Enjoying Crosswordle and want to take your game to the next level? Becoming skilled in daily word games like these doesn't happen overnight, but through continuous playing and learning what to look for in a puzzle, practice runs become routines, and routines lead to better and faster wins.

That same mindset works the same way in Crosswordle. After all, even if there are almost endless ways its 7x7 grid can change, there will always be constants to work with and patterns that emerge, which you can take advantage of.

Read on to learn how you can improve your Crosswordle skills!

How Crosswordle works

To give you a refresher, here are some of the things about Crosswordle that you must keep in mind:

Deducing words with color feedback

Crosswordle brings familiar aspects of crossword puzzles and Wordle®*, including the color-feedback system.

• 🟩 A green letter is a correct letter. It's in all valid words and is in the correct position. It cannot be moved.
• 🟨 Yellow letters are the right letters in the correct row or column, but in the wrong position or order.
• ⬛ Gray letters are in the completely wrong position. Swap letters like these around to get better color clues.

Mind-bending challenge using swaps

You don't have to input anything, as Crosswordle works by swapping letters around to form valid words. Your swap stock usually ranges between 15–19, and you have to efficiently use each one to solve the puzzle.

The best score you can get

Six stars or six swaps remaining is the perfect score you can get. Every Crosswordle puzzle, regardless of the number of swaps you have in stock, has an ideal solution that will always leave you with six swaps left. In short, you can't get a higher score than six stars or six swaps left as that is the intended perfect score.

Proficiency based on scores

Here's a general overview of your current skill based on your scores:

Crosswordle Star Score & Skill Level Guide

Star Score	Skill Level
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Six stars	Master
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Five stars	Expert
⭐⭐⭐⭐Four stars	Advanced
⭐⭐⭐Three stars	Good
⭐⭐Two stars	Average
⭐One star	Novice
☆Zero stars	Beginner (cleared, no stars)

Playing Crosswordle: 7‑steps towards success

1. Scan the corners

With most grid puzzles, scan the outermost or cornermost letters and check their color and other relevant information. What color are they? Do you need to swap? Are they an across or a down? Which corners have two intersecting words or more? Note what you can and start targeting which rows and columns to start working on.

2. Vowel swapping

Crosswordle uses common words as target words, so you won't have to guess something obscure or need heavy word knowledge. Most common words have vowels in them, so starting off by swapping vowels around works well.

Remember to check what letters and words are present, so you can guess the right words after determining where to swap the vowels you have. While there are common words that have vowels at the start or at the end, they're usually placed in the middle to connect consonants together and form words.

3. Intersection scanning

Intersections can get tricky as they affect two words at the same time. If the intersection has a gray letter, that's lucky. But if it has a yellow one, that's where you have to look around the intersection point more carefully, as you might end up wasting swaps by randomly guessing using two letters or more.

It can get even trickier if there's an intersection and the target word has same letters in it (e.g. ELEVATE, DOOR, FLEET, etc.), but that's where the vowel swapping in the prior step comes to help.

4. Clearing yellows

Now that you've gotten most of your bearings, it's time to get clearing. When clearing yellow letters, look for the horizontal or vertical words with the most green letters in them, as they are the easiest ones to clear. However, if you have a choice, always try to clear the shorter ones with the most number of green letters, as there is less risk involved and it makes elimination easier.

When you start swapping yellow letters, keep your pathing in mind. Pathing is the sequence and direction of your swapping, where you aim for swap efficiency (swapping one letter that will turn two letters green or yellow). If you need to learn more about Crosswordle terminologies, check our glossary article.

5. Clearing grays

Gray letters are annoying to deal with, as you never know where they should belong. But if you followed the steps above, at this point, the gray letters will be easier to deal with as you probably have an inkling where they should go. Like before, try to swap them in the most logical word placements and avoid wasting your swaps by focusing on one gray letter.

6. Swap stock check

Continue progressing your puzzle by using the same general reasoning you've learned. But don't get tunnel vision and remember to check your swap stock. As you near the end game, you should see around 10 swaps left, and this final stretch is the most crucial, so don't swap all willy-nilly!

7. Win with the best score you can get

The final moments of the puzzle should be left dealing with a few oddly-placed yellow letters and there should be no more grays left. It's ideal to aim for six swaps left for a six-star score, but if at this point you've already seen that your swap stock won't last until that long, then just aim for the best score you can get!

Common mistakes & fixes

Here's a table of the most common Crosswordle problems and how you can deal with them:

Common Crosswordle Mistakes & How to Fix Them

Mistake	Why it hurts	Fix
Focusing on one grey letter that never turns yellow or green	Wastes swaps	Ignore that tile for now; look for an easier word to complete first.
Burning through swaps too quickly	Leads to a lower star score	Practise swap efficiency—plan two moves ahead before dragging any tile.
Getting confused by intersecting rows & columns	Triggers bad swaps	Treat each intersecting word separately: finish one, then the crossing word will slot into place.

FAQ

How many swaps do I get?

It depends on the Daily or Unlimited/Practice puzzle you get, but most of the time, it averages around 15 swaps.

What is a perfect score?

Six stars or six swaps left is the perfect score for every Crosswordle puzzle. You can't get any higher than that, as each Crosswordle puzzle is designed to leave you with six swaps left at maximum.

Does color‑blind mode change strategy?

Not at all. The strategies remain the same, only the colors of the letters have changed.

Can I undo a bad swap?

No, you can't. This is part of the challenge of Crosswordle—every swap is final. This is especially true in Daily Mode, as we don't have difficulty settings and our puzzles are made to be consistently moderate.

Join us and play other word games and puzzles!

We hope that our general strategy guide was able to help improve your Crosswordle skills. Always remember that most word games make use of vocabulary, logic and pattern recognition, but in Crosswordle, logic alone reigns supreme! So think logically, and you'll always come out at top!

If you want to play more word puzzles or other brain-teasing games, check out our website and join our Discord!

*Wordle is a registered trademark of the New York Times, not affiliated with Crosswordle and is only used as a descriptive/comparative basis in this article.