6 ms·
Things we learned analyzing 515M Wordles
- platelminto 3y agohttps://archive.ph/NnLq8 https://archive.ph/NnLq8
- neonate 3y agohttps://web.archive.org/web/20231217194006/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/17/upshot/wordle-bot-year-in-review.html https://web.archive.org/web/20231217194006/https://www.nytim...
- pstuart 3y agoInteresting that SLATE is the apparent optimum opener. I found a youtube that "showed" that CRANE is mathematically optimal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v68zYyaEmEA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v68zYyaEmEA The second guess (if a low hit count) fleshes out the remaining vowels. My average is 4, followed by 3.
- stoneman24 3y agoMy usual is SALET (high frequency vowels in 2nd and 4th place), followed by CURIO to provide more hints if needed. Then review the information acquired. Usually it’s solved on the 4th attempt, occasionally on the 3rd. Sometimes there are too many options and I bust out. Just my opinion, probably not optimal strategy.
- agubelu 3y agoI do something similar, I always start with RAISE then CLOUT which cover the 10 most common letters. It usually gives good results.
- dekayed 3y agoI start with RAISE as well, but follow up with POUTY to get the Y if I blank on the first round.
- flir 3y agoI go with ATONE GIRLS. Gets me E, T, A, I, N, O, S, R, L, which according to the first link in Google (https://www3.nd.edu/~busiforc/handouts/cryptography/letterfrequencies.html https://www3.nd.edu/~busiforc/handouts/cryptography/letterfr...) is 9 of the 11 most common letters in English.
- bhandziuk 3y agoThey have confirmed that the answer with never be plural so if you have the hope of getting it in 1 guess GIRLS ain't your best guess.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Eisenstein 3y agoI use CURIO but use YEAST instead of SALET to cover all vowels+y, and YEAST is much more likely (IMO) to pop up as a chance instawin, since I have no idea what SALET means.
- stoneman24 3y agoBy the way, Googling SALET says that it’s piece of historical armour. (a light round helmet extending over the back of the neck)
- mplewis9z 3y agoI optimize for finding vowels first (just better for my brain to figure out the next guesses), so my opening is STOAE. I largely follow hard mode so my next guess is highly dependent on what hits, but GUILD is the default if the first completely blanks out. I normally solve in 3-4, about equally split between the two.
- thehours 3y ago3Blue1Brown later issued a correction video (due to a minor bug in the initial code) that showed it should have been SALET [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRed0Xmc2Wg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRed0Xmc2Wg
- jakubmazanec 3y agoI didn't actually look into any analysis, but IMO the different results are caused by what words you include in the analysis, and what words you consider as potentially the solution. I use this [0] for choosing the second word, but NYT Wordle bot usually chooses something different. [0] https://real-statistics.com/wordle-strategy/best-second-guess-full-wordle-dictionary/ https://real-statistics.com/wordle-strategy/best-second-gues...
- prawn 3y agoI use SOARE, then GLINT and CHUMP. Most often get it in three (comfortable lead over the fours), then four, and then two or five are currently tied.
- eep_social 3y agoI am also a SOARE enjoyer. I don’t play consistently so my stats are suspect but I’ve never gotten to a sixth guess to solve but also never had a solve in two with that start.
- mike503 3y agoI use STERN to start as it covers as much of RSTLNE as you can and I'm a Wheel fan :) It's amazing that even if I have 100% miss I'm almost always able to still solve it by the end. I don't know what it is with 5 letters and 6 chances. There was a version I played that had 6 letters and it was terrible.
- furyofantares 3y agoI also like to start with a single vowel. I feel consonants are more important for getting it in 3. My goals are mainly to get it in 3 as often as I can, and to never lose. Also nice to not have the E in position 5, where it's more likely to be green - early greens can put you into a "trap" where you can get unlucky and lose in hard mode. In standard mode you can get out of traps with a filler word, but in hard mode there can just be more possibilities than you have guesses available.
- firesteelrain 3y agoI just tried STERN on today’s Wordle. I got today’s word on the second guess. STERN is listed at 92. I don’t know how SLATE would have helped me today but it was the most popular per WordleBot.
- AceyMan 3y agoI begin with AGILE quite often, it's an 'anti-word' (? XOR word) that works about as well as the famous starter words.
- forinti 3y agoI start with SNAIL ROUTE. I've been thinking about my results because they make a curve around 4, the most common result. 5 comes next and then 3 is a few numbers behind (I'm trying to make 3 catch up). Shouldn't it just be a slope going up?
- aardvark179 3y agoIt should only be a simple slope going up if you count puzzles solved in n turns or less.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- counterpartyrsk 3y agoI start with a different random word almost every time. I look around the room for inspiration.
- gonzo41 3y agoI do this also. I don't get why people start always using the same word. I wish it would score you on unique attempts / words over time.
