A complete guide: a hidden word from a category, letters on the on-screen keyboard, six allowed mistakes, scoring and win streak, controls on muta.pro and tips for beginners.
Hangman is a classic word-guessing game. The computer thinks of a word, and you open it one letter at a time by calling letters of the alphabet. Your task is to reveal the whole word before six mistakes pile up: every miss adds to the gallows drawing. Guess the word in time — a win; six wrong letters — a loss.
At the start of a round a random word is chosen from one of eight categories: Animals, Cities, Objects, Nature, Food, Professions, Sport and Space. The current category is shown on a gold label above the field — it's the main hint about what has been hidden. The word itself is shown as dashes — one per letter. You can play solo against the computer or in pairs, setting a word for a friend.
The hidden word is shown as dashes — each marks one concealed letter. From the row length and the category you can already start guessing.
Click a letter on the on-screen keyboard (A–Z) or just press it on your physical keyboard. You cannot call the same letter twice.
If the letter is in the word, it opens in gold at all its positions at once. No mistake is counted and your turn continues.
If the letter is not in the word, it's a miss. A part is added to the gallows drawing (head, body, arm, arm, leg, leg, face), and the letter goes to the "Misses" panel.
You may make at most 6 mistakes (MAX_MISS=6). The "Mistakes 0 / 6" counter and the ♥ hearts show how many lives remain before you lose.
Reveal every letter — "🎉 You win!". Reach six mistakes — "💀 Defeat", and the word is revealed in red. Then you can start a new round.
A win earns points by the formula (remaining lives) × 10 — the fewer mistakes you made, the higher the reward. In parallel a win streak is kept: it grows with each game won and resets on a loss. On the right is the player card with the score and a "streak N" line, so you can compete over who builds the longer chain of guessed words.
First call the common vowels — E, A, O, I. They're in almost every word and quickly set its skeleton.
After vowels try the workhorse consonants — N, T, S, R, L. They open many positions and rarely miss.
The "Reveal a letter" button costs a life. Keep it for a last resort, when the word is almost assembled but one letter won't come.
The gold label narrows the pool of words. Knowing it's, say, "Space", makes it easier to guess rare letters like J or Q.
Hangman isn't blind guessing but managing probability. You have six lives, and you should spend them on letters that statistically appear more often in English words. The rough frequency order is: E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, L. If you open letters in exactly this order, you'll build the word's skeleton at almost no risk.
A common "R" has been opened in the second position — you can already see the word has five letters and R stands after the first one.
E, A, O, I cover almost any word and immediately give its rhythm. Three or four vowels in place and only the consonant skeleton is left to guess.
N, T, S, R, H, L open many positions in one move and rarely miss. These are the "cheapest" letters by risk.
J, Q, Z, X, K try only when the skeleton is built and the rest of the word clearly points to them. Until then they're a waste of a life.
As soon as a few letters open, the word stops being a riddle and becomes a pattern. From the positions and the category your brain fills in options faster than scanning the alphabet. Look not at the empty dashes but at what's already there and where.
The pattern "C O _ M _ S" with the "Space" category reads almost unambiguously as "COSMOS" — just finish closing it.
English has many typical tails: -ing, -tion, -ness, -ly, -ed. An opened next-to-last letter often gives away the whole ending at once.
After an opened consonant think of frequent combos: ST, TR, NN, LL, CK. The "Professions" and "Cities" categories are rich in them.
The gold label is half the answer. Knowing it's "Animals", you more boldly try rare J, X, Z, which are dangerous in other themes.
On muta.pro Hangman lives in two formats: solo against the computer and two-player by room code, where the second player watches the guessing. The round economy is simple — points equal remaining lives × 10, so every saved life is worth ten points and pushes the win streak up.
The "💡 Reveal a letter" button uncovers a random letter but costs one life — that is, minus 10 points from the possible total. Press it only when the round is surely lost without it.
The streak grows with each win and resets on a loss. On hard words it's sometimes better to play safe and keep a long chain than risk it for a few extra points.
Type letters on the physical keyboard, not with the mouse on buttons. On long words this saves seconds and lowers the chance of accidentally pressing the wrong letter.
You almost always lose Hangman not because of a hard word but because of the order of moves. A miss isn't bad luck, it's a letter called at the wrong time. Let's go over the typical life leaks.
This is what a beginner's "Misses" panel looks like: four lives spent on rare letters instead of vowels.