How to play SPARES

The basics

1. Look at the starting word

   Every puzzle begins with one word, six to eight letters long. Its letters appear as tiles you can tap.

2. Read the clue

   The answer is one letter shorter than the current word, and it uses only letters from that word.

3. Spell the answer

   Tap the tiles in order, or type on your keyboard. You may need to rearrange the letters, not just remove one.

4. Collect your spare

   The one letter you didn't use is your spare. It drops into the bonus tray at the top.

5. Follow the chain

   Your answer becomes the new word, and the next clue appears. Keep going until the chain ends with a three-letter word.

6. Reveal the bonus word

   The dropped letters, in the order you dropped them, spell the bonus word. It has its own clue, so you can try to guess it early.

A worked example

Clue 1: “An aircraft.” Spell PLANE. The letter T drops.

Clue 2: “A strategy for the future.” Spell PLAN. The letter E drops.

Clue 3: “Once around the track.” Rearrange to spell LAP. The letter N drops.

The dropped letters are T, E and N, so the bonus word is TEN.

Wrong answers

If the letters you tap don't spell the answer, the row shakes and clears so you can try again. There is no limit on tries. Each miss is counted and shown in your result.

Hints

Each clue has two optional hints:

• The first hint highlights the letter that should drop.
• The second hint fills in the first letter of the answer.

Hints are free. A step solved with a hint or after a miss shows as a yellow square in your shared score instead of a green one.

The daily puzzle

There is one official SPARES puzzle each day, released at midnight in your local time zone. Everyone playing on the same date gets the same numbered puzzle. Your progress is saved in your browser as you play, so you can close the page and come back later.

Each puzzle is marked Easy, Medium or Hard. Easy chains start with a six-letter word and have three clues. Medium chains start with seven letters and have four clues. Hard chains start with eight letters and have five clues.

Statistics and streaks

Open the statistics icon at the top of the game to see how many chains you have played, your current streak, your best streak and your fastest time. Solving the daily puzzle on consecutive days builds your streak. These numbers are stored in your browser, so they belong to this device only.

Archive and practice

Every released puzzle stays available. Open the archive from the calendar icon at the top of the game. Puzzles are grouped by year and month, and each one shows whether you have completed it. You can:

• open a year, then a month, to browse puzzles by date,
• search by puzzle number, date or a word from a clue (answers are never searched or shown),
• choose Random Unsolved to jump to a puzzle you haven't completed,
• choose Today's Puzzle to return to the puzzle for today's date.

Archive games are practice. They are saved separately from today's puzzle, so they never change today's progress, your statistics or your streak. In practice mode you can also choose Play again to restart a puzzle.

Puzzle numbers

Each puzzle has a permanent number, such as SPARES #0001, tied to one calendar date. A puzzle's number and date never change.

Share score

After you finish, Share score copies a spoiler-free summary. It never shows the words. It looks like this:

Tips

• Solve the clue first, then check which letter is left over.
• Stuck? Use the bonus clue. If you can guess the bonus word, you know which letter must drop next.
• Look for common endings such as -S, -ED and -ING. They often stay together or drop early.

Keyboard shortcuts

• A–Z pick a letter
• Backspace undo the last letter
• Esc close an open dialog