Hurdle is a daily word game that is based on the idea of Wordle but takes the game to the next level. It is a daily word puzzle that tests your knowledge of English by increasing the pressure and difficulty as you play.
Are you curious about how to play hurdles? Or are you interested in tips on how to get the best possible score? Here’s everything you need to know about hurdles, including tips on how to play and how to improve your score at the end.
How to do today’s hurdles
The goal of Hurdle is to guess a secret five-letter word in six turns. Each guess gives you a hint about the final word.
You start by guessing a 5-letter word. When you press Enter, the letter tiles for that word will flip and change to one of three colors: gray, yellow, or green. The colors are:
-
gray: The letter is not in the word.
-
Yellow: The letter is in the word but is located elsewhere.
-
green: The letters are in the word and in the correct position.
So far, this game is very similar to Wordle, isn’t it? But that’s where the similarities end. When you guess the right word, you move on to the next Hurdle, but this time, the word from the previous puzzle is automatically entered as the first guess word. When you guess the second Hurdle, you move on to the third Hurdle, which is pre-filled with the words from the first two Hurdles. By the time you reach the fifth and final Hurdle puzzle of the day, you have only two chances to solve the puzzle using the colored tile clues that are pre-filled with the first four words.
It’s not that easy now, is it?
At the end of the game, you can use the recap function to check your answer, and if you guessed the word incorrectly, the top of the screen will tell you what the word was.
Try Hard Mode
As if the game itself wasn’t difficult enough, you can challenge yourself even more with a dedicated Hard mode. Hard mode increases the pressure by forcing you to use the revealed hints in subsequent guesses. So if a letter is marked yellow or green in one guess, you will be forced to use that letter in subsequent guesses.
MASHABUL TOP STORY
To activate Hard Mode, tap on the three-button hamburger menu at the top left of the puzzle, then tap on the Settings option. Finally, turn on the Hard Mode option, then tap on the “X” at the top right of the screen to close the Settings menu.
How are scores calculated?
If you are trying to beat your previous score, you might be wondering how the score is calculated. It is actually not that complicated. Here is a brief explanation of how the score is calculated depending on whether you win or lose and the game mode.
-
Games won: 1,000 + (100 x number of blank lines) + winning bonus
-
Game Loss: (Number of yellow letters on keyboard x 10) + (Number of green letters on keyboard x 20)
The victory bonus is 4,000 points and is awarded after passing all hurdles. So, for example, you cannot receive the victory bonus just by completing the first hurdle. The maximum possible score in Normal mode is 10,800 points. In Hard mode, the score is multiplied by 1.5, for a maximum total score of 16,200 points.
High contrast mode
The game also features a high contrast mode that allows people with certain color blindness to see different colors more easily. When high contrast mode is on, letters that are correctly positioned will be orange instead of green. Letters that are in the wrong position in a word will be blue instead of yellow.
To turn on High Contrast mode, tap the three-line menu button in the upper left corner of the puzzle. Then tap the Settings button and turn on High Contrast mode. Tap the “X” in the upper right corner of the screen to close the Settings menu.
Tips for getting the best score
Looking for tips on how to get a better score? Here are a few things to keep in mind when playing.
Linguists say that since vowels are the most common letters in the English language, the first word should contain as many vowels as possible.
Also, try to use five-letter words, at least for the first few words. This will maximize the number of clues you get.
There are other things to consider. In most cases, words will not be pluralized unless they are irregular plurals, such as “Geese.” It’s also a good idea to keep in mind that there may be two of the same letter in a word. So if you’re stuck and can’t figure out why you can’t come up with a word, think about how the letter you guessed could appear twice in the word.
Finally, you don’t have to just look at the screen and play. If you’re having trouble, it might help to get out an old pen and paper and try brainstorming that way. This will help you eliminate words without having to guess everything.
