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Don't Wordle

201 pointsby Hbruz0today at 11:49 AM87 commentsview on HN

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amiga386today at 1:22 PM

12935 -> TIZZY (5625) -> OXBOW (2674) -> GRUFF (858) -> MAMMA (195) and I'll let you guess the rest but my next choice left 43 words, and I survived with only 4 words possible.

The rules not letting use a letter you know isn't in the target word drastically cuts your choices, your best bet is to use as few unique letters per word as you can, and as uncommon letters as you can, but as all normal words need vowels you'll be forced into only picking a vowel from the target word soon enough. Try to find letters that are in the word as late as possible so you're not locked into having to use them.

Once you are forced to use letters from the target word, avoid placing them in the right place. Sadly there's a rule not letting you use a known letter more than once in a word (once A is known, you can't write ALPHA), and a rule for not letting you put a known letter in a place you know it doesn't go (so after MAMMA, you can't have HALVE because you know there's not an A in second place, nor ALPHA because you know there's not an A in fifth place).

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rhplustoday at 4:49 PM

I sense this is not winnable for all Wordle dictionary words. Is that provably the case?

Angosturatoday at 12:57 PM

If you enjoy clicking things you can spend hours in their cookie consent boxes untickinv the several hundred individual ‘legitimate interest’ tick boxes for individual vendors

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flexietoday at 12:44 PM

We are asked to allow hundreds of cookies, not just a few, to play the game.

markkattoday at 3:11 PM

Nice. I play Last Word daily.

https://dragonfjord.com/lastword/

It's the same goal, but everyone starts with the same word each day, which does not include any letters in the "last word".

No undos in Last Word. My average is 8.7 letters. Really hoping to get it to 9.

Murfalotoday at 4:12 PM

    *      12974
    QAJAQ   1979
    PZAZZ    861
    OBANG    449
    URARI    232
    FLAFF     58
    DWALM     10
(totally didn't cheat: https://github.com/murfalo/dontwordle-assistant)
rylandotoday at 12:35 PM

Well this sure makes Wordle feel a lot easier!

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NikolaNovaktoday at 3:40 PM

Like it, but would love a "No Undo" option, or at least, "don't force undo".

My friends and I share our wordle results daily. Would like to add this, but so that if you guess in three or four tries, that's OK, that's just your score for the day. Right now game forces me to undo if I have reduced option space to fewer words than there are remaining guesses, and that's quite annoying for how we'd want to play :)

hollylawlytoday at 12:42 PM

Of course the one time I get it in 2 guesses is in this version

doctorpanglosstoday at 4:45 PM

Legitimately a much better game than actual Wordle.

nullzzztoday at 3:38 PM

The ads, the banners. Immediate exit.

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steinvakt2today at 2:18 PM

Cool. Surprisingly difficult. I made an art game inspired by wordle some years ago. My dad and I still play it daily. https://artle.eu

noahlttoday at 3:29 PM

This is a great demonstration of why Wordle’s Hard Mode is actually easier.

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grocery_storestoday at 12:41 PM

One thing I find odd about the rules: it forces you to respect what you've learned via green or yellow tiles, but not gray tiles. The spirit of the rules suggests once you've learned a letter is not in the word, you shouldn't be able to reuse that letter. Perhaps that would simply make the game too difficult, though.

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tfrancisltoday at 3:31 PM

Clicked expecting commentary on why playing NYTs wordle, and perhaps other games, was problematic for some reason. Found a game instead.

lucideertoday at 1:13 PM

I tried playing this as if its wordle & got it in 2 guesses. How do they do this ??? That's next to impossible in wordle & the probalities seem like they should be the same?

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huhtenbergtoday at 12:50 PM

Some of the suggested plays for yellow EA and green H after the first guess:

    ALMEH
    BEKAH
    BELAH
    DEASH
    OBEAH
    SELAH
Not much fun to play with a dictionary like this :-/
netsharctoday at 12:53 PM

I'd enjoy it if the rules with some graphics are displayed near the game, for newbies.

e.g. show a word with some green letters and that they have to be in the same spot in the other word. e.g. FUBAR with green B -> __B__

FUBAR with yellow R -> RRRR_ (with gray background and white R to signify "has to be placed somewhere here")

And for the gray letters, I guess.. show them next to the _____ in a trash can?

embedding-shapetoday at 12:35 PM

This is amazing, and incredible difficult (or I'm terrible), after ~10 minutes I can't even get in a third guess!

theanonymousonetoday at 12:44 PM

I hope NYT lawyers don't come for you. They did for many other variants of this. Maybe reconsider the name?

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MDTHLNtoday at 12:40 PM

This is quite fun, but I can’t believe the amount of cookies it wants to set!

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senfiajtoday at 2:28 PM

You can use hints, after that I could find the right sequence

trash smash abash gnash quash clash

Folcontoday at 12:54 PM

Is the word list complete?

I tried WEIRD and it rejected it as not a word

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HelloUsernametoday at 2:16 PM

(Un)related; does anyone know where to play the non-NYT Wordle version?

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luciana1utoday at 12:54 PM

finally a game that respects that I already know all five-letter words and would rather be told not to use them

mdatoday at 1:02 PM

I see that terrible cookie permission window (62 legitimate interest) and I close the window,

lugaotoday at 12:46 PM

It is too hard to be fun :P

intrasighttoday at 12:56 PM

What does "you have already eliminated the letter T" mean?

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JoshTripletttoday at 2:48 PM

Disappointing that this seems to only be a "daily" game, and not have a "just play" mode that uses random words. First thing that I look for with any game that presents itself as "daily" is "where's the non-daily mode".

phren0logytoday at 1:09 PM

Be happ-ole? (Insert whistling)

massimodeluisatoday at 12:38 PM

Ahahhaha funny! xD

GNR_Radiotoday at 12:44 PM

[dead]

burnt-resistortoday at 12:52 PM

The goal isn't explained clearly and simply enough.

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tantalortoday at 1:44 PM

(meta comment) the chit chat about cookies is off topic and pointless