How to Play Garden Path

Garden Path is a free daily word game. Solve three new puzzles every day, easy, medium and hard, by chaining common words along a winding garden path around a hidden theme word. No app to install and no account needed.

The basics

Every Garden Path puzzle is one continuous chain of ordinary words winding across the board like a path through a garden. You are given a numbered clue for each word in the chain. Type your answer into the highlighted squares, and correct answers lock in green as soon as the last letter lands.

Three rules shape every board:

• Each word connects to the next one at a shared letter, so solving any word gives you a free letter in its neighbor.
• Words alternate between running horizontally and running vertically as the path turns its corners.
• One horizontal word is the theme word, and every other answer is chosen to relate to it.

The three daily difficulties

A fresh set of three puzzles is published every day at midnight Eastern Time. They share no answers and can be played in any order.

Easy

The shortest path, four or five words. The theme word is already filled in on the board when you start, so you can see straight away what the puzzle is about and use it as a running hint.

Medium

A longer path of six or seven words. The theme word is still shown from the start, but the clues lean harder on wordplay and the words themselves are less obvious.

Hard

Seven or eight words, and the theme word is hidden. Its squares start blank, and you can only fill it in once you have solved enough of the words crossing it to guess what it is. Because every clue is written to evoke the hidden theme, working out the theme word early is usually the fastest way through the whole board.

Tips for getting unstuck

1. Start with the theme word if it is visible. Every other answer relates to it, so it narrows the field on every clue at once.
2. Work outward from anything you have solved. The shared letters are the whole point of the chain, and one confirmed word often cracks both of its neighbors.
3. Count the squares. The clue panel shows each answer's length, which rules out most of the near-misses your first instinct throws up.
4. You cannot lose. There is no guess limit and no timer counting against you, so trying a letter costs nothing.

Streaks, badges and your garden

Solving puzzles earns collectible coins, kept in the Your Garden panel. Each difficulty tracks its own streak of consecutive days, and there is a fourth streak for solving all three puzzles in the same day, which the game calls a Daily Sweep. Streaks run on Eastern Time calendar days and reset if you miss one.

Coins also come from lifetime totals, from puzzles built on a particular theme, from playing very late at night or very early in the morning, from being the first player in the world to solve a given day, and from sharing the game with someone who then solves a puzzle themselves. A coin's metal shows the difficulty it came from, bronze for easy, silver for medium and gold for hard, and its colored ring shows how rare it is.

Frequently asked questions

Is Garden Path free?

Yes. Garden Path is free to play, with no account to create and no app to download. Everything is playable in a web browser on phone, tablet or desktop.

How many puzzles are there each day?

Three: one easy, one medium and one hard. A new set is published every day at midnight Eastern Time, and solving all three in one day is called a Daily Sweep.

How is Garden Path different from a crossword?

A crossword fills a fixed grid from a list of independent clues. Garden Path is a single winding chain: each answer links to the next at a shared letter, the words alternate between horizontal and vertical, and the whole path is built around one theme word that ties every answer together.

What is the theme word?

One word that the whole puzzle is built around. On easy and medium it is filled in on the board from the start and acts as a hint for the answers crossing it. On hard it is blank, and you reveal it by solving the words that cross it.

Which direction do the words run?

All four. Words read left to right or right to left, and top to bottom or bottom to top, because the path doubles back on itself as it winds. You do not have to track this yourself: each clue shows a small arrow for the way its answer runs, and once you select it your letters follow the path automatically.

Do I need to create an account?

No. Progress, streaks and badges are stored against an anonymous id in your browser and on the server, so there is nothing to sign up for. Playing in a private window means a new id each visit, so streaks will not carry over.

How do streaks work?

Each difficulty keeps its own streak, plus a fourth for solving all three in a day. A streak counts consecutive Eastern Time calendar days, and missing a day resets it.

What are the badges?

Collectible coins awarded for streaks, lifetime totals, solving a puzzle on a particular theme, playing very early or very late, being the first person in the world to solve a given day, and sharing the game with someone who then solves it. They are kept in the Your Garden panel.