ClueBy

About ClueBy

ClueBy works like a combination lock made of letters. The day's answer is a real five-letter word, and the tiles you start with are its own letters in a random order, so nothing has to be guessed from scratch. Tap two tiles to swap them, rearrange as much as you like, and press Submit try when the row reads the way you want.

The only feedback is a count. A try that scores 2 has two letters in their correct places, but the game never says which two. Because every submitted try stays visible above the next one, the puzzle becomes a matter of comparing rows: moving one letter and watching the count rise, fall or hold still tells you about both spots it moved between. You have five tries before the day's word is lost.

That sets it apart from the usual anagram games, where a word is either right or wrong, and from Wordle, which marks each letter in colour. Several shuffles of the same letters can spell real words, so the count is what separates them.

Puzzles are numbered, with a new one at midnight, an Archive of earlier days, a Stats page and a Hard Mode with its own word and fewer tries. It needs no account and can also be played in Spanish, Italian and German. ClueBy is one of Ana Puzzle's daily games, beside Aura Clue, Number Island and Sortdle.

How to play ClueBy

1. Look at the five shuffled tiles: they are the answer's own letters.
2. Tap two tiles to swap them, as many times as you like.
3. Press Submit try to see how many letters are now in their correct place.
4. Compare your earlier tries on the board and move letters to test which ones are right.
5. Find the word within five tries, or try Hard Mode for a second word with fewer tries.

Screenshots

Tips

• Submit a real word early, even if you doubt it: a word tests a real idea, where a jumble wastes a try.
• Move one or two letters between tries so a change in the count points at those letters.
• When the count stays the same after a swap, both letters were wrong in both places, or one right place was traded for another.

Questions