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How to play Stepword

Start with COLD, finish with WARM, and change only one letter on each move. Stepword is a word ladder: every day brings a new pair of words and a short climb between them.

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The ladder: start word, goal word, one letter per step

Each puzzle shows a start word at the top and a goal word at the bottom. Your job is to fill the rungs between them. Every rung is a real word that differs from the one above it in exactly one letter. COLD to CORD is one step, and CORD to CARD is another.

Weekday ladders use four-letter words, and weekend ladders use five. Each daily has a short story line, such as "Turn COLD into WARM", so you know where you are heading.

Making a move on the ladder

  • On a phone, touch the letter you want to change. That tile lifts, and you press the new letter on the on-screen keyboard, then the Enter key.
  • Touch the lifted tile again to let it go, or press Backspace to take the new letter back out.
  • At a computer keyboard you can type the whole next word and press Enter, or use the left and right arrow keys to pick a letter.

The game refuses a word of the wrong length, a word that changes more than one letter, a word missing from its list, and any word already on your ladder. Going back to an old word would only loop.

Reading the tile colours

Tiles whose letter already matches the goal in the same place take one colour, and a letter you just changed takes another. The help sheet inside the game shows both with a small key. Use them to see which positions are finished and which still need work.

Par, side steps and the perfect ladder

Par is the fewest steps the ladder can be climbed in. Faint empty rungs above the goal show how many steps remain if you still want to make par.

When a straight route is blocked, step sideways: change a letter that the goal word does not have. It costs an extra rung but can open a word you could not reach before.

  • Perfect ladder: par steps and no hints.
  • So close: one step over par.
  • Solved: anything longer.
  • Solved with hints: shown whenever you used any, whatever the length.

Hints and Undo

Each puzzle gives three hints. A hint plays the next word on a shortest route and says which letter it changed. If your ladder has wandered off that route, the hint first steps back to a word you already have. A hinted ladder still counts toward your streak, but it can never be perfect.

Undo takes back your last word. It has no limit and costs nothing.

One story a day, then bonus ladders

Everyone gets the same ladder on the same day. After you solve it, a bonus ladder opens thirty seconds later, and another follows each solve. Bonus ladders do not touch your streak. Once the hints on a bonus ladder are spent, the Hint button becomes a way to see the answer and move on.

Past ladders can be replayed from a calendar on the title screen; the most recent seven days are open. They are saved separately and never change your streak or stats. First-time players are offered a thirty-second practice climb, which can be skipped.

Streaks and freezes in Stepword

Solve the daily on its own day and the streak grows by one. Every seventh day in a row earns a freeze, and you can hold two. A freeze covers one missed day. Miss more days than you hold freezes and the streak restarts at one. The result card shows a ribbon at 3, 7, 30, 100 and 365 days.

The stats sheet counts days played, days solved and perfect ladders, and tallies finishes at par, one over, two over, and three or more over.

Sharing without spoilers

Share sends the story line, a grid of coloured squares and your steps against par. Green marks a step that brought you closer, yellow a side step or detour, and a light bulb a hint. The words themselves never appear.

Stepword questions answered

Can I climb a different way from the par ladder?

Yes. Many ladders have several shortest routes and any of them counts as par. The result card shows your climb beside one of them.

Does a bonus ladder count toward my streak?

No. Only the daily, played on its own day, moves the streak and the stats.

Why will it not accept my word?

Check the length, that only one letter changed, that the word is in the game's list, and that it is not already on your ladder.

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