Start by counting the letters that must change
Before you type anything, line the start word up over the target and compare them position by position. Every position where the letters differ has to change at least once, and each step changes exactly one letter. So the number of differing positions is the shortest a ladder could possibly be.
Take COLD to WARM as a made-up example. All four positions differ, so it cannot be done in fewer than four steps. And it can be done in exactly four: COLD, CORD, CARD, WARD, WARM. Each step puts one letter into its final place and never touches it again.
Now compare that with par, which Stepwise shows on screen. If par equals the number of differing positions, there is a clean route where every step fixes a letter for good. If par is higher, the ladder needs at least one detour, where a letter changes to something temporary and then changes again. Knowing which kind of ladder you are on tells you whether to hunt for a direct route or to plan the detour.
Work from both ends
Most people only work forwards from the start word, and that is why they wander. The target end is often the narrower one: a target word may have only five or six neighbours, so you might as well know them before you set off.
Write down the words one letter away from the target. Then do the same for the start. You are looking for a pair, one from each list, that are themselves close to each other. Once you see a bridge between the two lists, the ladder is nearly built.
Worked example: Stepwise No. 16, PLANE to STICK
This was the five-letter ladder on 25 October 2026, with a par of 6. Compare the words: P-L-A-N-E against S-T-I-C-K. No position matches, so the minimum is 5, and par is 6. That tells you before you start that one letter has to change twice.
From the target end, STICK sits among STACK, STOCK, STUCK, SLICK and STINK. From the start, PLANE leads to PLANK, PLANT, PLACE and PLATE. Nothing in the two lists touches yet, so look one more step in. STACK leads back to SLACK, and SLACK is one letter from BLACK. From PLANK you can reach BLANK, and BLANK is one letter from BLACK. There is the bridge:
- PLANE to PLANK: E becomes K, so the last letter is done.
- PLANK to BLANK: P becomes B. This is the detour: B is not the final first letter.
- BLANK to BLACK: N becomes C.
- BLACK to SLACK: B becomes S. The first letter is now right, at the second attempt.
- SLACK to STACK: L becomes T.
- STACK to STICK: A becomes I, and you are there in 6, which is par.
That was the par route shown on the results screen, which noted it was 1 of 10 par routes that day, so it is far from the only one. The useful thing is the method: the -ACK and -ICK words were the bridge, and you could only see that by working inwards from STICK.
Pivot on the vowel
In four- and five-letter words, the vowel is often the letter that is easiest to change. Swapping A for I, or O for U, keeps every consonant you have built up and moves you into a completely different family of words: FARE to FIRE, LAMP to LIMP, BLACK to BLOCK. Many ladders have one vowel change in the middle that joins two families of words that otherwise never meet.
A good rule: change consonants to match the target while you can, and save the vowel switch for the moment you are stuck. In the PLANE ladder above, the vowel changed on the very last step, STACK to STICK.
Use hub words
Some words have far more neighbours than others, and they make excellent stepping stones. Four-letter words shaped consonant, vowel, consonant, E are especially well connected, because almost every position can take many different letters. Think of the families around them:
- -ARE: BARE, CARE, DARE, FARE, HARE, MARE, RARE, WARE.
- -ORE: BORE, CORE, FORE, MORE, PORE, SORE, TORE, WORE.
- -INE: DINE, FINE, LINE, MINE, NINE, PINE, VINE, WINE.
- -ATE: DATE, FATE, GATE, HATE, LATE, MATE, RATE.
These families also connect to each other through the vowel: CARE, CORE, CURE; FARE, FIRE, FORE. When you cannot see a route, steering towards one of these hubs usually opens several. Five-letter ladders have their own hubs, such as the -ACK, -ICK and -ANK families in the PLANE example and the SH- words below.
When a rarer word earns more
Par in Stepwise is worked out over everyday words only, but you may use any word in our list. That opens two ways to score above 100.
The first is beating par. Every step under par earns 25 points, so if a less common word lets you skip a step, take it. The second is the originality bonus, worth up to 30 points. Each in-between word is rated by how few other players have used it today, and very common words start out rated as if plenty of people had already played them. Your bonus is the average across all your in-between words, so one ordinary word in the middle pulls it down.
Worked example: Stepwise No. 22, SPORT to SHINE
On 31 October 2026 the par was 4. The first letters already match, and the other four positions all differ, so this is a clean ladder: every step should fix a letter for good. The par route we published was:
- SPORT to SHORT.
- SHORT to SHORE.
- SHORE to SHONE.
- SHONE to SHINE.
That scores 100 for steps, but SHORT and SHORE are exactly the words most players reach for. Fixing the letters in a different order gives SPORT, SPORE, SPIRE, SHIRE, SHINE, also 4 steps and also par, through less obvious words. Same 100 for steps, a better originality bonus. Whenever par is a clean ladder, try changing the letters in a different order: each order gives a different set of in-between words.
Using hints without wasting points
A hint shows the next rung on a shortest everyday route from the word you are on, and tells you how many steps are left from there. If two words are equally good, it picks the more common one. Each hint costs 8 points and you get five a day.
- An extra step costs 10, so a hint is cheaper than one step over par. If you are about to go two or three over, a hint wins easily.
- Asking again from the same word shows the same answer at no extra charge.
- Hints only follow everyday words. From an obscure word with no everyday neighbours there may be no hint at all, so undo back to a common word first.
- Undo and Start over are free until you reach the target, so explore before you ask.
Quick checklist
- Count the positions that differ. That is the minimum.
- Compare it with par: equal means a clean ladder, higher means a detour.
- List the target's neighbours before you move.
- Look for a bridge word between the two ends.
- Change consonants first and pivot on the vowel when stuck.
- Steer towards hub families such as -ARE, -ORE and -INE.
- On a clean ladder, try a different order of changes for a rarer route.
- A hint (8) is cheaper than an extra step (10).
Put it into practice on today's Stepwise. The full rules and scoring are in how to play Stepwise, and every finished ladder with a par route is in the Stepwise answers archive. For another word game that rewards rarer finds, try Handful.