Word Cracker
Finish a word, lose the round
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
The word game where finishing a word loses. Grow the word, read your rival, and call their bluff — or spell yourself into a trap. Duel the AI or friends live.
Word Cracker turns the word game around: two players take turns adding letters to one shared word-in-progress, and whoever completes a word of 4+ letters loses the round.
Add a letter at the front, at the end, or squeezed between two letters. Keep a real word in mind, but never be the one to finish it. Cornered? Bluff with letters that lead nowhere. Suspicious? Challenge. If your opponent can't name a real word that contains the letters, they lose the round. If they can, you do. A 196,000-word dictionary settles every challenge.
If you grew up playing Ghost or Superghost on road trips, you already know the heart of it. Word Cracker is built on those classics, with letters allowed anywhere in the word, one Swap and one Shuffle per round to escape a trap, and a dictionary referee so nobody argues about what counts.
WAYS TO PLAY
• DUEL: pass one phone back and forth, send a friend a game code, or Play the World to find an opponent online. Games wait for both players, so you can take turns hours apart.
• SOLO: Quick Match against an AI at four difficulty levels that genuinely play differently.
• QUEST: 9 ranks and 100+ missions against opponents with their own styles.
• THE GAUNTLET: nine opponents back to back. One loss ends the run.
• DAILY PUZZLE: a new set of puzzles every day, with rotating modes and streaks.
• RATING: a chess-style rating built from how accurately you play.
• REPLAYS: review any round move by move.
Free to play. No ads. No account needed to start. A short tutorial teaches the game in a few minutes.
more Fun word game, has the same “one more try” feeling that makes Wordle fun.
Fun word game, has the same “one more try” feeling that makes Wordle fun.
- Daily Puzzle streaks now count every day you finish all three puzzles, win or lose. A Silver Crown means no wins today, but your streak lives on.
- New players get a guided first week of Daily Puzzles: one mode a day, with a one-minute lesson before Swap and Shuffle.
- Coming back to a finished online game now shows exactly why it ended: the word that was proved, the letters it covered, and the final board. Turn notifications say it too.
- After the tutorial, your first match is gentler and leads straight into Quest, with a quick way to challenge a real player.
- Notifications are offered when you start your first game against a person, not before.
- Fixes for music on iPhone and iPad, Play the World rows, and many smaller issues. Music is a little quieter by default.
1.0.43 1d ago
- Rematch: choose rounds, timer and Boss Rules before you send it. Your opponent sees the rules before accepting, and a second rematch from the same friend now always arrives.
- If you both tap Rematch at once, you play the rematch you accepted.
- Tapping a turn notification no longer flashes the wrong turn; the board shows "Syncing…" for a moment, then the latest move.
- A new opening for new players: take turns with Paige, spot a finished word and gibberish, and make your first safe move on the real keyboard.
- Lesson 1 now accepts letters placed between other letters.
- Clearer graduation match: when Paige catches a bluff, the reason is shown plainly.
- Bug fixes and polish.
1.0.42 2d ago
- Smoother Quest map: no more jumps when you scroll right after opening it.
- The Quest door on the home screen is cleaner and fits every screen size, including iPad.
- Daily Puzzle fixes: Blitz Answers and Replay now work, a puzzle you're playing at 3 AM keeps its day and your streak, and the answer sheet lists each board once.
- Quest puzzle missions use stars, not Daily Puzzle crowns.
- Gift lines now count "missions", and Cipher's relic shows as your next reward after Etym.
- Pass & Play opens on Table mode.
- Calmer music: the welcome theme stays on the home screen.
- Rematches no longer get stuck when both players accept at the same moment.
- Better accessibility: clearer contrast, bigger tap areas, and text that always fits its button.
- Bug fixes and polish.
1.0.41 Oct 4
- Quest: beat Lex to win your first Boss Rule. It bans one letter for both players in Pass & Play and game-code matches, and those matches are always unrated.
- The Quest door remembers a paused battle, and a defeat now tells you when you got further than last time.
- Online: the match-end screen shows your series record against each person.
- Rounds that finished while you were away now appear in Replays.
- Opening a match your opponent conceded while you were away shows your win, with the board and its replay.
- Every loss now says why it ended.
- New players who arrive on a friend's link can play that friend right after the tutorial.
- Every common word now has a definition.
- Fairer Daily Puzzle boards and gentler clocks on early Quest missions.
- Music stays steady as you move between screens.
