Hard crosswords have 13 answers in a grid of up to 12 × 15 squares. The answers are longer, up to 12 letters, and the animals are rarer: beyond the fox and the owl you meet creatures from deserts, reefs and rainforests all over the world. The clues are tricky too: they hint at a habit, a home or a voice instead of naming the animal plainly. Mistakes are not shown as you type, so the crossings are your best check. When you are truly stuck, Help checks or reveals a letter, an answer or the whole grid, without limits, and the help counter keeps an honest tally. Every hard crossword can be printed with its answer sheet.
How to play
Every answer is an animal. Tap a square and read its clue on the label above the keyboard, then type the answer; the cursor moves along the answer and skips the squares already filled. Tap the same square again, or the label, to switch between across and down. A square where two answers cross belongs to both. Help can check or reveal a letter, an answer or the whole grid as often as you like, and the crossword is solved when every square holds the right letter.
Questions about Hard Crossword Puzzles
What makes the hard crossword hard?
It has 13 answers, longer names, tricky clues and rarer animals from all over the world.
Can I get help on a hard crossword?
Yes. Check or reveal a letter, an answer or the whole grid as often as you like.
Crossword puzzles about animals, free to play online on your phone or computer. Read a clue, tap a square and type the answer with the keyboard under the grid — every answer is an animal, from fox to snow leopard. Pick a 5-answer mini, an easy or a hard grid, solve the daily crossword with everyone else, make your own crossword or print any of them.
A crossword rewards an order: start with the answers you are sure of, then let every crossing square give letters to the next.
New to crosswords? Each numbered answer has a clue in the Across or Down list. Tap a square of the answer, type the animal, and the letters land along the answer; a square where two answers cross belongs to both.
Before your next move
Typing a guess over a crossing letter you were sure of breaks two answers at once.
Revealing the whole grid ends the crossword without a win: check one answer first.
Browser edition
Play in your browser. No app download is needed.
Questions about Crossword
Are all answers animals?
Yes. Every crossword in the game is about animals: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians, insects and sea life. Only your own crossword can use other words.
What is the Bestiary?
Every animal you solve joins the Bestiary, a field notebook of the animals you have met, with a card for each.
Does the game keep score?
No. The top bar shows your time, the answers solved and the help you used. Your progress is saved in this browser.
Original ManyPlay game. Controls and examples were checked against the browser edition; cover illustrations are labelled separately from gameplay captures. Report a changed rule or control.
