October 2026 gave Poople thirty-one daily word ladders, from #413 TEES on October 1 to #443 FUSE on October 31. Between them, they were solved 129,668 times, about two and a half times the 50,837 solves in September’s report. This report covers how October compared with September, which puzzles were hardest and easiest, and what the hard ones had in common. For every puzzle so far ranked in one list, see the hardest Poople puzzles page.
The short version: a smaller share of solves matched par than in September, 22.2% against 30.8%, and the median solve took 23 seconds longer. The hardest puzzle was the last one of the month, FUSE, at 3.7% on par, and its only shortest route runs through POME, the same word behind three of September’s hardest puzzles.
October at a Glance
| Measure | October 2026 | September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Daily puzzles | 31 (#413 to #443) | 30 (#383 to #412) |
| Recorded solves | 129,668 | 50,837 |
| Solves that matched par | 22.2% | 30.8% |
| Solves within one step of par | 39.8% | 48.3% |
| Median steps over par | 2 | 2 |
| Median solve time | 1 minute 59 seconds | 1 minute 36 seconds |
| Solves finished in under a minute | 28.5% | 35.1% |
| Median puzzle, share of solves on par | 17.7% | 23.6% |
| Hardest puzzle | #443 FUSE, 3.7% on par | #404 WHEN, 2.7% |
| Easiest puzzle | #439 CYAN, 64.5% on par | #399 DUTY, 85.7% |
Every solve figure here comes from finished daily puzzles, and facts about neighbors and routes come from the game’s dictionary. How the data is collected is summarized in How These Numbers Are Collected.
Was October Harder?
By the measure this series uses, yes. Each dot below is one puzzle, placed by the share of its solves that matched par.
The median October puzzle saw 17.7% of its solves match par, against 23.6% in September. The two months still overlap a lot: 11 of October’s 31 puzzles finished above September’s median of 23.6%, including CYAN and #436 ITEM.
The drop shows up within puzzles of the same par. The median par 5 puzzle fell from 25.9% on par in September to 18.4% in October, and the median par 6 puzzle from 20.7% to 8.6%. Six of October’s eleven par 6 puzzles finished under 9%. Longer ladders do not account for it. October had six puzzles with a par of 7 or more, against two in September, and their median was 23.5% in September and 23.4% in October, above October’s median puzzle.
The puzzle features we track look much the same in both months: nine puzzles with a single shortest route in each, and a similar number of start words with a misleading neighbor. That leaves two explanations this data cannot separate. October’s puzzles may have been harder in ways these measures miss, or who was solving changed as daily solves kept growing.
How Many Steps Over Par
Par is the fewest possible steps from the start word to POOP, so matching it means you found a shortest ladder. If the idea is new to you, what is a word ladder walks through the rules.
Matching par was still the most common single result, at 22.2% of solves, and another 17.6% finished one step over. The median solve finished two steps over par, the same as in September. The tail grew a little: 9.3% of solves took ten or more extra steps, against 7.5% in September. The strategy guide covers the habit that keeps those detours short, which is planning backward from POOP.
How Long a Daily Ladder Takes
The clock starts at your first keypress and stops at the winning word.
The median October solve took 1 minute 59 seconds. A quarter of solves were done within 53 seconds and 28.5% inside a minute, while 90% were finished by 8 minutes 36 seconds. 8.0% of solves with a recorded time ran past ten minutes, up from 5.9% in September.
Puzzle to puzzle, the median ran from 1 minute 2 seconds on CYAN to 6 minutes 30 seconds on #420 OMEN, the month’s longest ladder at par 9. The four slowest puzzles all had a par of 7 or more. One of them, #440 CRUX, stands out for another reason. CRUX has exactly one neighbor, CRUD, and its solves had a median of 17 invalid entries, the most of the month. An invalid entry is a word the game rejects. Even so, 29.0% of its solves matched par, above the median puzzle.
The Hardest Puzzle: FUSE
Only 115 of the 3,125 solves of #443 FUSE matched its par of six, which is 3.7%. The most common result was one step over, at 953 solves.
FUSE has five neighbors. MUSE, FUME and FUSS are exactly as far from POOP as FUSE is, and FUZE is further. Only RUSE moves closer. From there the ladder runs RUSE, ROSE, POSE, and then it reaches the trap described in September’s report. Four of POSE’s neighbors, POKE, POLE, POPE and PORE, keep the P and the O in place and look like progress, and none of them is any closer to POOP. The one that is closer is POME, a botanical word for fruit like apples and pears. The whole ladder is FUSE, RUSE, ROSE, POSE, POME, POMP, POOP, and it is the only six-step route. The word ladder solver shows it for any start word you enter.
That is the panel on FUSE’s answer page, which rounds to whole percents. Its total is two lower than ours because the answer page takes its snapshot when the next puzzle goes live, and two more solves arrived after that.
FUSE is now the second-hardest of the 70 puzzles measured since late August, behind only WHEN. In September, POME sat on every shortest route of #397 RISK, #409 RISE and #391 HYPE. It is still one of the most useful words to know in this game.
The day before FUSE, #442 FUSS, one letter different, finished at 7.3% on par, third-hardest of the month. FUSS has eight shortest routes, all starting with CUSS, MUSS or SUSS, and a tempting neighbor that goes nowhere, which is the subject of the next section.
