Don't Wordle

About Don't Wordle

Don't Wordle keeps Wordle's board and colours but flips the goal. There is a hidden five-letter word, and your job is to get through six guesses without ever guessing it. Each guess still gets green, yellow and grey marks, and every later guess has to respect them, using the letters you have been shown, so the list of words that could still be the answer keeps shrinking.

If you survive all six guesses, your score is the number of valid words still remaining, multiplied by the number of letters you never used, so the best runs keep the field wide while spending few letters. If you hit a spot where too few words remain for the guesses left, the game stops you and asks you to spend an undo. You get five undos, or two in hard mode, which can only be switched on before a round starts. A hint and a give-up button are there too.

The puzzle is numbered by day from 25 May 2022 and changes at midnight on your own clock. It suits Wordle players who want to think about the whole word list rather than one answer.

How to play Don't Wordle

1. Type a five-letter word as your first guess.
2. Read the colours: green is the right letter in the right place, yellow is in the word elsewhere, grey is not in the word.
3. Make each next guess fit all the clues so far, without hitting the hidden word.
4. Use an undo if a guess leaves too few possible words for the guesses you have left.
5. Survive six guesses, then share your remaining words and score.

Tips

• Open with rare letters: they are less likely to be in the answer and keep more words alive.
• Avoid using many different letters; unused letters multiply your score.
• Keep an undo in reserve for the last two guesses, where the pool gets small.
• Try hard mode only when you want fewer undos, and decide before you start.

Questions