Lily Hopper: Word Ladder

Lily Hopper is a daily word-ladder race. A frog hops from one word to another one letter at a time — every hop a real word — across lily pads laid out as two routes, a short risky one and a long safe one, against the clock. TODAY'S POND One pond a day, and everyone gets the same one. Take the shortcut through rarer words or the steady route through safer ones — or leave the pads altogether, because any real word is a legal hop. A hops-to-go counter tells you whether a hop helped without giving anything away, and if you land in a dead end, hop back. PRACTICE POND Endless ponds, just for fun, when today's is done. HINTS FROM THE DRAGONFLY Stuck? Three tiers of hint: which letter to change, which letter to use, or the whole word. The first one is free. A POND THAT GROWS Every pond you cross earns XP. Level up and your own pond fills in — seventeen things to unlock at set levels, from cattails to a lantern, each with its own idle motion. KEEP THE STREAK A calendar of every pond you've crossed, your best time, and how often you found the best route. Share the shape of your run — the hops and the time, never the words — so friends can race the same pond. PLAY GAMES Sign in to rank on today's board, best streak and total XP, and to earn twelve achievements. Optional — the game is the same without it. Free, no accounts, playable offline (ads and Play Games need a connection). Ad-supported: an ad at launch, one between practice ponds, and optional rewarded video for the bigger hints — never before or during today's pond, and never required to play. Reminders are local and opt-in. A word ladder is Lewis Carroll's Doublets (1879): change one letter at a time, every step a real word. There is no hidden answer and no coloured tiles — both ends of the ladder are in view, and the puzzle is the path between them.