Mode 1: Recover unknown words from a partially known seed phrase
Mode 1 is the go-to method when you know most of your seed phrase but are missing one or more words. You provide the complete mnemonic with the letter x as a placeholder for each unknown word. wrecover then brute-forces every valid BIP39 word at each unknown position and tests each candidate against the target address.
The mnemonic is passed directly on the command line via -ms. Unknown positions are marked with x (lowercase). wrecover iterates all 2,048 BIP39 words for each unknown slot and validates BIP39 checksum before testing the address — which filters out the vast majority of combinations instantly.
Mode 1 supports GPU acceleration (CUDA and OpenCL) in both the Free and Pro versions. The Free version allows GPU use for up to 3 missing words, enabling you to benchmark your hardware's real-world recovery speed. For 4 or more missing words, the Pro version is required.
Pass the mnemonic as a single quoted string to -ms. Replace each unknown word with the letter x (lowercase). Known words must be valid BIP39 words in the language specified by -wlang.
# One unknown word (position 10)
-ms "abandon ability able about above absent absorb abstract absurd x accident account"
# Two unknown words (positions 5 and 9)
-ms "abandon ability able about x absent absorb abstract x accuse accident account"
# Three unknown words
-ms "abandon ability able x above x absorb abstract absurd accuse x account"
x
The unknown placeholder must be the single lowercase letter x. Any other character (?, *, _, 0, etc.) will be interpreted as a word name and cause a validation error. All other words must be valid BIP39 words.
wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon ability able about above absent absorb abstract absurd x accident account" -addr "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" -wlang en -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password"
wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon ability able about x absent absorb abstract x accuse accident account" -addr "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" -wlang en -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password" -gpu -grid 2048 -gblock 256
wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon x able about x absent absorb abstract x accuse accident account" -addr "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" -wlang en -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password" -gpu -grid 2048 -gblock 256
wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon x able about x absent absorb x absurd x accident account" -addr "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" -wlang en -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password" -gpu -grid 2048 -gblock 256
wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon ability able about x absent absorb abstract absurd accuse accident account" -addr "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" -wlang en -pp "MyPassphrase" -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password"wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon ability able about above absent absorb abstract absurd accuse accident account x able above absent absorb abstract" -addr "0x742d35Cc6634C0532925a3b8D4C9b3f5d7e8a1b2" -wlang en -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password" -gpu -grid 2048 -gblock 256# CPU
wrecover -wi -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password"
# GPU (Pro)
wrecover -wi -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password" -gpu -grid 2048 -gblock 256
wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon ability able about x absent absorb abstract x accuse accident account" -addr "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" -wlang en -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password" -save-only| Option | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
-m 1 | Select Mode 1 | Yes |
-ms "<phrase with x>" | Partial mnemonic — use x for each unknown word | Yes |
-addr <address> | Target blockchain address (type auto-detected) | Yes |
-wlang <code> | BIP39 wordlist language | Yes |
-ws | New search — start and save progress | Yes* |
-wi | Resume from existing work file | Yes* |
-wf <file.wrec> | Work file path | Yes |
-pp <passphrase> | Known BIP39 passphrase, if used | No |
-dpath <path> | Override derivation path (default: auto from address) | No |
-t <N> | CPU threads (Free: max 10; Pro: unlimited) | No |
-gpu | Enable GPU — Free: Mode 1 only, max 3 missing words; Pro: all compatible modes, unlimited | No |
-wp <password> | Encrypt the work file | No |
-save-only | Create work file only, do not start recovery | No |
-startp <N> | Start at combination N (Pro only) | No |
-endp <N> | Stop at combination N (Pro only) | No |
* Use either -ws (new search) or -wi (resume) — not both.
-wlang)| Code | Language |
|---|---|
en | English |
es | Spanish |
fr | French |
it | Italian |
| Address format | Type | Default path |
|---|---|---|
Starts with 1 | Bitcoin Legacy (P2PKH) | m/44'/0'/0'/0 |
Starts with 3 | Bitcoin SegWit P2SH | m/49'/0'/0'/0 |
Starts with bc1q | Bitcoin Native SegWit | m/84'/0'/0'/0 |
Starts with 0x | Ethereum | m/44'/60'/0'/0 |
| Unknown words | Raw combinations | CPU 8 threads (12-word) | Tesla T4 (12-word) | NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 (12-word) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,048 | Instant | Instant | Instant |
| 2 | ~4.2M | ~2–3 min | ~2 sec | Instant |
| 3 | ~8.6B | ~3.6 days | ~55 min | ~4 min |
| 4 | ~17.6T | ~20 years | ~75 days | ~6 days |
| Unknown words | Raw combinations | CPU 8 threads (18-word) | Tesla T4 (18-word) | NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 (18-word) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,048 | Instant | Instant | Instant |
| 2 | ~4.2M | ~40 sec | Instant | Instant |
| 3 | ~8.6B | ~23 h | ~14 min | ~74 sec |
| 4 | ~17.6T | ~5 years | ~20 days | ~2 days |
| Unknown words | Raw combinations | CPU 8 threads (24-word) | Tesla T4 (24-word) | NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 (24-word) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,048 | Instant | Instant | Instant |
| 2 | ~4.2M | ~16 sec | Instant | Instant |
| 3 | ~8.6B | ~9 h | ~7 min | ~1 min |
| 4 | ~17.6T | ~2 years | ~10 days | ~18 h |
| Hardware | 12-word | 18-word | 24-word |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU — per thread (Free & Pro) | 3k–4k seeds/sec | 11k–13k seeds/sec | 30k–32k seeds/sec |
| NVIDIA Tesla T4 (Free & Pro) | ~2.6M seeds/sec | ~9.8M seeds/sec | ~21M seeds/sec |
| NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 (Free & Pro) | ~31.4M seeds/sec | ~117.2M seeds/sec | ~264M seeds/sec |
| N× GPUs (Pro) | Linear scaling: N × single-GPU throughput | ||
3 missing words on a 12-word seed takes ~3.6 days on 8 CPU threads. With a Tesla T4 it takes ~55 minutes — and this GPU acceleration is available in the Free version (Mode 1, max 3 unknowns). For 4+ missing words, the Pro version and GPU acceleration are strongly recommended, along with distributed recovery across multiple machines.
# Create work file once
wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon x able about x absent x abstract x accuse accident account" -addr "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" -wlang en -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password" -save-only
# For manual range splitting (Pro version):
wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon x able about x absent x abstract x accuse accident account" -addr "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" -wlang en -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password" -startp 0 -endp 5000000000 -save-only
wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon x able about x absent x abstract x accuse accident account" -addr "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" -wlang en -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password" -startp 5000000000 -endp 10000000000 -save-only
wrecover -m 1 -ms "abandon x able about x absent x abstract x accuse accident account" -addr "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" -wlang en -ws -wf recovery.wrec -wp "this workfile password" -startp 10000000000 -save-only
One of the known words is not a valid BIP39 word in the selected language, or the count of words (including x placeholders) does not match -l.
Verify the address is correct and the known words are right. If the wallet uses a BIP39 passphrase, you must supply it with -pp. Check the derivation path matches the wallet software used.