It is an interesting game; it mainly it gives something for the extended family to group text about in the morning. I usually will be the last to share my pattern with my group because everyone in my circle knows I use the same starting word every time (before I even heard about the CRANE strategy), so I do not want to inadvertently give hints to them.

At the onset when I was introduced to the game, I suspected the average would fall between 3-4 tries. From what I have heard, there are computer algorithms working on improving the average and some are around 3.4 to 3.5. (I am at 3.69 in 39 games, easy mode, with 4 as my mode and no 1's and no 6's. I would be shocked if my starting word ever was *the word*)

Clearly there is some luck in the game, especially to get the word within 1-3 tries-even 3 requires some luck. It is very hard to force the word in 3.

The skill comes from having a decent vocabulary, knowing what letters often group together and choosing subsequent guesses to eliminate common spots for the letters. Sometimes the best choice is to not use the known letters as this can lead to a corridor trap. (I think in hard mode the known letters have to be used)

For example, suppose the wordle is STAKE. If guess 1 was STAVE, then STA-E is exactly correct, and there are several candidates such as: STADE, STAGE, STAKE, STALE, STANE, STARE

So instead of guessing STADE, and moving down the list hoping to hit the mark, it would make more sense to try and pick a word with as many of the possibilities (D,G,K,L,N,R) to use as many of those letters as possible. So for example choose GLAND which would encompass 4 choices. The A of course should be correct and if another lights up, the missing letter is known. If not, then those 4 letters are eliminated and can consider the other choices. In hard mode, this scenario is actually terrible since there can only be one new letter per guess.

What is interesting is to see how many different paths our group takes to arrive at the same answer. What I have been doing as a puzzle extension is trying to decipher the words that lead up their answer.

Anyway, fun topic, nice diversion from work