- Bug fixes and polish.
1.0.40 Oct 2
Big update!
• Faster start-up and smoother dragging
• Rook and the final rank are now beatable, with gentler help after repeated losses
• More natural, human-feeling AI opponents
• Fairer Daily Puzzles
• Leave a challenge up for real players, or move a Pass & Play game onto two phones
• Text size, a better colour-blind mode and an accessibility mode (Settings)
• Leaderboard now rated from online games
• Privacy, safety and many bug fixes
1.0.39 Sep 30
• Music now plays on iPhone and iPad.
• Rematch: tap Rematch after an online match and your opponent gets an invite they can accept anytime from their Duel menu.
• A second soundtrack for untimed matches.
• Fixes: swap Confirm / Cancel buttons centered, and more.
1.0.38 Sep 29
• Music: an atmospheric Spanish-guitar soundtrack, with separate Music and Sound effects volume sliders.
• Invites: friend links work from any messaging app, survive installing the app, and show who challenged you.
• Standing challenges reach your friends again.
• Fixes: Android back button, notification taps, Quest rounds resume correctly after the app closes, and more.
1.0.37 Sep 27
Come back to an online game and see what happened while you were away: each round you missed, who won it and why, and the result of a match your opponent finished. Exit returns you to Duel with your waiting games on top, and a Next button jumps to the next game waiting on you. Quest battles are saved when you leave. Untimed games no longer ask before exiting.
1.0.36 Sep 26
Online play fixes: rematches stay in your Active Games with turn alerts, a timed-out match counts once across your devices, challenge-accepted alerts arrive reliably, and no stale reminders after you have moved.
1.0.35 Sep 26
- Challenge someone from the leaderboard and your opponent lands straight on the board
- Share My Card opens your phone's share sheet
- Signing in no longer loses games you started as a guest
- Opponent names show right away in Duel and on the board
- When an opponent leaves a match, tap the game to collect the win
- Fair play: the Solver pauses while it's your move online
- Bug fixes and polish
1.0.34 Sep 23
A new look for WordCracker:
• The eight rivals have new painted portraits.
• Daily Puzzle modes and crowns redrawn as engraved medallions.
• New WordCracker logo, and a new app icon.
• Bug fixes and polish.
1.0.33 Sep 12
• A line of poetry or prose now opens the game and each new Quest rank.
• Quiet new details across Quest, the dictionary, and the Rivals shelf.
• Quitting right after a boss win no longer skips the rank ceremony.
• The welcome fades instead of shattering, and runs smoother on every phone.
• Bug fixes and polish.
1.0.32 Sep 10
• A gentler first few rounds: the analysis tools and ratings appear once you've played a bit, not on your very first loss.
• Lost a round to the AI? Review it and try that turn yourself on the same board — tap or drag a letter into place and see whether it survives.
• Fewer interruptions: the game asks you one thing per session, not five.
• Opening a friend's challenge link now greets you by their name.
• After your first online match, the game tells you where to find that opponent again (Rivals, under Duel).
• Quest points you toward playing a real person earlier, and the tutorial's finish line offers a friend challenge.
• Bug fixes and polish.
1.0.31 Sep 9
• Quest: bosses now respect the same tool rules you do — no more surprise Swap or Shuffle on Bare Hands levels
• The Gauntlet: each boss keeps its own contract from start to finish
• Play the World: your challenge shows how long it has really been waiting, for you and for everyone browsing
• No more "your move" alerts for matches you already left
• Rook Palindrome's portrait updated across Quest and The Gauntlet
• Under-the-hood fixes and faster updates
1.0.30 Sep 8
Dictionary update: words are now judged against the NWL2023 Scrabble tournament list, minus slurs and explicit terms. 80 missing words are back, excluded words are labeled as excluded instead of "not a word", and the Rules now name the word list.
1.0.29 Sep 5
- See at a glance when someone worldwide is waiting to play - right on the Duel button
- New notification options: one tap for all game alerts, or only-your-turn alerts. Our promise: a notification from us only ever means a real person is waiting on you
- If notifications are off, Settings is now one tap away
- Polish and fixes
1.0.28 Sep 3
- See who's waiting to play: open challenges now appear right on the Duel menu with one-tap Accept
- Your own posted challenge shows on the board too, with a quick withdraw
- Opponents are now named correctly everywhere when a challenge is accepted
- Round replays now back up to the cloud, so a new phone keeps your history
- Bug fixes and reliability improvements
1.0.27 Sep 3
See everything you can unlock — the new Unlockables page shows every reward and how to claim it. The Duel menu got a full redesign: your games up front, a Challenge a Friend hub for codes and rivals, and cleaner navigation everywhere. Your card now shows your world ranking. Plus gold menu headers, cross-device Daily Puzzle sync, and many small fixes.
