Step Words Rules

The rules for Step Words are fairly simple

• You will be given a Starting 4-letter word and an Ending 5-letter word
• You must manipulate the Starting word one letter at a time until you achieve the Ending word
• The manipulations are, in order, Change a Letter, Change a Letter, Add a Letter, Change a Letter
• You must not reorder any of the other letters when you perform your manipulation
• You may not reuse a word and you may not reach the Ending word early
• Using a hint will add 10 seconds to your time
• Completing a puzzle will give you a base score of 10 points
• Less commonly used words will score bonus points on top of this!
• After completing a puzzle you can continue to improve your score by submitting new paths using new words
• Each new word will score 1 additional point, each new less common word will score 2 additional points
• The less common words are puzzle specific and indicate a rarer route was taken
• Every puzzle has multiple different paths which can lead to a solution!

Submit Color Code

• Orange Boxes - An unfilled or partially filled word
• Red Boxes - Invalid word or repeated word
• Red Line - More than one letter manipulation occurred between words
• Green - Success!
• Purple - Success with a less common word! Worth additional points

Hints

• The puzzle has two types of hints, Common Words Hint and All Words Hint
• Common Words Hint will give hints guaranteed to get to a solution
• Beginning with the Start Word, it will work down the list and provide a hint after the last found Common Word
• The provided hint will be a list of letters, one of which can be used to create the next Common Word in the puzzle
• Remember, there are multiple paths which can lead to solutions!
• All Words Hint will give a list of words based on the last found valid english word in the puzzle
• However, the All Words Hint words are not guaranteed to lead to a solution! It is simply a list of valid english words