Cryptle is a word puzzle dressed as a combination lock. Six letter dials sit side by side, and you drag each one left or right to choose a letter, aiming to line all six up on a hidden word. When you think you have it, you test the setting with a key, and there are only five. Letters show whether they are still untested, correct or ruled out, so each key you spend clears away wrong options. The tension of a shrinking key ring is the draw, with a new lock every day.
Two lock-themed games open the list, one built on spinning letter wheels and one on cracking a short code word. Next are games that grade each letter position separately, which is how Cryptle's dials behave, and then Wordle and its close relatives, where colored tiles do the narrowing over a handful of guesses.
The most mechanical match: rows of letter wheels that you spin until they line up, much like Cryptle's dials, though the goal is a three-letter, a four-letter and a five-letter word rather than one hidden six-letter answer.
Keeps the lock-cracking feel with a shorter code: a secret word of four letters to open within ten rows, where what each entry reports rules letters in or out, giving more attempts than Cryptle's five keys.
Treats every letter slot on its own, as Cryptle's dials do: an arrow on each position says whether the hidden letter comes before or after yours in the alphabet, so you close in on all five spots at once.
Another game where each position is checked separately: your guesses go in vertically, one column per letter slot of a hidden answer of five letters, and then you write the full answer across, with six attempts in all.
Shares Cryptle's colored feedback in its classic form: six tries to find one hidden five-letter answer, with tiles turning green, yellow or gray. You type whole words instead of turning dials, and yellow means present but misplaced.
Strips feedback down even further than Cryptle: every guess of five letters returns just two numbers, how many letters sit correctly and how many appear elsewhere, leaving you to work out the word like a code-breaker.
Offers the six-letter length that Cryptle uses as an alternative to five, with six attempts at the secret word, tiles telling you whether each letter is placed, misplaced or missing, and an unlimited mode for more.
Three words a day, a seven-letter one, a six-letter one like Cryptle's and a five-letter one, each with six guesses, and each letter's status spelled out in words rather than shown only by color.
Turns Cryptle's careful deduction into a single shot: colored letter clues are shown before you type anything, and you must work out the hidden word from them, because you get exactly one guess.
Shares the logic of reading letter colors to narrow the possibilities, but at speed: you see a colored hint, then enter any word of five letters that fits it, one guess a round over three rounds.
Doubles the deduction: two hidden words of five letters, sharing none of them, sit behind one board, and every guess gets colored for both, so sorting out which clue belongs to which word is the puzzle.
Five. You can turn the six dials freely, but checking a combination uses one key, and you win when all six dials sit on the hidden word at the moment you test it. Because every test also marks letters as correct or incorrect, setting dials to untried letters while you are still gathering information makes each key count for more.
Letters on the dials appear in one of three states: untested, correct or incorrect. A letter you have not yet checked with a key stays untested, a confirmed letter shows as correct, and a ruled-out one is marked incorrect, which shrinks the choices left on that dial before you spend your next key.
For more dials, IdentiFIVE Wheels has you spin letter wheels into three words. For per-position feedback, Apartle and Vertiqle check each letter slot separately. And if you enjoy a tight limit on attempts, Onedle allows a single guess while Woodle cuts each guess's feedback down to two numbers.
