Frequently Asked Questions
Short answers about the game and about word ladders in general. If yours is missing, the About page says how to reach me.
What is Word Labyrinth?
A word ladder game. You turn a start word into a target word one letter at a time, and every word on the way has to be a real word. The game knows the shortest path for every puzzle and grades you against it. It is free, on the web, iOS and Android, in 11 languages.
What is a word ladder?
A chain of words where each one differs from the one before by a single letter: CAT, COT, DOT, DOG. The puzzle gives you the two ends and you find the chain. The longer version is on what a word ladder is.
Who invented the word ladder puzzle?
Lewis Carroll, on Christmas Day 1877. He called it Doublets, and it ran as a column in Vanity Fair from 29 March 1879. The full story is in the history of Doublets.
Is Word Labyrinth free?
Yes. The five daily puzzles, practice, expert mode, weekly challenges, streaks and the leaderboard are all free. There is a banner ad under the board, which you can pay once to remove, and you can buy hint packs and streak freezes for about a euro. Buying hints does not buy a better score: every hint deducts from the puzzle it is used on.
Do I need an account?
No. You can play the daily ladder as a guest. Sign in with Google, Apple, Facebook or email if you want your progress to follow you between devices and your name on the leaderboard.
Which languages can I play in?
Croatian, English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Russian, Turkish and Indonesian. Each language has its own puzzles and its own dictionary. Change it in the language menu and the interface switches with it.
Can a step add a letter, or only change one?
Both. A step may change one letter or add one, so the start and target can be different lengths. Removing a letter is only possible by working backwards from the target. The Pure Swap weekly challenge allows swaps only, which is Carroll's original rule.
How many puzzles are there a day, and how long do they take?
Five, the same five for everyone, from easy to hard. The first two take a minute; the fifth can take ten if the bridge word hides from you. New puzzles arrive at midnight UTC.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. There are native apps for iOS and Android, and the website works in a phone browser too. It is the same game and the same account.
What dictionary does the game use?
A curated list per language, built from dictionary and corpus sources and then pruned by hand: rare words, archaic spellings and offensive words are out. If a word you consider real is rejected, or one gets accepted that should not be, send it in and the list gets fixed.
How is Word Labyrinth different from Wordle?
In Wordle you guess a hidden word from coloured clues. In a word ladder both words are in front of you from the start, and the job is to find the shortest chain between them. There is nothing to deduce, only a path to find. There is a longer comparison on the blog.
How is Word Labyrinth different from Weaver?
Weaver is one four-letter ladder a day. Word Labyrinth gives you five puzzles of mixed length, grades each against the shortest possible path, and adds practice, expert and weekly challenge modes, streaks, and 11 languages.
How do hints work?
A hint gives you the next word on the shortest path from where you are. If you have wandered into a dead end it tells you how many words to take back first. Each hint lowers that puzzle's score. New players start with two; you earn one for finishing all five daily puzzles without a skip, one for every two practice games, two for a weekly challenge, and a batch at each streak milestone. You can also watch an ad for one or buy a pack.
What are streaks and streak freezes?
A streak is the number of consecutive days on which you finished at least one of the daily puzzles. At 3, 7, 14, 30, 60, 100 and 365 days you get 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 25 and 50 hints. A streak freeze covers one missed day and is used automatically if you have one; a freeze costs 5 hints or about a euro. If a streak already broke, you can recover it for 10 hints per missed day.
Can I play against friends?
Everyone gets the same five puzzles, so you can compare straight away. The result screen has a share button that gives you a link; a friend who opens it plays the same puzzle, and your step count is on the global leaderboard if you are signed in.
Is there a good strategy?
Keep the letters that already match the target and change the ones that do not. Change vowels when stuck, because vowel swaps open the most doors. Plan two steps ahead, not one. The blog has ten tips for shorter solutions.
Why does the solution use such odd words?
Because the common words often do not connect. CORD, GIRT, BROOD and LOAM turn up in solutions all the time, not because they are interesting but because they are the only rung between two ordinary words. Learning the odd ones is most of getting faster.
Can I see the shortest solution after I finish?
The result screen shows your step count next to the optimal one. If you are stuck you can skip one puzzle a day; the game then shows a shortest solution and that puzzle scores zero. Yesterday's puzzles, with solutions, are in the puzzle archive.
What is expert mode?
An endless supply of puzzles whose shortest solution is at least 8 steps. No timer, just long ladders, and the only place one puzzle can earn three stars.
What is the weekly challenge?
A set of puzzles with a rule twist, one challenge per week. In Pure Swap you may only change letters, never add one; in Speed Run the clock counts for half your score; Long Words bans anything under five letters; Perfectionist scores zero for anything over the minimum; Marathon is 15 puzzles that get steep fast. Finishing one earns two hints.
Is the game accessible?
Partly. There are light and dark themes, the board can be played entirely from the keyboard on the web, and the interactive parts carry screen-reader labels. Playing a whole ladder with a screen reader is not yet comfortable. If something blocks you, say so and it moves to the top of the list.
Does it work offline?
No. The game needs a connection to fetch puzzles and send results. If the connection drops in the middle of a ladder, finished puzzles are queued and sent once you are back online.
How do I delete my account or export my data?
Settings has Export my data, which downloads everything as a JSON file, and Delete account. Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone; purchase records are anonymised rather than deleted because tax law requires keeping them. Both need a signed-in account, since a guest session has nothing to export.