How to play Letterpeak
Letterpeak is a daily word game in the spirit of the classic TV word quizzes. Every day there are ten words, the same for everyone in the world. Each word comes with one short clue. Your job is simple: read the clue and name the word. If you are stuck, you can buy a letter. The fewer letters you buy, the more points you keep, and every point pushes the puck of a funfair high striker higher into the sky.
The ten words
The words get longer as the day goes on: 4 letters, then 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10 and 10. They also get harder. The first word is one almost everybody knows, with a direct clue. The last ones are longer words, sometimes ideas rather than things, with clues that ask you to think. The empty hexagons show how many letters the word has.
Scoring
- A word is worth its length × 100: the 4-letter word is worth 400, a 10-letter word 1,000.
- Buy a letter and the word loses 100. The letter appears in its hexagon. Everyone gets the letters in the same order, so you can compare your day with your friends'.
- A wrong word (a real English word that is not the answer) also costs 100, and a letter is shown to help you.
- A typo is free. If what you type is not a word at all, or has the wrong length, the row just shakes. No points are lost.
- A perfect day, with no letters bought on any word, is 7,600 points, and it rings the bell at the top of the striker.
The clock
Each word has its own timer: 30 seconds for words of 4 to 6 letters, 40 seconds for 7 and 8 letters, and 50 seconds for 9 and 10 letters. When the time runs out, the word is passed with 0 points and the answer is shown. You can also press Pass to give up a word. The next word starts right after the hammer falls, so the game keeps its rhythm.
The high striker
After every word, the man at the funfair swings his hammer, and the puck climbs by the points you just earned. Your total is your height: over the rides, through the clouds, into space and up to the galaxies. A word solved without any help gets a mighty hit; on the long words it becomes a small film. At the end you can look at the whole tower and share how high you climbed.
An example
Say the clue is “You leave it at home only on the days it rains.” and there are eight hexagons. If you think of UMBRELLA straight away, type it and press Enter: 800 points. If you are not sure, buy a letter: maybe an M appears in the second hexagon. The word is now worth 700, and the answer is easier to see.
Tips
- Read the whole clue. The clues are short, so every word in them matters.
- Count the hexagons before you type: the length rules out many ideas.
- On long words, a single letter is often enough. Buy one early instead of losing the whole word to the clock.
- A wrong guess that is a real word costs the same as a letter and gives you one, so a good guess is never wasted.
- Played today already? The archive has the words and clues of every past day, with a short note on each word.
A new climb every day
A new set of ten words starts at midnight in your time zone. There are no accounts and nothing to install: open letterpeak.com on your phone or computer and play. Your streak and your best day are kept in your browser.