This article contains everything you need to know about Arkadium's Hurdle Game.
Use the list below to navigate specific topics about Hurdle.
How to play
Hurdle is a fun word guessing game. As a variation in the popular format, you must overcome 5 different "hurdles", each being a different word, all of them in a row. You must guess 4 words with the normal standard, and the final fifth word will place all the past words together to match possible letters, and give you only two tries at the final challenge. There's a new puzzle each and every day to try.
General rules. Each Hurdle puzzle contains a secret five-letter word you'll need to solve every day. You have six guesses to try to get it right. After each guess, the tiles' colors will indicate how close your guess was to the word:
- If the tile turns green, it's the correct letter in the right spot.
- If the tile turns yellow, the letter is in the word but not in the right spot.
- If the tile turns grey, the letter is not found in the word.
The 5th and final Hurdle puzzle will be prefilled with the answers from the previous 4 Hurdles.
NOTE: you only have 2 chances to solve the final Hurdle.Hard Mode. To enable hard mode, please, click on the "hamburger" menu in the top left corner, click on Settings and enable the Hard Mode dongle.
High Contrast Mode. To enable high contrast mode, please, click on the "hamburger" menu in the top left corner, click on Settings and enable the High Contrast Mode dongle. This mode will allow you to view the game in a high contrast should you require. This mode is useful in cases of colorblindness, or if you need a clearer way to see the game. However, it does display the game differently, in orange and blue markers instead of green and yellow.
Recap function. You can use the Recap function at the game end to check your answers. This will allow you to see your past gameplay.
Secret word. If you didn't guess a secret word, you can see it at the top of the game over screen.
Dictionary
Similarly to all games, Hurdle has limitations regarding the words that appear in their puzzles. So why do these limitations exist?
The game's dictionary includes 15 000 permissible words that are specific to wordle-based games. However, it's been estimated that there are over one million words in the English language.
Additionally, the number of words in the English language is constantly changing – as new words are adopted, others become obsolete. For this reason, unfortunately, we are unable to create a dictionary that accounts for all words in the English language.
The words that are available in the dictionary are also limited to all 5-letter words in the database,
seeing as Hurdle is limited to 5-letter words in its design.
Using Gems
The Hurdle now allows gems to help you guess the word of the day! Three different helping options can be accessed by using gems.
There are three different types of help that you can use:
Clue. The clue will display a clue about the target word. You can guess what it is through a short description.
Remove. Remove will turn three letters of the keyboard gray, improving your chances of guessing the correct ones.
Reveal. Reveal will reveal one of the letters in the word, helping you with the total result.
Archive Puzzles
Regular players can access each day's Hurdle game, and if you register a free account with Arkadium, you'll be able to access yesterday's game in case you've missed it.
30-Day Archive. However, Arkadium Plus subscribers can access an exclusive full archive of the past 30 days of Hurdle word puzzles.
Tips
1. Make Your First Guess Count
Start with a five-letter word containing five different letters and a good mix of common vowels and consonants. Words such as CRANE, SLATE, TRACE, RAISE, or STARE can reveal more information than vowel-heavy or duplicate-letter openings. The goal of the first guess is to quickly establish which letters are worth pursuing.
2. Turn Every Tile Into Information
Treat the color feedback as a set of rules, not suggestions. Green letters stay in their positions, yellow letters must be moved, and gray letters should generally be eliminated. Keep checking the on-screen keyboard as you work, and don't waste guesses repeating letters or positions that have already been ruled out.
3. Build the Word, Don't Just Chase Letters
Once several letters are confirmed, stop prioritizing unexplored letters and start looking for a plausible word pattern. Consider common beginnings, endings, vowel positions, and letter combinations rather than randomly rearranging what you know. Don't assume the answer must be singular or follow another grammatical pattern—let the available positions and feedback determine the candidates.
4. Think Twice About Duplicate Letters
A solution can contain the same letter more than once, so don't automatically discard a word because a known letter appears twice. Pay particular attention when your guess contains duplicate copies: if one receives green or yellow feedback while another is gray, the gray tile can mean there isn't another copy of that letter in the answer.
5. Know When to Solve and When to Test
If only a few candidates remain, an elimination guess can be worthwhile when it tests several competing possibilities at once. However, don't sacrifice a likely solution simply to gather more information—especially with only one or two guesses remaining. Hurdle rewards efficient solving, so once the answer is sufficiently constrained, go for the solution rather than continuing to explore.
6. Save Your Best Analysis for the Final Hurdle
The final Hurdle gives you the four previous answers as starting rows but only two additional attempts, making careful analysis especially important. Combine all the information from those rows, including greens, yellows, eliminated letters, and duplicate-letter possibilities, before entering your first guess. If you're stuck, Hurdle's Clue, Remove, and Reveal Gems can reduce uncertainty, while archived puzzles and Recap provide useful practice for recognizing patterns and avoiding wasted guesses.
Using the Bot
If you're having trouble with the Hurdle puzzle, you can always use our bot when stuck on a word.
Our bot is accessible through the "Chat With Us" button in our website, or the question mark chat icon on the lower right of the Support Portal.
When using the bot, first type "I am playing Hurdle" so that the bot has context to your query. Then, you can ask it a question.
Scoring
The game has four regular Hurdles and a final Hurdle that is prefilled with answers and only has two guesses.
General formula. If a player completes a Hurdle:
Final Score = 1000 + (100 * Number of Empty Lines) + Winning Bonus
The number of Empty Lines. There are six lines in the Hurdle game, and the maximum number of empty lines is five since a player needs at least 1 line to guess a word.
Winning Bonus. Winning the whole game gives a 4000 points bonus.
EXAMPLE: player guesses the word on the first try. His score will be 1000 + (100*5) = 1500 pointsNOTE: for Hurdles 2-4, the first guess is pre-filled so the maximum number of emty lines for these Hurdles is 4. For Hurdle 5 the first four guesses are pre-filled so if the player gets it correct on the first guess, it counts as if he got it on the fifth line: 1000 + (1 * 100) = 1100 points
General formula. If a player loses the game:
Final Score = 10 * Number of Yellow Letters on the Keyboard + 20 * Number of Green Letters on the Keyboard.
EXAMPLE: player end the game with 2 green and 1 yellow letter. His score will be (10 * 1) + (20 * 2) = 50 points
Hard Mode. If a player chooses the hard difficulty of the game, his Final Score will be multiplied by 1.5.
The Maximum possible score: 1500 points for the first Hurdle + 1400 points for the second Hurdle + 1400 points for the third Hurdle + 1400 points for the fourth Hurdle + 1100 points for the final Hurdle + 4000 bonus points = 10800 (Normal mode)
NOTE: in hard mode your score will be multiplied by 1.5 so the highest score in hard mode is 10800 * 1.5 = 16200 points