and the cheap ones look terrible.

How to play

Ransom is a budget-juggling word puzzle. The day's message is laid out as a row of empty slots, and your job is to fill every letter by buying a tile for it. Each tile comes in five qualities: quality 1 is the cheapest, ugliest scrap and quality 5 is clean and pricey. You must fill the whole message, stay under budget, and squeeze out as much legibility as you can — then send the note and see how your score stacks up against par.

• Click a slot to cycle its quality: empty to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then back to empty.
• The letter shop lists every letter's price at each of the five qualities — plan your spend.
• Pricier tiles add legibility but eat your budget; the puzzle is finding the best mix.
• Sending only works once every slot is filled and you're within budget; beat par to win.

Controls

• Desktop: left-click a slot to raise its quality, right-click to clear it. Use Fill cheapest, Reset and Send note buttons.
• Phone & tablet: tap a slot to cycle its quality; mouse or trackpad is recommended for the right-click clear shortcut.

Game modes

• Daily: one shared message and budget for everyone that day.
• Practice: generate a fresh budget puzzle whenever you want.

Tips & strategy

• Spend your cleanest tiles on the rarest, most expensive letters where legibility gains matter most, and pad common letters with cheap scraps.
• Use Fill cheapest as a baseline, then upgrade individual slots upward until you're about to bust the budget.
• Leftover budget is wasted potential — push quality up everywhere you can without going over.

About Ransom

Ransom is an original free browser word game that turns spelling into an economics puzzle: a fixed message, a tight budget, and a tradeoff between cost and clarity on every single letter. No download or sign-up required.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium — no download, no install. Browse all games →