How to Play Hurdle — Rules, Tips & Strategies

Hurdle is the five-in-one word game from Arkadium: it stacks five Wordle-style puzzles into a single daily run, and the way they connect is what sets it apart from a plain word game. You solve four standard five-letter words, then face a Final Hurdle that ties the day together. For today's words and the walkthrough, see the Hurdle hints and answer page; this guide covers how the chain works and how to keep your streak.

What is Hurdle?

Hurdle is built on the familiar Wordle format — guess a hidden five-letter word using color feedback — but runs it five times in sequence. The twist: the answer to each hurdle becomes the first guess of the next one, and this gives the same opening information regardless of how many guesses you needed. The fifth and final round, the Final Hurdle, leans on everything the first four revealed.

How the colors work

After each guess, every tile is colored just like Wordle:

• 🟩 Green — correct letter in the correct spot.
• 🟨 Yellow — correct letter, wrong spot.
• ⬛ Gray — that occurrence is not needed; another green or yellow copy may still be required.

Round one starts with six empty guesses. Rounds two through four already include the preceding answer and leave five new guesses, and solving one seeds that answer as guess one of the next. The fifth round — the Final Hurdle — works differently: your four earlier answers are filled in as the opening guesses, leaving just two new guesses for the last word.

Strategy for a clean run

• Protect your early guesses. Unused guesses do not transfer between rounds. Solve within the current limit, then read the carried-over answer's new colors.
• Use the carried-over word as information, not a throwaway. When the previous answer auto-fills, read its colors carefully — it is already one of that round’s six filled slots and gives feedback toward the new word.
• Lead with letter coverage. A strong, vowel-rich opener (SLATE, CRANE, AUDIO) does the same heavy lifting here as in Wordle: rule out or lock down as many common letters as possible early.
• Bank information for the Final Hurdle. Inspect all four prefilled words against the final answer. Colors from their original rounds do not carry over.
• Compare candidates with the actual tiles. A familiar word is useful only if it fits all confirmed positions, misplaced letters and duplicate-letter feedback.

A few quick facts

Hurdle is free to play, refreshes once a day, and gives you a fresh five-stage run every time. The Final Hurdle leaves two new guesses. Reading its prefilled rows carefully matters more than solving earlier rounds quickly.

For today's five words and a step-by-step solve, head to the Hurdle hints and answer page, updated daily.

Correction, October 11, 2026: Hurdle is an Arkadium game, also available through Dictionary.com. This guide previously attributed it to Merriam-Webster. Correction, October 17, 2026: an earlier version of this guide said the first four rounds each allow six guesses. Round one has six empty guesses; rounds two through four start with the previous answer filled in and leave five new guesses.