How to Play

If you don't know how to play the game, here we go...I'll mention it in my recaps as well.

Round Structure
Here's how the rounds will work.

• Intro
• "Wheel! Of! Fortune!"
• Audience/contestant shots
• Pat/Vanna intro, Pat's quote
• Vanna explains the Toss-Ups
• Toss-Up 1
• Toss-Up 2
• Jim's 1st plug
• Jackpot Round intro
• Featured Prize intro
• Round 1 (Jackpot Round)
• Jim's Mystery Round plug
• Round 2 (Mystery Round)
• Round 3
• Prize Puzzle on the XBOX 360
• Just a Round 3 on the mobile game
• Jim explains the Prize Trip
• Toss-Up 3
• Round 4, Part 1 (Regular play)
• Pat explains that Round 4 becomes the Final Spin
• Round 4, Part 2 (Final Spin)
• Bonus Round
• Credits/prizes won

Spinning, Buying, and Solving!
Before we go into the rounds, let's get to know the wheel better.

The red player, Hastin (a YouTube user) has an opponent,
the blue player, who chooses to spin. He doesn't know what
the solution is yet, and he can't buy any vowels.

Spinning and Buying
Who wouldn't like to go for a spin? It's important to spin so you can reveal consonants. You can even build up spin power within 20 seconds on the console version or the wheel will spin for you. Various dollar wedges and prizes are on the wheel, so you can claim any consonant you like! If you have $250 or more, you can buy a $250 vowel. Remember, the vowels are A, E, I, O, and U. The letter Y counts as a consonant. Once all the vowels are gone, you'll see a sparkle sound with the words "NO MORE VOWELS" showing. Once all the consonants are gone, you won't really see a "NO MORE CONSONANTS" signal, but you'll hear a four-beep sound. Unlike the real TV show, that WILL happen when the puzzle is completely filled in. And then you just have to say what's up there!


Getting It Right or Wrong...or In Time, At Least
Speaking of saying what's up there, you don't need to have any money to solve the puzzle, you just have to have a letter on the puzzleboard. You get it right, you win the stuff you have! However, if you call a wrong letter or guess the puzzle wrong, you will lose your turn and that turn will be passed on to the next player. You will have 30 seconds to spin, solve, or buy a vowel; 20, 15, or 10 seconds to pick a letter; and 80, 65, or 50 seconds to solve the puzzle, depending on the easy, medium, or hard difficulty level you choose, respectively. Run out of time and you will lose your turn.

Edited Out
A "null cycle" is an occurrence of three straight lost turns. If that happens, it will be edited out (except for certain cases in Round 1, because dollar wedges add to the Jackpot).

Special Wedges and Prizes
My favorite part of the game is winning some prizes! Some wedges will be explained later because they are special to certain rounds.

Here are some contestants (from season 30) who won
the prizes they are holding. Tammy, on the right,
is holding a California trip. The other player, Casey,
won a Bed & Breakfast gift tag.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: The mobile game has NO 1/2-Car plates, Gift Tag, Prize Wedge, or Prize Puzzle. Or even Bonus Round vehicles. Sorry, folks. Just make sure you know everything ain't what it seems.

Taking a Trip Without the Prize Puzzle
You always see this "featured prize" on top of the purple $350 wedge. All the featured prizes are trips, so let's call them "Trips on the Wheel". They range from a $5,000 trip to Maine to a $9,500 trip to Scotland! If it goes unclaimed in Rounds 1 and 2, it is never seen again...

Going on a Shopping Spree
Who likes to go shopping? Well, we've got gift tags! This white prize appears in Rounds 1, 2, and 3 on top of the pink $500 wedge. It's worth $1,000 after you solve the puzzle.

The 1/2-Car plate, the Wild Card, and both sides of the
Million Dollar Wedge! Hope you keep 'em!

