The Daily puzzle

One word search, the same for every player in the world, new every day. It's the heart of Spellhunt, and it's made to fit into a couple of minutes.

10×10grid, Medium difficulty
9 wordsin all 8 directions
60 secondsuntimed bonus round after
Fridaysare Zigzag days

When a new Daily arrives

A new Daily unlocks at midnight where you are. The Today tab shows it as the biggest card on the screen, with a countdown to the next one once you've solved it. If your phone fetched the puzzle overnight, it opens instantly, even with no signal.

Everyone who plays in English gets the same grid, the same theme and the same words that day. That's what makes comparing times with friends fair.

Zigzag Fridays

Most Dailies are classic straight-line puzzles. Friday's Daily is a Zigzag puzzle: each word bends once or twice as it winds through neighboring letters, up, down, left or right, never diagonally. Everyone gets the same twist, so rankings stay fair. The puzzle modes guide has tips for reading bent words.

How the clock works

The Daily is timed, but gently:

The clock starts on your first touch of the grid, not when the puzzle appears. Read the word list for as long as you like first.
If you leave the app, take a call or lock your phone, the clock pauses.
The clock stops the moment you find the last word on the list.

Every ranked time is checked on our server before it counts, so the board is one you can trust. Very fast times that look unusual are shown with a dotted "Under review" mark until someone checks them, rather than being hidden.

The bonus round

When the clock stops, a bonus round opens: up to 60 seconds with no pressure at all. One bonus word is hidden in every Daily. It isn't on the list, and it names the theme or its most famous member. Find it for 500 points. Any other real word of four letters or more counts as an extra word too.

Nothing in the bonus round can change your time. Tap Done whenever you like. If you happen to swipe the bonus word before the clock stops, it still counts.

Your result and percentile

Your result shows your time and how it compares. Once at least 100 players have solved that day's Daily, you see something like "Faster than 83% of 2,400 solvers today". Earlier in the day, before there are 100 solves, Spellhunt compares you with yesterday's players instead and says so. The number refreshes when you come back to the app, so it may shift as the day goes on.

Guests can play every Daily. To get a ranked time, and to appear on the friends board and in leagues, sign in with Apple. It takes a few seconds, and Spellhunt asks only for an email address, which can be Apple's Hide My Email address.

After the Daily you can share a card with your time, your percentile, your streak and one small mark per word in the order you found them: one kind for a clean find, one for a word you needed a hint for, one for the bonus word. Nothing on the card shows a letter, a position or the word list, so it never spoils the puzzle for a friend who hasn't played.

You can also save a Solve Replay: a short vertical video of your swipes played back at speed, with letters blurred until each word is found, ending on your share card. Share it anywhere, or send it straight to Instagram Stories. More on sharing in playing with friends.

Playing offline

You can play the Daily with no connection. Your solve is saved and sent when you're back online, and your rank updates then. If the Daily never reached your phone, Spellhunt asks you to connect once to unlock it.

Past Dailies

Missed a day? The Past Dailies list on Today lets you play the last seven Dailies for free. Spellhunt Plus opens every past Daily. A past Daily is solved for fun: it shows your time but isn't ranked against other players.

If you'd rather not be timed

Turn on Relax mode in Settings and the Daily hides the clock and rankings while you play. Your time is still saved. When you finish, Spellhunt asks "See how you compared?" and shows your result only if you say yes.

Updated 30 September 2026.