1.0.26 Sep 2
• Boss victories: one clean celebration screen instead of four click-throughs
• Boss dialogue rewritten — rivals speak like real people and tell you their game up front
• Daily Puzzle: fixed repeating boards (especially Survival round 3)
• The Back button now looks like a button
• Quest screen: cleaner header, full-bleed banner art
1.0.25 Sep 1
• New: The Solver — the Dictionary learns to solve! Enter any board and see every legal move. Unlocks when you beat Professor Etym in Quest.
• Daily Puzzle intros are quicker: once you've won a mode, its rules step aside (tap "rules" to bring them back).
• Match lengths are now Best of 1, 3, or 5 — clearer, faster matches everywhere, including Play the World.
• Stuck on a Quest level? After a few tries you can now skip it and come back anytime.
• Hard difficulty tuned: smarter mistakes, fairer fights.
• Claim wins in online games where your opponent has been gone 3+ days — now works everywhere it should.
• Your posted Play the World challenge now stays posted until matched or cancelled.
• Polished: crowned-name shine, a clearer gold crown, Duel screen layout, and many fixes.
1.0.24 Aug 30
• Steal the boss's crown: a perfect 5-star boss win now triggers a full-screen crown ceremony — in Quest and in Rivals.
• Tap any match objective to see exactly what it means.
• Sharper bosses: they always call out gibberish now.
• New Dictionary look — tap any word in the results to look it up.
• Daily Puzzle crown holders get a gold shimmer on their name in online matches.
• Fixes: leaderboard updates instantly, offline banner no longer covers menus.
1.0.23 Aug 28
NEW - Rivals: beaten Quest bosses return for rated rematches under their own rules. Build your record against each one, and earn five stars to steal their crown.
Quest: smoother early missions, best-of-three matches across more of the campaign, and fairer boss objectives.
Tutorial: a new Rewind button in the first lesson, tighter copy throughout.
Small fixes and polish.
1.0.22 Aug 27
• Clearer Duel menu: Challenge a Friend, Play the World (new globe icon), plus Top Players and Rivals — browse the rankings or your head-to-head history and challenge anyone directly. Challenges wait quietly on their Duel screen; accepting starts the game instantly.
• Online matches are now first to 3 rounds.
• New Swap & Shuffle pills, a tappable BLUFFS badge on bluffing opponents, and snappier tile pickup.
• Daily Puzzle layout fixes, letter-tile confetti on mission wins, and reliability improvements.
1.0.21 Aug 25
• New navigation: a back arrow with the previous screen's name on every screen, × to close any popup
• AI Bluffing now means every opponent may lie instead of finishing a word; Medium is a notch tougher
• Quest: 42 missions are now best-of-3 or best-of-5 matches
• Rating: a match you win never costs points; opponent ratings recalibrated
• Active Games sorted by your turn; tidier round-over; smoother AI tile moves
• Daily Puzzle streak reminder on the home button
1.0.20 Aug 23
• Shared round links now open straight to the round
• Your Quest games now appear in Replays — rewatch your best rounds
• Mission results: buttons always in view, no scrolling
• Clearer match clock while defending a challenge
• Turn alerts: simpler controls and an easy way to switch them back on
• Bug fixes and polish
1.0.19 Aug 20
- Daily Puzzle streaks now count every day you finish all three puzzles, win or lose. A Silver Crown means no wins today, but your streak lives on.
- New players get a guided first week of Daily Puzzles: one mode a day, with a one-minute lesson before Swap and Shuffle.
- Coming back to a finished online game now shows exactly why it ended: the word that was proved, the letters it covered, and the final board. Turn notifications say it too.
- After the tutorial, your first match is gentler and leads straight into Quest, with a quick way to challenge a real player.
- Notifications are offered when you start your first game against a person, not before.
- Fixes for music on iPhone and iPad, Play the World rows, and many smaller issues. Music is a little quieter by default.
more Version 1.0.43 1d ago
Data Linked to You The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Location Contact Info User Content Identifiers Usage Data Diagnostics 