Guess Ladder needs no installation and no account. One person opens a lobby, everyone else types in a four-character code, and two minutes later you are playing. This page walks through what happens on the way there — and what comes afterwards.
Joining is just as simple: enter a name, put the code in the field next to it, press "Join". You can be anything from two to eight people, depending on the mode — Duel is built for exactly two, and Word Spy needs at least four.
| Situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| You are playing for the first time | Guess Ladder — explains itself in one round |
| Not everyone has arrived yet | Rush — five minutes, nobody waits |
| The group knows each other well | Trust me (not) or Rate it |
| Six of you around one table | Word Spy — it lives on the argument |
| There are only two of you | Duel |
| You want to learn something on the side | Library |
A complete list with all the rules is on the All game modes page.
Everyone plays on their own device — phone, tablet or laptop, and mixing them is no problem. Everyone sees the same board in real time, but nobody sees what the others are typing. It is only revealed once the time is up.
Sound can be muted with the speaker icon at the top left. "Leave" gets you out of a running match at any time.
It happens on a train, in a basement, or when someone accidentally closes the tab. Guess Ladder holds your place for two minutes. During that time the game carries on for everyone else, but you do not count as eliminated — come back and you are on your square again, with your score and your mode intact.
The round does not wait for you, though. Questions you miss count as unanswered.
Every match ends on a podium, and anyone standing on it earns coins:
| Group size | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| solo | 100 | – | – |
| 2 players | 100 | 50 | – |
| 3 players | 200 | 100 | 50 |
| 4 to 8 players | 300 | 100 | 50 |
You can also watch a short ad clip in the shop and get 100 coins for it. That is voluntary and capped — there is no way to farm coins endlessly.
There is exactly one thing to spend coins on: playing pieces. The shop has more than twenty, from cheap to absurdly expensive. The snake costs 50 coins, the shark 100, the dragon 500. Higher up it gets ambitious — the astronaut is 3,000, the samurai 5,500, and Einstein costs 10,000 coins.
Skins only change how your piece looks. No skin gives you an advantage in play.
Not to play. Without one you can do everything: create a lobby, join, play every mode, win.
You only need an account to keep coins and skins. They are stored on the account — without one they are gone once you close the page. Registering asks for an email address, a display name and a password; nothing else. Details are in the privacy policy.
No. There are no purchases, no subscriptions, no pro version and no feature behind a paywall. Every mode, every skin and every Library topic is open to everyone.
In the browser on anything with a reasonably current browser — iPhone, Android, iPad, Mac, Windows. There is also a Guess Ladder app for iPhone and iPad. Mixed groups work fine: app players and browser players sit in the same lobby.
The FAQ covers what comes up most often. If something is missing or broken, write to support@guessladder.ch.