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Ristikkotupaword games by the stove
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  1. Ristikkotupa
  2. How to play
  3. Solving step by step: ladders, wheels and grids

Solving step by step: ladders, wheels and grids

Three of the games are puzzles of elimination: each step you take removes options from the next one. A few habits make them much faster.

Par is a promise

The par of a Word Ladder is not an estimate. It comes from a search through every accepted word of that length, so the ladder can always be done in exactly that many steps and never in fewer.

The number of letters that differ between start and target is the floor: three different letters need at least three steps. When par is higher, the best route makes a detour, usually through a vowel that is in neither word. Knowing that a detour is required stops you from forcing a direct path that does not exist.

Climbing from the top

Try the ladder backwards. Which words are one letter away from the target? Write two or three of them down, then look for a route from the start to any of them. Meeting in the middle is often quicker than climbing from one end.

Fill-In: lengths first

Count the words by length before anything else. A length that appears only once has exactly one place in the grid, so those words are free. Then look at the places those words cross: every crossing gives a known letter to another place.

When several words share a length, start with the place that has the most crossings. It is the one where a wrong guess shows up quickest, and the one that gives the most letters to its neighbours.

Letter Wheel: the grid as a crossword

The little grid is a crossword without clues. Its empty places tell you how many words of each length are missing, and the letters you have already placed sit in the crossings of words you have not found. A missing word with a known second letter is often easy to spell from the wheel.

When to take a hint

A hint is counted, but it is not a failure. In Fill-In and Letter Wheel one hint often unlocks several words at once, because the letters it adds sit in crossings. In Word Ladder the hint shows a step on a shortest ladder, which is useful when you suspect a detour but cannot see where it goes.