Settings, Relax mode and the companion

Spellhunt works well out of the box, but a few settings make it feel like yours. You'll find them under You, then Settings.

Look

• Appearance: Automatic follows your iPhone's light or dark setting. Choose Light or Dark to keep one.
• Color-blind mode: adds patterns to found words and shapes to the word chips, so color is never the only clue. More in accessibility.
• Companion: how often the otter speaks. See below.

Text size follows the size you chose in the iPhone Settings app, all the way up to the largest accessibility sizes.

Play

• Main button side: Left or Right. Puts the main button under your thumb, handy if you play one-handed.
• Relax mode: hides timers and rankings. See Relax mode.
• No backwards words: words only read forward, never right to left or bottom to top. It works together with Relax mode, so turn Relax on first.

Sound and touch

Sound effects, music and haptics each have their own switch, and sound effects and music each have a volume slider. The tones rise as you find words, so a whole solve plays a little tune. Spellhunt's sounds mix with whatever you're listening to: a podcast or playlist keeps playing while you solve. The sounds also respect your iPhone's silent switch.

Relax mode

A lot of people play word searches to wind down, and a ticking clock doesn't help with that. Relax mode hides every timer and ranking while you play: the Daily's clock, your percentile, even the Blitz ring.

Your Daily time is still recorded and saved, and it's still checked on our server. When you finish, Spellhunt asks "See how you compared?" If you tap No thanks, you never see the number. Relax mode doesn't change your streak, your coins or the puzzle itself.

In the campaign, Relax is also one of the three difficulties you can pick, one step easier than Normal. The setting and the difficulty are separate: you can play Hard puzzles with the clock hidden.

The otter companion

Spellhunt's otter keeps you company. It says a short line at the moments that matter: when you open the app, when a puzzle starts, when you make a great find, when you're down to the last word, when you finish, and at milestones like a level up or a promotion. A few examples:

• "Hey. Coffee first, then words."
• "Ooh, a long one."
• "One left. You've got this."
• "You're back! I kept your streak warm."

It's polite about it. The speech bubble never covers the grid or a button, it disappears after a few seconds or when you tap anywhere, it never talks while your finger is on the grid, and it speaks at most three times in a puzzle. During the Daily's timed play it only says something at the start and at the last word.

Tap the otter and it reacts ("Careful, that tickles."). While you drag across the grid, its eyes follow your finger. Under Reduce Motion, all of that stays still.

Choose how much it talks in Settings, under Companion:

• Chatty: all the moments above. This is the default.
• Milestones only: just the big moments.
• Off: no lines at all.

With VoiceOver on, each line is read out politely, after whatever VoiceOver is already saying.

Cosmetics

Cosmetics change how the game looks, never how it plays. Find them under You, then Cosmetics:

• Papers for the grid, like Cream, Slate, Kraft, Blueprint, Chalkboard and Linen.
• Highlights for found words, like Coral, Marigold, Sage and Lagoon.
• Mascots: Otter, Fox, Owl and Axolotl.
• Fonts for the grid letters: Classic serif and Typewriter.

Some cosmetics are bought with coins you earn by playing, for 150, 300 or 600 coins. Others are rewards: every tenth level, three stars on a chapter's boss, and, while a season is running, the season track, which moves forward as you complete your daily goals.

Updated September 30, 2026.