The P Words That Lead Nowhere
POOP starts with P, so a move that puts a P in front looks like progress. The hardest puzzles page found that this move often gains nothing, and October added five more examples.
| Puzzle | On par | P word that gets no closer | Move that does |
|---|---|---|---|
| #426 MICS | 5.8% | PICS | MISS |
| #442 FUSS | 7.3% | PUSS | CUSS, MUSS or SUSS |
| #427 LAWN | 9.1% | PAWN | LAIN |
| #441 CART | 9.2% | PART | CARP or CAST |
| #423 TIPS | 11.4% | PIPS | TOPS |
All five finished below October’s median puzzle. In four other October puzzles the P word really does move closer, as PEES does from TEES, and only one of those four, #418 RENT, finished below the median. Nine puzzles is a small sample. Across every puzzle since the end of August, though, 11 of the 12 with a P word like this finished below the median puzzle of that whole archive, 22.2% on par. When a P move looks too easy, check whether it actually brings you closer.
The Easiest Puzzles
CYAN was the easiest puzzle of the month, with 64.5% of solves on par, and also the most-solved, with 7,909 solves. CYAN has exactly one neighbor, CLAN, and CLAN moves closer, so the first move makes itself. September’s easiest puzzle, DUTY, worked the same way.
ITEM came second at 53.8%, and it is a useful counterexample. It has a single shortest route, which in September went with the hardest puzzles. But every word on it is an everyday one: ITEM, STEM, STEP, STOP, SLOP, PLOP, POOP. STEM is one of only two neighbors, and the other, IDEM, moves away.
#428 DOJO was third at 36.0% despite a par of 7. It also has two neighbors, and only MOJO moves closer. The easy end of the month had forced or obvious first moves, as it did in September, though CRUX shows that a forced first move does not guarantee an easy puzzle.
What Predicted Difficulty, Revisited
Here is every October puzzle ranked by how often solves matched par, with par shown by color and the number of distinct shortest routes in the right-hand column.
September’s report found two things and said later reports would check them. The first held up. Par still showed no relationship with the on-par rate, a rank correlation of about zero across October’s 31 puzzles.
The second weakened. In September, puzzles with fewer shortest routes tended to be harder, at a correlation of 0.39. In October it was 0.19. ITEM was easy with one route, while RENT and #425 TINY had eight and eleven routes and were among the five hardest. Across the 70 puzzles from late August through November 3, the figure is 0.25, still a link but a weaker one than the first month suggested. The hardest puzzles page tracks it over the whole archive and is refreshed with each report.
When October Solves Happened
Daily solves were higher in the second half of the month. The median puzzle drew 3,290 solves in the first week and 4,868 over the last ten days. CYAN had the most, at 7,909. The fewest went to #414 ICED, at 1,578, and OMEN, at 1,636, two of the month’s three longest ladders. Only finished games are recorded, so a puzzle with more abandoned games also records fewer solves. This data cannot show how many games were abandoned.
Time of day made little difference to results, as in September. Pooled across the month, the on-par rate for every hour of the day, in US Eastern time, stayed between 20% and 25%.
How These Numbers Are Collected
When you finish the daily puzzle, the game sends one anonymous record of six numbers: the puzzle number, how many moves you used, the par, how many moves over par, how many invalid entries, and the time from your first keypress to your solve. It carries no IP address, account, cookie or device details. Unlimited games are never sent, and a switch on the results screen turns sending off. The privacy policy lists the fields in full. So every count here is a count of solves, never of people, and only finished games are included. We report medians and other percentiles, because they barely move when a few submitted values are extreme.
We screened October for signs of fake submissions. Fewer than one record in a hundred matched another exactly, and the busiest single minute for any puzzle held 20 solves, on CYAN, the month’s most-solved puzzle. The full method, including what it leaves out, is in September’s report.
Try November’s Puzzles
A new ladder goes live every day at 08:00 UTC on Poople. If October’s numbers make you want more practice, Poople Unlimited serves random puzzles on demand without touching your streak. Every past puzzle and its shortest solution is in the answer archive, and the hardest Poople puzzles so far ranks every puzzle from hardest to easiest.
The November report follows in early December, once all of November’s puzzles are in.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the hardest Poople puzzle in October 2026?
#443 FUSE, on October 31. Only 3.7% of its 3,125 solves matched par. Its only shortest route runs through POSE and then POME, a word most ladders never need.
Was October harder than September?
By on-par rate, yes. 22.2% of October solves matched par, against 30.8% in September, and the median puzzle fell from 23.6% to 17.7% on par. The drop shows up within puzzles of the same par, and this data cannot say how much of it came from the puzzles and how much from who was solving.
How long did a daily Poople puzzle take in October 2026?
In October 2026 the median solve took 1 minute 59 seconds from the first keypress. A quarter of solves were done within 53 seconds, and 90% were done by 8 minutes 36 seconds.
How often did a Poople solve match par in October 2026?
22.2% of October 2026 solves matched par exactly, and 39.8% finished within one step of it. The rate varies a lot by puzzle, from 3.7% on FUSE to 64.5% on CYAN.