Like millions of others, I recently fell victim to the Wordle craze that’s sweeping the nation. I thought it would be a nice way to challenge my brain each morning and get myself ready for the day. And for the first few days, it was. But as I kept playing, I realized that the way I was playing — the system I had decided to use the first time I played — broke the game. I kept playing each day using that same system (and running countless outside simulations using this method), and it became clear that it guaranteed success. And once you’ve broken the game — once you know that you can get the Wordle every day — it’s just not as fun.
So, if you want to keep enjoying the daily challenge of Wordle, stop reading here. But if you’re curious how to game the game, then keep reading to learn about my method, which I call THORN PLAYS GUIDE.
Please note: this system enables players to successfully guess the Worlde every time within the six tries allotted. If your aim is to beat the game, this method is a sure-fire way to do it. If your aim is to guess the Wordle in the fewest possible tries, then this method is not the most effective approach.
Lines 1–3: THORN PLAYS GUIDE
I always begin each game with the same three words: THORN, PLAYS, and GUIDE. These words use 15 unique letters. They use every vowel as well as Y. They use the most common consonants. And they use letters in their most common positions (such as “S” at the end of the word).
Often, these three words reveal four or all five of the correct letters. Occasionally they reveal two or three. And as long as they reveal at least two, the system works.
Now, because THORN PLAYS GUIDE includes every vowel and Y, they are guaranteed to reveal at least one letter. And because there are limited five-letter words that include just one vowel, and every such word also includes at least one other letter contained in THORN PLAYS GUIDE (consider: light, world, whack, etc.), these three words will reveal at least two correct letters. And thus, the system is functioning as intended, and you can continue with Line 4.
Consider a below example illustrating a less desirable scenario — just three letters are revealed, and two are in incorrect places (it took me 37 attempts to even arrive at this scenario — in most instances, at least four correct letters were revealed in the first three lines, often including two in correct places).
Line 4: Double It Up
Line 4 is where many people go awry. It is a natural instinct once you have a correct letter to continue building around that letter. In other words, in the above example, once you know that “A” is in the third slot, many people will then guess three words with “A” in the third slot. But that is a faulty approach.
Once you have locked in a correct letter in its correct place, there is no reason to guess that letter again (in that same position) until you are certain of the word.
Instead, you should accomplish two things with Line 4. First, find the correct locations of any yellow letters. And second, rule out the possibility that any of those letters appear twice. Both of these things can be accomplished by using Line 4 to guess a word that doubles up the identified letters. (Note: it may not always be possible to double up every letter, particularly if you have identified at least three correct letters, in which case come up with a word that maximizes doubling of the yellow letters.)
In this instance, I was able to double up the “S” and “H”, but not the “A”. Here is what I played in Line 4:
By playing SHUSH in Line 4, I correctly identified the placement of the “S” and “H”, and I ruled out the possibility that either of those letters appears twice.
Line 5: Rule It Out
By the end of Line 4, you will have at least two letters in their correct places (in this instance we have three), and you will have ruled out many other letters (if you only have two letters identified, then you also have ruled out as many as 16 other letters).
In Line 5, consider what possible words remain based on the placement of the correct letters you’ve identified and the remaining letters that are still in play.
In this case, we know that the correct word is _ _ ASH, and the remaining letters are:
So the first thing we do is build up a list of all possible words that could still fit what we know (and remember, we know that “S” and “H” are not repeated, but we do not know the same about “A”).
Based on this example, here are the potential words: ABASH, AWASH. Given that the most common letters have already been ruled out, it is unlikely that there ever would be more than two or three potential words at this point.
On Line 5, take the letters that make up the potential words and come up with a new word that plays all of them. In this case, because I know that the first letter must be an “A”, I am choosing between “B” or “W” for the second letter. Theoretically, I could play both ABASH and AWASH in lines 5 and 6, but in the possible scenario that I missed a potential word after Line 4, that approach leaves no room for error. Instead, my approach calls for playing a word in Line 5 that includes both a “B” and a “W”, giving complete confidence as to which word is correct (note: it does not matter where the “B” or “W” appears in Line 5, as it has already been determined that it appears in the second slot in the correct word).
In this case, I played BROWS:
This told me that the final letter is a “B”, and I now know that the correct word must be ABASH. I play that word in the final line.
Line 6: The Answer
By using the THORN PLAYS GUIDE system, you will be guaranteed to guess the correct word within six attempts.
Please note: it will not always take the full six attempts. In fact, in the 30 days I have been playing Wordle, this approach has yielded the correct word within five guesses the majority (77%) of the time.
Here are my results from the 30 days I have been playing with this approach:
Happy gaming!
