How to Play Octordle: Rules, Colors and Tips

Eight Wordle boards, one guess at a time, and only 13 tries. It sounds impossible until you see that every guess works on all eight boards at once. Once that clicks, Octordle turns into a planning game instead of a luck game. This guide shows you how to play Octordle, what each color means, and how to spend your first few guesses so that every letter earns its keep.

The goal in one sentence

Find all eight hidden words in 13 guesses or fewer. Each word has five letters, and every board has its own answer.

A guess counts once, no matter how many boards it touches. Play a round of the daily Octordle and the rules start to feel natural within a few minutes.

What the colors mean

• Teal: the letter is right and sits in the right spot on that board.
• Yellow: the board's word contains the letter, but in a different spot.
• Gray: the board's word has no copy of that letter, or you already used up its copies.

Turn on the colorblind palette in Settings if teal and yellow look too close. It swaps them for blue and orange.

A color only speaks for one board

Beginners often cross a letter off the whole alphabet after one gray tile. Then a guess later, that same letter shows up teal on another board.

The on-screen keyboard prevents this mistake. Each key carries eight small markers, one per board, and a key dims only when its letter is gray on every board that is still open.

Play your first game, step by step

1. Type any five-letter word and press Enter. Your word appears on all eight boards.
2. Look at which boards lit up. Boards with several colored tiles make the best early targets.
3. Guess a second word with fresh letters, so you learn something new on every board. The best Octordle starting words are tested sets that share no letters.
4. Start solving the boards closest to done. A solved board locks and stops taking guesses.
5. Save your last few guesses for the stubborn boards at the end.

A guess-three example

Imagine board 2 reads _ R A _ E after three guesses, while board 5 shows only two yellow letters. Board 2 is one step from done, and GRAPE or BRAVE could finish it.

Pick the one that also uses letters you have not tested on board 5. One guess then solves a board and teaches you something about another one.

Other ways to play

Once the classic game feels comfortable, try a twist. Octordle Sequence shows one board at a time and gives you 15 guesses. Octordle Rescue plays four starter words for you and leaves you nine guesses.

Missed a day? The archive lets you replay any earlier daily puzzle.

Common mistakes

• Pouring guesses into one board while seven boards sit untouched.
• Repeating letters in your first two guesses, which wastes tests.
• Ignoring the key markers and guessing a letter you already ruled out everywhere.

The tip most guides skip

Before each guess, count how many open boards a letter can still help. A letter untested on five boards is worth more than a perfect fourth-position guess on a single board.

This one habit beats memorizing opening words. When you want to test it without touching your streak, jump into unlimited Octordle and try it on fresh boards.

Ready for a full plan? The Octordle strategy guide shows how to spend all 13 guesses, and the word finder helps when one board stumps you.

Frequently asked questions