Puzzle gameDaily puzzle

Word Ladder

Change one letter at a time to turn one word into another.

Your best
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Word Ladder

Word Ladder

Change one letter at a time to turn one word into another.

Press any key or tap

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How to play

  1. Change one letter of the lit rung and press Enter.
  2. Every rung must be a real word, and no word twice.
  3. The changed letter is marked with a folded corner and a bar; a tick on the goal row means that letter is already right.
  4. Reach the goal word in as few steps as you can. Par is the shortest route there is.
  5. Undo takes back a rung; a hint shows the next word on a shortest route.

Controls

Keyboard

  • A–Z type letters, Backspace delete
  • Enter climb, Delete undo, ? hint
  • ← → pick a letter, ↑ ↓ turn it
  • 1 daily, 2 practice, 3 4 5 word length
  • Esc pause

Touch

  • Tap letters on the keyboard under the ladder, then ENTER
  • Tap a tile on the lit rung to write there; UNDO and HINT sit above the keys
  • Tap DAILY or the letter count along the top to change them before your first rung

Controller

  • D-pad or left stick to move
  • A / Cross for action, B / Circle for secondary
  • Start to pause

Tips for a better score

  • Look at the goal row first: every ticked letter is already where it needs to be, so change one of the others.
  • When no move keeps your ticks, change a letter to one that is in neither word: a detour like that often opens the way through.
  • A ladder at par pays 500. Every step over par costs 80 and every hint costs 100, down to 50, and a longer word adds 50 a letter over three.
  • The daily adds 25 points a day for a live streak, up to 250. Practice sets never touch the streak.
  • A hint puts the next word on a shortest route from where you are into the lit rung, made of everyday words wherever it can be.

About Word Ladder

Word Ladder is the puzzle Lewis Carroll called doublets in 1877. You get a word at the top of a teak ladder and a goal word at its foot, and you climb from one to the other by changing a single letter at a time, with every rung a real word: COLD, CORD, CARD, WARD, WARM. The daily ladder is a four-letter pair, the same for everybody until your own midnight, and its par is the true shortest route, found by searching the whole word list before the pair is ever shown, and always walkable on everyday words. Practice deals sets of five ladders of three, four or five letters that get longer as the set goes on. The changed letter on each rung carries a folded corner and a bar as well as a colour, and a tick marks every goal letter you already have in place.

A free word ladder game that runs in your browser. Category: Puzzle games. Made for RetroWorld with original art and sound.

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