What is the new Password Game sweeping the internet – and how do you win?

Remember Wordle? Those were the days. Now, there’s another game in town: the Password Game.

Developed by creative coder Neal Agarwal (AKA Neal Fun), the game was released on Tuesday, 27 June, but it already looks set to flood our social media feeds.

Could it become the game of the summer in the same way Wordle did? You’ll need to know the rules first. Here’s how to play.

How to play the Password Game

It’s a relatively basic premise. You must create a unique password that satisfies a set of criteria laid out by the game. Simple enough?

But here’s where it starts getting tricky: once you move past one of the criteria – called rules in the game – another one is added.

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Mercifully, your password isn’t fixed, so you can change it as the game goes on, but it will need to satisfy all of the rules to win.

Those rules ain’t getting any simpler though. Let’s just say the finished product is a little… complex.

Struggling with rule 16? Us too

One thing that makes the Password Game particularly difficult is that it brings in elements of other games.

When you get to rule 16, for example, you’re asked to include the “best move in algebraic chess notation”.

Now this is a tough one, because many people didn’t even know that chess notation existed before watching The Queen’s Gambit, let alone use it to solve a problem.

This is what seems to have stumped many on social media so far, and a number of people appear to have given up at this point.

If that’s you, never fear. We’ve got some pointers on how to beat this devilish game below.

Password Game rule 16 tips and beyond

Those flummoxed by rule 16 will be disappointed to know that it’s not even the halfway point. There are 35 rules for the Password Game.

They begin with the usual prompts that you might get when making an actual password online – think adding special characters, numbers – but they grow more cryptic.

If you don’t play chess, finding the best move might seem like an insurmountable challenge, let alone describing it with notation.

But generally speaking, you should try to attack the opponent by placing their king in “check”, or by taking one of their pieces.

Once you’ve done that, the notation is relatively simple. If a king moves to the g7 square, it would be Kg7. If a bishop went to e4, you’d write Be4. If you’re putting them in check, add the plus symbol (+), and if you think you’ve got a checkmate, add the hashtag (#). Nice work, genius.

Here are a few more pointers

For rule 5, where the digits in your password must add up to 25, you should use digits 1-9 only and don’t add signs.

On rule 9, where the Roman numbers in your password should multiply to 35, the most common answer seems to be XXXV and I (35 x 1).

And on rule 15, where the password must include a leap year, bear in mind that leap years are evenly divisible by four. So: 1996, 2000, 2004, 2020 and 2024.

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