How to play LinkedIn Crossclimb

LinkedIn Crossclimb turns a handful of trivia clues into a word ladder. Each clue has a word as its answer, and the answers arrange into an order where every word differs from the one next to it by a single letter. Solving the clues is half the puzzle; finding the order that makes the ladder hold is the other half.

The top and bottom rungs behave differently from the rest. They finish the ladder instead of sitting inside it, so they unlock only once the words between them are settled. If you like trivia and the fiddly pleasure of one-letter changes in equal measure, this is the LinkedIn game for you.

The rules

1. Every rung of the ladder is the answer to a trivia clue.
2. Two words next to each other differ by exactly one letter.
3. You arrange the answers yourself until that chain holds all the way down.
4. The top and bottom rungs finish the ladder and unlock at the end.
5. The clues can be solved in any order; only the finished ladder has to line up.

How a game goes, step by step

1. Solve every clue you are sure of first, wherever it sits in the ladder, and write the answers down without worrying yet about their order.
2. Look through what you have for two answers that differ by a single letter. A pair like that almost certainly sits side by side, so use it as an anchor.
3. Build outward from your anchors. Once three or four rungs are in a row, the gaps stop being cold clues and become a much easier question: which single-letter change bridges two words you already have?
4. Leave the top and bottom rungs alone until the middle is settled. They complete the ladder, so the words around them are what tell you which change could possibly finish it.
5. Read the finished stack through once from top to bottom, checking one letter at a time, before you call it done.

Three tips for your first games

• A clue you cannot crack is not a wall. The one-letter rule often hands you the answer once both of its neighbors are in place.
• Every answer has the same number of letters, since changing one letter never makes a word longer or shorter. That alone rules out a lot of otherwise tempting answers.
• Work the middle outward instead of top down. The order the rungs are drawn in has nothing to do with the order they become solvable.

Ready for more? Read the Crossclimb strategy guide