How to play
You and a friend each choose a secret five-letter word. You try to guess theirs while they try to guess yours. You each get six guesses.
What the colors mean
- C Right letter, right spot.
- R In the word, but in a different spot.
- I Not in the word, or no more of that letter left to find.
Repeated letters
E
E
R
I
E
Guessing EERIE when the word is CREPE.
A letter never lights up more times than it appears in the word. CREPE has two Es. The last E is in the right spot, so it's green. That leaves one more E to find, so only the first E lights up purple, and the second E is gray.
A gray repeat doesn't mean the letter is missing. It means there are no more of it. From this guess you know the word has exactly two Es: one in the last spot, and one in the middle (spot 3 or 4), since spots 1 and 2 are ruled out.
Three of a letter work the same way: each one lights up only if the word has that many. Right-spot letters are counted first, then the rest from left to right.
Playing at your own pace
There are no turns. Guess whenever you like, together or hours apart, until you solve the word or use all six guesses. You'll see your opponent's colors as they play, so you'll know the moment they solve it, but you won't see their letters.
Chat
Once your friend has joined, use the Chat button on the game page to send messages, guests included. Chat stays open until the game's midnight (Eastern), even after you've both finished, and then it's cleared. Please, no spoilers! There's no chat in the Daily.
Winning
Only solving counts. If one of you solves the word and the other doesn't, the solver wins. If you both solve it, fewer guesses wins, and the same number of guesses is a draw. If neither of you solves it, there's no winner. If neither of you made a single guess, the game isn't counted at all.
When the game ends
When you've both finished, the result appears and both words are revealed. Every game also ends at midnight Eastern on the day it started, however late you started it. If you haven't solved the word by then, you haven't solved it.
Rivals and invites
Signed in with your GameShack account, anyone you play who's also signed in becomes your rival: you get one game together each day, with your win, loss and draw record kept as you go. Start today's game with a rival from New game.
To play someone new, send them an invite from New game, as a link or by email. Each invite works once and lasts 7 days. They can sign in to become your rival, or play once as a guest.
The Daily
Every day there's one word, the same for everyone, to solve on your own. No sign-in needed. Your score is how many guesses you took and how long you took: your clock starts when you enter your first word and stops when you solve it. The lobby opens the Daily for you on your first visit each day; that doesn't start the clock. If you use all six guesses, the word is revealed right away. Each Daily closes at midnight Eastern, and a Daily you didn't finish can't be played afterwards. A word isn't used again for years.
Practice
Practice on your own against a random word, as many times as you like. No clock, no sign-in needed, and nothing is recorded.
The words
Secret words come from a list of about 2,000 common words. Guesses can be any real five-letter word.
Word lists built from SCOWL/ESDB (Kevin Atkinson), word frequencies from wordfreq (Robyn Speer, CC BY-SA 4.0), and the LDNOOBW list (CC BY 4.0).
