What is Cipher Isles? The word puzzle game where words decode glyphs

Cipher Isles, full name Cipher Isles: Word Puzzle, is a word puzzle game for Android about a lost language. You swipe letters on a hex grid to spell words, each filled tablet decodes an ancient glyph, and every 60 tablets repair part of your wrecked ship. I built it. It has 300 puzzles across 12 islands and plays offline.

It plays like a word connect game, with a story and a decoding layer on top.

Key points

• Full name: Cipher Isles: Word Puzzle.
• What it is: a hex grid word game where your words decode glyphs written in Vael, an invented language.
• How big: 12 islands, 25 tablets each, 300 word puzzles, plus a new daily voyage every day.
• Where: Google Play, com.etesttech.cipherisles. Not on the App Store.
• Works: offline, with no account and no signup. Progress saves on its own.

What is the story?

You play as Mara, a young cartographer whose ship is wrecked on a chain of islands. Every stone tablet there is carved in Vael, a language nobody can read. Each word you find brings a glyph to life, and island by island you piece the language back together while you mend the ship.

There are 12 short story chapters, featuring Mara, Tobias Wren and Ilka Vane. They were written for this game.

How does Cipher Isles play?

1. Swipe. Drag a path through touching letters on the hex grid to spell a word.
2. Fill the tablet. Words that fit the tablet drop into its slots. Other real words count as bonus words and earn coins.
3. Decode. Fill a tablet and its glyph is decoded.
4. Sail on. Grids grow from 7 letters to 12 and then 19 as you travel.

What else is in the game?

Feature	What it is
Ship repair	Six stages from wreck to full sails and a lit lantern, one every 60 tablets
Daily voyage	A new puzzle every day, the same one for every player
Relics	36 to find across six sets, with a bonus for each set
Hints	Reveal a letter, highlight where a word starts, or spin the board with the Compass
Comfort options	Dark sea and light parchment themes, text sizes, reduced motion, sound switches, and shapes and icons as well as colour for answers

How is Cipher Isles different from word connect games?

Most word connect games give you a wheel of letters and a crossword to fill. Cipher Isles uses a hex grid, so a letter can touch six neighbours, and the words you find feed a second puzzle: decoding a language. The ship and the relics give the long game a shape, so it is less like level after level and more like a voyage with an end.

Who makes Cipher Isles?

I do. I am John Osakwe, and I have built apps and websites under Etest Tech Hub since 2015. Cipher Isles is listed on Google Play under E-TEST APPS. More is on the Cipher Isles page, and my other games are in the games hub.

What Cipher Isles does not do

• It does not need an account, a signup or an internet connection.
• It does not use a real ancient language; Vael was made up for the game.
• It is not on the App Store.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cipher Isles offline?

Yes. It plays with no internet connection and saves your progress automatically.

How many puzzles are in Cipher Isles?

300 tablets across 12 islands, 25 per island, plus a daily voyage puzzle that changes every day.

Is Vael a real language?

No. Vael is invented for Cipher Isles. The glyphs and their meanings belong to the game's story.

Is Cipher Isles on iPhone?

No. Cipher Isles is on Google Play for Android.

Is Cipher Isles good for people who find word games too easy?

The grids grow from 7 to 19 letters, and bonus words reward finding more than the tablet needs, so later islands ask for more than the opening ones.

How I wrote this

On 3 November 2026 I read the Cipher Isles Google Play listing and checked search volumes in Google Keyword Planner for the United States. The game details come from the app I built.

By John Osakwe, founder of Etest Tech Hub. I have built apps and websites since 2015, including Etest CBT, FizzFree and Pawlarm.