Question 1

How do you play Octordle?

Accepted Answer

You solve 8 five-letter words at the same time. Every guess you type is played against all 8 boards at once, and each board marks it independently — green for the right letter in the right place, yellow for the right letter somewhere else. You get 13 guesses in total for all of them.

Question 2

Is this free? Do I need an account?

Accepted Answer

Free, no account, no download, and unlimited — there is no one-a-day wait here.

Question 3

Why 13 guesses?

Accepted Answer

Because 8 boards need about 13. Wordle gives six for one word, but the guesses are shared here — a word that solves board three is still information for the other 7. The number is set so that a careful player finishes with two or three to spare and a careless one does not finish.

Question 4

What is the best opening?

Accepted Answer

Two or three words that between them cover the common letters — something like AROSE then UNTIL then CHIMP. With one board you can afford to chase a hunch; with this many, the opening is pure information gathering and a hunch that fails costs you across every board at once.

Question 5

Should I solve boards one at a time?

Accepted Answer

Only at the end. Early on, guess words that split the field across all boards. Committing to one board early is the classic mistake — you spend four guesses finishing it and arrive at the others with nothing left.

Question 6

What happens when I solve a board?

Accepted Answer

It fades and stops taking guesses, and the ones still open reflow. Your remaining guesses do not change — solving early buys you information, not turns.

Question 7

Is a letter grey everywhere or just on one board?

Accepted Answer

Per board. A letter can be absent from one word and green in another, which is exactly why the keyboard here cannot show a single colour per letter the way one-board Wordle does.

Question 8

Are the words related to each other?

Accepted Answer

No. Each board is drawn independently, so there is no theme and no shortcut — finding one word tells you nothing about the others except which letters are now spent.

Question 9

Where do the words come from?

Accepted Answer

A curated list of words people actually know, not a raw dictionary. The distinction matters: a dictionary contains tens of thousands of words nobody has met, and being beaten by one is not a puzzle, it is a trivia question.

Question 10

Can I guess a word that is not an answer?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Any word in the wider allowed list can be guessed, which is what makes probing words possible — you can spend a guess on a word you know is wrong purely to test five letters.

Question 11

Is there a hard mode?

Accepted Answer

Not for this many boards. Hard mode requires every revealed hint to be reused, and with several boards live at once the constraints conflict — a letter green on one board and grey on another cannot both be honoured.

Question 12

How do I read the board on a phone?

Accepted Answer

The boards lay out two across on a phone and four across on a desktop, and past four boards the grid scrolls while the keyboard stays pinned. You scroll the puzzle, never the controls — a keyboard that moves is a keyboard you miss.

Question 13

Why are the tiles smaller here than in Wordle?

Accepted Answer

Because there are 520 of them. The tiles are sized so the whole board fits without the keyboard shrinking, on the principle that a tile you only read can afford to be small and a key you hit cannot.

Question 14

What is a good score?

Accepted Answer

Finishing at all is a good score the first few times. After that, count your spare guesses: two or three left is strong, and anyone finishing with five to spare on 8 boards has found a very good opening set.

Question 15

Does it get easier as boards are solved?

Accepted Answer

Much. The last two boards usually fall quickly, because by then the alphabet is largely spent and the remaining words are heavily constrained. The difficulty is all in the middle.

Question 16

Can I lose?

Accepted Answer

Yes — running out of guesses ends the game with the unsolved words revealed. With 8 boards that is a real risk rather than a formality.

Question 17

Can I replay the same puzzle?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every puzzle has a number and the same number always produces the same puzzle, so you can hand somebody the link and compare.

Question 18

Can I share my result?

Accepted Answer

Yes, as the usual grid of coloured squares, which gives away the pattern of your guesses and none of the words.

Question 19

Is this the same as Wordle?

Accepted Answer

It is the same engine with different numbers — word length, guess count and board count are three settings, and Wordle, Dordle, Quordle, Octordle and Sedecordle are five points in that space. Nothing here is a fork.

Question 20

Which should I play first?

Accepted Answer

Quordle, if you have not done this before. Four boards teaches the habit — spend the opening on coverage — without the bookkeeping. Sixteen boards is a genuinely different activity.

Question 21

Why is my letter yellow on one board and green on another?

Accepted Answer

Because they are different words. Each board scores your guess against its own answer, independently, and reading those side by side is the whole skill.