# What about absurdle, folks? (Warning "spoilers"!) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** board-card-word-game\ **Created:** [January 14, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788 "2022-01-14T15:53:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/1 "2022-01-14T15:53:30Z")
So having been put onto [absurdle](https://qntm.org/files/wordle/index.html) by the good folks in the wordle threads I gave it a go and managed to solve it in 7 on my first go. Since absurdle isn’t a “puzzle-a-day” thing like wordle, but more like a treasure hunt for interesting short paths, I think this should be a thread with need to hide “spoilers”. Who wants to describe the game to the uninitiated? ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/2 "2022-01-14T16:01:34Z")
No thanks ! But [here](https://qntm.org/wordle) is a link to the instruction page. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/3 "2022-01-14T16:02:57Z")
Note: just had an answer where 3 out of 5 letters were the same. Argh. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/4 "2022-01-14T16:20:26Z")
My shortest so far is solve in five: Absurdle 5/∞ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 QUERY PILOT BANKS FLAIL AXIAL You guessed successfully in 5 guesses! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/5 "2022-01-14T16:38:28Z")
Same: Absurdle 5/∞ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/6 "2022-01-14T17:01:24Z")
This isn’t too surprising. As the game only narrows down the “answer” as you guess, on average words that have fewer unique letters will stay in the solution space longer than words with more unique letters. I’ve found a fair number of 5-guess paths. Haven’t found a 4-guess path yet, though I’m sure there are some out there. Note that you can pretty much force which vowels are going to be in the solution word by guessing something with all the other vowels as your first guess. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/7 "2022-01-14T19:57:07Z")
It’s interesting, but given that the player is picking the word by what they guess, less fun. I wonder what the least possible number of guesses is. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/8 "2022-01-14T20:02:37Z")
I have the whole answer dictionary in an Excel spreadsheet (and, the guess dictionary in another sheet) – if you can think of a way to prune it down given all the possible answers, I’ll give it a try. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/9 "2022-01-14T20:18:51Z")
> ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/10 "2022-01-15T00:25:29Z")
So if I understand the rules of Absurdle correctly, it’s possible to play a “perfect” game of Wordle where the player makes no mistakes or poor word choices, but yet just through bad luck, their Wordle path will duplicate a typical Absurdle game and result in a loss? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-absurdle-folks-warning-spoilers/957788/11 "2022-01-15T04:48:30Z")
I’m pretty certain wordle is solvable and with perfect play you’ll get the word every single time no matter what the word is.