Blip Party
Daily puzzle · ~2 min

Daily Word Ladder Puzzle — One Letter at a Time

Ladder is the classic word-ladder puzzle — the one Lewis Carroll invented — played once a day. You're given a start word and a target word; climb between them by changing exactly one letter per rung, and every rung along the way has to be a real dictionary word. SAD → SOD → SOY → JOY is a three-rung climb.

Each day's ladder has a par: the fewest rungs the climb can be done in. Match it or beat it and the day is a clean solve. There's no move limit and no timer breathing on you — the game is finding the path, and the daily puzzle usually hides one non-obvious turn in the middle.

▶ Play today’s Ladder

How the daily Ladder works

  1. 1.Read both ends

    The start word is your first rung's anchor; the target is what you're steering toward. Before typing anything, look at which letters already match — those are usually the ones you never touch.

  2. 2.Add rungs one at a time

    Type a word that differs from the rung above by exactly one letter. The server checks it against a real dictionary — no made-up bridge words — and the board highlights which letter changed at every step, so an illegal-looking chain is obvious at a glance.

  3. 3.Reach the target — ideally at par

    Land on the target word and you're done: at or under par is the clean green result, over par still counts in yellow. Well and truly stuck? Give up to see one valid path — the day scores as a miss, but the streaks of your other daily games don't care.

Tips

  • Work backwards too. One letter-change away from the target is a small set of words — meet the puzzle in the middle.
  • Vowels are the hinges of most ladders. When a climb stalls, try swapping the vowel before hunting for consonant tricks.
  • A rung that moves a letter *toward* the target isn't always right — par paths often pass through a word that looks like a detour.
  • If a word gets rejected, look at the reason: same length, one letter changed, and in the dictionary are three separate rules, and the message tells you which one you broke.

Frequently asked questions

Is the daily word ladder free?
Yes — free in the browser, no app, no account required. It's one of Blip Party's free daily puzzles.
When does a new ladder drop?
Every day at 00:00 UTC, the same puzzle for everyone worldwide.
What counts as a valid rung?
A real English word, the same length as the rung above it, with exactly one letter changed. Rearranging letters isn't allowed — it's a change, not an anagram.
What is par?
The length of the shortest possible chain for that day's pair. Finishing at or under par is the clean solve; anything over still completes the day.
Do I lose my streak if I can't solve it?
Giving up scores the day as a miss for Ladder, which ends that game's streak — but every daily game keeps its own streak, so the rest of your run is untouched.

More daily puzzles

Rather play with friends? Ladder started life as a party game — play Rungs live with your friends in a Blip Party room: one 4-letter code, no app.