The Rules:

• You have to guess a hidden word, the Guess Word
• When you guess a word, your guess will appear with colored hints telling you how correct your guess was
• In addition to your incorrect hints, you also have access to two Merge Words, Blue and Pink, with numbers underneath each
  • These numbers relate to how many letters the Guess Word shares with the Merge word. 
    • For example, Boat 2 | Tree 1 means that the Guess Word will have two letters from Boat, and 1 Letter from Tree
• These colors come into play when analyzing your incorrect hints, as the color of the letter in your guess will turn Blue or Pink if that letter is a shared letter in the Merge Word
• Some additional rules to keep in mind:
• The Guess Word will not repeat any letters
• Your Merge Words will not share merge letters (i.e Tree and Sheep won't have 'e' be their hint)
• You gain more guesses for longer guess words
• Your Guess Word will not contain extra letters from your Merge Words (i.e. Shop 2 will not have a guess word of Shot, as it shares 3 letters, not 2)
• This means that the numbers are the exact amount of shared letters between Merge and Guess Words

Scoring

Each word length has a "Par" associated with it. Guessing the word in less than Par grants you full points, and a +1 to your streak.  Going over Par resets your Streak, but not your Score. Doubling Par (that is, taking more than twice Par), will reset your Score back to 0.

Similarly to golf, the lower below Par you get, the better your score will be. Additionally, the length of the word affects the amount of points you receive per score. 

If you are playing in "Semi-Merge" mode (the default), where there is one letter in the Guess Word not in either hints, you are provided the option to "purchase" these Unmatched words. If you do this, your points received will be cut in half for that round. Going over par also cuts your points in half.