What is Wordle ‘hard mode’?: How to play and what the setting means

Does ‘hard mode’ make game more difficult?

Amber Raiken
New York
Friday 25 March 2022 18:41 EDT
Comments
(AFP via Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

While Wordle has become daily activity for many internet users, it turns out that players can make the beloved game a little more challenging, with the help of the “hard mode” setting.

Played through a web browser, Wordle is a game where players attempt to guess a five-letter word within six attempts. After each guess, the colour of the tiles changes to show how close you were to getting the right answer.

And apparently, Wordle, which was bought by the New York Times in January has a certain setting called “hard mode that could make the game even more riveting.

In order to turn “hard mode” on, you just open the Wordle in your web browser and then click the settings option.

Once the mode is turned on, this means that “any revealed hints must be used in subsequent guesses.”

For example, if you enter a word that does not contain any of the hints you’ve already gotten correct, then a notification will pop up to make you aware of your error. The mode also stops you from submitting the word that is incorrect.

More specifically if you try to complete the word in another guess, and it doesn’t contain one of the correct letters you’ve already submitted, a notification will pop up that says: “not in the word list.” You’ll then have to try again, using the letters you’ve guessed correctly.

Aside from “hard mode,” there are a few different ways to go about the game, such as by playing it more than once again, which you can do with Wordle Archive.

Although the site wasn’t created by Wordle itself, Wordle Archive features all the previous puzzles that have been shared, allowing people to attempt to solve them over and over again.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in