How to Play Knotwords, the Word Game Endorsed by Wordle’s Creator

Wordle took the world by storm earlier this year, and countless clones have cropped up since its initial release. While those Wordle alternatives have followed the game’s formula to a T, a new word puzzle game has crept onto the scene and is gaining traction fast: Knotwords. Knotwords is Wordle for crossword puzzles, and the game has even been recommended by the creator of Wordle himself. It’s the real deal, and it’s likely only going to rise in popularity from here, so you’ll want to get in on the ground floor while you still can.

What is Knotwords?

Knotwords provides players with a unique crossword puzzle to solve every day. It’s not your average crossword puzzle, however. The game gives you predetermined bunches of letters to work with, and you have to try to create valid words with just those. On top of that, you can only start from a few set spaces on the crossword puzzle board, so things can get complicated pretty fast.

Basically, you start from a space and use the letters that it gives you to either write down or across. You’re essentially untangling a “knot” of letters to spell out part of a word. You then have to use the other spaces with letters to fill out the entire crossword puzzle in this manner.

It sounds complicated on paper, but it’s actually quite easy to grasp once you try it for yourself. While it’s not a direct Wordle successor, the game has been endorsed and recommended by Josh Wardle, the original creator of Wordle. With as many Wordle wannabees out in the wild as there are, that’s some serious praise. Knotwords is an absolute blast and is a perfect fit for Wordle fans, so keep reading on to learn how to play the game yourself.

How to Start Playing Knotwords

Like Wordle, Knotwords is available on mobile devices and PC. On iOS and Android, the game can be downloaded for free. If you want to play on a computer, you’ll have to purchase the game on Steam for $11.99. The mobile version isn’t entirely free, however, as a one-time purchase of $11.99 or yearly subscription of $4.99 gets you access to the full game.

What does the free version allow then? You can play the Daily Classic puzzle every day for free, which is basically the equivalent of the daily Wordle. It’s one free daily puzzle that everyone has access to. If you pay the price and buy the game, however, you’ll get access to an archive of past puzzles and a bunch of other content that isn’t time-gated.

This content includes the Daily Twist, a new type of daily puzzle, and 30 Puzzlebook levels per month. If you’re into crosswords, then it may be worth it to purchase the game so you have a ton of content to dig into.

Knotwords is available now on PC and mobile devices.