How to play

How to play Waffle

Rearrange 21 letters into six crossing words by swapping two tiles at a time. Fifteen swaps, five stars, one waffle a day.

1. Read the board

   Six five-letter words: three across (rows 1, 3 and 5) and three down (columns 1, 3 and 5). The nine cells where they cross belong to two words at once. The letters are all there, just in the wrong places.

2. Swap two tiles

   Drag a tile onto another, or tap one and then the other. The two trade places and every tile recolours. Green tiles are home and can't be moved again.

3. Read the colours

   Green: right letter, right place. Yellow: the letter belongs somewhere else in this row or column. Grey: not in this row or column. On a crossing cell, yellow can refer to either word, so check both.

4. Mind the counter

   You have 15 swaps. Every waffle can be solved in 10, so each swap you don't need is a star. Solve in 10 for five stars. Run out and the answer is shown.

5. Use the review

   After you solve, each swap shows as ✓ (one step closer) or ✗ (no progress). Tap a ✗ to see what would have worked. Chasing five stars is the game inside the game.

A worked start

Here is a scrambled waffle. Six tiles are already green, six are yellow, the rest grey.

• Row 5 reads T·E·A·U·R with T and R green. The yellow E and A belong somewhere in that row; U is grey, so it isn't in row 5 at all: it must belong to the column it's in, or to another word entirely.
• Column 5 reads E·Z·L·D·R with E and R green. The yellow L and D are in this column, just not where they are. Z is grey: it isn't in column 5.
• The middle row reads L·E·B·A·L with B green. E is yellow through this row; the two L's are yellow through their columns, not through this row, since row 3's answer has no L.

One good first swap: the U in row 5 and the E above it in column 3. The E has nowhere else to go in row 5's remaining open cells, and the U slots straight into column 3. Both turn green, and that's what a five-star swap looks like: every swap sends a letter home.

Strategy tips

• Lock the crossings first. The corners and the centre belong to two words, so a green there constrains both.
• Count the yellows per word. If a row has two open cells and two yellows, you know which letters go there; only the order is left.
• Look for perfect swaps. Two tiles that are each other's answer cost one swap and score two greens. Always take them.
• Grey is information too. A grey letter isn't in that row or column, so its home is in the one other word it could join, or somewhere it isn't touching yet.
• Repeated letters. When a word has two E's and one is already green, a second E can still show yellow, and it can mean the word needs another E, or just that the yellow one is pointing at the green one's cell. Check the other word it belongs to.

Try a practice waffle

Undo is on and hints are free. Nothing here is saved.