About Swap 5x5

How to Play

The goal is to make a 5x5 grid of words, like a crossword puzzle: five words reading across and five words reading down.

Make moves by swapping any two letters at a time. Click a letter to select it, then click another letter to swap the two. Try to solve the puzzle in as few swaps as possible — the minimum number of swaps is shown above the grid, along with a count of the swaps you've made.

The Colors

After every swap, the grid is recolored:

• Green — the letter is in the correct spot. Green letters are locked and can no longer be swapped.
• Yellow — the letter belongs in that row OR column, but not in that spot.
• Gray — the letter doesn't belong in that row or column.

The way the colors are determined is as follows. Each row/column is treated independently, like its own mini wordle. When the colors for all the rows/columns are calulated, the row color and the column color may not agree. In that case, the color gets precedence. For example, if the row color for a particular cell is gray, but the column color for that cell is yellow, then that cell is colored yellow.

Best Score

When you solve a puzzle, your score is the number of swaps you took beyond the minimum. For example, if the puzzle can be solved in 8 swaps and you took 10, your score is 2 over. Lower is better, and a score of 0 over means you solved it perfectly. Your best score is shown above the grid and is saved in your browser, so it sticks around between visits.

If you press the reset button, that puzzle no longer counts toward your best score. Resetting lets you start the puzzle over with the knowledge you've gained, so it wouldn't be a fair comparison. To go for a best score, you'll need to solve a puzzle on your first attempt.

If you want a fresh start, the button below erases your saved best score. This can't be undone — your best score goes back to a blank slate, and the next puzzle you solve sets a new one.

clear best score

Notes

I've created 455 puzzles, so you may eventually see repeats. These are all the possible grids given my word list. And it turns out coming up with a reasonable word list is a pain. But I'll see what I can do. I originally only had 5-letter words, and that resulted in a total of 65 possible grids. After adding 4-letter words, that allowed for a lot more possibilities.

Since I've only included 5- and 4- letter words, whenever there's a blank, you know it must be in one of the corners. And if the puzzle has two blanks, then they must be in opposite corners. You just don't know which pair of opposite corners.

Inspiration

This game was inspired by Waffle.