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My lazy Wordle strategy: same words every time

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Re: My lazy Wordle strategy: same words every time

#31

Post by donarb »

My strategy is to never use the same start word, I like using a random word each time as that changes the path to solving. I might pick a random word from another open browser window, maybe from a news article or something like that. If I get stuck after the second or third try, I'll pick another random word, even if it contains a few discarded letters in order to ferret out 1 or 2 more valid letters.

For me, the best part of Wordle is not in finding the answer but in the steps prior as I work out the path to solving the correct answer.

Re: My lazy Wordle strategy: same words every time

#32

Post by shawnz »

jeffbee wrote: post #22
mostertoaster wrote: post #10

Since switching to hard mode, I almost never start with “good words”. Too much risk of getting the 10 possibilities with 3 guesses remaining type situation.

There isn’t a hard mode strategy that assures a win, though. You have to get lucky or lose sometimes.

You can always win even in hard mode with perfect play: https://www.poirrier.ca/notes/wordle-optimal/

> In hard mode, Wordle can be solved in 3.5076 guesses on average (with 6 guesses at worst, i.e. 100% of the time). Or, with a different decision tree, it can be solved with a slightly worse average, but always within 5 guesses

Re: My lazy Wordle strategy: same words every time

#33

Post by furyofantares »

mod wrote: post #21
furyofantares wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the variants I've programmed, I've enforced that they start with a random word guessed (same random word for everyone though.) Wordle is good as it is but personally I think most of the variants would be better off adopting this feature. That said I saw someone speedrunning 10x Xordle games and for speedrunning they just ignore the starting word and make the same 4 guesses every time: CARVE SHIFT GODLY WHUMP

How many variants have you programmed? Why?

Wordle sparked off sort of a global game jam around variants, maybe because it was such a wholesome project. And these variants have found players; there's a lot of people who play a whole bunch of daily word games, there's some youtubers, etc.

I've programmed 3; the way that went down is I was curious if an idea I had would be fun (two Wordles on the same board, sort of a mix between Wordle and a word jumble since you don't know which word the clues go to.) Since there was an open source implementation this only took me one night, and it was in fact fun and started gaining some traction as https://xordle.xyz

Then some game designer friends suggested their own takes and I implemented those too: https://fibble.xyz lies to you once per row, and https://warmle.org tells you if you're close to the right letter rather than if a letter is in the wrong spot which gives the gameplay a very different feel

Re: My lazy Wordle strategy: same words every time

#34

Post by jeffbee »

shawnz wrote: post #32
jeffbee wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn’t a hard mode strategy that assures a win, though. You have to get lucky or lose sometimes.

You can always win even in hard mode with perfect play: https://www.poirrier.ca/notes/wordle-optimal/ > In hard mode, Wordle can be solved in 3.5076 guesses on average (with 6 guesses at worst, i.e. 100% of the time). Or, with a different decision tree, it can be solved with a slightly worse average, but always within 5 guesses

Only if you cheat by referring to the list of solution words. No strategy with a 6-guess worst case is possible without referring to that list.

Re: My lazy Wordle strategy: same words every time

#35

Post by lcnmrn »

There are 28 letters. With 3 initial same words you can cover up to 53.5% of the alphabet. With 4 initial same words you can cover up to 71.4%. There are only 5 vowels A, E, I, O and U which can be covered with the first two words. You can even add Y in the first two words played.

Re: My lazy Wordle strategy: same words every time

#36

Post by gizmo686 »

jeffbee wrote: post #34
shawnz wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always win even in hard mode with perfect play: https://www.poirrier.ca/notes/wordle-optimal/ > In hard mode, Wordle can be solved in 3.5076 guesses on average (with 6 guesses at worst, i.e. 100% of the time). Or, with a different decision tree, it can be solved with a slightly worse average, but always within 5 guesses

Only if you cheat by referring to the list of solution words. No strategy with a 6-guess worst case is possible without referring to that list.

How is that cheating? The dictionary is part of the game.

Re: My lazy Wordle strategy: same words every time

#38

Post by jeffbee »

gizmo686 wrote: post #36
jeffbee wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you cheat by referring to the list of solution words. No strategy with a 6-guess worst case is possible without referring to that list.

How is that cheating? The dictionary is part of the game.

The subset of words that are solutions is an internal data structure of the game. It is clearly cheating to refer to that list. If you are willing to examine the inside of the game's black box, the optimal strategy is to simply extract today's answer.

Re: My lazy Wordle strategy: same words every time

#39

Post by LgWoodenBadger »

jezzamon wrote: post #30

I actually made a Wordle variant me and my family have been playing that prevents you using a word you have ever used before (unless it is that day's word). It's a really small tweak and it takes a while to have any impact, but it makes the game so much more interesting for me. (jezzamon.com/wordle if anyone wants to try it) No idea if it'll become unplayable eventually but I'm having fun seeing it play out as more a…

I came here to suggest this as an optional improvement.

Re: My lazy Wordle strategy: same words every time

#40

Post by tromp »

I always start, very ego-centrically, with my last name (matching my HN account name), and then usually follow up with BEADS and JUICY to cover all the vowels. But I'll try guess the target word if the first or first two words give me >= 3 hits. Then I'll spend WAY more time trying to solve the 5 daily chess puzzles at https://www.chess.com/puzzles/rated ...
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