Cipher · How to play
How to play Cipher
Cipher is a daily word puzzle with one unusual rule: you can see the answer from the very first move. It is simply written in a code you have not broken yet. Your job is to break the code, and the word comes free with it.
1. The ciphertext
Every day a six-letter word is chosen and run through a substitution wheel — a scrambled alphabet where each letter becomes a different one. You are shown the result before you type anything:
That already tells you something. Repeated symbols mean repeated letters in exactly those places, so the shape of the word is free information.
2. Guessing proves mappings
Type any real six-letter word and submit it. For every letter you happen to place in exactly the right position, the wheel permanently records what that letter turns into. Those mappings then apply to the ciphertext, so letters start appearing beneath the symbols.
A letter that is in the word but in the wrong place proves nothing. That is the central trade: a guess is worth what you can pin down with it, not what you nearly got.
3. The number beside each guess
Each submitted guess shows a count out of six: how many letters were correctly placed. It never says which. That ambiguity is deliberate — the wheel is what tells you which, and only for the letters you have earned.
4. Eight guesses, one word
You have eight attempts. Most solvers need between three and five. The elegant solve is not the fastest one but the one that needed the least of the alphabet — which is what the share card records.
Strategy that actually helps
- Open with spread, not certainty. A first guess with six different common letters teaches you more than a word you merely like.
- Read the shape first. If two symbols repeat, you already know the word has a doubled letter in those positions — that eliminates most of the dictionary before you start.
- Chase positions, not letters. Since only correct placement proves a mapping, it is often better to re-place a letter you suspect than to introduce a brand-new one.
- Mind the day. Monday and Tuesday are Gentle, midweek is Standard, Friday and Saturday turn Cryptic. The band is printed next to the puzzle number.
Rules in one paragraph
One puzzle per UTC day, identical for every player in the world. Six letters, eight guesses. Guesses must be real six-letter words. Correct placement proves a wheel mapping; wrong placement proves nothing. No answer repeats within a year. Your streak and statistics live on your own device — there is no account and nothing to sign up for.
Prefer to practise on an old one? Every past puzzle is playable in Practice.