I’m splitting this off because I feel like discussion will get buried in people sharing their results.
I’m curious about how y’all approach Wordle. Do you play normal mode or hard? Do you always start with a word like ‘ratio’ or ‘stare’ to hit common letters, or do you pick at random? Do you have any self-imposed rules? I saw one poster mention always using the previous day’s answer as the next day’s starting guess. I think it’s an awesome idea, but I keep forgetting to do it.
My approach:
Hard mode.
Different starting words each day, usually the first decent one to pop into my head.
After that I try to eliminate the most common letters, with one prohibition:
I generally don’t reuse letters unless I’m absolutely stumped, even if it would be the most efficient play.
Play in hard mode.
Lately I’ve been using SPLIT. It has 3 of the most common used consonants in the RSTLN list.
Usually can get it in 3-4 tries but had to use 5 tries for the first time this week. Have only been playing about three weeks.
(actually, looking at the consonant list I may start using SNARL as a first guess.)
I go with the ETAOIN SHRLDU method - I start with a word that contains five of those letters (STARE seems to work pretty well) and then aim to use other letters from that group in the next round to replace the ones that didn’t hit, until I have enough context to actually make an educated guess.
This seems to give me the right answer in four tries, +/-1.
I didn’t know there was a hard mode, but I try to play that way anyway. If I’d been in hard mode I would’ve got today’s one quicker as I forgot to use a letter.
My first words are SIREN and/or OCTAL which covers ten of the most common letters and knocks out four vowels (not my idea, I saw it mentioned on some YouTube channel).
I do hard mode, because I was doing hard mode before I knew what hard mode was or that it existed. It just seemed logical to use known good letters in my attempt to solve the word.
I’ve been starting with RATIO because it contains 3 vowels and two of the most common consonants in the English language. Then with each guess I reuse what I know is good, and avoid what I know is bad. I’m also attempting to first use what I know to be the most common letters (based on previous experience with cryptograms, Scrabble, watching Wheel of Fortune, etc.) in a format that makes a common word, moving around letters in a logical way if they are correct but in the wrong position.
So far, I believe the worst I’ve done is 5 guesses, I usually get it in 3 or 4. I think I once got it in 2 guesses.
I always play in hard mode, and start with STARE or STERN or RATIO. Then I want to get the first letter right, so of my yellow letters if any, I’ll put one in the starting position if that seems plausible, and start thinking of words that cover the bases. Repeat as necessary. This has got me a win in 3, 4, or 5 tries (about equally); once got it in 2 and once it took 6.
Yesterday’s game “SLUMP” was pretty satisfying:
STARE (gave me green S but nothing else, so I want to try words with I, O, or U plus other common letters that are not T or R.)
SINUS came to mind. Now we’ve got a “U” but it’s in the wrong position. I figured maybe another S-consonant combination (but not ST___), and with U most likely in the center position, so my guess can be “SLU__”.
It can’t be “SLUMS” or “SLUSH” because SINUS ruled those out, so SLUMP it was.
I started with both SIREN and OCTAL which gave me S and L and ruled out all vowels other than U. Then I went for SUMPS (forgot about the L and don’t have hard mode set), SLUMP was the obvious follow up. I think I would’ve got SLUMP in three if I’d remembered the L.
I start with ADIEU and STROP. That usually gets me to guess the word by #3 or #4. I’ve only played a half dozen games, and none have gone farther than that.
