PUZZLE #439 · OCT 26, 2026
GAIN to POOP.
5 moves. 3 equally short routes. Here is one way through.
- STARTgainYour starting word
- 01lainG → L
- 02loinA → O
- 03loonI → O
- 04loopN → P
- 05poopL → P · Made it!
The first move matters.
GAIN has 19 valid one-letter neighbors in this dictionary. 3 of them can begin a shortest path:
LAINPAINRAIN
Each of these leaves 4 moves to POOP. The other 16 neighbors are valid moves too, but cannot reach the target in the minimum from this starting word.
Follow the changes
The highlighted letter beside each step shows exactly which position changed. The sequence above is computed from the same dictionary as the game. Other shortest routes can take different intermediate words.
Compare routes in the solver →Explore shortest alternatives (3 total)
Showing 3 of 3 paths.
GAIN → LAIN → LOIN → LOON → LOOP → POOP
GAIN → PAIN → PAIS → POIS → POOS → POOP
GAIN → RAIN → ROIN → ROON → ROOP → POOP