Flipple

About Flipple

Flipple is a daily word ladder from CleverGoat, the small studio behind Categories, Stacked, CrossHerd and Word Grid. It is on the web and in the CleverGoat Daily Word Games app for iPhone.

Each day there are two puzzles, one with four-letter words and one with five. You see a start word at the top and a target word at the bottom, with empty rows between them. You fill each row by changing exactly one letter of the word above, and every step must be a real word; the game checks against the SOWPODS Scrabble list, so anything valid in Scrabble counts. The five-letter ladders can always be solved in four or five steps and the four-letter ones in three to six, though there is usually more than one route.

There is no limit on attempts and you can clear the board and start again as often as you like. A toggle lets you work from the target back to the start instead, chosen before you begin. Past puzzles are all in an archive, and you can build your own ladder to send to friends.

It suits players who like the classic word ladder puzzle invented by Lewis Carroll and want a short, forgiving daily version.

How to play Flipple

1. Open Flipple and choose Four letters or Five letters.
2. Read the start word at the top and the target word at the bottom.
3. Type a word in the next row that changes one letter of the word above.
4. Keep stepping one letter at a time, always making a real word.
5. Reach the target word to finish; try the other length next.

Screenshots

Tips

• Look at which letters the start and target already share and leave those alone.
• If you get stuck, switch to solving from the target upward; some ladders are easier backwards.
• Vowel changes often open up a route when consonant swaps run out.

Questions