- BurningFrog 3y agoOne reason to start the same way is that you get familiar with many possible continuations. STERN + AUDIO
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- yen223 3y agoJust like every game, there are people who play to win, and there are people who play for fun. Both are fine. Sticking with one really good word raises your chances of not losing, but it does get boring after a while.
- eyelidlessness 3y agoChoosing a random starting word isn’t necessarily inconsistent with playing to win. Even if it’s technically a handicap overall, it’s at least surmountable, and can be an advantage to stay nimble with the added “challenge”. I feel the same way about “hard mode” (which I still refer to as “easy mode”).
- matsemann 3y agoI play to use less guesses on weird days. So I start with letters that probably aren't very optimal, but when the wird itself uses rare letters, suddenly I'm the genius of the day.
- tmnvix 3y agoI always start with the previous day's solution
- neilk 3y agoI learned a lot from Wordlebot analysis, though I hardly look at that now. According to Wordlebot I scored 99 on skill on today's puzzle. I always start with SLATE, and then if there are no matches at all, CRONY. I'm not sure exactly why, but the bot highly approves of this. Perhaps because the initial C and terminal Y will yield more information about the solution space, even if the letters are uncommon.
- thrwaydle 3y agoI tried to come up with an obscene language strategy, which have been using since: FUCKS -> BONER -> MIGHT -> PLEAD / PLAID (Depending on the results before) Usually this is enough to guess on the 5th word or before, however sometimes the sixth guess is required. I have been able to guess all of the words so far.
- tomcam 3y agoNews you can use
- xutopia 3y agoA lot of my friends and I are going about it in "ultra hard mode". It consists in having to use the guessed letters (that's normal hard mode) and always using the last day's word as your start word. It makes it really fun and really challenging.
- fells 3y agoThis is how I play as well, because in my mind it makes it basically just a long, never-evending game of Wordle, which I find slightly amusing. Though the number of days where I forget the previous day's word is probably too damn high.
- eyelidlessness 3y agoThis is tempting, if only because I might be more likely to remember the day’s word for more than a few minutes.
- matsemann 3y agoWhat I don't like about "hard mode" is that it removes one level of strategy. If I for instance realize the word could be CRATE, CRAVE, CRANE, CRAZE, it feels "harder" to figure out a word with T,V,N,Z to guarantee a guess in two, instead of just trying all four since I need to use the already found letters.
- vehemenz 3y agoI was equally split between 3 and 4 until I started using more consonants, specifically the Wheel of Fortune ones (RSTLN). Now my two-week average hovers between 3.2 and 3.3, almost always better than Wordlebot too. For a while I had a 3.1 average, and even a 3.0 for a day.
- jboggan 3y agoI use PIOUS and TEARY but only because it's somewhat of an invocation in a morning ritual.
- eps 3y ago> NANNY Now that one was just nasty.
- bdangubic 3y agoMAMMA was the nastiest
- deskamess 3y agoI use STARE. What are the pluses/minus for that? Position wise, would TEARS or RATES be better.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- abraxas 3y agoMy system nets me about 3.3 with the starter being GREAT followed by BOILS. If these don't uncover enough I enter DUCHY. between these three words I have half of the alphabet covered so I practically never need five tries.
- mathgeek 3y agoThis doesn’t work in hard mode though, where most of “competitive” Wordle has moved.
- matt-attack 3y agoWhy? What distinguishes hard mode?
- sokoloff 3y agoAny guesses have to be congruent with previous green letters and include all yellow letters (though can repeat them in place). If the word is QUEER, GREAT places the middle green and gives a yellow R and, in hard mode, all subsequent guesses have to have an E in the middle spot and include an R.
- matsemann 3y agoI'm impressed by the staying power of Wordle. I guess someone remembering it each day in the family group chat means that you get constantly reminded. Without the social aspect I would've never remembered to play. So the sharing is genius. What I don't like though is other games trying to replicate it to the detriment of the game. For instance their game "Connections" feels like doesn't need to limit the number of guesses, but it does in order to make a tweetable result in the end.
- hnbear 3y agoFun set of stats to learn from. I have a Safari tab-set on my phone with: - Wordle - Waffle: https://wafflegame.net/daily https://wafflegame.net/daily - Where in the USA: https://pudding.cool/games/where/ https://pudding.cool/games/where/ And try to do the NYT crossword and the new Connections games daily. I need to work off the dementia my father has with regular puzzles.
- Blackcat4242 3y agoPlease take some time to look into carnivore. Dementia is increasingly being referred to as type 3 diabetes, insulin resistance in the brain. Being in ketosis, eating what people are now calling a species appropriate diet (I don't adhere to pure carnivore I'm just calling it what they call it) has been proven to restore cognitive function. It's worth looking into.