How to play
- Four rungs, four clues. Every rung is one word, all the same length.
- One letter at a time. Each word is the word above it with exactly one letter changed. The changed letter is shaded and numbered.
- The final answer. The shaded letters, read top to bottom, spell a three-letter word with its own clue. Name it too.
- Any order. Solve rungs in whatever order you like. Solving the final answer early hands you the shaded letter of every rung.
Your score is your number of wrong guesses: lower is better. A guess only counts as wrong if it’s a real word of the right length; typos and made-up words are turned away for free, and trying the same wrong word twice only counts once. Stuck? Give up reveals every answer, and that ladder isn’t scored.
A worked example
BALL becomes FALL (B changes to F), then FULL (A to U), then NULL (F to N). The letters that came in are F, U and N, so the final answer is FUN.
Levels
- Easy: 4-letter everyday words.
- Medium: 4-letter words, at least one less common.
- Hard: 5-letter words.
Harder ladders use harder words, never more rungs. The daily is Easy or Medium, never Hard; Hard ladders are in unlimited mode.
Tips
- Start with the clue you’re surest of; its letters narrow down the rungs next to it.
- Neighboring rungs share all but one letter, and the shaded tile shows which one changes.
- Two or three rungs in, the final answer often jumps out from its shaded letters.