Driving a Car Without the Bonus Round
There are two 1/2-Car plates in the first three rounds: one on the green $700 and the other on the blue $350. Each plate has a $500 consonant value. No matter how many plates you pick up, they'll always appear at the start of Rounds 1, 2, and 3. If you Bankrupt, you'll lose all of the plates you've collected after solving a puzzle or in that round alone. On the flip side, if you collect two plates (two plates in one round or one plate in one round and a second plate in another), you'll win a $10,000 car! Either a Sedan or a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV). If that happens, all other 1/2-Car plates are GONE for the rest of the night.

Earning Some More Money or Something Else
On top of the green $600 wedge is a little pink Wild Card. It's available in Rounds 1, 2, and 3. If you pick up the Wild Card after calling a consonant, you can eventually land on a dollar wedge, call a correct letter, and hand over your Wild Card to Pat to get another consonant for the value you just landed on. This can be really useful when landing on $2,500, $3,500, or $5,000! Just watch out, though...call a wrong letter after handing over your Wild Card, and it will BACKFIRE. Ouch. Anyway, there's another purpose for the Wild Card. Just read the Bonus Round section.

Winning a Million Dollars!
Here's to picking up the always-popular Million Dollar Wedge! It lies on top of the orange $800 wedge and appears in Rounds 1, 2, and 3. It consists of a bright green "ONE MILLION" center with the other two thirds being Bankrupts. If you land on the green center and call a correct letter, you can pick it up to find a fully-green "ONE MILLION DOLLARS" sign on the back! If you avoid you-know-what - Bankrupt - and win the game, you'll be playing for one million dollars in the Bonus Round! See that section to see how you'll do it! By the way, it also goes by the term "MDW".

The Bankrupt, Lose a Turn, Free
Play, and big-money wedges.

Getting It For Free!
No wonder there's a Free Play wedge between the blue $700 and purple $600 wedges. You can call a $500 consonant, get a free vowel, or attempt to solve the puzzle! If you do anything wrong, no harm done...you still have your turn! It disappears in Round 4 on the console version, but not on the mobile version.

Penalty Spins
Here comes the bad part. If you land on Lose a Turn (located between the blue $300/$700 and red $800 wedges), you will lose your turn but keep your earnings for the moment. Bankrupt will not only take away your turn, but also anything you have. There are four Bankrupts...one next to a big-money wedge ($2,500, $3,500, or $5,000), a second next to the purple $600 wedge, and two on each side of the Million Dollar Wedge. Just try to avoid them.

Big-Money Wedges
There are three glittering wedges on the wheel next to Bankrupt: $2,500, $3,500, and $5,000! The $2,500 wedge appears in Round 1, the $3,500 wedge in Rounds 2 and 3, and the $5,000 wedge in Round 4!

All the Rounds and REALLY Special Wedges
Here come the rounds that REALLY matter.

We're in Toss-Up mode tonight. I think I know it already!
Can you guys figure it out?

Toss-Ups
In a Toss-Up, letters randomly appear until someone rings in and solves the puzzle. If you give a wrong answer, you are disqualified for the rest of the puzzle...and if NO ONE rings in with the right answer, no one gets the amount the Toss-Up is worth. Toss-Up 1 is worth $1,000, #2 is worth $2,000, and #3 is worth $3,000. The player who solves Toss-Up 2 will start Round 1, then the player to his/her left will start Round 2, and the last remaining player will start Round 3. The player who solves Toss-Up 3 will start Round 4. The first two Toss-Ups usually have to do with the theme on the console version, while all or most of the puzzles on the mobile device deal with the theme.

The Jackpot wedge.

The Jackpot Round
Round 1 has a special Jackpot wedge on top of the of the red $900 wedge. The Jackpot is worth $5,000 at the start of the puzzle. Every dollar wedge you land on adds to the Jackpot's value. The 1/2-Car and Free Play wedges have a $500 consonant value. The trip on the wheel, Wild Card, gift tag, and MDW do not add to the Jackpot's value. And strangely, on the console version, vowels bought after a Jackpot landing add $500 each to the Jackpot. And on the mobile version, calling multiple letters on the Jackpot will only give you $500. Odd, right? If you land on the Jackpot, call a correct letter, and solve the puzzle, you'll win the Jackpot plus what you already have! And there will be a fireworks display!

