How to Play the Crossclimb Game
Crossclimb is a trivia word-ladder puzzle: answer five clues, then order the rungs so each neighboring pair of words differs by a single letter. This guide covers the rules, the controls, and the strategy that makes hard ladders fall into place.
The ladder
A Crossclimb puzzle is a ladder of seven rungs. Every rung holds a word, and all seven words are the same length — either four or five letters. The top and bottom rungs start locked and hidden. The five rungs in the middle each carry a trivia clue for you to answer.
The one rule that matters
In the finished ladder, every pair of neighboring words differs by exactly one letter in one position — no anagrams, and no adding or dropping letters. CARD can climb to CORD (one change) and CORD to CORE (one change), but CARD to CORE is two changes and can never be neighbors. The puzzle has exactly one valid ordering of the five middle words between the fixed ends, so there is always a single correct climb to find.
Answering the clues
Tap or click a rung to focus it, then type your answer to its clue. You do not have to solve the rungs top to bottom — answer the ones you know first, and the shared letters will help you work out the rest. As soon as you type a full-length word, it is checked automatically: a correct answer locks in, and a wrong one is marked so you can try again. Every answer is a common word, so the challenge is the trivia and the climb, not obscure vocabulary.
Ordering the rungs
Once your five middle answers are in, arrange them so each neighboring pair changes by one letter. Drag a rung up or down to move it, or use the up and down buttons on each rung — both work with a mouse, a finger, or the keyboard. When the five middle words are correct and in a valid order, the top and bottom rungs unlock together.
The combined clue
When the ends unlock, a single combined clue appears describing both the top and bottom words as a pair — often a compound word or a strongly linked duo, like HOME and SICK. The top word is one letter from the first middle rung and the bottom word is one letter from the last, so the combined clue plus those constraints will lead you to both.
Hints and reset
Stuck on a clue? Hint reveals the next letter of the focused rung, one letter at a time. Reveal rung fills in a whole rung when you would rather move on. Both count toward your hint total. Reset clears the board so you can start the ladder fresh.
Winning and sharing
You win the moment the whole ladder is correct — the five middle rungs solved and ordered and both ends filled in. The board shows your finish time, how many hints you used, and your current daily streak; completing the daily puzzle keeps your streak alive. A share button copies a compact, spoiler-free emoji summary of your result to the clipboard, so you can post it without revealing the answers.
Strategy tips
These are the quick pointers. For a deeper walkthrough of the solving techniques, read the full Crossclimb strategy guide.
Answer the clues you know first
You do not have to solve the rungs in order. Fill in the trivia answers you are sure of, then use the letters they share to work out the trickier ones. Every answer is the same length, so a confident answer tells you a lot about its neighbors.
Look for one-letter neighbors
Two answers can sit next to each other only if they differ by a single letter in the same position. Once you have a few answers, scan for pairs that are one letter apart — those pairs must be adjacent in the finished ladder.
Build outward from a locked pair
When you find two words that clearly connect, treat them as a fixed link and ask which remaining word could attach to either end. The ladder has exactly one valid order, so each confident link narrows the arrangement quickly.
Use the ends to your advantage
The hidden top and bottom words each differ by one letter from the middle rung nearest them. Even before they unlock, thinking about what could sit just past the top and bottom rungs helps you decide which of your answers belong at the ends.
Spend a hint on a single letter
If a clue has you stuck, reveal one letter rather than the whole word. A single letter is often enough to jog the answer, and it keeps more of the solve — and a better time — to yourself.
Save the combined clue for last
The top and bottom rungs unlock only after the middle ladder is correct and ordered, and they share one combined clue. Read it as describing a pair — a compound word or a strongly linked duo — and remember each end is one letter from its neighbor.
Ready to play? Start with today's puzzle, warm up in the puzzle library, or revisit the archive. Want to solve faster? See the strategy guide.