Rung

Rung is a browser word game from Dreamwake Labs. Each day everyone gets the same puzzle: one hidden answer, an ordinary word, and five clues that describe it, starting cryptic and ending close to a definition.

You start at the top of the ladder, where the first clue is worth five points. At each rung you choose: guess, or skip to the next clue. A correct guess banks the points for that rung and ends your day. A skip costs one rung. A wrong guess burns the clue you are on and drops you two rungs, so the gap between a safe skip and a bad guess is the heart of the game. Every puzzle ends with a true fact about the answer.

The makers describe it as a game of timing rather than deduction: you usually sense the answer before you are sure, and the decision is whether to trust that hunch. There is no account, no ads and no tracking; your streak is backed up anonymously, and the puzzle resets at local midnight with a countdown on the board. A dark mode and a colour-blind setting are included.

Puzzles are numbered. Once a day has passed, its clues and answer are posted on the site's hints pages, but past puzzles cannot be played again.

It suits quiz players who like the feeling of buzzing in early and anyone who wants a one-minute puzzle with a real decision in it.