A word codebreaker game with two honest counts

How to play Cipher Hatch

The hidden password is one familiar five-letter English word from a deliberately small, hand-written list. Type with a physical keyboard or tap the on-screen keys. When all five dials show letters, submit the word. A guess must be exactly five letters and must belong to the built-in list, so random strings cannot waste a turn. You have six accepted guesses before the mechanism seals.

1. Begin with a word that uses five different letters.
2. Read both counts after the word enters the ledger.
3. Change letters or positions to test one clear idea.
4. Align all five dials before the sixth accepted guess ends.

The game starts instantly, stores no account, and works without a download. For a compact reference you can keep open beside the board, read the full rules and clue example.

Read the two-count clue

Each accepted guess returns two totals. The gold exact count tells you how many letters already occupy their correct dials. The violet elsewhere count tells you how many additional letters appear in the password but sit on different dials. The game never points to a particular letter. You must compare whole guesses and decide which change produced the new totals.

Repeated letters are counted fairly. A letter cannot earn more credit than the password actually contains. If your guess uses two copies of a letter and the password holds only one, at most one copy contributes to either count. Exact matches are removed first, then remaining letters are checked for elsewhere matches. That order keeps every clue consistent and makes careful deduction possible.

Plan a six-try deduction

A strong opening tests breadth rather than chasing a lucky answer. Start with five distinct letters. If the two counts add to zero, all five can be excluded. If they add to three, three letters belong somewhere in the password, whether or not any currently sit correctly. On the next guess, preserve useful letters while introducing a few new ones. A change in the totals reveals whether your experiment helped.

Later turns should test position. Reorder known letters while holding other choices steady. If the exact count rises, at least one moved letter reached its dial. If the exact count falls while the combined total stays constant, the same letters still belong but a former position was better. The ledger remains visible so you can compare evidence instead of relying on memory.

Why count-only clues feel different

Many word puzzles reveal information letter by letter. Cipher Hatch keeps the clue at the level of the whole mechanism. That small change turns every accepted word into an experiment: choose a set of letters, predict what the counts might mean, and refine the next test. The neutral letter dials never use colored cells to label individual answers, so the interface supports the rule instead of leaking extra information.

Sessions are short enough for a coffee break but structured enough to reward notes and deliberate comparison. The responsive controls fit a narrow phone in portrait orientation, while the desktop layout places the dial console beside the full ledger. Keyboard focus, descriptive labels, an aria-live message, and reduced-motion support keep the core loop usable across different input needs.