How to play
Guess the five-letter word. Each guess tells you which letters are in the right place, in the word but somewhere else, or not in the word at all.
Your first ten letters are free. After that, everything costs.
You start with a pile of chips. Every guess is priced before you commit, and whatever you have left when you find the word is your score.
A game, start to finish
RATES·
STALE−4
SHALT−2
- RATES — five new letters, all free.
- STALE — S, T, A and E are repeats, 1 chip each. L is new, so it's free.
- SHALT — S, A and L stay where they turned green, so they're free. H is new. T moved, and it's T's second overdraft, so it costs 2.
- Started with 12, spent 6, finished with 6.
The full rules
The marks
WREST·
- Filled right place · half wrong place ·empty not in the word
- Guess a letter twice when the word has one, and the second comes back empty.
What's free
qzv
- Your first ten different letters — two guesses, if you don't repeat.
- A filled letter kept in that exact square, forever. Move it and you pay.
What costs
aes
- Every key shows what its next use costs. No number means free.
- A letter's first use is free. After that it costs 1, then 2, then 3.
- Past your ten free letters, even new letters cost 1.
- Two E's in one guess is two uses.
The ledger
RATES·
DOING·
LUMPY−5
- Every guess is priced in the right-hand column. A dot means free.
- Two guesses used all ten free letters, so five new letters cost 5.
- Chips left at the end is your score. Below zero and you're busted.
- Find the word and you win even if that guess took you negative.
- No guess limit. The chips are the limit.
- Some days start with more chips — those words have a repeated letter.
The streak
7
- Solve it and the streak goes up. Busting ends it, so does missing a day.
- Your best is kept after the current one breaks.
- Archive puzzles never count toward it.
Every day
- A new word at midnight UTC, the same one for everyone.
- Progress saves as you go — close the tab and come back.
- Guesses must be real five-letter words. Rejected ones cost nothing.