playwordsmyth.com

Choose Competitive or Casual mode before you press Play, then transform the starting word step by step by finding the clue that logically applies to the current word. Clues are shown out of order, and you win by using up all of them. The game uses American English spelling throughout.

Before You Start

• Pick a mode. Competitive is timed and your completion time is scored against other players; those puzzles count toward your stats. Casual puzzles are not recorded or counted.
• Understand the goal. You are not solving the clues in the order shown. Each step, exactly one remaining clue gives a logical instruction for turning the current word into a new word.
• Know the controls. Type your answer into the textbox and the word at the top transforms. If an operation's meaning is unclear, click it for a definition.

Step-by-Step Example

The game's own tutorial uses Puzzle #1 with the starting word BROWSE:

1. Read the available clues and look for one that fits the current word.
2. The clue that works first says to delete the part of the current word meaning "above the eyes." That part is BROW, leaving SE.
3. SE is the abbreviation for Southeast, an ordinal direction, so the clue's logic checks out.
4. Type SE into the textbox and the word at the top changes.
5. Now look for a clue that transforms SE into the next word, and repeat.
6. Continue until every clue has been used.

The key habit: test each clue against the current word, not the starting word. A clue that made no sense two steps ago may be the only one that works now.

When You Get Stuck

• Tap the crystal ball for a hint. It shows which operation you need to perform next, but adds 30 seconds to your timer.
• Click any operation to see its definition if the wording is ambiguous.
• Check your spelling. Answers use American English spelling, and the game expects the exact resulting word or abbreviation.

Modes, Stats, and Sharing

After finishing, you can share your results or copy them to the clipboard. Competitive completion times are submitted anonymously (puzzle date and time only) to calculate percentile rankings; progress and gameplay stats are stored locally in your browser.

Returning for More

A new puzzle appears daily, and a Wordsmyth Archive lets you play earlier puzzles. There is also a Make your own! option if you want to build a puzzle yourself.

Tap the crystal ball when you're stuck, and Wordsmyth will show you which operation to perform next — but in Competitive mode, accepting that help adds 30 seconds to your timer. The hint is optional, so the practical approach is to work through the clues yourself first and only reach for it when you've exhausted the logical options.

What the Hint Actually Tells You

The hint doesn't hand you the answer word. According to the game's own prompt, it shows "which operation you need to perform next." That distinction matters: you still have to read the clue attached to that operation and apply it correctly to the current word. The hint narrows the field from several unused clues down to one, but the transformation itself is still your job.

The Cost, and Where It Applies

The 30-second penalty is tied to the timer, which only runs in Competitive mode. In Casual mode, puzzles aren't timed or recorded, so the trade-off is different — the hint costs you nothing measurable, though it does reduce the satisfaction of solving the chain unaided. If you're playing Competitive and care about your global rank and percentile, treat the hint as a last resort rather than a routine step.

When a Hint Is Worth Taking

The puzzle asks you to use up all the clues, presented out of order, by finding the one that logically transforms the current word into the next. That structure creates a specific kind of stall: you may have two or three unused clues left and no way to tell which one applies to the word in front of you. A hint is most valuable at exactly that point — late in the chain, with few clues remaining and the clock running.

It's less useful at the very start. Early on, the starting word usually makes one clue obviously applicable, and spending 30 seconds before you've tried reading the clues carefully is a poor trade.

Practical Tips Before You Tap

• Click the operation for a definition. The game states that if you aren't sure what an operation means, you can click it to see a definition. This is free and doesn't touch the timer.
• Re-read the unused clues against the current word. The correct clue always gives "logical instructions" to transform the word you're looking at — if a clue seems to describe a different word entirely, it belongs later in the chain.
• Remember the spelling convention. All words use American English spelling, which occasionally explains why a clue that seems to fit doesn't.
• Use Casual mode to learn the operations. Since Casual puzzles aren't recorded, it's a low-stakes place to build familiarity with the operation types so you need hints less often in Competitive.

After the Puzzle

The hint doesn't carry over or persist as a record — it's a one-time reveal during play. Your completion time, including any added seconds, is what gets submitted in Competitive mode; the game's privacy note says that submission contains only the puzzle date and completion time, anonymously. A new puzzle arrives daily, so a hint-heavy day doesn't follow you forward.

Wordsmyth is a free browser-based daily word puzzle where you transform a starting word into a series of new words by applying clues that are shown out of order. You play at playwordsmyth.com, choose Competitive (timed) or Casual mode before starting, and get a new puzzle each day. It suits players who like wordplay and logic puzzles and want a short daily challenge rather than a long game session.

How the Game Works

The goal is to use up every clue. The clues are deliberately shuffled, so you have to find the one that logically transforms your current word into the next one. All words use American English spelling.

The site's own example uses Puzzle #1 with the starting word "BROWSE":

1. One clue says to delete the part of the current word meaning "above the eyes" (BROW), which leaves SE — the abbreviation for "Southeast."
2. You type "SE" into the textbox, and the word at the top of the screen transforms.
3. You then look for the clue that transforms "SE" into the next word, and continue until all clues are used.

If you're unsure what an operation means, you can click on it to see a definition.

Game Modes

You pick a mode before pressing Play, and the choice affects whether your result counts.

