Dead Letters

About Dead Letters

Dead Letters starts each day with ten letters. Your task is to make five new words from them, each at least two letters long, and you score one point for every letter you use. You cannot submit the starting word itself, and you may play the same word more than once if it can still be made from the letters that remain.

The catch is in the name. When you play a word, its first letter dies and can no longer be used, so every word shrinks your options for the next. Planning the order of your five words, and which letters to sacrifice first, is the heart of the game. You can reset and try again as many times as you like, and your score is compared with those of the podcast's hosts, James, Jonny and John, for medals. An Undead mode, where letters never die, lets you hunt for every possible word without scoring.

Dead Letters is one of seven daily games from Here's What You Do, a weekly UK quiz podcast hosted by James, Jonny and John. A new puzzle comes each day, following UK time, and it is free to play. A free Here's What You Do account saves your stats and history and adds a Friends Leaderboard that compares all seven games with friends and family.

How to play Dead Letters

1. Open Dead Letters on hereswhatyoudo.co.uk and look at the ten letters.
2. Make a word of two or more letters from them and submit it.
3. Note that the first letter of that word now dies.
4. Make four more words from the letters still alive.
5. Score a point per letter used, and try to beat the hosts' scores.

Tips

• Start words with letters you will not need again, such as a rare consonant.
• Play your longest word early, before letters start dying.
• Plurals and simple suffixes add letters cheaply.
• Reset and try a different order; there is no limit on retries.

Questions