Every stone carries two letters – one on each side. Place words, then flip stones already on the board: STONE becomes STORE. A word-building roguelite where heavy letters face up drive your Mult, bosses bend the rules, and every flip can rewrite the board.
Two letters. One stone. Every flip changes the board.
In JANOLITH, every stone carries two letters – one on the front, one on the back. Place words on an open board, then flip stones that are already down. One flip turns STONE into STORE – and changes every word that stone is part of. Nothing you place is final.Flip It
- Both letters are always visible. Choose the side when you place a stone.
- Flip stones on the board to build new words – as long as every word still reads.
- Scoring is Value × Mult. Letter values build Value; heavy letters face up on the stones you place or flip give Mult.
- Find the flip that turns a cheap word into a big one.
The Run
Six chapters of rising targets. Each round gives you a limited number of moves and discards to hit the target. Pick your path through each chapter – a Small round, a Big round or a trip to the shop – before the Boss is waiting at the end.
Your bag of stones comes with you through the whole run. Shape it as you go: Gild a stone to make it score double, Rewrite its back, Cleave a weak stone out of the bag or give a strong one a Twin.Bosses & Shop
Twelve bosses, each one changing the rules. The Rust stops placed stones from flipping. The Narrows shrink the board to a strip. The Glut lets each letter score only once per move. The Deadline puts every move on the clock.
At the end of every chapter you choose between two bosses: take the milder one, or risk the harsher one for a richer shop.
Spend your crystals on cards that bend the scoring in your favor – 31 of them, from Mirror (words also count read backwards) to Palindrome, Bookends and Turncoat. Level them up, arrange them in your card column and unlock slot mechanics like Opener and Closer.
Progression
- Every run earns experience – even the ones you lose.
- Follow the Reward Path to level 30: grow your rack from 6 to 10 stones, enlarge your bag and unlock new cards.
- Unlock special stones – Gilded, Glass, Crystal and Joker stones – and add them to your bag with Manage Bag.
- Collect every word you play in the Word Lexicon and chase 22 achievements.
Modes
- New Run – the full roguelite run through six chapters.
- Daily Challenge – the same run for everyone, one attempt a day, with a leaderboard.
- Weekly Challenge – one run all week with a card of the week; as many attempts as you like, your best counts.
- Match vs. AI – a classic head-to-head on an open board. Both sides start with the same points; first to reach zero wins. Three difficulty levels.
- A short guided Introduction teaches placing, flipping and Mult.
English or German, Huge Dictionaries
Play in English (170,000+ words) or German (over 1.3 million) – each with its own dictionary, stone set and letter values. The interface comes in seven languages: English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Polish and Russian. Menu language and game language are set separately – play German words with an English menu, or the other way round. More game languages to come.
Not sure what a word means? Look it up in-game – explanations come from Wiktionary. Missing a real word? The game collects rejected words so you can report them.Controls & Comfort
- Full mouse and full gamepad control.
- Made with the Steam Deck in mind: full gamepad control, UI laid out for 1280×800 – and it scales to your resolution, including ultrawide.
- Reduced motion option.
- Separate sound and music volume.
- Windows and Linux.