Wordle 524 4/6
STARE
BOING
THICK
ITCHY
I ignored the T to check more vowels with guess 2…then went right on ignoring it (as to placement). I must be THICK!
Anyway, a par that didn’t take too long. And as has been mentioned, a (seemingly) non-themed choice. I’m with those who aren’t crazy about the Theme concept.
Saturday, November 26th
Wordle 525 3/6
CROPS
CLEAT
CLEAN
Well that was quick.
Wordle 525 4/6
RATIO
BLAND
ALLEN
CLEAN
I got totally stuck for a third guess. I was thinking AL-EN or EL-AN but didn’t think to put the vowels together. I chose a word I knew was wrong to at least place some letters which let me see the answer.
Wordle 524 3/6
CHOIR
PINCH
ITCHY
FEAST → Need to find a vowel. H pairs well with the nonterminal T, and I binged Wednesday on Netflix, so…
THING → Better shuffle those letters - and I feel like I need one more vowel…
PITHY → That is the one, and with one place left for T to go, it must be…
ITCHY
Kinda relieved to not worry about a theme solution, to tell the truth…
Wordle 525 2/6
SLANT
CLEAN
First 2 in quite a while. Barely had time for one sip of coffee! 
Wordle 525 2/6
My third 2 since the change at NYT. Average of 16 percent. Average before change is 4 percent. Coincidence?
CRANE
CLEAN
Hi Wordlers! I play Wordle every day, although I don’t post here. I’ve only been playing for about six weeks, but my win % is 94.
This is my question: how much do you attribute your OVERALL success at solving the puzzle to luck and how much to skill?
I say overall, because I think that varies from game to game. Great luck with your first two words renders skill pretty unnecessary. But after three (or God forbid, four) words that still yield only two green letters, then a skilled systematic approach is called for, and that can take some strategy. When I finally get it on the sixth try, the Wordle bot says, WHEW! So do I.
Offhand, I’d say overall 60% luck/ 40% skill.
Wordle 525 3/6
RAISE
CHEAP
CLEAN
Wordle 525 2/6
HEART
CLEAN Yippee a deuce!
Wordle 525 2/6
OILER
CLEAN
Lots of twos today!
I dunno, it’s hard to attribute this one to the NYT takeover, as I was just trying to place the two letters and find a second vowel. Sometimes it is just blind luck.
Welcome to the thread, Thelma!
It’s really tough to break it down to percentages, I think. Some days (like today for me) you just happen to stumble into the right answer. Most take a little more effort.
The regulars here have several different strategies. I like to start out vowel-heavy; others go for the common consonants first. Some use the same starting word every day; others like to mix it up.
I have a 305 day winning streak going, so I must be doing something right. 19 of those wins were sixes, and I’d guess that in less than half of those cases there was more than one word left. So yes, I have relied on luck to keep my streak going, but I think I’m good at narrowing the choices down so I don’t need luck too much.
I think I speak for everyone here when I say you should play the game however it’s most fun for you, and just enjoy!
Wordle 525 4/6*
BEARD
MANGE
SNEAK
CLEAN
Wordle 525 3/6
EARTH
LIONS
CLEAN
ITCHY → Not the letter I would have expected to hit, but… let’s try two more vowels and a couple common consonants
CLEAR → So close. CLEAT is ruled out, so all that’s left is
CLEAN
Close to a 2, but I’m happy with a 3, especially after that start.
@ThelmaLou : I probably rely on luck more than most regulars here due to my idiosyncratic choice of starting words. I think that, for me at least, early wins are more luck-based, later wins tend to be more of a mix, as skill comes in as you eliminate words, but you can fall into a trap where you have - for example - 3 possible words but only 2 guesses left, where the luck is highly quantifiable.
Another 3. Which is substandard compared to all you 2 people!
Wordle 525 3/6*
IRATE
CHEAP
CLEAN
@ThelmaLou, welcome!
My own Wordle approach is quite rigid. I play in Hard mode, always start with the same word and rely heavily on a general knowledge of how words go together. I’ve done decently well, though not as well as others in our cozy thread. It’s just a bit of silliness. I’ve never gotten it in 1 try, but hope springs eternal! In 312 games my 6’s total 13 and I’ve only missed once: The dreaded PARER. < shakes fist! >
If you subscribe to the NY Times – and I believe you do? – you can use WordleBot. It is quite happy to tell you what a ninny you are each day, as well as how much of your success was due to skill v. luck.
Have fun. That’s all there is to it, as others have noted.
Yes, the Wordle Bot is very amusing. To wit:
INANE was my undoing! 
Hi, ThelmaLou! Long time, no see!
(My fault, of course, since lately I’ve been pretty much sticking with the Wordle and Death Pool threads. But always glad to know one of my longtime favorite posters is still here. )
My take is that over the course of hundreds of games, luck evens out, and what’s left is skill.
That does brush a couple of things under the table, though.
For instance, it doesn’t mean that one player’s success rate is directly comparable with another’s. We each play the game in our own ways, with different levels of willingness to use and apply different tools. For instance, some of us maintain a list of past solutions, and refer to it to eliminate possible solutions, since so far there have been no repeats. (Echoing @Wheelz, we’re all of the mindset that everyone should play the game however they’re comfortable in doing so, because it’s a game, and games are something you do for fun!) Also, some players stick to the hard mode, and others don’t.
The other thing is, the NYT took over curating the solutions starting with #506, and that may be making a difference in how challenging, or not, the solutions are. So one’s own scores pre- and post- that takeover may not be directly comparable either.
But with those caveats, over the long haul, luck averages out, and what’s left is skill. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it. 
Wordle 525 3/6
Slant
Glean
Clean
Wordle 525 4/6
OUTER
AISLE
DECAL
CLEAN
Another par for me, taking about ten minutes. No agonizing, which is nice.
Makes sense to me. (And nice to see you!)
At some point (I’ve played since late January) I decided I didn’t enjoy putting in a lot of time strategizing. I do go through the alphabet, more or less, and work with English-language patterns such as common consonant or vowel pairs. My starting word is one of seven that I rotate. But I don’t figure the percentages of any particular letter being included based on that letter’s level of usage in English, or anything of that nature.
As several have said: the philosophy in this thread is basically ‘play the game in the way that brings you enjoyment.’
Thanks for the welcome, y’all. 
Yeah, I don’t think this would be useful.
I try to cover all the vowels in my first two guesses. If luck is with me, I’ll get some green letters. I try to establish the positions of the brown letters right away, too. Then I use pen and paper to try out options. Might take two minutes or might take an hour. I do it first thing on the morning with my coffee/tea and toast. If I wake up after 2AM and can’t sleep, I’ll sit up in bed and work it.