Waffle

How to play Waffle

Waffle gives you the answer and takes away the order. All six five-letter words — three across, three down — are already spelled out on the board, but the letters are in the wrong squares. Your job is to sort them out two at a time, and to do it without running the swap counter down to zero.

1. Tap a letter, then tap where it should go. The two tiles trade places. On a desktop you can drag one onto the other instead.
2. Read the colours after every swap. The whole board re-evaluates itself each time, so one good swap often reveals two or three more.
3. Finish with swaps to spare. Solving the board is the goal; solving it in the fewest swaps is the score.

What the colours are telling you

• Green — the letter is home. It locks in place and can no longer be moved, which is the game protecting you from yourself.
• Yellow — the letter belongs in a word that passes through this square, but in a different position along it.
• Grey — the letter has no place in any word crossing this square, so it has to travel. On a square where a row and a column meet, grey rules out both of them at once.

The rules

• Every swap costs one move, whether it helps or not.
• You get the puzzle's shortest solution plus 5 spare swaps.
• Green tiles are inert — they cannot be picked up, and nothing can be swapped onto them.
• Run the counter to zero without finishing and the board locks — Reset gives you the same puzzle back with a clean allowance.
• A new Waffle is published every day.

Strategy: how to solve a Waffle in the minimum

• Start at the corners. Each corner square sits in two words at once, so placing it correctly settles two constraints with a single swap. The centre square does the same.
• Hunt for two-way trades. The cheapest swap is one where each letter is standing in the square the other one needs. Every such pair you spot turns two problems into zero for one move — that is exactly how the minimum solution is built.
• Treat grey as a signpost, not a dead end. A grey letter on a crossing square is telling you it belongs to the perpendicular word. That is often the strongest clue on the board.
• Count duplicate letters carefully. When the same letter appears twice, yellow can point at either copy. Work out which word actually needs two of them before you commit a swap.
• Solve the words, not the tiles. If a row already shows three greens and two yellows, there is usually only one five-letter word it can be. Name the word first, then move the letters to fit it.

Want to check the shortest route before you spend a swap? The Waffle Solver — work out the swaps before you waste one.

Waffle FAQ

What is Waffle?

Waffle is a daily word puzzle played on a waffle-shaped grid holding six overlapping five-letter words — three across and three down. Every letter you need is already on the board; the puzzle is putting each one where it belongs by swapping pairs of tiles.

How many swaps do I get?

Each board has a shortest solution, and you are given that number plus 5. So you can afford a handful of wasted swaps, but not many — the counter under the grid always shows how many are left.

What do the colours mean?

Green means the letter is already in its final square. Yellow means the letter belongs somewhere in a word that runs through that square, just not there. Grey means the letter has no place in any word crossing that square, so it needs to move somewhere else entirely.

Why can I not move a green tile?

Green tiles are locked on purpose. Once a letter is confirmed in the right square, moving it could only ever undo progress, so Waffle takes the option away and keeps your swaps for the letters that still need them.

What happens if I run out of swaps?

The board greys out and the puzzle ends for that attempt. Reset puts the grid back to its opening position with a full allowance, so you can try the same board again from scratch.

How do I earn stars?

Stars are the swaps you did not need. Solve the board with all 5 spare swaps still in hand and you finish with the maximum — which means finding the shortest solution, not just any solution.

Is there a new Waffle every day?

Yes. A fresh board is published daily and is free to play in the browser, with no account and nothing to install.