Author: Andy

Weaver is a daily word ladder game in which players must attempt to transform one four-letter word into another in the fewest turns possible, by simply,y changing one letter at a time to form a valid intermediate word.

Weaver Rules

Players are presented with a grid of four columns and three rows. In the first row is a four letter word. This is the seed or start word. In the third row is the target or finishing four letter word. The middle row is blank, awaiting a first guess.

In each turn you must form a valid new word by changing only one letter from the word above. The goal is to reach the target word.

Each game has a ‘par’ score which is considered the minimum number of turns required to transform from the start to the end word. You can take more turns than this.

An example valid puzzle sequence from EAST to WEST could be EAST – VAST – VEST – WEST.

As well as the daily puzzle which is the same for everyone, there is an unlimited mode to play more than one puzzle in a day.

Weaver website

Connections is a word group matching game from the New York Times, with a daily puzzle which is free to play.

It shares similarities with the BBC’s long-running Only Connect connecting wall round.

Connections Rules

• Find groups of four items that share something in common.
  • Select four items and tap ‘Submit‘ to check if your guess is correct.
  • Find the groups without making 4 mistakes!
• Each group is assigned a color, which will be revealed as you solve:
  • Yellow: Straightforward
  • Green
  • Blue
  • Purple: Tricky

Connections Strategy

• Example categories:
  • FISH: Bass, Flounder, Salmon, Trout
  • FIRE ___: Ant, Drill, Island, Opal
• Categories will always be more specific than “5-LETTER-WORDS,” “NAMES” or “VERBS.”
• Each puzzle has exactly one solution. Watch out for words that seem to belong to multiple categories!
• As this is hosted by a North American company, a lot of words and categories may be more culturally relevant to a US audience, and hence seem more difficult to players from other countries.
• There is no time limit (other than the day itself) to complete the puzzle.

Connections website

Quordle is a Wordle spinoff game in which players must try to guess four words at once.

It is hosted by Merriam-Webster.

The rules are very much the same as for Wordle.

Quordle Rules

• The player has a certain number of guesses to determine the four hidden words. The number of guesses depends on which Quordle game is being played.
• After each guess, letters are highlighted in different colours on each of the four grids:
  • Green: The letter is in the correct position.
  • Yellow: The letter is in the word but in the wrong position.
  • Grey: The letter is not in the word at all.
• Words with duplicated letters are allowed.
• Simple plurals are valid word guesses but will never be a solution.
• If a player guesses a word containing just one letter which is repeated in the solution word, Quordle will not show that letter as being repeated.
• However, if a player guesses a word with a repeated letter, but the solution word only has one of that letter, Quordle will highlight just one of the letters in the appropriate colour.

Quordle Variants

Quordle Game Modes

Quordle has three daily games, all of which can be played for free. They are simply variants of each other and determine how many guesses are available. The solution words are different for each puzzle, so all can be played each day:

1. Classic: The original daily Quordle with 9 guesses.
2. Chill: Relax with 12 guesses and fewer unusual words.
3. Extreme: Challenge yourself with only 8 guesses and more unusual words.

Quordle Sequence Game

Sequence is similar to the original Quordle game with the following changes.

1. Only one unsolved word is visible at a time. Once you solve a word, the next board is unlocked.
2. 10 guesses are allowed instead of the standard 9.

Quordle Weekly Challenge

When one daily puzzle is solved during a given week, a separate weekly challenge puzzle is unlocked. This has the same rules as the standard game but tends to include more obscure words.

Quordle website

Combinations is a grid-based word game in which players must form valid English words from two, three or four letter tiles.

It can be thought of a little like Boggle, but with multiple letters per cell.

Played on a 4×4 grid, each cell contains a two or three letter ‘fragment’ which should be combined into words.

For example, in the screenshot above, cell 1 contains “st” and cell 2 contains “ing”. These can be combined to create the word “sting”.

Combinations Rules

Create words using combinations of letters from the grid and try to get the maximum score.

• Words can consist of two, three or four combinations.
• Each combination can only be used once per word.
• The number in the upper right corner of the tile indicates how many times this combination appears in today’s puzzle.
• Words with hyphens, proper nouns, vulgarities, and especially rare words are not included in the word list.

Combinations Strategy

• Although rather mechanical, words formed from two cells can be “brute force” solved by simply tapping the first cell followed by the second, then the first cell followed by the third, and so on, the beginning with the second cell. This strategy is not recommended for three and four combos.
• When all standard words using a cell have been found, it is replaced with a check mark. That cell can no longer be used, even for bonus words which may use it.

Combinations website