Each of the clues gives a four-letter word as an answer. In clue order, these words are:
- REAM
- HUNK
- FEAT
- REAL
- FLEX
- HALL
- BEAT
- FEET
- HELL
- HEAL
- FEED
- HULK
- HANK
- HAND (given)
- DEAD
- DEED
- FLED
- FREE
- BOOT
- FOOT (given)
- BOAT
- FRET
Noticing a lot of similar letters among these words, it makes sense to form them into a chain, where each word differs in one letter from the previous word. The given blanks suggest there will be three locations where unclued words must be. The full chain is as follows:
- HAND
- HANK
- HUNK
- HULK
- ????
- HALL
- HELL
- HEAL
- REAL
- REAM
- ????
- DEAD
- DEED
- FEED
- FLED
- FLEX
- ????
- FREE
- FRET
- FEET
- FEAT
- BEAT
- BOAT
- BOOT
- FOOT
Assuming that the question marks must represent valid words, they must be HULL, READ, and FLEE. The only remaining step is the extraction. Each word is part of two transformations – for example, HULL is part of the K>L transformation from HULK and the U>A transformation to HALL. Taking the new letter from each of the two transformations for each of the three unclued words gives the six letter answer LADDER, which is very appropriate, given that this type of puzzle is often called a word ladder.