Rules

A chain is a column of words where every pair of neighbours makes a compound word, so water and bed give you waterbed, and bed and spread give you bedspread.

The first and last word are shown in full. Every hidden word shows its first letter plus one blank slot per remaining letter, so the length is always public. Here is how SALT looks:

Guess the hidden words in order by typing straight into the slots. You can type the full word or only the missing part, so with S___ showing, both “salt” and “alt” count. A wrong guess costs 50 points and tells you nothing else.

When you are stuck you can reveal the next letter, which turns S___ into SA__. It keeps you moving, although it costs 100 points, twice what a miss costs.

There is one chain per day and it is the same for everyone. It locks once you finish, so you get exactly one shot before you share your score, check the leaderboard and keep the streak alive.

Every run starts at 1,000 points. You lose 1 point per second on the clock, 50 per wrong guess and 100 per letter revealed, and whatever is left is your score. A clean minute scores about 940, and the score never drops below zero.

Start

1,000

Each second

−1

Each miss

−50

Each letter

−100

Race rooms put up to 8 players on the same fresh chain with a shared countdown. Everyone solves at once with progress showing live, and the highest score takes the win.

On any chain with a finished run you race the best previous attempt as a ghost, a second progress bar replaying their pace against your clock. Beat their score and your run becomes the ghost.