Pocket Cabinet: Word Trails, a City Hunt Puzzle

About Pocket Cabinet: Word Trails

The Pocket Cabinet is a curiosity shop that hides its rooms all over the city, and its hunt card sends you looking. Each stop is a street map whose crossings are letter pins. You start at a green flag, and every word you spell must cross a pin your route has already reached, so your words grow one inked route through the streets until it touches the landmark.

Reach it and the stop is stamped: gold when you got there in par words without a hint. Then choose your street at the fork. Some stops have a twist of their own: long streets that want four letters, branch lines where a word must start on your route, lamp pins worth a bonus, and road works that close a block.

Three hunts, the Old Town Ramble, the Harbour Line and the Market Loop, each end in a room of the Cabinet, and a daily hunt is the same for everyone. A hunt takes five to eight minutes. Your records stay on this device only; nothing is uploaded.

How to play

Drag across touching pins (corners count) to spell a word of three letters or more, and lift to check it. Or tap the pins one by one and tap the last one again.
With a keyboard, type the word and press Enter, or move with the arrow keys, press Space to pick a pin and Backspace to take one back.
Start at the green flag. Each new word must use at least one pin your route has reached. On a branch line it must start on one.
Reach the landmark pin to finish the stop. In par words with no hint, its stamp is gold.
At a fork, tap the street you want, or use the arrow keys and press Enter. Every hunt ends at a room of the Pocket Cabinet.
A hint (1 or Ⓧ) shows a word that crosses your route, but the stop's stamp is no longer gold. Press Escape or Start to pause.

Controls

Drag across pins, or tap them one by one — spell a word
Type the word, then Enter — check it
Arrow keys or D-pad, Space or Ⓐ — move and pick a pin; Backspace or Ⓑ — take one back
1 or Ⓧ — hint
Escape or Start — pause

Frequently asked questions

What does "cross your route" mean?

Your route starts at the green flag. A new word counts only when at least one of its pins is already on the route, so every word joins on to the ones before it.

Can a word use a pin twice?

No. A word is a path of touching pins, each used once. Different words may share pins, and that is how the route grows.

What is par?

The number of words the hunt card needed to reach the landmark. Get there in par words or fewer, with no hint, for a gold stamp.

What if no word crosses my route?

A cab takes you to the landmark. The stop is done, without its stamp bonus, and the hunt goes on.