How to Play BORROW

1. Move letters between words. Each move takes one letter out of one word and puts it into another.
2. Both words must remain real words. You can’t invent letters, throw any away, or rearrange a word freely.
3. Make every word match its clue. The letters on the board are exactly the letters of the answers.

The simplest example: move the E from PLANE to STAR. PLANE becomes PLAN (“A strategy”) and STAR becomes STARE (“Look fixedly”) — one move, both words right.

Tap a letter to pick it up, then tap the word that should receive it — or drag it there. Tapping the left or right half of a letter chooses which side the new letter lands on. If that exact spot wouldn’t make a word, BORROW finds the place in that word where the letter does fit.

Only when a letter fits nowhere is the move refused, and BORROW says why — for example, “The P doesn’t fit anywhere in STAR — every spot makes a non-word.” Refused moves never count.

Undo moves a letter straight back and counts as a move. Shuffle only reorders the words on screen; it never moves a letter. After every move the header tells you whether you’re on the right track.

BORROW’s own solver checks every puzzle before it ships, so “perfect” — solving in the fewest possible moves — is a real number, not a guess. Some puzzles need detours: a letter parked in another word for a move or two before it can reach home.

Hints climb one step at a time, so you can take only as much help as you need:

Explain this clue rephrases a clue and tells you how long its answer is. The daily puzzle allows three hints by default (Settings → Hints can make them unlimited); Practice and the Journey are always unlimited. If you’d rather see the answer, the ••• menu can reveal the solution — a revealed daily doesn’t count toward your streak.

On devices with Apple Intelligence, hints are phrased on the device itself. BORROW decides what each hint may reveal and checks it before you see it; with Apple Intelligence off, the same hints use built-in wording.

Everyone plays the same puzzle on the same date. It changes at midnight where you are and works offline. The week builds from gentle to expert:

Solve on consecutive days to build a streak (hints are fine; revealing isn’t). When you finish, share a card with your moves, hints and time — never the words or the clues. A brand-new player whose first daily is Hard or Expert is offered a few Journey warm-ups first.

Each level opens when you finish the one before it. Six chapters climb steadily:

Earn one star for solving a level, two for solving it in the fewest possible moves, and three for doing that without hints. Replay any level for a better result; replays can only add stars.

Choose Easy, Normal, Hard or Expert, pick one of sixteen themes — food, animals, music, science and more — or just type what you want, like “something easy about the ocean.” Build Fresh makes a brand-new puzzle on your device and proves it solvable before you play.

Signed in to Game Center, you can rank on three daily leaderboards — Today’s BORROW, Fastest Perfect Solve and Fewest Moves — and on all-time boards for perfect solves, your longest streak and Journey stars. Today’s BORROW is your time plus 30 seconds for each move over perfect and 60 seconds for each hint, so a clean solve always beats a helped one.

After solving, Challenge a Friend (iOS 26) sends them to the same puzzle to beat your score. Thirteen achievements track your progress, from First Borrow to Mountaineer. Game Center is optional: the whole game works without it.

Choose a theme and light or dark appearance; turn sound, haptics, animation and right-track feedback on or off; set a daily reminder. BORROW supports VoiceOver — every tile names its letter and position, and letters can be placed exactly — along with Dynamic Type, high contrast and reduced motion.

Questions? Visit BORROW Support.