Rung (Mind Loft)

About Rung (Mind Loft)

Rung is the word ladder on Mind Loft, a free site of daily browser games. The puzzle goes back to Lewis Carroll: two words of the same length, and a chain between them where each step changes a single letter and every rung is a word in its own right. Rung always uses five-letter words. On the day we looked, the climb ran from DOUGH to STARE.

Every ladder is generated by machine and solved exactly, then checked by a second search written separately, so the perfect figure is the true shortest route. Par sits a little above it and is what a clean climb usually comes in at. On most days there is only one shortest ladder, so matching perfect means finding that exact chain. That day, par was 16 and perfect was 12.

You type each new word and press Climb. There is no undo, only a restart, and a Hint button and Give up option sit under the board. The header counts your rungs and time.

Weekday ladders run 10 to 12 rungs, and Sunday climbs go a good deal further. A new ladder goes up at midnight US Eastern Time. It suits players of Weaver or other daily word ladders who want a scored target to aim for.

How to play Rung (Mind Loft)

1. Open mindloftdaily.com/rung and press Start to see the start word and the target.
2. Type a five-letter word that differs from the current word by exactly one letter, then press Climb.
3. Keep changing one letter at a time, each step a real word, until you reach the target.
4. Aim for par or better; perfect is the shortest route there is.
5. There is no undo, so use Restart if the climb goes wrong.

Tips

• Look at which letters the start and target already share in the same positions and keep them.
• Vowels are the hardest letters to swap; plan when to change them.
• Sometimes a step away from the target opens a shorter route; do not change only letters that match the target.
• Plan two or three rungs ahead before typing, since there is no undo.

Questions