Word Ladder is a word-chain puzzle: you get a start word and a target word of the same length, and you climb from one to the other by changing exactly one letter at a time. Every rung of the ladder has to be a real, common word. There is a new daily ladder for each word length, a practice mode with endless puzzles, and the whole game plays in English or Turkish.
How to play
Making a step. The row below the ladder shows the word you are on. Tap a letter to select it, type a new letter from the keyboard, and press Enter. If the new word differs from the current one by exactly one letter and is in the word list, it is added to the ladder and the changed letter is highlighted. You cannot step back onto a word that is already on the ladder; use Undo for that instead.
Reaching the target. The target word sits under the dashed line at the bottom. When your last step equals the target, the ladder is solved and the target turns green.
Par and score. Each puzzle has a par, the length of the shortest possible ladder between the two words, always between 4 and 7 steps. Finishing at par scores 100 points; every extra step costs 10 points, down to a minimum of 10. Undo is free and only the final ladder counts, so you can explore dead ends without penalty.
Word lengths. Choose 3, 4 or 5 letters with the buttons in the top bar. Each length has its own daily puzzle, its own practice puzzles and its own statistics.
Daily and practice. The daily ladder is the same for everyone on the same day (the day changes at midnight UTC) and you get one attempt per length. Practice mode draws a new pair whenever you press New ladder; leaving a practice ladder after your first step counts as a loss.
Hint. The Hint button watches a short rewarded ad and then adds the next word of the shortest ladder from where you are to the target, avoiding words already on your ladder. Hinted steps are marked in purple and counted in the result; you can use as many hints as you want, and each one still counts as a step. If every route from your current word is blocked by words you have already used, Hint is disabled until you undo.
Give up. Ends the current ladder (after a confirmation) and reveals the shortest ladder from start to target. The puzzle counts as a loss.
Stats. Kept per language and word length: ladders played, win rate, how often you finished at par, your daily streak and best streak, and a histogram of how many steps over par your solved ladders took.
Strategy
- Work from both ends. Look at which letters the start and target share in the same position; those usually stay fixed, and the differing positions tell you how many steps you need at minimum.
- Vowels are the pivots. Most ladders pass through a word where only the vowel changed (NETS to NUTS, CUTS to CATS), so when you are stuck, try swapping the vowel first.
- Keep consonant pairs that appear in many words. Endings like -ATS, -ILL and -ING have many neighbours, which gives you room to turn the corner; rare patterns are dead ends.
- When a step leads somewhere with no exits, undo immediately. Undo is free and the score only looks at the finished ladder.
- Use a hint only when you have run out of ideas: it adds a step for you, but that step is on the shortest remaining route, so it never makes the ladder longer than necessary from where you stand.
If you enjoy Word Ladder, try Word Search or Archer Duel next.
