Clue Ladder

Goal

Solve every clue rung in as few guesses as possible.

What do the clues tell me?

Five increasingly direct clues describe one shared answer: category, association, length, direct description and opening letters. Revealed clues remain visible. There is no colored letter-by-letter feedback. Type a guess and press Enter or Submit. A correct answer ends the ladder immediately.

What happens after a miss?

In Standard, a wrong nonempty guess opens the next clue. Earlier guesses remain visible. A repeated wrong guess still spends an attempt. Blank or punctuation-only input is ignored without spending a guess.

How are points awarded?

A solve on rungs 1–5 earns 500, 400, 300, 200 or 100 points. An exhausted ladder scores zero. Points depend on the current rung, including in Relaxed, rather than total guesses.

Are alternate answers accepted?

Each puzzle has specific authored aliases. Case, spaces, punctuation and accent marks are normalized before matching. The engine accepts the stored answer or its listed aliases; it does not judge arbitrary synonyms.

How do the three difficulties differ?

Standard allows one miss per rung, ending after five misses. Relaxed allows two misses per rung, ending after ten. Challenge gives only three total guesses, ending after three misses even though the ladder has five clues; normal Hint is disabled. The answer is revealed after an unsuccessful ending. Lesson hints remain available for practice.

How do daily ladders and records work?

UTC dates map to 90 daily ladders, with later cycles labeled Encore. Previous Day and Next Day navigate the archive through today. Normal results and streaks are kept separately from practice; solving today can extend yesterday’s streak, while archive solves and repeat solves of the same day cannot extend it again. New Game starts a fresh current session while retaining earlier records.

Can I ask for help?

Outside Challenge, normal Hint previews the next authored clue without submitting a guess or changing the rung score. A finished ladder accepts no more guesses; Next Ladder starts another. Use revealed clues together and compare earlier guesses. Lesson hints offer three levels of help, and leaving discards lesson progress.