Crosswordle – Wordle And Sudoku Combined

Crosswordle is the new game combining Wordle and Sudoku into a challenging daily puzzle that will test your knowledge and patience

By Doug Norrie | Published 2 years ago

There’s been something of a craze happening for the better part of the last year when it comes to online word games. Starting with Wordle and then branching out into more and more games centered on a number of fields, themes, and categories, the proliferation of the space has really been something to behold. It’s led to all manner of creativity when it comes to these games with some developers really pushing the theme into other places, making the concept more and more challenging. One of those games is Crosswordle which combines a couple of different elements into a significantly harder version of Wordle.

If you think you’ve mastered the base game and are ready to step up the challenge then it’s time to look at Crosswordle to see what it offers in difficulty. It’s a cool game meant to really have you stumped through certain word combinations and an alternate set of rules that limits just how you can get to the final answer. Let’s take a tour through Crosswordle and how it compares to the original game of Wordle.

WORDLE – A BRIEF HISTORY

Before we could get anything like Crosswordle, we first had to have Wordle introduced to the world. That was through developer Josh Wardle who came up with the idea for the game years ago but really dialed it in as an offering in late 2021. It was in 2022 that that game took off for the internet masses with a low barrier for entry, very easy gameplay mechanics, and a way to share with friends and followers after players completed the daily puzzle. This combo led to the game catching on and spreading very quickly. Simply put: players must deduce a five-letter word in six guesses with a few clues about letter placement along the way. 

And if you are looking for reasons why games like Crosswordle and others (which we’ll get to shortly) have seen fit to pop up all over the place, look no further than what happened when The New York Times came calling to purchase the original from Wardle. They made an offer he couldn’t refuse and the game is now under their corporate banner. It’s still free to play (though they are encouraging you to create an account) and rumor has it that they shelled out somewhere close to a million dollars for the game. 

CROSSWORDLE

In many ways, Crosswordle is like Wordle in that the mechanics are basically the same. It works under a five-letter word structure with users needing to fill in the correct ones to solve the puzzle. But there are unique differences that really distinguish it from the first game. It’s marketed as Wordle meets Soduku and fans of the latter can see why. To understand Crosswordle you’ll need to see how the rules make the game a bit more difficult than Wordle. 

Each day Crosswordle users are presented a puzzle that has spaces for four words. The final word is filled in with the “correct” answer. Easy right? The answer is just there for us. Well, slow down some because getting to that final word is where the fun comes in. In the blanks for the first three words, we see how we will need to fill in different words that meet the criteria. Look at the below example of a previous puzzle. 

So our final word is FLORA. It’s just going to be a matter of getting there. In each proceeding word (currently blank) you will see how there are clues to each one with highlighted yellow or green boxes. Each guess for these words needs to follow the rules of the final answer. So the first word must have just one letter from FLORA and it can’t be in the fifth position. 

The second word in this Crosswordle puzzle must have two letters from FLORA though switched around to different positions as well. And here’s another catch. If you guess a word that fits with guess number one, you can’t reuse letters deemed incorrect already. This will begin severely limiting the number of words that fit into the puzzle. And the same happens for the third blank word except now we know that for that one, the F is in the right position in the first box.

This is just a Crosswordle example you can try on the site, not today’s daily puzzle so giving the answer here is more instructive than actually being a massive spoiler. With that in mind, check out how this particular Crosswordle puzzle could be solved.

Notice how it fits all of the rules for the game when it comes to each letter. And as you play Crosswordle, you’ll see the game is good about popping up errors if something is wrong. In fact, you can click the “Show Errors” button in each puzzle to tell you exactly where you went wrong with a letter. It’s helpful when beginning to play because the mechanics can be a bit confusing. But once you understand the basic rules, it’s then all about finding the right words to fit in. In some ways, Crosswordle has you solving three quasi-related words instead of one set word. Again, it’s challenging. 

OTHER CROSSWORDLE FEATURES

Crosswordle also offers options with its gameplay that are a bit different than Wordle. You can choose to have errors shown to you or can play without them. There’s also an optional timer to that will run while you have the page open. Hard mode will not allow you to guess previous letters which have already been deemed incorrect. And if you are looking to practice, well there is Easy, Normal, and Hard mode with those as well. The differences in those styles if just how many words there are to guess before reaching the bottom.

If you enjoy Wordle games like Qwordle, Octordle, and others then this will be right up your alley.