Things we learned analyzing 515M Wordles | Hacker News Reader

Things we learned analyzing 515M Wordles

nytimes.com

45 pointsjakubmazanec47 comments

https://web.archive.org/web/20231217194006/https://www.nytim...

I 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.

I 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.

I 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.

I begin with AGILE quite often, it's an 'anti-word' (? XOR word) that works about as well as the famous starter words.

I start with a different random word almost every time. I look around the room for inspiration.

I 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.

One reason to start the same way is that you get familiar with many possible continuations.

STERN + AUDIO

Just 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.

Choosing 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”).

I 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.

I 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.

A 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.

This 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.

This is tempting, if only because I might be more likely to remember the day’s word for more than a few minutes.

What 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.

Fun set of stats to learn from.

I have a Safari tab-set on my phone with: - Wordle - Waffle: https://wafflegame.net/daily - Where in the USA: 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.

Please 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.

I'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.

Interesting 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

The second guess (if a low hit count) fleshes out the remaining vowels.

My average is 4, followed by 3.

My 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.

I do something similar, I always start with RAISE then CLOUT which cover the 10 most common letters. It usually gives good results.

I start with RAISE as well, but follow up with POUTY to get the Y if I blank on the first round.

I 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/letterfr...) is 9 of the 11 most common letters in English.

They 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.

I 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.

By the way, Googling SALET says that it’s piece of historical armour. (a light round helmet extending over the back of the neck)

I 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.

3Blue1Brown 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

I 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-gues...

I 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.

I 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.

I 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.

News you can use

I 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.

> NANNY

Now that one was just nasty.

MAMMA was the nastiest

My 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.

This doesn’t work in hard mode though, where most of “competitive” Wordle has moved.

Why? What distinguishes hard mode?

Any 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.

I 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?

It should only be a simple slope going up if you count puzzles solved in n turns or less.

I use STARE. What are the pluses/minus for that? Position wise, would TEARS or RATES be better.

I use PIOUS and TEARY but only because it's somewhat of an invocation in a morning ritual.

I always start with the previous day's solution

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