How to play
Rung a Day is a word ladder. You are given a start word and a goal word, and you have to walk between them one letter at a time.
The rules
- Each rung must be a real four-letter word.
- Each rung must differ from the rung above it by exactly one letter — no adding, no dropping, no swapping.
- Keep going until your word matches the goal word.
- Fewer rungs scores better. The puzzle shows you the par: the shortest ladder that exists.
A worked example
Say the puzzle runs from cold to warm. A valid ladder is:
Three steps, and each one changes a single letter: c-o-l-d → c-o-r-d →
c-a-r-d → w-a-r-d → w-a-r-m. That is the shape of every
puzzle on the site.
Tips that actually help
Work from both ends
The obvious move is to walk forwards from the start word. The better move is to also look at the goal and ask which word is one letter away from it. When your forward chain and your backward chain meet, you are done — often in fewer rungs than going straight.
Change the letter that separates the two ends
Count the positions where the start and goal words differ. If they differ in three positions, you need at least three rungs; in four positions, at least four. Spend your early rungs attacking those positions rather than wandering through vowels.
Beware the comfortable detour
It is easy to slide into a family of near-identical words — bat, cat, hat, mat — and make five pleasant moves that get you nowhere. If two rungs in a row changed the same position, you probably went sideways.
Use a hint before you use the clock
Each puzzle gives you up to three hints. A hint reveals one letter of the shortest route, and it costs you nothing except a small note on your share card. Staring at the board for four minutes is the expensive option.
Vowels are the hubs
Most four-letter ladders pass through a word with two vowels. If you are stuck, look for a rung that turns a consonant into a vowel — those tend to open up the graph rather than close it.
Scoring
You win by reaching the goal with any valid ladder. Your result is compared to par: matching par is a good day, beating it means you found a route the solver did not. Your streak counts consecutive days you finished, so a five-step day still keeps the streak alive — it just costs you bragging rights on the share card.
One puzzle a day
Everyone gets the same ladder, and it changes at midnight in your own timezone. Past puzzles live in the archive for practice.