In Competitive mode, your completion time is submitted anonymously to calculate percentile rankings; only the puzzle date and completion time are stored. The game keeps your progress and gameplay stats locally in your browser using localStorage.

Hints, Sharing, and Extra Features

• Hints: Tap the crystal ball to be shown which operation to perform next. In Competitive mode this adds 30 seconds to your timer.
• Sharing: After finishing, you can share your results or copy them to the clipboard.
• Archive: A Wordsmyth Archive lets you play past puzzles.
• Make your own: The site lists a "Make your own!" option for creating your own puzzle.
• Reminders: A "Remind me tomorrow" option helps you return for the next daily puzzle.

Who It's For

Wordsmyth fits players who enjoy compact word-transformation logic — closer to a daily brain teaser than a long-form game. If you prefer untimed practice, start in Casual mode to learn how operations work, then switch to Competitive once you're comfortable with the clue style. If you want to compare times and track improvement, Competitive mode is the one that records stats.

Wordsmyth keeps your in-progress game and gameplay statistics in your own browser using localStorage. The only data that leaves your device is your completion time in Competitive mode, which is sent anonymously to a database to calculate percentile rankings. That submission contains just the puzzle date and your completion time — no name, IP address, device information, or other identifiers. Casual mode results are never recorded or submitted.

What stays on your device

According to the game's privacy policy (developer: Lukas Stanley), progress and gameplay stats are stored locally in your browser via localStorage. In practice this means:

• Unfinished puzzles survive a page reload or a closed tab, because the current state is written to local storage rather than held only in memory.
• Your stats (for example, completed puzzles and average time shown in the "Stats (competitive mode)" panel) are read from that same local store.
• Clearing site data in your browser settings removes this local record. There is no account system described on the site, so nothing is restored from a server.

The practical consequence: the same browser on the same device sees your history; a different browser or device starts fresh.

What is sent when you finish a Competitive puzzle

When you complete a puzzle in Competitive mode, your completion time is submitted to the game's database to compute percentile rankings. The policy states the submission is completely anonymous and contains only:

Your global rank and percentile shown in the results screen come from comparing your time against other Competitive submissions for that puzzle date.

Competitive vs. Casual: what gets recorded

The mode you pick before pressing Play determines whether anything is tracked at all:

• Competitive (timed): your time is tracked, scored against everyone else who played that puzzle in Competitive mode, and counted toward your stats.
• Casual: puzzles are not recorded and do not count toward your statistics. No completion time is submitted.

If you want to play without contributing a score, choose Casual. If you want the percentile comparison and a stats history, choose Competitive.

Things that affect your stored data

• The hint penalty is part of your time. Tapping the crystal ball to be shown the next operation adds 30 seconds to your timer. In Competitive mode that added time is what gets submitted, so hints directly affect your percentile.
• Local storage is per browser profile. Switching browsers, using private/incognito windows, or clearing cookies and site data will drop your local progress and stats.
• No login is described. The site documentation does not mention accounts, so there is no cross-device sync to rely on.

Quick check you can run yourself

To confirm what is stored locally, open the game, complete or partially play a puzzle, then open your browser's developer tools → Application (Chrome/Edge) or Storage (Firefox) → Local Storage → playwordsmyth.com. You will see the entries the game writes for progress and stats. Clearing those entries and reloading shows the same reset behavior as clearing site data.

Wordsmyth offers two play modes, and you choose one before pressing Play: Competitive (timed, scored against other players, and counted in your stats) and Casual (untimed, not recorded or counted toward your statistics). Pick Competitive if you want a global rank and personal stats; pick Casual if you want to solve the daily puzzle without a clock or leaderboard pressure.

The two modes side by side

How the choice affects your game

The puzzle itself is the same: you transform a starting word step by step by finding which clue logically applies to the current word, using up all the clues to win. The mode only changes what happens around that solving.

• In Competitive mode, the clock runs while you work. The "Need a hint?" crystal ball is still available, but the game warns that asking for a hint adds 30 seconds to your timer — a real cost when your time is your score.
• In Casual mode, there is no timer to protect, so hint use carries no scoring penalty. This makes Casual the more forgiving place to learn the clue types (deleting a described part of a word, swapping letters, and so on) before you try to beat the clock.

What Competitive mode records

When you finish a Competitive puzzle, your completion time is submitted to the game's database to calculate percentile rankings. According to the game's privacy policy, this data is anonymous and contains only the puzzle date and completion time — no name, IP address, or device information. Your progress and gameplay stats are stored locally in your browser.

The Stats panel in Competitive mode shows completed puzzles, average time, and global rank. Results can be shared via the Share Your Results option.

How to choose

1. Decide your goal before starting. If you want a time to compare and stats that accumulate, choose Competitive. If you just want to solve today's puzzle, choose Casual.
2. Select the mode on the start screen, then press Play. The mode is set at the start, so make the choice deliberately rather than by default.
3. Use hints accordingly. In Competitive mode, treat the crystal ball as a last resort because of the 30-second penalty; in Casual mode, use it freely to learn an unfamiliar operation — clicking an operation also shows its definition.
4. Come back daily. A new puzzle appears each day, and the archive lets you revisit earlier puzzles if you want extra practice before committing to Competitive play.