Apss Rowd, The Last Word, and Dead Letters are in the DLE Directory now. I opened all three today and left the first guess blank, because I wanted to know which one I would actually start tomorrow, not which one I could finish in a review tab.
Apss Rowd makes the alphabet do the talking
I opened Apss Rowd on an empty four-letter row. Zero guesses. The legend is already the whole joke: green if the letter is right, blue if it is too early in the alphabet, orange if it is too late. That is not Wordle paint. You are walking letters toward a password that is not a real word, using anagrams of words that are.
I did not type a guess. The first squares stayed white, which is how I like to leave a daily I have not earned yet. What I like, and this is taste, is that a real word is the wrong kind of clever here. You have to scramble something legal into something that only works as a password. I would open this when I want a short sit that still makes me think about order, not just which letters are in.
The Last Word only lets you press submit once
The Last Word gives you a shared four-letter start and three empty rows that get longer: five, six, seven. Each new word has to keep every letter you already used and add one more, in any order. Submit is once for the whole set. I left the new rows empty. I was not going to burn the only send on a review.
The friction I sat with is the commit. You can shuffle in your head as long as you want, but you only get one press. There is a stretch if the shorter words do not sit inside the longer ones in the same order. I would come back for that one-shot, not for an unlimited anagram toy.
Dead Letters punishes the letter you start with
Dead Letters is the one I would not describe by today’s starting word. You get a dated pile of letters and you have to make five words. After each one, its first letter is dead and cannot start another. You cannot cash in the starting word itself. I typed nothing. Highest score on my board was still zero.
You can reset and try again, which is a different kind of daily than The Last Word’s one submit. Undead Mode sits next to it if you want the letters to come back and hunt without a score. I would take the five-word run when I want a board I can rework, and leave Undead Mode for a longer night.
Which of these should you try first?
If I only had one sit tonight, I would take The Last Word, because one submit makes the day feel like a day. I would take Apss Rowd when I want a four-letter hunt that is not green-yellow-gray, and Dead Letters when I want a board I can reset until the five words sit right. All three play in a browser without an account.
FAQ
Are all three games updated daily?
Yes. Each play page labels today’s date. Apss Rowd is a shared password. The Last Word is a shared four-letter start. Dead Letters is a shared starting word.
Do these games require an account?
No. I opened all three without a sign-in. Here’s What You Do lets you log in later if you want stats saved.
Is Apss Rowd just Wordle with extra colors?
No. The password is an anagram of a real four-letter word, but it is not a real word itself. Guesses have to be anagrams too. Blue and orange tell you whether a letter is too early or too late in the alphabet.
Can I submit The Last Word more than once?
No. You fill a five, a six, and a seven, then submit once. All three have to sit in the game’s dictionary.
Is Undead Mode the daily in Dead Letters?
No. The daily is five scored words, and each starting letter dies. Undead Mode brings letters back, has no five-word limit, and does not score.
Conclusion
I left Apss Rowd with four white squares, The Last Word with empty longer rows, and Dead Letters at zero. That is enough. I would come back for the one-shot grow when I want a day I cannot undo, the password when I want the alphabet to argue with me, and the five dead letters when I want a board I can reset.