The Mystery Round

The Mystery wedge. VERY mysterious.

Round 2 has a special Mystery wedge...actually, two of them. One of them lies on the blue $300 wedge and the other lies on the blue $700 wedge. One of them has a Bankrupt on the back, and the other has $10,000! I won't say which one, it's a mystery. If you flip it over, you'll find either one, and the other wedge disappears. If you don't flip it over, you'll get $1,000 per consonant. If you solve the puzzle and the wedge you find is $10,000...well, $10,000 plus whatever else you have is yours!

Looks like the Prize Puzzle. Who will win that
guaranteed trip?

The Prize Puzzle
Round 3...well, this round is EXTREMELY important. If you solve this puzzle, you will win a trip to somewhere. The puzzle will relate to the trip.

The Final Spin
In the XBOX 360 game, Round 4 allows three turns before Pat explains the Final Spin. Three lost turns in a row: full Final Spin. In the mobile game, it occurs after a lot of work is done before a wrong letter, a Bankrupt, or a Lose a Turn. In this mode, each consonant is worth $1,000 plus whatever dollar wedge Pat lands on. Vowels are helpful, but they are not worth anything. (If Pat lands on $5,000, then it's really anybody's game!) After guessing a correct letter, you will have 15 seconds to solve the puzzle or pass your turn to the next player.

Looks like a lady broke $100,000 without hitting that big
Bonus Round card! Good job!

The Bonus Round
OK, this is where it SERIOUSLY gets crucial. There's a Bonus Wheel that has 24 cards in it. They range from $25,000 to $50,000 and even some vehicles and $100,000! If you bring the Million Dollar Wedge to the Bonus Round, the $100,000 card becomes a $1,000,000 card! First, you have to spin the Bonus Wheel, and you'll be given indications of R, S, T, L, N, and E in the puzzle. You then have three extra consonants and an extra vowel to choose. And if you have a Wild Card, you can guess an additional consonant. Then, you'll be given any indications of the letters you picked. You'll have 80 (easy difficulty), 65 (medium), or 50 seconds to keep guessing the answer. Get it right, and you'll find out what you won! Get it wrong, however, and you'll find out what you lost.

Here's a photo of what you could win! (The corrections are for the console version and some other stuff.)

Minigames: A Real Special Treat!

Yes, if you play with at least 1 other person (most likely on XBOX Live), you'll get to play minigames! These come between Rounds 1 and 2, Rounds 2 and 3, and Round 3 and the 3rd Toss-Up. Win the most out of thIf you don't know how to play the game, here we go...I'll mention it in my recaps as well.

Most Frequent

In this minigame, you'll see a 2-line puzzle. Each player (starting with the contestant with the most earnings thus far) gets a to pick 3 consonants and a vowel. Whoever gets the most letters up there gets a chance to solve the puzzle! If there's a tie, there will be a tiebreaker and the contestants involved in the tie have to pick more consonants. Still a tie? The contestant in the lead in the regular game will try to solve the puzzle.

2nd Guess Bonus Round (2nd Guess for Short)

In this minigame, an unsolved Bonus Round puzzle from the past (on the real show, of course) is presented with RSTLNE and the contestant's picks. Anyone can buzz in and try to get the right answer. All of the answers' air dates are credited to the Wheel of Fortune Bonus Puzzle Compendium.

High/Low

This minigame usually occurs in Round 2 or 3. Here, each player spins for an amount on the Wheel. A Bankrupt or Lose a Turn counts as $0. If there's a tie, the contestants involved in the tie have to spin again. And if there's still a tie, the player farthest to the left will get a chance to solve the puzzle. Vanna will randomly pick the highest or lowest amount to guess the puzzle's solution first. And speaking of the puzzle, a LOT of letters show up.